Keene State College’s Office of Student Involvement held a Social Host Training session to inform students on ways to host events with care.
This semester’s Social Host Training was located in the Mabel Brown Room on Wednesday, Feb. 19 from 6-8 p.m. Snacks and water were available for attendees to partake in.
This event was centered around what the college’s expectations are for hosting gatherings safely in Keene and the surrounding community.
The event’s guest speakers were Keene Fire Department’s Fire Prevention Lieutenant Meghan Manke and Community Liaison Specialist with the Keene Police Department Amanda Trask.
Manke spoke about her responsibilities of fire code inspecting on Main Street, fire investigations, public education fire prevention and what is considered a hazard when inspecting potentially unsafe homes, while Trask spoke about the safety and precautions that can be taken when in a social setting that is out of control.
A slideshow was set up to illustrate the educational elements of the event. Topics covered within the training included how to be a sober monitor, BYOB (Bring Your Own Beer) organizations, Greek life organizations and notes on student organizations.
“The Social Host Training is something that we do each semester,” said Emily Alexander, senior coordinator of student involvement and wellbeing. “It’s geared specifically towards organizations that are recognized on campus and teaching them how to safely host social gatherings if they choose to do so.”
Alexander continued, “We go through what expectations are as a college and from community members like Keene PD [Keene Police Department] around social violations and what are expectations as a college and for safe gatherings, how to create a guest list and working with social groups.”
Director of Student Involvement Jessica Gagne Cloutier added to Alexander’s comments, “We were in masks when we started doing this event, fall of 2021, was when this all started.”
Sophomore Emily Hussey, a member of Delta Phi Epsilon (DPhiE), said she heard about the social host training through her involvement in the sorority.
“It’s for accreditation points, that’s why I am in attendance,” said Hussey.
Junior Amarrah Gates, another DPhiE member, said she was expecting to gain “more knowledge on how to be safe in social events and best practices to take.”
Junior Lia Ospina, DPhiE’s president, said, “I think I attended this event since my freshman year and it’s good to know since I’m the president [and] we have social events.”
Senior Sarah Grindrod, Kappa Beta Gamma president, said she was able to take away something from this event as well and added she was not aware of the specifics of how the city of Keene handles fire codes and what qualifies as a social violation.
Tamy Jacques can be contacted at
tjacques@kscequinox.com
