Will Saint A’s Look To Tighten Its Belt In The Coming Months?

Liberal arts colleges have been on the defense for years now, with some closing up shop such as Mount Ida college in 2018, as well as Green Mountain College and Southern Vermont College in 2019. The coronavirus crisis has removed students from their dorms and homes, workers from their place of business, and these fragile higher education institutions from the money they desperately need to survive this culling. Saint Anselm College is no different.

Before any further digression, an important note should be made: Saint Anselm College will survive the COVID-19 crisis. A robust history and administration can and will shepherd us through these difficult times, but questions have arose as to whether or not the college will emerge unscathed. Families out of work are having to tighten their belts across the country; it is not absurd to wonder whether an institution dependent on our tuition dollars will have to tighten its belt as well.

For now, the college has expressly stated that the college has no furloughs or layoffs planned, and will be paying all employees as expected through to June 30th. In a letter sent to the Saint Anselm Community, President Favazza detailed some of the impact of the virus that has already befallen the college.

$3.7 million will be returned to students to compensate for remaining room and board costs as well as costs for meal plans. Nearly four million dollars is not a small sum of money to Saint Anselm College (we could have built another Welcome Center with that money, for example). The College’s annual endowment is estimated to be down by 15% this year, and summer programs have been put on hold, with most expecting to be canceled. These programs, combined with various events throughout the year that bring in over $500,000 to the college, have been canceled, meaning that windfall of cash will not reach the college.

Most concerningly, the topic we still have the least amount of information on, along with every other higher education institution in the country, is how will this affect the enrollment of the Class of 2024? As of now, the college actually has higher enrollment than it did this time two years ago, before the record-breaking Class of 2022. The long-lasting residual effects on college enrollment remain yet to be seen.

It is not unlikely that the flow of new enrollments into the college will have an effect on layoffs and furloughs when July arrives. While it is the College’s stated mission to ride out the storm, President Favazza personally commented to the Hilltopper that, “Given all the issues we are facing at this moment, we will have some big financial challenges for next year”.

Although students have had a small say in the academic direction of the college during this time (one vote on a 30+ member committee), the future of the college rests in the hands of the President, the Monastic Community, and the Board of Trustees. Not to say that these institutions don’t have the interests of students in mind, that is their expressed occupation. It is to say, however, that often students know what is best for themselves, and should represent themselves at the highest levels of their decision making. Saint Anselm College doesn’t have this, and the need is more pressing than ever.

The End of Presidential Candidate Bernie Sanders

Senator Bernie Sanders officially ended his second campaign for the White House on the evening of April 8 after a long and somewhat successful run. For a short period, he was the Democratic frontrunner, but he fell short in acquiring the confidence and vote of the mainstream Democratic party as he did in the 2016 campaign. This makes former Vice President Joe Biden the presumptive Democratic nominee for the 2020 presidential election. While the rest of the nation was focused on the coronavirus pandemic, as the only major candidate still in the race, Biden claimed major victories in the Florida, Arizona and Illinois primaries. 

Sanders can, however, claim an ideological victory. Over the course of two moderately successful presidential bids, he expanded the debate over universal healthcare and the disproportionate wealth gap in the United States. In a message to his supporters while announcing the end of his campaign he claimed that “Together we have transformed American consciousness as to what kind of nation we can become and have taken this country a major step forward in the never-ending struggle for economic justice, social justice, racial justice, and environmental justice.”

Early in the election cycle, Sanders seemed to be the perceived leader and frontrunner among the candidates. In the first three primary states – Iowa, New Hampshire, and Nevada – Sanders won bigger and bigger popular vote majorities and had the most delegates leaving these three contests. However, this frontrunner status was short-lived.  Biden surged in South Carolina, defeating Sanders by nearly 30 points, and other contenders, Pete Buttigieg and Amy Klobuchar dropped out and endorsed the Vice President. This effectively left Sanders in the dust on Super Tuesday where Biden swept and carried a large, but not unsurpassable delegate victory.

Sanders’ biggest undoing in the late stages of the primary was the rapid mainstream consolidation around Biden after his rebound in South Carolina. Some would blame Sen. Elizabeth Warren, the other staunch progressive in the race who dropped out after Super Tuesday, but polling showed her votes were likely to split between Sanders and Biden regardless.

In some ways, however, Sanders did win the Democratic party’s attention. The public option is now a moderate position on healthcare, and Medicare-for-all is highly popular with Democratic voters and many sitting politicians. His focus on structural inequality and corporate influence is here to stay, especially among the young voters who were so fond of Sanders beginning in 2016.

Sanders can rest easy knowing that he successfully changed both public opinion and the Democratic insiders’ position on healthcare especially. He “wrote the damn bill” on Medicare-for-all, and now a resounding majority of Democratic voters say they support a national health insurance plan that covers everyone. His commitment to that position has pushed the rest of the party to the left.  The question for the left, now that the face of democratic socialism and this new wave of grassroots politics has fallen short of the presidency once again, is: what happens now? There are plenty of young voters who once said they were “Bernie or bust.” Will that remain the case? For the leaders of the Democratic party, they sure hope not if they want any chance to defeat incumbent President Donald Trump in November.

Soon after his announcement to end his bid for the presidency, Sanders went on to endorse Joe Biden for president. In his statement, he exclaimed that “Today, I am asking all Americans — I’m asking every Democrat; I’m asking every independent; I’m asking a lot of Republicans — to come together in this campaign to support [Biden’s] candidacy, which I endorse, to make certain that we defeat somebody who I believe is the most dangerous president in the modern history of this country.” Bernie Sanders made clear that regardless of the major differences between himself and Joe Biden, that in the end, he believes the most important thing to do is to elect a Democratic president and push Donald Trump out of the White House in 2020. This endorsement comes as somewhat of a surprise to many. In his 2016 campaign, he was reluctant to endorse the Democratic nominee, former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton when she secured the nomination shortly before the national convention. This change is likely rooted in the backlash he received following the 2016 election. His endorsement of Biden is important to many as it is a push for those who refused to support the democratic nominee in 2016 unless it was Sanders to move to a reconciled party to defeat Donald Trump.

This week we may have seen the end for Bernie Sanders, the presidential candidate, but it may not yet be the end of his national political movement that has caused a massive following and an even larger generation of political activists.

Editorial: A Year With The Hilltopper

The Hilltopper will always seek to serve the student body of Saint Anselm College by presenting respectful dialogue and factual reporting on issues and topics relevant to our community. We strive to be an unbiased and accurate news source for our fellow Anselmians, and in all instances, we will respect the dignity of individuals, and include marginalized voices. This has been our mission since we were founded in 2018, and it will continue to be our mission moving forward.

A year ago today, on April 10, 2019, I became the Editor In Chief of The Hilltopper. I was excited by the opportunity to pursue truth, investigate conflict, and report on the issues that matter to Saint Anselm College students. Since that time, however, Saint Anselm College and The Hilltopper have changed a great deal. I never could’ve imagined that we would be interviewing Abbott Mark and President Favazza about a legal battle between the Abbey Church and the Board of Trustees. I never could’ve imagined that we would report on the impeachment of President Trump. I never thought we would partner with The Saint Anselm Crier to host a debate, and I never could’ve imagined that our time on campus this year would be cut so short. 

However, for The Hilltopper, perhaps the biggest change of all was our organization. For the first two years, The Hilltopper functioned mainly through its editors. Megan Miller ‘19 and Nick Fulchino ‘19 diligently worked to ensure that there was a steady stream of articles being published and that there was a viable platform for students to express their opinions and concerns. Starting in September, The Hilltopper was no longer entirely reliant upon the editor. The positions of Chief of Staff, Administrative Correspondent, On Campus News Coordinator, and Off-Campus News Coordinator were established with the hopes of increasing student participation and article output. In December, we expanded again, this time creating the positions of Student Government Correspondent, Communications Coordinator, and Director of Finance. By the start of the second semester, The Hilltopper had something it has never had before – an Executive Board. This team of student leaders met many times over the course of the year (and continues to meet) to discuss campus and community news, programming and partnerships with other clubs and organizations, and the future of The Hilltopper. The Executive Board has played an integral role in the operation of The Hilltopper, and it has given us a framework for the future. 

In addition to the nearly forty articles written both by our staff and student contributors, The Hilltopper partnered with local organizations as well as Saint Anselm clubs to support our community and students. In November, we were one of many groups at Saint A’s that volunteered for The Manchester Marathon to support Veterans Count, an organization that supports military veterans and their families. In February, we partnered with The Saint Anselm Crier to host the first-ever Student Body Candidate Forum. In April, we had planned to support T.E.D.A (the True Equality and Dignity Alliance) at their annual Visibility Day celebration. 

In looking to the future, I am optimistic. We will continue to support our fellow Anselmians and provide our college community with unbiased and accurate news. We will continue to respect the dignity of individuals, include marginalized voices, and support every student’s right to express their beliefs. We will continue to be a part of the Anselmian community for many years to come. Moving forward, we will need your help. If you’re interested in writing for The Hilltopper, you can contact us on our website (hilltopper.org) and through our social media (Instagram and Facebook: @thehilltopper, Twitter: Hilltopper_News). If you would like to financially support The Hilltopper and ensure that we can continue our mission, please email Renee Suhocki, our Director of Finance (rsuhocki338@anselm.edu). 

Finally, I want to say thank you to our readers, our writers, our supporters, our partners, and our fellow Anselmians; The Hilltopper would not exist without you. Special thanks to President Joseph Favazza, Abbott Mark Cooper, The Saint Anselm Crier, and The Student Government Association.

We’re The Hilltopper, and we’re here to stay.