Lesley University

Honestly, as a non-White identifying individual, I did not feel as welcomed as the university preached. It wasn't very reassuring to see what staff told me about their views on diversity during Open House and not see it on campus. The student body culture was not what I expected. In terms of professors and classes, I had an excellent experience, and I highly recommend their therapy and counseling departments. My professors have responded to my emails quickly and provided good feedback on my work. I strongly believe that if you live on campus and do not commute (like I did) you would have a more enjoyable experience. Overall, Lesley University is a great school for anyone who is interested in specialized therapies, counseling, and social work.

As an LCAL student I've been quite fortunate to have had excellent assistance from several of the school's professors and faculty; they are what really make Lesley accessible and for that, I am grateful. I wish some of the supports I received at this school and the majority of supports I received from the community were accessible to all - this is a social injustice I plan to help change in my future work. However, in general, LCAL students are least supported and represented in whole. My last few weeks at this school will be hard, but when I graduate, I won't look back. I'm sadly looking forward to closing this chapter of my life and embracing better, more inclusive opportunities. In terms of any type of justice, education, integration, and emotional well-being, the school, in my opinion, has a long way to go before it can claim to be truly inclusive. It's still a long way from realizing its full potential to reflect social justice, but it won't have accomplished that goal of full social justice and inclusivity until it can truly include ALL types of Lesley students in making decisions about safety and emergency preparedness, Covid-19 guidelines, health and safety in dorm rooms, cafeterias, and other Lesley spaces, commencement, campus restructuring, and other critical systems in place. Lesley has also failed to bridge the social, economic, and educational divides in order for students to feel really represented and involved and secure. Before it can expect others to wake up to the world, Lesley must wake itself up to it.

To start with the pros, this school offers some very interesting majors, courses, and extracurricular clubs and activities. In fact, some of my favorite classes I have taken were at this school (although they transferred over to my other schools as electives and did not fulfill most of the requirements). In addition, it is relatively cheap compared to other art schools and has a good amount of resources and the campus is fairly easy to navigate once you get accustomed to the layout. There are also shuttle vans available to transport students to/from a few different campus locations. Most of the teachers are friendly and pretty accommodating to student's needs and situations as long as you communicate with them. If you're lucky, you'll manage to make a few friends that are open-minded. However, they do not offer any scholarships or grants for minority students or out-of-state students and are not willing to allocate additional funds for students facing financial hardship. For me, this is a major con because this is a school that speaks about how diversity and inclusion are very important and something to be valued, but they do not have systems in place to support these students. I found myself always having to go to the financial aid office and calling them, and asking my parents to contact them because they would provide very round-about answers for simple questions. There are also still a lot of issues regarding racism on campus that have not been properly addressed and have been swept under the rug, but I am not surprised that they have not been addressed either considering the history of the school and its location. Another issue is student housing and facilities. Although they provide the bare necessities, the dorms are typically very dirty and falling apart. As a person with allergies, my sinuses were constantly bothering me due to dust (and possible mold and mildew issues) at the school. Sometimes, toilets and showers would be clogged for days on end. The size of the rooms are also very small, especially considering how much students have to pay for room and board, and living on-campus is required for most students for the first 2 years. Most of the time, you can find mice and rats in some of the dorms and food halls, so that gives you an idea about how well the school is being maintained. Overall, I would not recommend attending this school. As a person of color and out-of state student, it was not the best experience and I found it fairly difficult to transition since there was not much assistance from the faculty. Most of the help that I did receive came from my friends who happened to live in state. If you decide to attend this school and something happens to you while you are campus, it would be better to make an official police report and then notify the school and file a report with campus security, and to keep following up with them.

I am in my first semester at Lesley and I have had a wonderful experience thus far. I play second singles and doubles for the women's tennis team and am involved with the all-female identifying a capella group, Ladies First. The classes I took the first semester were very engaging and thought-provoking, unlike the courses I took in high school. The surrounding area of Porter and Harvard Square make the weekends fun and I have never just sat in my dorm room wondering what I can do. The one complaint I have is the food, as a vegetarian, it is hard to find options that suit my dietary needs, so I am often relying on snacks as my main food source. Lesley has made me feel at home and the friendships I have made so far are real and meaningful. I am excited to meet more students as I will be an orientation leader in the summer of 2020.