The departure of Dottie Morris leaves a hole to be filled for the work she did at Keene State and the local community. Organizations on campus have stepped up to fill the position and reiterated that they will keep the message around community and belonging alive, even with the recent loss of the Cultural Center.
Junior Gracie Audet, president of KSC Pride, expressed her sadness over Morris’ departure.“I was really close with Dottie when I first came to Keene,” Audet said. “I went on the leadership retreat with her, so it was definitely a hard blow. And I’m kinda upset that she’s not here anymore. But I’m happy she’s doing well at her new job, but we do miss her.”
Audet emphasized that KSC Pride will still be a prominent part of campus life and celebrating community. “We do our general meetings that happen every week, but we’re also planning on doing more tabling events,” said Audet. “And bigger events. We’re also turning a little bit more political, I would say, because of the things happening. We’re definitely focusing more on the activism part of KSC Pride rather than just the social meeting part.”
Audet said the loss of the Cultural Center was felt by KSC Pride, pointing out the group used it as a resource, especially under Ian Kaplan, the former advisor for the club. “In my freshman year, I would just go sit in the Cultural Center,” Audet said. “But I can’t do that anymore unfortunately.”
She clarified that the club is funded through tuition and not the state, and that “we’re not going anywhere.”
Another club based around finding community on campus is CRU, which also confirmed that it would be keeping Morris’ message about togetherness and belonging alive.
Senior Noah Lopshire, the president of CRU, spoke on the fact that while he didn’t know Morris personally, he recognized the impact that she made on campus. Lopshire was surprised by Morris’ departure and understood that the college and students would be feeling the loss.
Junior Michael Boschetto, the vice president of CRU, echoed Lopshire’s sentiments and explained what CRU would be doing to fill in the gap. “Honestly, just trying to do what we’re already doing and creating a community of acceptance,” Boschetto said. “Ours is a club that’s really open to everyone. We actually want more people. We want everyone to come and see what we’re about. We love people from different backgrounds and experiences. Hearing different viewpoints on the world and deeper topics.”
Lopshire agreed with Boschetto and emphasized the religious aspect of the club and the foundations of it.
“Our foundation as a club is Christ,” Lopshire said. “We go off the teaching of love everyone and love everyone as yourself and love everyone as Christ did. We go off of his example and I would say that builds a community of acceptance. But overall, help to keep people on campus comfortable and give people a place to go if they need community.”
Lopshire also reflected on the loss of the Cultural Center, and restated that CRU is a place where people who are affected by the loss of the building can go for comfort. “We just want to fill that void however we can, even if we can’t fill it all the way,” Lopshire said.
Boschetto reinforced CRU’s mission statement. “We want the whole world and the whole campus to know about the love and hope that we find in Jesus,” Boschetto said. “And that’s for everyone.”
CRU meets on Mondays at 6:30 in the Madison Street Lounge.
While Morris is no longer working at Keene State, she briefly returned on Sept. 18 as a guest speaker for Black Student Union’s first meeting back of the semester. Black Student Union formerly met in the Cultural Center on Fridays at 2 pm.
Chloe Erno can be contacted at
cerno@kscequinox.com
