Adriana Daniel
Equinox Staff
Halloween is a celebratory time on college campuses up and down the country — but what happens when the celebrations go too far, and someone gets hurt?
The Keene State College Campus has been dealing with this issue for years, and has formulated a way to keep problems away and support their students’ celebrations all in one. The answer: closing the campus to non-student and faculty.
A strict no-guest policy will be enforced during the weekend prior to Halloween. From Thursday October 25 to Sunday October 28, no guests are allowed to stay over or order a parking pass.
Student Lauren Koldras expressed how her first year Halloweekend was different from her sophomore year because of the guest policy.“Last year it was odd on campus, because we didn’t get to have people up, and it was kind of annoying,” said, Keene State College Junior Lauren Koldras. Koldras said that she had a friend stay for the weekend her freshman year, and there were no issues, and they had an awesome weekend. Bringing up a point Koldras also said “If you’re living on campus and the RA’s (Resident’s Assistants) are there and monitoring everything, we should be allowed to have people up. We’re in college, we’re adults, we should be allowed to do what we want.”
Associate Dean of Students and Director of Resident Life Housing Services Kent Drake-Deese made a point to establish that KSC is not looking to ruin students’ weekends, but is looking to protect the students, the college, and the town. Drake-Deese said, “The Pumpkin Fest is for kids, it’s a kiddy event, I don’t know if students even think of it anymore as a big to-do. Obviously Halloween is traditionally a time to party it up little bit, but again, we’ll be doing things to try and support that and make it fun for everybody.”
There will be events in the residential halls on campus and all of the late night programming will be thematic to the season. There is no change in any other rules for the weekend, or any increased penalty if students are caught for breaking campus rules and regulations, but the RAs (Residential Assistants) are on duty or on call for the entire weekend, and will be checking Owl Card ID’s as students walk in.
Vice President of Student Affairs and Enrollment Management Kemal Atkins did not appear worried about how the special weekend would play out. “It is not just Halloween here in Keene, it’s the same weekend leading up to Halloween everywhere in the United States, so it tends to be an active weekend. Students and people across the city should expect to see a heightened police presence — like I said, it’s Halloween across the country, so we just want to make sure were providing the proper about of support if necessary,” Atkins said.
Atkins said he was very happy for the students, and proud of them for bringing back a long-standing tradition. Pumpkin Lobotomy was brought back this year by the Student Government events committee — Lobotomy had gone on for decades and had to stop a few years ago. Atkins said, “I commend the Student Assembly and the Student Activities Council for looking at a previous tradition and putting their own stamp on it, so to speak. It’s a great opportunity for students and even faculty and staff to share a community on campus, and to have a good event that essentially celebrates the fall, and celebrates being here on campus — and again, celebrating the community that is Keene State. I’m really excited about it.”
Adriana Daniel can be contacted at
adaniel@kscequinox.com
