Author Archives | Jacob Barrett

New FASFA regulations might affect students who work on campus

Students have been able to file their FASFA applications earlier than usual. FASFA applications were able to be submitted as early as Oct. 1, of this year, as opposed to Jan. 1. According to Keene State Associate Vice President for Enrollment Steven Goetsch, Federal Department of Education enacted the “Prior Prior” dates to allow students to have more time to make decisions in the enrollment process.

Goetsch added that the FASFA for the 2017-2018 school year will be using the same 2015 income tax information as they used for the 2016-2017 school year.

However, if the 2015 income tax information is not consistent on the two applications, students will need to work with the college to ensure that the information is correct before proceeding with awarding a financial aid package to a student.

An email sent out to the college community from Associate Director of Financial Aid Deborah Nichols. In it, she said these new changes could affect work-study students.

Those who have work study and apply for 2017-2018 federal aid and have discrepancies on their forms will be given ten days to resolve the issues with their application.

If the corrections are not made after that period to resolve the issues with their application, the supervisor for that student must decide to switch that student over to student hourly employment, or have the student stop working entirely until the problem is fixed.

Goetsch stated that there are no other changes made to the FASFA that he is aware of, and that students should apply for financial aid as soon as possible to ensure that none of these issues exist in a student’s application, or fix any existing ones that might be present with the student and their family.

The priority deadline for the FASFA application is March 1, and the final deadline is June 30. More information on these changes can be found at studentaid.ed.gov

Jacob Barrett can be contacted at jbarrett@kscequinox.com

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A second chance on the court

When Lisa Silva saw her son out on the court for the first time this year, she cried.

By her own account, seeing Nate Stitchell out there on the court once again was an emotional moment for her, but something was different. Instead of the Keene State Owls uniform she has grown accustomed to seeing her son dressed in, he wore a suit, and he wasn’t out running from stripe to stripe putting up jump shots and layups; he was pacing behind the KSC bench, coaching.

The journey up to that point is why Silva said tears were coming from her eyes.

Tim Smith/photo Editor

Tim Smith/photo Editor

That journey began when Stitchell came home with a sign-up form for his town-league basketball team. Lisa said she was on her way out the door when Stitchell brought up the opportunity, and with the okay from his parents, he went to work on what would become Stitchell’s passion. This  passion would later land him a scholarship to play at Mercy College in New York before landing with the Owls for his final two years as a collegiate player.

Stitchell admits that he didn’t get there alone, however his mother, who works as a nurse, would work multiple jobs for long hours and still find a way to get her son to practice, to see him play in a game or get him those new basketball sneakers he needed or the camps he attended to hone his skills. “I worked my schedule around my boys, around Nathan, that was my future,” Silva said.

That dedication to family rubbed off on Stitchell, according to his mother. After his grandfather passed away and his grandmother was diagnosed with cancer, he immediately packed a bag, basketball sneakers included, and went to go help take care of her.  All at the same time he was trying to balance school and basketball with the priorities of his family. His grandmother has since passed away, but Stitchell credited both of his grandparents, along with his with supporting him and pays tribute to them with their names written both on his arm and on his basketball sneakers.

“My grandparents were extremely hard-working. They helped raise me. I owe them a lot of the credit. They believed in my brother and I, along with my mom believing in us as well,” Stitchell stated.

After keeping his word to his mother and earning a basketball scholarship to Mercy College, Stitchell decided to leave the division one school to come to KSC, where he eventually took over as starting point guard for the Owls. However, according to Stitchell, more family medical problems made him consider taking a step back from the sport of basketball.

His mother was diagnosed with cancer, but despite this, Stitchell played. In his senior year, he helped his team win a Little East Conference (LEC) championship and an appearance in the NCAA tournament’s Sweet 16 round. He did this all while leading the LEC in steals and leading the team in points at the same time, according to the Keene Owls website.

Silva said she would go to games in her condition, even after receiving chemotherapy the same day and fighting the side effects of the treatment. She said that seeing her son out on the court made it all worth it.

Men’s basketball coach Ryan Cain said that Stitchell was the type of player every coach wishes for.

“Nate, as a player, was basically…a coach’s dream,” Cain said.

Tim Smith/photo Editor

Tim Smith/photo Editor

Cain added that Stitchell acted as somewhat of a coach while he was playing guard for the Owls. “…I think ultimately everyone was on the same page because of the leadership he provided,” said Cain.

Now that he’s hung up his Owls jersey, both Cain and current KSC student athletes have seen the benefits of having Stitchell on the bench early on in the season. “I actually really like him as a coach. He pushes me. He knows all of our tendencies. He’s played with us before. He’s able to see different things in [a] different perspective, in a different way… he’s been in our position,” senior basketball player Rodney Jean-Marie said.

Still, Silva said that her son was still out there practicing his dribbling skills with his teammates before the first game.

“He was the only coach out there dribbling a basketball between his legs in a suit,” Silva joked.

Stitchell is still playing semi-professional basketball while working toward his master’s degree.

Stitchell said that his dedication to the game and his desire to stay involved in the game comes down to his passion and paying homage to those who can’t be in his position.

“I do it because I love it. A lot of my friends that have recently passed away will never get the chance and where I’m from (Rhode Island), nobody gets these chances.”

Jacob Barrett can be contacted at Jbarrett@kscequinox.com

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Monadnock Hall rumors leave students concerned

Monadnock Hall will not be closing at the end of the fall 2016 semester.
Despite reports from current residents that the building was going to close and students would be placed in other residence halls around campus, that is no longer the case.
As the rumor of the closing spread, students were making an effort to keep the hall open. Upon hearing the news from other residents of the hall, first-year KSC student and Monadnock Hall resident Hayden Sullivan said he wrote a petition trying to gain the support of his fellow students to try to keep the hall open until the end of the year.
“…We were already halfway through [our first] year and it would just be unfair to us to try and go start over somewhere else when we already connected there so well,” Sullivan said.
Multiple Resident Assistants declined to comment for this story.
It is unclear whether these reports were the result of a miscommunication between Residential Life Administration and the Monadnock Hall staff, or if rumors originally were true. When asked for a comment from Residential Life on the matter, The Equinox was directed to KSC’s Marketing and Communications department. After inquiring about the potential closing, KSC Director of Strategic Communications and Community Relations Kelly Ricaurte responded with the following statement:
“Monadnock Hall is one of our oldest residential spaces, and with that comes the challenge of maintaining the space. In addition, its design does not promote community building and collaboration, which are essential components of our residential life program. For these reasons, plans to no longer use Monadnock Hall as a college residential space are under consideration, particularly when we have more suitable space available on campus, including the Living [and] Learning Commons. You may have heard recently that Monadnock Hall will close this year, however, Monadnock Hall will remain open for the rest of this 2016-17 year.”
When asked why residential life administration decided to change their mind and keep the hall open, Ricaurte stated,
“A decision was still being made, and the final one is to keep the hall open through the academic year.”
Updates will be provided as they become available.

Jacob Barrett can be contacted at jbarrett@kscequinox.com

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College Senate discusses future plans for Keene State

Keene State College’s Senate met on Wednesday, Oct. 9  in the Mabel Brown Room with President Anne Huot joining the body during the courtesy period.

Huot spent her time with the senate clarifying some points, which she said have been topics of discussion among faculty and staff. Huot spoke about the $5 million that KSC received from the University System of New Hampshire.

She assured the senate that the money was being used not for the committee for vision and structure, but to help ease the transition while Keene State tries to restructure over the coming years.

Tim Smith / Photo Editor

Tim Smith / Photo Editor

That restructuring process, according to Huot, will take time and will consist of working with a smaller student population of around 4,200 students, while taking in about 1,040 students with each new class.

The need for restructuring comes from a number of factors, starting with the Pumpkinfest riots in 2014, a low retention rate of 71 percent that year and over-budgeting for a projected revenue based off the number of students expected to attend the college after a low incoming class in 2015.

As a result, all areas of the college, including the administration, have had to adjust their spending habits while not taking away from the students, which according to Huot is why she asked for time with the board.

“We have to reduce our costs and we have to be strategic about how we reduce them, so that the very thing that will keep us competitive and build on our strengths is the experience of students,” Huot said.

With a deficit around $7 million, Huot said that recovery from the financial strain will take time to remedy.

In the end, she said the college will come out on the other end in good shape. In the meantime, Huot encouraged the senate to work together and have an open discussion.

“…We need to have some open exchange about where we are, where we are going, how we’re going to get there and acknowledge that this is hard,” Huot said.

In other matters of the senate, they discussed the geology program’s new status of being put on hold, which means no incoming students will be able to declare geology as their major.

However, those currently enrolled in the geology program will be able to complete their degree. In addition, changes to GPA and prerequisite requirements for the elementary education, secondary education and early childhood education classes were proposed and passed.

The courses will require a 2.75 GPA as opposed to a previous 2.5 GPA to fall into the same category as other education course requirements.

The courses with prerequisite changes are in EDUC 205 and EDSP 202 classes.  Changes to the health science  major and addictions minor will also be made and will come into effect next fall.  More information on these changes will be reported when it becomes availabe.  With no new business, the senate adjourned their meeting. The next meeting is set for Dec. 7 at 4 p.m. in the Mountain View Room.

Jacob Barrett can be contacted at jbarrett@kscequinox.com

*Correction made 11/16/16 – Paragraph 7: Corrected “Huut” to “Huot”*

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Empty rooms in dormitories offer possibilities for Keene State’s future

A crowded campus, vacant spaces and a tight budget have caused Keene State College’s Residential Life to make some changes in student placement in the residence halls around campus.

With Randall Hall closing at the end of last year, Monadnock Hall was believed to have been met with the same fate, but an unexpected spike in incoming students before the beginning of this academic year forced Residential Life to reopen the first-year housing facility.

Initially, the unexpected surplus was expected to fill up all 113 spots in the building when housing assignments came through in July and August.

However, as the semester went on, the number of first-year students attending KSC dropped, and in some cases, the school was the last to know according to Associate Dean of Students and Director of Residential Life Kent Drake-Deese.

“A lot of times, they (students) don’t tell us,” Drake-Deese said.

Samantha Moore / Art Director

Samantha Moore / Art Director

Now, there are empty rooms across the Keene State campus in buildings such as the LLC and Monadnock and in a few of the Owls nests, but it’s likely they won’t be filled this year.

If Residential Life employees wanted to do that, they would have to add an extra bed to dorm rooms and move students into the available rooms scattered around campus.

But adding an extra bed is something Drake-Deese said that he and his staff are trying to avoid.

He added that they have made many dorm rooms that had once been triple rooms into double rooms, such as those in Holloway and Pondside, as they were supposed to be. “That’s how they were designed…” Drake Deese said.

Drake-Deese explained that on other campuses the number of rooms with three beds usually makes up about 12 to 15 percent of the total number of rooms.

Drake Deese said that until recently, about 66 percent of the rooms were triples.

Deese said that Monadnock costs around $200,000 a year to operate, and while he has entertained the idea of having students in Monadnock move out into other rooms across campus and close its doors, he said the hassle it would cause to the students currently living there is not worth the money that could be saved.

“Yeah, we could save some money, but we would really be inconveniencing a lot of people,” Drake-Deese said.

Current Monadnock resident and first-year student Ryan Connelly said that his current living situation is not ideal. “I think it’s not as nice as the other dorms to be honest. I feel like they sort of threw us in this dorm for a reason,” Connelly said.

Still, like Drake-Deese, Connelly said he would prefer to wait this year out and be placed somewhere else next year.

“Now that I’m already there and I know people from this dorm, I wouldn’t want to move halfway through the semester, but [I] definitely would want a better housing situation for next year,” Connelly said.

The plan for next year, according to Drake-Deese, is to close down the building like they had planned originally and use $200,000 to fill a $600 to $900 thousand dollar gap left by the recent budget cuts.

“Our budget is pretty much slashed,” Drake-Deese said. Once the hall closes, Drake-Deese said that it will eventually be torn down, but in the meantime, he said that there is a possibility that it will be converted into Greek Life housing.

KSC Interfraternity President Austen Leone said the he participated in discussions with Drake-Deese about moving the majority of Greek Life into Monadnock for the 2018-2019 academic year, he said that as long as nothing changes on the college’s end, that plan will be carried out.

“We’d hope that it would help build community and really help people get to know each other better,” Leone said.

Until then, Monadnock’s doors will remain open for the year.

Jacob Barrett can be contacted at jbarrett@kscequinox.com

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From the front lines to the sidelines

Soccer, and any sport for that matter, is an activity that demands everything from its players: discipline, determination, sacrifice and, in a sense, survival. Some have compared their sport to battle or war. For men’s soccer coach Rick Scott, he’s experienced both the metaphorical and the literal connotations of war first-hand.

Scott is a Vietnam War veteran who served in the U.S Army from 1968 to 1970. He was a solider product of the draft, and in April of 1968, he and a number of other young men from his hometown of Claremont, New Hampshire, were chosen to be next to fight for their country in the overseas conflict.

Scott said that he had been anticipating the call to duty for some time.

“I knew it was coming, so you were kind of ready for it,” Scott said.1

Scott was shipped off to basic training, where he prepared to go to war.

“It was take no prisoners… Back then, it was rough and tough and rough and tumble and you had to survive, you had to survive. You had 16 [to] 18 hour days of training…everything you could think of to get you ready because we all knew we were heading overseas,” Scott said.

From there, Scott landed at an artillery school, where he trained on how to work large cannons such as the 155mm and then onto a base in North Carolina, but something happened, which caused him to volunteer to go to the war zone rather than wait. According to Scott, his brother Steve, who is just over a year younger than him, had been sent to Vietnam. Upon hearing that news, he said he went to his commanding officer and filled out paperwork to join his brother and allow him to go home.

To Vietnam

To Asia he went, and when he landed in Vietnam, he tried to connect with his brother after some time. At 3 a.m after Scott had travelled from Cam Ranh Bay to Chu Lai to find him, they finally reconnected. When Scott heard his brother’s voice calling for him, he did not recognize it at first, but still the brothers were reunited again.

“That was pretty emotional,” Scott said.

From there, Scott said that the two grabbed a case of warm beer, walked down to a nearby beach, caught up on old and lost time and dicussed what their plan was when they got to go home.

The peaceful reunion was short-lived, as they soon found themselves in the face of war. Scott noted he and the rest of the men worked 12-hour shifts, providing artillery support to his fellow servicemen, loading shells and firing them through the night sky of Chu Lai, Vietnam, while also fighting off enemy attacks

Finally, after bunking with his brother for three months, to Scott’s relief, Steve went home safely, but the war continued. Scott’s tour lasted about another eight months. He said that war is not at all what bystanders might see it as –a romantic tragedy.

Scott said he was discharged from the Army after returning home from being overseas, but he was not necessarily welcomed with open arms by the American populous.

With American citizens angered over the conflict and Vietnam, soldiers often took the brunt of the criticism and were judged harshly by those who opposed the war. Scott was no exception.

Transitioning to coaching

This made the transition from military to civilian life challenging after some time in the workforce. In 1972, Scott came to KSC hoping to pursue a career in physical education and coaching, and there he found a man who he said helped him through a lot of those challenges. That man was former KSC professor and coach Ted Kehr, who himself was a member of the New Hampshire National Guard and served four years of active duty in the service.

Though he had not planned on playing soccer on the college’s varsity team, then coach Ron Butcher convinced Scott to join the team anyway, and according to Kehr, Scott showed an affinity and talent for coaching, shown by his maturity, intelligence, discipline and strategic mind, traits he likely honed while in the military.

Still, Kehr said Scott preferred to talk about soccer rather than his days in the Army. He said Scott would rather use his experience to be a leader on the pitch, and that was what he did. In his final two seasons, he captained the team and earned All-Conference and All New England Honors.

“He is, and has been, a team player. His personal achievements are always in the background and give way to the group or team achievements…it’s selfless service, if you will,” Kehr said.

That affinity for coaching quickly came to life after he graduated in 1976, when Scott began coaching Keene High School’s boy’s soccer team, while also acting as an assistant coach to Butcher for over 20 years.

Now, decades later and thousands of miles away from Vietnam, Scott said that his days in the military have helped him to develop a number of different values, which he has carried over from combat boots to soccer cleats. One of his greatest values is leaving no man behind on or off the field.

“Number one, and my team hears this all the time, take care of each other… I stress that all the time,” Scott said.

Current KSC men’s soccer player and U.S. Marines veteran Will Salta said that the discipline and commitment that is expected as a U.S. service member can be seen in the way that Scott runs his practices, and that his method of coaching is a large part of what makes the team what it is.

“He expects perfection, there’s nothing less. It is what it is and you do it. You don’t slack off, it’s either perfect or we’re not ready,” Salta said.

Still, despite Scott’s strict style of coaching and having to go through what he did in Vietnam, Salta said that his coach is a fair man that players can go to for advice and guidance.

“I couldn’t even imagine doing what Rick did, so think he’s perfectly level-headed. I think he is one of the greatest men I’ve ever met in my life,” Salta said.

Evidence of his time in the service can be seen in his office, hung up above all his awards from his days playing for the Owls in the 70s. It’s a Certificate of Achievement award for a score of 497 out of 500 on a fitness test back when he was in boot camp, a nearly perfect score. Scott said that the score probably would have been perfect if he had just “kept his mouth shut” to the man scoring his performance.

These days, when people ask Scott about his time in the Army, he tells them about the lessons he’s learned.

“You learn a lot over there, a lot of different things about sacrificing, a lot of different things about commitment [and] a lot of different things about trust [and] bravery…it was really a very strong life-learning experience.”

Jake Barrett can be contacted at jbarrett@kscequinox.com

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Sean Astin comes to the ‘Shire’ state

A favorite of “The Lord of the Rings” made the journey to Keene State’s student center on Friday Oct. 28.  His mission was not to destroy a ring, but to speak to students on why they should vote for presidential candidate Hillary Clinton this November.

Tim Smith / Photo Editor

Tim Smith / Photo Editor

Sean Astin, who has starred in well-known movies such as “Rudy” and “The Lord of the Rings” trilogy stood on the steps of the student center to tell students why he is voting for Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton and why they should too.

Astin also encouraged students to not just vote, but to use their voices and their platforms to advocate for what they believe in, something he said he’s tried to do for decades. “I do what I know I can do. I’m famous. I can get people to listen to me. [If] I can get 40 people to listen to me, by God I’m going to use my platform to talk to that 40 people,” Astin said.

The actor, who said he first met the democratic nominee at an event in Arkansas nearly 25 years ago, said that Clinton was, in his mind, the most qualified candidate to take over the oval office. He added that in his years campaigning for multiple candidates over the past few elections, this year seemed to be be the biggest election in U.S. history with the highest stakes, in his opinion.

Tim Smith / Photo Editor

Tim Smith / Photo Editor

“The Goonies” child star, who said that New Hampshire is the 14th state he has traveled to campaigning for Clinton this election cycle, also does work for an organization which promotes and supports patients with mental health ailments.

The organization bares the name of his late mother and movie star Patty Duke.  Duke was diagnosed with what came to be known as bipolar disorder in the 1980’s, Clinton’s promised support of mental health care is one of the main reasons Astin said he is so passionate about Clinton.

After the event, Astin took pictures and signed “The Goonies” DVDs, “Lord of the Rings” books. He spoke with students, giving them campaign volunteer sign-up slips, information on how to register to vote and pointing them in the direction of the volunteer’s table, where they could pledge to vote or sign up to be a volunteer.

Volunteer and KSC first-year Austin Dodge said that the event was successful in getting people to make that pledge. “I think that he really drove his message home, and I think he got people inspired…” Dodge said. Some students said that Astin’s talk was intriguing and that his speech swayed them to vote Democratic this year.

Tim Smith / Photo Editor

Tim Smith / Photo Editor

KSC junior Meredith Melick said she enjoyed Astin’s presentation. “I think definitely I’ll vote for Hillary,” she said. If Hollywood made a movie out of this election year, Astin said he would want to star as Michelle Obama.  “She’s emerged as a real moral conscious to the country,” Astin said.

There is one thing that could keep him from getting that part though. “I’m not really tall enough to play her,” Astin joked. And his co-star? “My wife would have to be Obama,” he said.

The self-proclaimed and out-of-work actor said that he is more focused on getting to as many states as he possibly can before election day rather than his next acting job.  Samwise Gamgee is now on a quest to get Hillary Clinton in the White House.

Jacob Barrett can be contacted at jbarrett@kscequinox.com 

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Financial issues hit students: Affording education

Students enter to learn and go forth to serve, but many leave Keene State with more than $30,000 in loans; the same goes for the rest of New Hampshire’s students.

A report published by the Institute for College Access and Success shows that New Hampshire students finishing with a bachelor’s degree are, on average, coming out of school with more student debt than students from any other state in the country in regard to public and nonprofit institutions. According to the report, which included data provided by over 1,000 public and nonprofit schools, students who go to school in the Granite State finish with over $36,000 in student debt.

This is in comparison to students who end up on the low-end of the debt scale, like Utah, where students pay an estimated nationwide low of $18,873 on average according to the report. Students preparing to graduate are feeling the pressures from the debt they have accumulated, typically over the last three-and-a-half years to fund their education.

The report also shows that an estimated 76 percent of students who graduated from New Hampshire schools in 2015 left with some sort of debt.

Once leaving the college, undergraduates feel the effects of having debt looming over their heads. December 2013 graduate Ben Mailloux said that after graduating, even with a few scholarships and paying some out of pocket for his schooling, he still racked up a $31,000 tab off two loans, despite graduating a semester early.

Mailloux, who is now living in Chicago, is paying $249 dollars a month, plus the cost of living in his area. Now nearly three years after graduating, he stated that he has paid off the small $1,800 loan, but still owes over $23,000 on his larger federal student loan, plus interest.

Samantha Moore / Art Director

Samantha Moore / Art Director

“It’s just another bill, but knowing there’s this debt that’s always kind of hanging over your head is unnerving,” Mailloux stated.

Current KSC senior Kathleen Dougherty said she worries that the debt looming over her head may force her to take a job which doesn’t necessarily equate to what she wanted to do just to pay off her loans.

“I’m mainly worried about being able to pay off student loans while doing something I love…I can’t sacrifice the hard work I’ve done here and everything I’ve learned to be in a  job to pay off debt.  I need to use my education to help people and I can’t do that when I’m in a ton of debt,” Dougherty said.

Per a report by the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, New Hampshire saw a $1,386 cut in funding per student, a 30 percent drop-off from 2008 to 2015. In addition, tuition costs for New Hampshire public colleges and universities went up just over $4,000 in that span according to the the same report.

According to Keene State’s common data set, KSC students who graduated in 2015 left the college with an above average level of debt, at just under $39,000.

The reason being, in part, according to KSC’s Associate Vice President for Enrollment Management Steven Goetsch, is that New Hampshire does not fund education as much as other states do.

“New Hampshire is one of the lowest states when it comes to state funding for public higher education.  So we’re always advocating with the state senators and up in Concord to get money for the institution,” Goetsch said.

In the KSC common data set from 2015-2016 fiscal year, KSC awarded over $13.2 million in institutional scholarships, annual gifts and grants during the 2014-2015 academic year.

According to Goetsch, students who earn scholarships from the school receive a 32 percent discount on tuition due to those scholarships on average.

However, despite a three-year freeze in tuition from the 2013-2015 fiscal years, tuition alone has jumped more than $3,000 since 2011, further putting strain on students. This is both for in-state and out-of-state students.

According to KSC’s tuition page on KSC’s website, in-state students have to pay $10,968, and out-of-states students have to pay $19,352 for the 2016-17 year.

It should be noted that the costs of mandatory fees, books and room and board have also increased, but have been excluded due to varying options and choices in housing costs and meal plans.

Furthermore, Goetsch said the high averages of debt totals at KSC can also be attributed to the high number of out-of-state students who attend KSC. The common data set for the 2015 fiscal year shows that there are more than 300 out-of-state undergraduate students than in-state students, which would drive up the average debt accumulated over the time when they first came to KSC to when they graduated.

In total, the KSC Factbook for 2015-2016 shows that KSC undergraduate students racked up over $48.8 million in total student loan debt, which includes federal, institutional and private loans in the 2015 fiscal year.

The Institute for College Access and Success’s report made a few suggestions on how to improve the debt statistics both on the state and the federal level.

These suggestions include the following: reducing the need to borrow by encouraging state investment in higher-education doubling funding for federal Pell grants (the maximum as of now according to the federal student aid website, is $5,815), increasing state investments in education and improving data and college transparency by providing clearer data for incoming students to make better financial decisions.

In addition, the organization suggested making making loan payments more manageable by capping payments at 10 percent of a student’s income, along with others. While Dougherty said she can understand why college does cost a decent amount of money, she suggested that individuals and governments should invest in education earlier in a student’s life, perhaps starting at elementary and middle school.

She added she would also like to see even more funding for things like scholarships and grants to help decrease the need for loans.  However, she said she doesn’t think much will change for the students who attend KSC or other New Hampshire colleges now.  She said that the focus should be on future generations and accommodating for a higher cost of living.  “I don’t see a fix for us at all…It’s more of what can we do to make sure that a couple of generations down, like our kids, our grandkids aren’t in the situation they’re going to be [in],” Dougherty said.

Those who wish to apply for Federal student loans for the 2017-18 school year can do so now.  The deadline for the FAFA, according to their website, is June 30. To view the full report published by the Institute for College Access and Success, go to www.ticas.org

Note: The data presented in the KSC common data set, as well as the report from The Institute for College Access and Success excludes statistics regarding:

Students who transferred into their respective colleges, borrowed money from other institutions, parent loans and students who did not graduate or students who graduated but with no bachelor’s degree

Jacob Barrett can be contacted at jbarrett@kscequinox.com

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For his country and for Keene

Keene State junior and first-year transfer  Will Salta now serves as the center-back for the KSC men’s soccer team after serving his country for nearly four years.

Salta, after spending a year at NHTI, came to Keene state at the start of the fall 2016 semester and, before that, he was stationed in California during his time as a U.S. Marine  infantryman. According to Salta and Head Coach Rick Scott, KSC had its eye on the veteran before he enlisted as a senior at Laconia High School.

“We recruited him seven or eight years ago,” Scott said.

The years that have past since that first recruitment attempt haven’t resulted in any sort of decline in Salta’s play.

“Maybe he’s bigger, stronger, faster now. He’s got some years under his belt,” Scott said.

According to junior forward and Salta’s teammate Riley Steele, there are two things he mentioned on multiple occasions that set Salta apart from a lot of other players he sees on the field.

“I mean he’s pretty old, really, really old,” Steele joked.

Steele added that the 24-year-old’s engine isn’t the problem.

“If anything, it’s us being able to keep up with him. That kid, he just never stops. It’s great to see,” Steele said.

The Laconia native said he joined the Marines for a sense of direction, discipline and work-ethic.

“Honestly, I was just a misguided kid back then,” Salta said.

He said he was able to pick up that drive and work ethic while in the military and carry that over to his civilian life at KSC and on the soccer field. He said that his experience in the Marines gave him the drive he needed to keep pushing for his teammates, even when things aren’t going their way.

“Even if we’re losing by two goals, three goals, it could be ten goals – I’m still 100 percent trying to give my team 100 percent trying to go for everything we can,” Salta said.

Tim Smith/ Photo Editor

Tim Smith/ Photo Editor

That work ethic was apparent to Coach Scott and players on the team.  After coming to Keene State, Scott said he needed to put Salta, who had become accustomed to playing forward in the past, in at center-back, a position that he had never played before. Salta did it, knowing it was in the best interest of the team.

Scott, who also came to Keene State and played center-back after coming in as a forward, has another thing in common with his new player. Scott said that he had served in the U.S. Army in Vietnam. They both said that connection gives them a better understanding of one another.

“I have the utmost respect for him, and he’s just a real asset to our team,” Scott said.

Aside from being at a new school with new teammates and playing a new position, Salta faces another challenge both on and off the field. He’s blind in his left eye. The injury, he said, occurred due to an eye gouge during training while he was still in the military.

The injury has caused a lack of depth perception and loss of half his vision, which he said sometimes makes it difficult to see what is on the field and where the ball is coming from.  To compensate, Salta said he and his teammates are very vocal about what’s coming his way.

These attributes, in the minds of Scott and Steele, are why Salta was named a captain in his first season as an Owl.

“He’s a real leader on the field and he’s a real leader off the field,” Scott said.

Salta said he was surprised by the nomination, but was ultimately honored by the role bestowed to him by his teammates.

“I love that my team trusts me enough to guide them through the season and hopefully lead them where we want to go,” Salta said.

Steele said that he is confident his new teammate will do his part to get the team over the hump.

“It doesn’t matter who he’s going against, it doesn’t matter who’s going against him, he’ll always go balls to the wall and play as hard as he can and never stop,” Steele said.

While he is trying to help his team get to the LEC playoffs, Salta said he is also trying to adjust to civilian life on the KSC campus where he has much more freedom and time on his hands. While he’s been trying to build new friendships outside of the military, he said that his time in the military helped him build friendships that will last for years to come.

“I formed bonds that I’ll have for the rest of my life,” Salta said.

He is reminded of that bond by a bracelet which reminds him of one his friends from his time in the service who has passed away. He said he keeps it with him wherever he goes.

“It just reminds me that some people aren’t as fortunate anymore. It reminds me that no matter what, it could be worse. So I fight for him and we fight for each other. No matter what, you fight for each other and you keep going.”

Jacob Barrett can be contacted at jbarrett@kscequinox.com

Posted in UncategorizedComments Off on For his country and for Keene

Student hit in crosswalk released from hospital

Abbie Sweatt, a Keene State College senior who was hit by a car on April 20th, has been released from the hospital and returned home.

Sweatt sustained serious injuries as a result of the accident. According to her mother, Lori Sweatt, Abbie has a skull fracture along with other injuries. Abbie spoke of her current condition after she had been released.

“I would say that I’m in rough shape for sure, but I’m doing better now that it’s been about a week,” Abbie said.

Abbie said that she does not remember the accident, but only recalls leaving her job the Child Development Center and the last thing she remembers is seeing the Keene State College arches as she walked toward the street.

KSC junior Alexandra Kalogeris witnessed the accident and ran to help Sweatt. She said the accident shows that daylight doesn’t mean that pedestrians are safe crossing the street and something needs to be done to make the crosswalks safer for students.

“It’s terrible. What scares me is that it happened at two o’clock in the afternoon when it was bright out, so what can happen at night when it’s dark?” Kalogeris said.

Kalogeris said that she and her friends have had close calls crossing the streets around campus.  “I would never want that to happen to anyone. It’s so sad, she was just an innocent girl walking across the street. All I could think about when it happened was, ‘that’s someone’s child,’” Kalogeris said.

Lori said she has not been in contact with the woman who allegedly hit Abbie.

As a result of the incident the medical bills are stacking up, money is being raised to help pay for expenses. Robin Mathews has set up a GoFundMe page, which has circulated social media networks and has raised over $4,000 for Abbie.

Students are also taking the initiative to keep future pedestrians from getting hit while crossing the street. Unlike the crosswalks that are found on Winchester Street near campus, the crosswalks on Main Street, including the one by Elliot Street where Abbie was hit, do not include caution flashers, speed bumps or an island in between the four lane road. As of May 1, members of the KSC Advocates for Healthy Communities collected three hundred signatures on a petition, which will ask for safer walkways in the area. The group has also been selling necklaces and raffle tickets for t-shirts. All proceeds are going to go toward Abbie’s medical bills. They plan on writing a letter to city councilmen urging them to improve the safety of the crosswalks.

[We’re] basically asking them to put this issue higher on their priority list and do something about [it]….whatever that means to keep the drivers and the walkers safe, and ensuring the safety aspect in the town,” said Advocates for Healthy Communities member Siobhan Fuller.

Lori said she is grateful for the support the KSC community has given her daughter since the accident.

“We are overwhelmed by the support that the Keene State College community has given us,” she said.  “People have gone way above and beyond,” Lori said.

City Council member Stephen Hooper said that discussion revolving around the safety of the crosswalks.  Hooper teaches a class for the CALL program in the fall and said that crossing main street to get to the Alumni center and crossing the four-lane road isn’t something that he doesn’t always feels safe about.

“Every time I cross I kind of shudder and so I experience it myself,” Hooper said.

Hooper noted that as of May 2, he was not aware of any formal proposals to make the crosswalks on Main Street safer, but added that the discussion about their safety is an important one.

“Certainly from my point-of-view as a member of the council I would want to see this discussed further and I would support that,” Hooper said.

Dean of Students Gail Zimmerman said she is in regular contact with Abbie’s family and professors to minimize the impact the accident has on her academic future. According to Zimmerman, Abbie will still graduate on time.

As for Abbie’s recovery, she faces a long road of surgery and recovery. She will be having reconstructive surgery on her knee and will be healing for the next six to nine months. She will be doing physical therapy to regain her mobility, and her mother said Abbie is looking to be at commencement on Saturday.

Those who know Abbie are pulling for her, confident that she will bounce back. “I think that she has this obvious determination,” said KSC Coordinator of Wellness Education Tiffany Mathews, who has worked with Abbie on a number of different projects and practicums. She said she hopes the safety of the walkways around the college improve to make sure something like what happened on April 20, never happens again.

Jacob Barrett can be contacted at jbarrett@kscequinox.com

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