11/23/14

Friends and Supporters of Salem State University,

I am pleased to share Salem State Universitys growth in the past year for my 5th year. I have
come to know the people who make this university a positive environment for our students to grow in.
The faculty and staff here are among the best in their fields who care deeply about student success. Our
students are driven in every facet of university life both in the classroom and in the community. They
represent a future full of possibilities whether they be scientific, social, or technological. This was the
platform for the 10,000 Reasons campaign that we launched in April 2014. 10,000 Reasons was Salem
States first comprehensive campaign for fundraising that focuses on why our students chose Salem
State and how this decision has impacted their lives. It is our goal to raise $25 million for our university
to better student growth in the years to come. Seven short months into the campaign, we are at 72% of
our goal and have raised 32 new scholarship funds.
In the fiscal year 2013-2014, we have also worked toward our guiding principles for our strategic
plan including student success, diversity, and sustainability. Student success is our highest value at this
university because our students attend Salem State University to get the skills that they need to be
successful in their career and in life beyond their undergraduate career. Each goal that we have in this
plan is to help our students succeed both academically and professionally. In the 2013-2014 year, we
worked to promote student success as we opened the Student Navigation Center. This center will make
the process of being a student easier for our students as they navigate through life here at Salem State
University. The Student Navigation Center was just one of the many ways that we worked toward
student success this year.
Diversity is a facet of Salem State that we value dearly. Our student body is very diverse from
our students from 29 states to the students hailing from 66 foreign countries. These students have
made Salem State University into an environment of global thinkers eager to look at the world beyond
their backyard. In this past year, we worked to expand on diversity on our campus to better establish an
environment where our students think of diversity beyond race and begin to celebrate diversity in every
area from academics to social life to passions. This year, we strived to be diverse thinkers in every sense
of the word as you will see in this report.
Sustainability is a value that we take very seriously at Salem State University. We teach our
students inside and outside of the classroom that the decisions that they make now will affect the world
around them in the future. We received the environmental gold standard for Marsh Hall in 2010 and we
continue to live up to that standard in our future construction. In the Berry Library and Learning
Commons opened in fall 2013, we have used geothermal wells to heat and cool this large building to
better use energy. We finished construction of this system in the spring 2014 semester and opened a
beautiful green space on the lot in front of our library. The Viking Hall construction will match this
sustainability when it opens in the fall of 2015.
Thank you for your support of the rising institution that is Salem State University. Without your
help, Salem State would not be the wonderful university that it has been in the past year.
Best Regards,
Patricia Maguire Meservey
President