Viral Social Media Shows Clash of Students and Staff at St. Rose in Albany

St. Rose to Close

Last week it was announced by the school officials that Saint Rose, a 103-year-old college located in the heart of Albany, would close for good in May 2024.

As you can imagine, some of the students are not taking this lying down and things in Albany are contentious at best on the campus which currently has about 3,000 undergraduate and graduate students.

Faculty Tries to Explain

Over the last few days, St. Rose faculty and staff did their best to inform students of the necessary decision, and I'm not going to pretend to know what that was like, but based upon some of the viral videos seen online, I don't think it went very well.

Students appear to be equal parts confused, mad, frustrated and lost - and understandably so.

If I were a student at St. Rose, I'd be all of those things and then some.  And I'd want to know how and why it happened, and beyond that, I'd want to know if I wasted my time and money here over the last few months, or years.

Angry and Frustrated Students Take to Social Media

Over the weekend, students on campus have been taking to social media to talk, complain, inform, and air their grievances with the school, and some of these TikToks have gone insanely viral.

The first video from @alyse_marie17 has nearly 3 million views and offers a POV perspective in which they state: "It's the first of the month, but your school just closed forever (and) now 2800 students gotta go."

This next video, posted to TikTok by @ri0t.hues has over 90k views.  It shows St. Rose President Marcia White talking to students at a hearing about the future of the school.  It appears as though many of the students in attendance weren't satisfied with either what she had to say, or how long she spoke for.  White was booed off-stage.

*The following video contains some adult language and may not be suitable for all ears.

It was posted to TikTok by a user named @bbgnini3 and it's been viewed over 200k times.  In the 90-second video, a disgruntled student airs his frustration about the school's lack of transparency.  The student claims that he came to St. Rose, and enrolled in a music program that didn't exist, but he stayed at the school anyway.  Now faced with this additional dilemma, he tells the staff "He has no plan, and you all royally ****** up!"

When he's finished, another student goes on a profanity-laced tirade toward another school official, demanding to hear an apology.