We are students enrolled in the accelerated master's program at Salem State University's School of Education.  As students of this program, we are completing two majors as required by Salem State University.

Recently, it has come to our attention that upon graduating with our bachelor’s degrees, our diploma will only state the completion of one major instead of both.  Because we plan to return to Salem State University in our fifth year to complete our master's degree in Education, many of us applied for graduation under our other (non-Education) major so that we’d have a diploma recognizing our work in that discipline.  We are now being told that we cannot choose which major to graduate under and that 4+1 students must list Education as the primary major.  This is a serious concern for us because we were not made aware of any rules or policies concerning how to list our majors in our graduation application.  

While most of us plan on pursuing a career in education after completing our degrees, we feel the courses we took in our other majors (e.g., American Studies, History, Interdisciplinary Studies, Psychology, Geography, English, etc) have and continue to shape us as future educators.  We value our investment, both financial and intellectual, to both majors equally.  One is not more important than the other.  Salem State University's refusal to recognize both majors in our diplomas, and the practice of depriving us of the choice of which major we wish to assign as our "primary" major, suggests the institution does not value our investments. 

We have communicated our concerns and disappointment with several faculty members at Salem State University.  While we understand that our transcripts will include all coursework and majors completed, we find it unfair that Salem State University is not recognizing our hard work in completing a rigorous academic program which includes two majors. 

We have reached out to other education institutions which also offer an accelerated master's program similar to the one offered here at Salem State University to inquire about their diplomas for students who are completing more than one major.  Institutions such as Endicott College, Gordon College, and Merrimack College either give their students a diploma listing all majors completed simultaneously, or give them separate diplomas for each completed major.  We kindly request that Salem State University modifies the diploma for students majoring in more than one discipline to reflect all completed majors.

We appreciate your attention to our concern and hope to work together to address this matter.

Sincerely,

Salem State University students