EASTERN CONNECTICUT STATE UNIVERSITY SHOULD WORK HARDER TO HELP COMMUTERS FEEL MORE CONNECTED TO CAMPUS LIFE
Renae Townsend | Opinion Editior
College communities play a major role in the kind of experience a student will have over the next four years. Joining clubs, campus events and roommates shape your schedule and your connection to campus. Around sixty-three percent of the Eastern Warriors live right here on campus. It’s easy to attend classes, grab meals, hand out in dorm rooms until midnight, and still be able to repeat the cycle the next morning. We walk from Hurley to Webb Hall for our first lecture, next to people experiencing similar experiences. And yet, there is a student that after their lectures, doesn’t return to Constitution or Mead. They hop in their cars and drive home.
They don’t experience the same invisible network that on-campus students do.
Around thirty-seven students at Eastern live off-campus and commute. Over half of the college population in Connecticut commute to their respective schools. Which means that most engagement programs—like hangouts with resident assistants, late-night study sessions with friends, even CAB events—are happening after our commuters decide to leave. After all, commuters must get back home, must go straight to work, have family matters they need to attend to.
The main hub for cultivating relationships is mixers and campus events. For example, Late Night Pancakes bring together a wide variety of students to bond over sticky sweet treats. And yet, a few commuters I spoke to feel like that is simply too late to ask a commuter to stay to socialize and meet new people, especially if they have other responsibilities off campus. Not a lot of people are going to want to stay from 8:30 to 10, for the possibility of a social life. And they shouldn’t have too.
The disconnect between on-campus residents and commuters is inconvenient. For all the money spent on being at Eastern, commuters deserve the right to feel like they have a place on this campus. Attending classes and getting grades aren’t the whole picture. Connection is vital for success, and for commuter students we must make a stronger effort to include them. Advising commuters to “just get involved” simply isn’t enough. It ignores the complex situation—of driving back to campus to attend club meetings, or sitting around without a space to rest for log pieces of time.
Commuter students deserve a comfortable space. A lounge in the Student Center—like the Library Cafe—with lockers, charging docks and couches. A physical area, that may not be like a dorm room but is comfy enough that it can be a home base while on campus for the day. Major student events and club meetings should be moved around to fit the schedule of commuters. This way commuters can attend functions without having to drive home so late at night.
Less than half of the Warrior family commutes to our university every day. They are one of us—and they deserve to have the same opportunities to connect just like on-campus students. I urge the administrators to look past the dorm hall, look past Hurley Hal, and look at the people who show up every day—no matter how many miles they travel to get here, or where they lay their heads at night. I hope that this will raise awareness—we need the Students Activity Board and CAB to stand up and help. Commuter students deserve to feel at home on campus.
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