As Saint Anselm College continues its evolution into

the future, the Hilltop we once knew is slowly fading

away. On an academic level, the college is changing its

core curriculum which in many ways is stripping the

College of its identity.

For example, one of the biggest changes is that

students will be required to take one semester of a

foreign language, regardless of level.

The College is fundamentally eliminating the im-

portance of foreign language to the campus’s identity.

Many students are going to take the easy way out of

this requirement and take the lowest level of a given

foreign language then forget what they learned later.

There is no legitimate value in taking just one semester

of a foreign language. There is no substance to it.

On a territorial and landscape level, the College got

a massive $40 million donation from the Grappone

family. In this money, a good chunk is going to

renovate Joan of Arc and Dominic Hall. This is a great

thing, but the rest is going to develop the business

school, which at some point might get its own brand

new building on campus similar to the new nursing

school.

I want to emphasize how grateful the student body

is for the money the Grappones are donating to the

college because in the grand scheme of things $40

million is a lot of money to throw to a small college

like Saint Anselm. The donation is set to make such a lasting impact and I am so

happy that future generations of anselmians will be abel to enjoy the fruits of this

donation.

While the physical additions and changes to the college are rather exciting, the

academic side of the college is starting to concern many students. For students of

the past, Saint Anselm had a lower acceptance rate than other schools.

Now however, the acceptance rate has risen to almost 80%. The academic quality

is dropping at the college and something has to be done. On the one hand the

massive new classes are a great thing for the college with the supposed demo-

graphic cliff, we are losing sight of the long standing standards of the college. This

problem starts with the core curriculum, it is being simplified when it should not.

There has to be a middle ground to this solution or else Saint Anselm will be no

better than near by institutions.