There are some positive changes to be made concerning student activities. I've noticed that the past school year has focused on trying to get students to become involved in a larger community than our campus, all while trying to create a busy atmosphere in a rural setting.
Perhaps it is a combination of senior-year hindsight and another perspective that leads me to feel changes need to be made. My younger sister goes to Keene State College, and is the Vice President of Social Activities Council (SAC) there, equivalent to our Pierce Activities Council (PAC). Over the past three years, I have been able to attend events at both my college and hers, and realized that maybe Keene State has a few good ideas.
For instance, many of Keene State's smaller concerts are free to the students. However, as a way to draw in more people, and raise funds for bigger name artists, SAC has the students pick up free tickets, after which they go on sale to the "general public" for a small price, normally around $5. That way, if someone within their community, or a die-hard fan, wishes to see a concert, they don't need to get a guest pass or know someone at the college to attend. However, Keene State does normally ask for the students to pay a small amount for their major concerts, but it is at a reduced cost compared to the general public.
There are some downsides to this approach. According to my sister, last year's spring concert, OAR, sold out within a few days, and before it was released to the general public. So, although they were able to sell all 2,200 tickets, very few were for the $25 general admission price, which meant that SAC had less profit.
However, I feel that with the implementation of the Student Government sponsored Bus to Keene program, there should be more integration between two rather local schools. The only negatives occur when both schools have major events scheduled for the same night. I believe that increasing communication between the schools, including advertising for the other school's events, would only help the students. There would be more activities available for Franklin Pierce students without costing the school much more than a couple of shuttle trips to and from Keene. Likewise, if Franklin Pierce were to open up some of its events to Keene, we would be participating in a larger community than our campus, as well as possibly getting some more funding.
There are some downsides I can foresee, mainly increased police presence, but there are many more positives I can think of. If we open our larger events to the public, we can ease some town/gown relations, have alumni come to events, and possibly have larger turnouts as well. Otherwise, it seems like we are purposely cutting ourselves off. I understand that our tuition money does go toward many of the activities planned on campus, but in the long run, if no one shows up, is it a good way to use the funding?
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