Students and faculty from all clubs and organizations on campus gathered on the Fiske Quad on October 30 for the annual Pumpkin Palooza.
Pumpkin Palooza safely showcased what Keene State was pre-COVID
This past weekend, many student organizations participated in Pumpkin Palooza, a KSC tradition centered around pumpkin carving and hanging out with friends.
The event had no masking, little social distancing and some tables seemed to be on top of other tables. However, this event was hosted outside.
Historically, The Equinox has been hard on these types of events that have no masking or social distancing, because evidence shows that masking and social distancing can slow the spread of COVID-19.
At The Equinox, we have changed our minds, sort of.
At first, we were a tad hesitant about the event, as we were with Student Involvement Fair, a similar outside, unmasked event. However, case counts have remained low, and the campus did not see a sizable spike in COVID cases or an outbreak in the weeks following Student Involvement Fair.
We believe that Pumpkin Palooza was a success. More events that are outside should be held, and we can absolutely do them unmasked and with little social distancing. These events are not only good for the campus, but we noted that we almost forgot about COVID because of how normal Pumpkin Palooza felt.
For the upperclassmen in The Equinox, it was a reminder of the preCOVID days, a reminder of normalcy. For underclassmen, it showed that Keene State will return to normal one day.
While we think it would be interesting to see if COVID cases rise because of Pumpkin Palooza, we know that parties occurred over Halloweekend, so indoor, unmasked parties (with absolutely no social distancing) were held, which may skew results.
Bottom line, Keene State should hold these in-person, outside and unmasked events as we have not seen a spike or outbreak of cases.
However, winter is coming.
The Equinox covers lectures, as well as events within the theater and dance and music departments, most of which are indoors. We believe that these later should stick to their hybrid model in order to promote distancing and audience caps. We also think the same should apply to lectures, however the webinar format works for lectures.
With campus-wide events, we believe that maybe the campus could benefit from using the bigger spaces across campus. While the Mabel Brown Room is the go-to big space for events, we think that integrating the entire campus for events would be good for not only hosting large numbers of students indoors, but it could also expose students to different departments and spaces that they haven’t seen before.
For example, maybe different “stations” could be set up in the Rec Gym, the large spaces in the Redfern and even the outdoor courtyard in the center of the Science Center for Winter Carnival, another on-campus tradition.
To conclude, we think outdoor and unmasked events are benefitting the campus, however we know that with colder weather brings more complications with COVID. The Equinox believes that with the onset of winter, integrating more spaces on campus as well as keeping the hybrid format of events will help bring a sense of normalcy, and more importantly a sense of community into Keene State College.
