Keene State College held an off-campus event on Wednesday, August 31 to inform KSC students on living off campus, and how they can be better neighbors to the Keene community.
Coordinator of Student and Community Relations Robin Picard played host to the event which took place at 21 Winchester Court.
Picard, along with Trevor Grauer of Keene Cribs, held the event, which consisted of games, snacks and even bags filled with helpful information for students living off campus.
“The idea is for students to know that they are welcome in Keene,” Picard said.
“It’s also important for students to realize that they do live in neighborhoods, so it’s really important to be respectful of the fact that residents have different schedules.”
Crae Messer / Managing executive editor
Grauer, a Keene landlord, said that with these types of events taking place in Keene, he hopes “to spread awareness, and just the education part about students who lived on campus last year who are now off campus, to let them know that they’re part of the neighborhood.”
Grauer also added that landlords understand that students want to have fun and may have people over, but these things can be done while respecting their neighbors and the surrounding community.
Lieutenant John Bates with the Keene Fire Department, who was also present for the event, said that there is also an issue of safety for students who move off campus.
“Nationwide, the minute you move off campus, your risk of dying in a fire is 94 percent,” Bates said, “So I’ve gotten pretty active and involved in trying to make the properties safe when students move in.”
Picard said that these events will be held a couple of times throughout the year in different areas of town and with different landlords, like Greenwald Realty.
Alex Magoon and Spencer Faucher, both students at KSC who currently live off campus, said they attended the event in the hopes to improve the relationship between students and the community.
“We just want to build that relationship back to where it was when we got here,” Faucher said.
“We’re trying to do this in a light-hearted way, instead of just giving students a list of things they can’t do,” Grauer said.
He added that the event is a good chance to spread the awareness about how students can be the best possible neighbors and to do it in a more casual manner.
Crae Messer can be reached at cmesser@kscequinox.com.
