The March 24 student assembly meeting featured sophomore Matthew Ash, a Student Trustee of the University System of New Hampshire’s Student Board (USSB), to discuss the recent Board of Trustees meeting that occurred over spring break.
Ash said that, due to the Trump administration’s One Big Beautiful Bill Act, which was passed into law on July 4, 2025, FAFSA will be limiting students’ and parents’ abilities to take out loans that assist with paying for school.
“We’ll definitely see an impact of that at Keene [State College], since we have such a large first-gen student population. Be prepared to see people experiencing drawbacks from that,” Ash said.
Ash also said that all universities within the USNH system have suffered major enrollment loss, a pattern that will continue to increase over the next few years. KSC specifically is down by 97 students compared to the previous spring, possibly due to population decrease, inclusion of AI in the job market or fields no longer requiring degrees, according to Ash.
Despite this, KSC’s 80% student retention rate has remained the highest out of all USNH schools. Deposits for incoming first-year students have also risen, which may contribute to increasing the school’s financial stability in the upcoming fall semester.
In regard to Keene State’s current financial state, Morrison Hall will be getting $5 million worth of renovations, including room and insulation adjustments and general improvement of the building’s efficiency. According to Ash, major changes will mostly occur in the summer of 2027.
Ash said that there was a debate about whether this was the best way to spend KSC’s increasingly limited state budget, but the proposal was voted on and approved after almost a year of discussion.
Additionally, Keene State will be moving forward with its multi-school model proposal, a concept that had been introduced to faculty and staff at the KSC Town Hall on Jan. 23, 2025, according to a previous Equinox article. The multi-school model [School of Arts and Sciences, School of Applied Sciences and Technologies, School of Education and Health] would categorize the majors and fields of study offered into three sections, with the intention of moving Keene State away from the “liberal arts label.”
The School of Arts and Sciences would include design, film, dance, chemistry, physics, math and history. The School of Applied Sciences and Technologies would include STEM courses, architecture, safety, construction and economics. The School of Education and Health would include social and behavioral sciences, such as education, criminal justice, pre-law and nursing. Other majors and departments that fall under one of the three categories would also be included.
The goal of the multi-school model would be to better promote programs outside of the liberal arts area. This will hopefully increase enrollment and revenue garnered from prospective students.
Ash said, “The feeling is that we have the concept of liberal arts tied too closely to us [Keene State] right now, and we’re not just a liberal arts institution. We have really successful safety and nursing programs, and we want to expand upon that.”
The multi-school model would contribute to KSC’s ongoing improvement of the school’s marketing over the next few years, in addition to new commercials shown at the Board meeting.
KSC will be putting focus on its trade majors and three-year degrees, as “manual labor will be one of the few things AI can’t replace.” Ash said that it was mentioned at the meeting that KSC’s biggest competitor is prospective students who choose not to go to college at all.
At the upcoming Board meeting in June, a decision will be made regarding the merging of two roles: UNH President and Chancellor of USNH. The Chancellor role is currently held by Cathy Provencher, but if the proposal is approved, both positions would be passed to UNH’s president, Elizabeth Chilton, and Provencher would return to her former role.
Additionally, interim president Donald Birx will continue to act as president for both Plymouth State and Keene State through 2027. Birx has been the president of Plymouth since 2015, and took over the mantle of KSC president after Melinda Treadwell’s departure in Oct. 2025.
Another administrative adjustment was the decision to have Nathalie Houder, KSC’s executive vice president of finance and administration, fulfill the same role at Plymouth. This may lead to her being less active on Keene State’s campus.
As for reports shared after Ash concluded his presentation, junior Student Body President Kylie Nelson and sophomore Vice President Bria Zimmerele said that Spring Carnival was still being worked on. A recent development made was that the first-year and sophomore classes will combine for a water gun game.
Both Nelson and senior Speaker Amanda Rotigliano have been doing election promotion, such as scheduling, making posters and creating a slideshow that will be presented on all TVs across campus.
Petitions will be sent out from March 30 to April 10, and elections will be held all day on April 15.
Rotigliano encouraged assembly members to assist with promotion and said, “If you have access to social media, or social media groups that would be willing to help get the word out across campus, that would be very helpful. We’re trying to hit as many different spots around campus as possible.”
First-year Treasurer Karen Cisneros announced that open budget meetings will be happening on March 27 from 4 p.m. to 7 p.m. and April 3 from 11 a.m. to 7 p.m. in STU 307. Cisneros also said that she had been working on Spring Carnival by filling out forms and would be promoting budget meetings until they begin.
The student senate held a meeting on March 11, the main discussion being a debate about course tagging. Some experimental courses that were once considered ISP will now count as GenEd credit.
A major reason why the courses needed to be re-tagged was students’ inability to find them during course registration because they would only appear if directly searched for by title, as stated by professor and Communications department head Amber Davisson in a previous Equinox article.
The motion, which stated, “College-Wide Academic Program Committee (CAP) moves that the Senate approve permitting currently existing experimental Integrative Studies Program courses to fulfill requirements in General Education Explorations,” was voted on with six in favor, one opposed and one abstention.
Advisor and Associate Vice President of Student Affairs, Jen Ferrell, said that there were ongoing searches for a few open positions on campus, including coordinator of traditions and senior administrator of athletics. Ferrell said that candidates for both roles would be coming to KSC in the upcoming week. Ferrell also said that the search for candidates for the senior director of student transitions was in process, but none have been found yet.
At a conference on March 28, Ferrell received the Annuit Coeptis Senior Leadership Award for her work and mentorship in higher education, courtesy of ACPA–College Student Educators International.
Samantha Menard can be contacted at
Hope is the managing executive editor of The Equinox and had no part in the editing of this article.
