Essex County College — Local services in Newark

I am Jonas Smith, and I am a former faculty member at Essex County College. I was only there for one semester since Essex County College is a very bad college which should not be supported by our tax dollars.

The students at Essex County College are Horrendous. There have been several instances of when I have had to call the police on students who were behaving inappropriately. In fact, I once had to call the police on the entire class because the class did not like the fact that I asked them to do something very basic in order to promote honesty and learning. The students there generally have no level of maturity whatsoever. Furthermore, they generally suffer from mental illness. I am aware of at least one of my students who has attempted suicide during the semester and has been locked up in a psychiatric institution.

Essex County College promotes Cheating. I once required a student who was cheating in class to do extra coursework in order to pass the class. The student refused and the student went to the department and the department chair called me into his office and he told me that Essex County College does not punish cheaters even though I had proof that these students were cheating. Furthermore, since I am not supposed to punish cheaters, most of the students in one of my classes cheated. In fact, the students did not make any attempt to conceal the fact that they cheated and they would openly share their thoughts and answers on quizzes and tests. In that class about 10 of the students made A's in the course, but if the students did not cheat, I do not think a single student would have made an A in that course. Essex County College should lose its accreditation since it promotes cheating and since no one knows whether the students have worked for their grades or have cheated for their grades. Unfortunately, Essex County College will not lose its accreditation since accreditation agencies have very low standards and any institution which is just a little bit more than an office with a press that prints fake degrees can get accreditation. Please do not believe the Essex County College handbook when it says that Essex County College does not tolerate cheating; they are just saying that to make themselves look decent. In reality, Essex County College wants students to cheat in order to artificially inflate their grades.

The administration, faculty, and staff at Essex County College are very bad people. First of all, the staff and other people at Essex County College are generally very rude. They do not care that I have a Ph.D. They still treat their faculty like criminals. I had an incident where I was literally just sitting in a chair minding my own business when the police from Essex County College removed me from campus and made me miss class. I asked them why I was being removed from campus and they could not give me an answer other than I was sitting in a chair minding my own business. They made me ride in the back of a police car to be escorted off campus. Since the people at Essex County College want faculty members to miss class, they clearly do not care at all about anyone's education. No one should consider credits or degrees from an institution that treats its faculty members like this.

Any employer should not hire a person who has graduated from Essex County College unless they have a very good reason to do so. Furthermore, it is not wise for an employer to hire someone who has a degree elsewhere but who has many credits transferred from Essex County College. Furthermore, any college which accepts transfer students and credits from Essex County College such as NJIT should be questioned. Any parent thinking of sending his or her child and who loves his or her child here should consider any other school since Essex County College is a very bad college.

Do not be deceived by any positive reviews that anyone has given to this school. After all, a student could have given this school positive reviews because the school wants him to cheat so that he makes good...

Firstly, when I explained to the college that I had a hard time wearing a mask above my nose I was respectful to their opinions with COVID-19 precautions. I explained that the masks aren’t helping the proliferate rates of the virus. Social distancing although, is helping with the pandemic as well as sanitizing and avoiding cross contamination. I told them I was pregnant and have a history of asthma. I’ve been harassed by campus police and I believe it can be due to racial bias and oppression. After doing research about the college and seeing the prior scandals in the media about racial prejudice, and embezzlement... I was discouraged from attending. Because of the out-of-county fees I was forced to apply, particularly because their allied health science careers are appealing. My mother works as an RN and so does her entire family. My first semester I received a 3.7 GPA. My biology grade I felt I deserved an A but I had a difficult professor and received a B+. This professor, mind you - is the worst rated professor over a chronological period of 11 years of her employment at Essex. When I went to the biology department alongside other biology students in all fields of the bio department(nursing, pre-med, radiology etc) that the bio professors lack motivation in teaching the students and the organization and syllabus is a horrendous site. We were cut off, she stated “I wouldn’t take a B student in biology over an A” when the faculty at the radiology department mentioned everyone who qualifies in radiology gets in the program AND it’s not as competitive as nursing, and the chairperson for the biology department threatened to call campus security + actually called the campus security after I was frustrated and had to scream to the top of my lungs after I wasn’t allowed to speak meanwhile defending a professor who seemingly has no experience as an instructor. She also told me that me having social anxiety, I wouldn’t get into the radiology program when she isn’t apart of the department and she labeled me as “angry”. I have no criminal record and have never been charged as violent or a criminal. She was judgmental and discriminatory toward students with disabilities which has nothing to do with a student being capable of working in allied health sciences. No other professor had I had an issue with, with the exception of the biology department. The administration is just as rude and unwilling to assist students being that it’s their jobs and we pay them to even be present at work and they wake up everyday with the agenda to torture the students with an attitude 😭🙄. The cafeteria is also closed which hurts students who are low income and can rely in this as a source, though I understand the risk with the pandemic. Student services has closed but they won’t tell the students it due to an outbreak but somehow the school is...

When I was finally able to get in contact with a human being on their extension line I was finally told NOT to sign up for the placement test online to wait for it in the mail. I even asked her "Are you sure? I dont sign up online at all?" (what would be the purpose of signing up online??"When I finally got the information two weeks later, it gave me the tests dates, I went to the earliest date. After the test I was given a date for advisement/registration, I thought yay "I will get to choose my classes". On the date of the advisement I was led into a room filled with other prospective students with a tense weird vibe and waited 30 minutes until my name was called and was told I had to go back to the testing room on the 4th floor. When I got there I was told that my essay scores were not ready and that I had to wait till they were. I had driven two hours away. And asked them why I wasn't contacted to let me know not to come in if I wasn't able to register?? It was all very unorganized because dozens of students in line behind me were told the same thing. And I drove all this way for no reason. The assessment specialist Ciara Quinones even had the nerve to tell me it was MY FAULT that I had waited this late to take the test! I was told explicitly on the phone by a staff member to wait for the information in the mail which happened to be the last week the test was given. When I tried to explain she cut me off saying that how were we to know when the test scores would be ready to inform you, you shouldn't have waited this late. Isnt their job to know when these scores would be ready?? The girl before me even had her test scores lost twice and she had to retake the exam.This gave me a very bad vibe about the school and I couldn't stop crying I was very upset. The staff who works at this school are completely rude and not friendly at all. I got wrong information from several different staff members.This is from getting simple instructions from where to go, who to talk to about a general issues and information. All I got were snippy short replies as though they wanted me out of their face. As of now I am looking to apply to other schools before September Essex County from my first impression is very crappy school, rude staff with a I dont care attitude and seems very unorganized. My gut instinct was in roils after that "advisement appointment" its telling me its a bad school and that I will have a hard time there. You are better off looking elsewhere. I wouldnt be surprised if this school closed in the next...