With the exception of graduating seniors, KSC’s residence halls and apartments will be closing on Friday, May 9. For many students, residence hall closures create personal and professional challenges, such as when students who are not taking summer classes would prefer to stay in the area for work.
It is common to assume living on campus is an option that is only available to students during the fall and spring semesters, with summer housing being strictly limited to students taking summer courses.
At Keene State College, students who aren’t enrolled in summer courses, recent graduates and certain non-students working with organizations that partner with the college are able to arrange to live in KSC’s Pondside 2 apartments during the summer, due to efforts by the KSC Office of Transitions and Community Living, in partnership with the academic affairs department. Current students would pay $150 per week for on-campus summer housing. Non-students and recent graduates would pay $200 per week.
According to Director of Transitions and Community Living Casey Justice, the housing options are an attempt to provide more options to students who want to remain in the area.
“It’s really hard to get apartment leases off-campus in the summer for a three to four month timeframe, and so two or three years ago we started working with academic affairs to encourage students who wanted to stay in the Keene area and take summer classes or do an internship to stay on campus,” said Justice.
According to Justice, the summer housing is available until August 2, when residence facilities need to begin preparing for students with fall housing assignments. Justice said a summer crew will oversee summer housing in the Pondside 2 apartments, but the Zorn Dining Commons will not be operating. The Pondside 2 apartments will also be unavailable for summer housing between Friday, May 9, to Sunday, May 25, in order to turn over rooms previously occupied by departing students.
According to Justice, the summer housing options are also open to recently graduated students, as well as non-students who have internships with organizations working with Keene State College. Summer housing is granted on a first come, first serve basis, as the Pondside 2 apartments have a capacity of 120 students.
“There are a lot of local companies that offer internships, and sometimes we’ll have students from other institutions or colleges that will be participating in those internships, and so we created an opportunity for those students to live on campus during the summer if they’re looking for a lower cost option,” said Justice.
“If there was a student who graduates on May 10 and wanted to extend their time in Keene, but something happened like their lease ends, they could definitely reach out to us. We’d only be able to offer the housing until August 2, but if they need a couple months to get their feet under them and get working in Keene and then are able to find an apartment off campus, we’d be willing to work with them, provided we have the space availability,” added Justice.
Justice encouraged students interested in summer housing to reach out via email at KSC.SummerHousing@keene.edu.
Ryan Pacheco can be contacted at
rpacheco@kscequinox.com
