Megan Markus
Equinox Staff
The last fall semester is in full swing for the 2012 graduating class at Keene State College. Change has swept the KSC campus and Keene community since the fall of 2009 when most of those seniors started their first semester.
From the new Technology, Design, and Safety Center to the Owl Card, the college has done nothing but expand and flourish. Despite forward movement and campus progression, some of this year’s senior class proves unaware and uninterested in the college’s offerings.
Six randomly selected seniors on the KSC campus said they live off campus. Five out of six don’t have a meal plan, four of six go to the same building for every class ,and one of six don’t even step foot on campus.
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Seniors are going to campus for a purpose: to go to class and get their work done.
Senior Kyle Lasher, a community health major, stated, “When I go to campus I only go to the student center, the library, or Joslin (House) because that’s where all of my classes are.” Lasher went on to comment how he feels out of place on the changing grounds.
“I feel so old when I’m on campus. The other day for example, I was in the dining commons and I felt like I was in a high school cafeteria, everyone around me looked so young. You know they are a freshman when they have a lanyard around their neck. Some students in the freshman class are even 1995 babies.” Similarly, Emma Fairweather, a senior working towards her B.F.A in studio art, agreed. According to Fairweather, she spends approximately 20 hours on campus working in the studio each week.
“All my classes are in the art studio so any time I come to campus it’s just to come to the studio and do work,” she said.
“For the majority of all senior art students, the only reason they come on campus is to go to the studio, and that’s where all the time is spent on campus. We can only do work in the studio, its not like we can do our homework at home,” Fairweather added.
Alison Cederbaum, a senior studying communications, differed from Lasher and Fairweather when she reminisced about how easy and convenient living on campus had been in her underclassman years. “Now that I am a senior, I live off campus and am rarely on campus. Living on campus provides a very different environment because everything is much more accessible.”
Cederbaum continued, “Having a meal plan was a lot easier than having to buy groceries, and going to the library was a much more ‘normal’ thing to do because it was only a five-minute walk away.”
Despite the lack of connectivity with the KSC community, off-campus seniors say they feel more a part of the town’s community. “I know more about the local events that occur downtown, such as the Keene Music Festival that went on last weekend. I also am more aware of the local stores and restaurants that are downtown because I visit downtown a lot more than I did freshman year. The residents of Keene continue to be very friendly, and I realize that many of them live a very carefree lifestyle,” Cederbaum said.
For some upperclassmen, it’s not the lack of interest in on-campus activities that keep them away, but rather their demanding schedules.
This fall, senior Caitlyn Corace, a physical education major, won’t have much time to spend on campus. Corace is student teaching at Pioneer Valley High School in Northfield, Mass. as well as coaching the girl’s field hockey team.
Corace stated, “Since I am student teaching I feel like I don’t know what’s going on around campus like I used to. I have heard a lot of new things from my roommates that still go to campus, but I haven’t gotten to experience them for myself.”
Katelyn Williams, on the other hand, is not a senior who is disconnected from the campus. Williams, a psychology major, is the KSC Student Body President and a resident assistant for first-year students. Williams agrees that seniors are disconnected from the campus. “When students get to their senior year, they are tired, they are focused on the real world, and getting into grad school, so being connected to campus is no longer a priority for seniors,” Williams explained. “They are busy with internships, student teaching, and by making the choice to live off campus they are automatically eliminating that bond that students have from living on campus.”
Williams went on to share her opinion of this year’s class and said, “I think the presence of the senior class on campus is slim in comparison to the underclassmen, so I do think that there is a lack of connection between the senior class and the underclassmen due to the lack of visibility of the senior class.” Williams continued, “I’m a very connected senior. The majority of seniors don’t see the disconnect with other students because it’s not there; due to the fact that most seniors aren’t even on campus so there’s no disconnection to begin with.”
For the majority of this year’s senior class, it is clear that students have found passion in their field of study and are ready to earn their degree and move on into the next chapter of their life.
Megan Markus can be contacted at
mmarkus@keene-equinox.com