Editorial:
Students getting more satisfaction

If you find yourself taking a nice leisurely stroll around campus sipping a cup of coffee with nothing to do, you are not alone at Rider. The work assigned outside of class is simply not challenging enough for some, students reported in a recently released national survey.

Are we going to the same school? Between classes, work, clubs and friends, most of us don’t have any time left in the day. That’s before tired students get any desperately needed sleep. Although the level of academic challenge is not as high as some may desire, students have many reasons to celebrate, according to the results of the survey.

More and more students have simply one word to describe their educational experience at Rider – excellent. While only 28 percent of freshmen graded Rider with this superb rating in 2001, 41 percent of new students scored the University in the same light in 2006. Five years later, the attitude of seniors ranking Rider with a favorable opinion has remained virtually constant. In 2006, the number of seasoned veterans offering a positive approval rating of the overall Rider experience grew marginally to 44 percent. Modest gain or not, this is a notable improvement. Yet, the administration should not throw a victory party just yet. It does not take a mathematician to realize that more than half the student body is not agreeing with this upbeat evaluation.

The favorable opinion of advisers and professors is also growing significantly at Rider in comparison to other colleges. Compared to 20 percent of seniors at other academic institutions having affirmative opinions, 39 percent of seniors at Rider boast advising as top-notch. Students should take note of this monumental achievement. Administrators may scream this from the mountain-top in publications such as the University’s own Newswire. But the students are the ones truly benefiting.

On the flip side, there are some areas where Rider needs improvement and overhaul. The Princeton Review’s portrayal of the dorms as “dungeons” brings back memories of the Middle Ages. Typical residence hall rooms at Rider consist of white brick walls, small room size and terrible lighting. A fresh coat of paint and new carpeting in some of the residence halls can only do so much to hide the ugly facts. These poor aesthetic features create a prison-like feeling that students simply cover up with posters, pictures and whatever else they can think of. Residents pay thousands of dollars extra to live on campus and deserve better. Aside from improving the current conditions in the residence halls, the University is planning to build a new dormitory to meet growing demands. Only then will the satisfaction rate grow to the healthy proportion the University seeks.

Be that as it may, there is light at the end of the tunnel. If you had the chance to decide again where to go to college, would you choose Rider again? The answer for most students is definitive — Yes. As simple as that question may be, the answer bears considerable weight. Students and their parents pay an enormous sum of money to attend and successfully graduate from Rider. The University certainly has its work cut out for the future to improve the overall conditions. Above all, students should take the news in stride and be proud to have chosen Rider to be their alma mater.