Keene State’s Owls have arrived back at the nest and found there is hardly enough time for them to roost.
In my time at KSC, classes have always started at 8 a.m. the day after move-in for returning students. This is an abrupt switch that can leave students exhausted and in no state of mind for learning, all before the semester even begins.
Many returning students are reconnecting with people they have not seen since the spring and sometimes even moving in with total strangers. They are readjusting their personal habits and schedules to the academic environment, returning to student organizations of which they may be members and trying to get their hands on sometimes elusive textbooks.
I feel there must be a way to amend this and allow KSC students to get two feet on the ground before beginning the marathon of another school year. Even just pushing move-in backward by a day could potentially see an uptick in the comfort and productivity of the average student.
If students could return the Saturday before classes start, that would become the dedicated move-in day and free up the following Sunday as an opportunity to breathe before pushing onward with a semester’s worth of hard work.
Even though I am now a senior, I moved in with a course on my schedule that is in a building I had never set foot in. This is also my first year bringing my car on campus and my first year without a meal plan. These are all changes that require some level of adaptation. If I had that extra day, I could have finished unpacking, checked to make sure I knew where I needed to go for class and completed an initial grocery shop to make sure I would be able to eat breakfast the next day.
I do understand this may not be the most pressing issue facing the college or its students right now. I also understand concerns that opening the dorms even one day early may increase costs on a budget that is already in a precarious position.
How expensive would such a change be? I do not have the answer to that; however, we need to strike a balance when it comes to the student experience. I would point to recent cost-cutting measures like the recent cutting of dining hours, a change that directly impacts students’ abilities to be content and productive.
I believe in supporting higher education, but there is a point where all the numbers in a budget must be recognized for how they affect real live human beings day to day. I think shelling out the spare change for an extra day’s worth of on-campus life could have a positive impact while leaving a relatively small crater in the college’s financial standing.
To all the students, I would recommend you find the chance to rest where you can, in between all the craziness of school, work, extracurricular activities and anything else you may have on your plate. We have got another doozy of a school year ahead of us, and it is more important than ever to make sure you are fed, rested and socialized enough to take it on without breaking down along the way.
Charlotte King can be contacted at
cking@kscequinox.com
