As commencement draws nearer, seniors at Keene State College are ordering caps and gowns, customizing their sashes and preparing to walk across the stage on the Fiske Quad, diploma proudly in hand.

Joey Sullivan / Equinox Staff

However, graduate regalia could look different this year or next than it has  in years past.

Over the past few years, there have been conversations surrounding whether the graduation hood is necessary. It is typically worn by graduates at the KSC commencement ceremony to represent which academic school each student is graduating from: the School of Professional and Graduate Studies, the School of Sciences and Social Sciences and/or the School of Arts and Humanities.

Since KSC Coordinator of College Ceremonies and Events Rebecca Dixon arrived at the college in 2015, she said there have been many conversations about getting rid of them all together, mainly because wearing them as an undergraduate is not in line with what other institutions do. “We have to try to bring it back in line with our other sister institutions and make sure that it’s in line with what other undergraduates receive when they graduate,” she said.

The University of New Hampshire, Plymouth State University and Granite State College don’t distribute undergraduate hoods at their commencement ceremonies, but KSC has done so since its 75th anniversary.

Since 1984 had marked the 75th anniversary of the college, at the time, the hoods were meant to add more color and festivity to the ceremony, Dixon said. Although she said she’s not sure why it became a KSC tradition, it became a regular part of the commencement regalia, and the newly established “tradition” continued.

Typically, hoods are reserved for those who have obtained a degree beyond a bachelor’s degree, and they generally denote scholarly and professional achievements, according to the History of the Hooding Ceremony on the Cameron University website.

Master’s degree hoods are generally worn more than once, according to Dixon, and KSC undergraduates likely would not wear them again, especially considering the gowns are 100 percent recyclable and the hoods are not.

The fact that KSC distributed them for undergraduates, Dixon said, is “unusual.”

While Dixon said she’s been working with the senior class’ executive board to make this decision, Class of 2018 Secretary and senior Emma Hamilton said the conversation came about because they were told the decision had already been made during a meeting the executive board wasn’t originally in on.

After the Class of 2018 Executive Board collectively spoke with Dixon, Hamilton said the cost of the hoods began to play a role.

With the new Barnes & Noble Bookstore ownership, purchasing hoods for the entire senior class would cost $35,000, according to Treadwell, and would have required the Class of 2018 to contribute about $15,000 from their account.

However, Hamilton said the executive board members wanted to ensure they were able to provide seniors with other experiences, such as a class trip, graduate gifts and a class gift to the college. Additionally, they felt $15,000 was a lot of money and voted to either not pay anything at all and leave it in the hands of the college or ask students to pay $5 each.

“We came to an agreement that it wasn’t acceptable to be asking students to pay for commencement regalia because they already pay for the sash, so why add more money onto it?” Hamilton said.

However, Treadwell met with the Class of 2018 Executive Board on Tuesday, March 20 and told the class that at this point, 46 days before graduation, she thinks it’s too late in the year to take away this tradition at KSC. Graduates took professional graduation yearbook photos earlier in the academic year wearing the hoods, which Treadwell said furthered her concern.

Treadwell’s next steps, she said, are to meet with the finance team this week to try and find the funds to purchase hoods for this year’s graduating class. If $35,000 is not found, the class will not wear hoods during the ceremony.

Hamilton said if Treadwell ends up needing some contributed funds, the Class of 2018 Executive Board will offer $5,000 from their account.

Treadwell told the executive board, however, that she is trying her best to make sure they do not have to contribute any money.

Next year, Treadwell said she plans to begin an earlier conversation about potentially not offering them to the Class of 2019 and those beyond.

Dixon and Treadwell said they are working with the Class of 2018 Executive Board to develop communication to the entire senior class.

Graduating seniors can pick up their caps, gowns and sashes at the Commencement Fair on March 28 and 29 from 12 p.m. to 6 p.m. in the KSC Bookstore.

If Treadwell is successful in finding funds to provide the Class of 2018 with hoods, they would be picked up at a later date.

The Commencement ceremony will be held on the Fiske Quad on May 5 at 1 p.m..

Note: Emma Hamilton was a former editor for The Equinox, but given her role in student government, was interviewed for the story.

President of the Class of 2018 Alayna LaBaire was not available to comment.

Jessica Ricard can be contacted at jricard@kscequinox.com

Marches, walkouts and protests have taken over U.S. schools with the intention of spreading one message: change, both in schools and within the law. Keene State College has hopped on-board to encourage current and prospective students to civically engage.

Luke Sweeney / Equinox Staff

Safer schools and gun law changes have been at the forefront of students’ minds after a gunman opened fire on Feb. 14 in Parkland, Florida, and 14 students and three teachers were killed and many others were seriously at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School.

Speaking up and taking action have emphasized students’ mission – demanding the massacre in Parkland be the last.

On Feb. 26, Keene State College released the following statement on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter: “We want to share that civic engagement is a critical core value at Keene State College. We support students who take constructive action on issues that are important to them. Participation in peaceful protests will not affect admissions decisions for potential students.”

Director of Admissions at KSC Peg Richmond suggested the college release a statement after learning that not only herself, but other college admissions officers were getting phone calls from high school students asking, “What if I were to participate in this rally, walkout or protest? What would happen?”

Many prospective students, she said, were concerned about how that might affect their admissions offer. “[It’s] not that I don’t want [prospective students] to be concerned about it, I’m glad that they were, but I want to make sure that they understand that we do acknowledge their right to gather peacefully,” Richmond said. “I really do applaud them for really taking that initiative and thinking about that.”

Although Richmond said she only received a “handful” of calls from concerned prospective Owls, she said she began to think about the students who didn’t, and wouldn’t, pick up the phone to call. “There were a number of different reasons why I didn’t want them to have to call us,” she said.

Richmond passed the message along to the Marketing and Communications Department. The statement was written by Director of Strategic Communications and Community Relations Kelly Ricaurte and then it was released.

Richmond stressed the importance of a statement like this, saying although situations such as what occurred in Parkland may not be happening directly in students’ backyard, it still has an affect on everyone. “We want [students] to be sensitive to the fact of no matter where it’s happening, it’s still affecting your life,” she said, “and you should be aware of it. How you respond to that awareness is personal.”

Actions such as a peaceful protest or rally are important at Keene State College, and Richmond said she wants prospective students to know that. If anybody were to attend KSC, she said, “we would support that kind of response of a peaceful rally. [It] is a very mature, responsible way to respond to these kinds of situations.”

With good comes the bad, and although Richmond said she hasn’t gotten any backlash from the statement directly, some people tend to lose sight of what a statement such as this truly means. “The people that might be concerned about the statement are thinking, ‘What if there’s the student that all of a sudden turns this peaceful rally into something else?’ That’s different, that’s not peaceful,” she said. “It’s like, people, focus on the peaceful part of it.”

KSC President Melinda Treadwell agreed with Richmond and said, as a public university, it’s natural to have many different opinions, so it’s important, as an institution, there is space given for that. “Hopefully it’s contentious, we have space for discourse that might bring a broader awareness for those affected by strong speech,” Treadwell said.

Additionally, Treadwell said KSC values and supports free speech for all.

KSC senior and psychology major Jenna Barton said standing up for something people believe in is something KSC values and respects. “I think it was a very good idea to not only show support for the Parkland students, but also encourage young students to use their voice and fight for things they believe in. The message portrays KSC as a school devoted to doing the right thing and always supporting students and their decisions,” Barton said.

In terms of what this statement says about KSC’s commitment to civic engagement, Richmond said it says “everything.”

“This really says who we are, that this is who we want our students to be,” she said. “We want you to be aware.”

Jessica Ricard can be contacted at jricard@kscequinox.com

On Wednesday, Feb. 14, a collaborative student-made model was vandalized in Rhodes Hall.

The model portrayed The Thomson Center for Sustainable Work and Scholarship, which was meant to “promote the general goal of sustainable, local development.”

Photos contributed by Associate Professor of Sociology Dr. Brian Green

The model acted as a more sustainable campus model to promote sustainable practices and potentially “have a positive long-term impact on our college, our students, our community, and our natural environment,” according to the project description.

The sustainable campus vision was assembled in a display table, containing different models of buildings, trees and resources, such as solar panels and green houses. It was on display on the second floor of Rhodes Hall until a couple weeks ago, when it was destroyed.

Professor of Sociology Dr. Brian Green said he walked by the model every day on the way to his office, but it was different last time. When he walked by, all parts of the model were either damaged or missing, he said.

Photos contributed by Associate Professor of Sociology Dr. Brian Green

Additionally, someone folded over a piece of cardboard, wrote “REMOVE” in large letters and placed it on what was left of it.

Although the representation wasn’t enclosed in glass, “everyone seemed to respect it,” he said.

A few years ago, the model was created by students in both the sociology and architecture departments.

They presented it at the Academic Excellence Conference, it became the center of multiple senior student projects and the model was the focus of an innovative video, presenting the new sustainable campus idea.

The Thomson Center for Sustainable Work and Scholarship was ultimately Green’s idea for a new sustainable campus.

He said it would allow for more integrated and interdisciplinary learning at the college with effort to integrate all programs on campus and build a greater focus on sustainability.

“I wanted to build the model as a way of physically showing anybody who would be interested, other professors, administrators, etc., what we could do if we decided to [implement it], and the students got into it big time. I have to tell you, it’s probably the most enthusiastic I’ve ever seen students about a project,” Green said.

On the architecture side of things, Associate Professor of Architecture Bart Sapeta worked with his students to come up with the physical representation, while the sociology students worked with the big idea.

The students involved with project understood from the get-go that there was no guarantee that model would be brought to life, but the idea that they would play a role if it ever did happen was exciting for them, Green said.

Green said he reported the incident to Campus Safety, but hasn’t heard anything regarding the investigation.

In terms of why something like this could happen, Green said he thought it could be one of two things: either someone spontaneously wanted to trash it or, because the word “REMOVE” was written on it, it could have been something politically related.

“We created this model, it’s like a new vision for learning and organization of the college around sustainability, integrative studies, the college has identified that as a key theme, and now somebody’s vandalized our model. So what is that telling us? Does that mean maybe people don’t think that’s a good idea? I mean, who knows,” Green said.

KSC alumnus of the class of 2015, management major and key player in the development of the Thomson Center model Ryan Cathcart said the project meant a number of things to him, including an opportunity to turn a passion for sustainability into something much larger.

Additionally, he saw it as a way to benefit KSC and make it better than when he had first arrived.

Considering the model was built on the best intentions, Cathcart said, he said hearing it was vandalized was disappointing. “In hearing about the model being vandalized, I was first disappointed that someone would disrespect something that took so many hours to make, something that was built on the best intentions.

Afterwards, however, I came to focus more on the silver lining, that there could be benefit in the renewed attention to this project, and hopefully some student could take interest and pick it up where we left off.”

Sapeta said he was unsure of the reason for the vandalism, but it’s sad someone would destroy the work of students.

“I hope that this incident has nothing to do with the broader number of incidents of vandalism on campus, that it has nothing to do with attacking the students or the people involved in the project or even the idea of the project, and I don’t want to marginalize that, but I hope it’s just somebody maybe got frustrated and that was their way of relieving their frustration, but even that is wrong.”

However, he said he hopes the project can still be utilized with ways of implementing some parts of it.

Another key player in the development of the model, Jacob Pastor, an architecture major and alumnus of the class of 2015, agreed with Sapeta.

“I hope that other students continue with our project. I would love to see what the next stage of the project is,” Pastor said.

He also said this project was important to KSC. Not only did it spearhead the efforts to make sustainability a minor, he said, but it brought light to the importance of sustainability as a whole.

Jessica Ricard can be contacted at jricard@kscequinox.com

The Keene State College Nursing Program is preparing for a national site visit in mid-April. From April 11-13, three visitors from the Commission on Collegiate Nursing Education (CCNE) will be at KSC, Director of Nursing Dr. Patricia Shinn said.

They will be from the University of Southern Indiana, Lake Cumberland Regional Hospital in Kentucky and Saginaw Valley State University in Michigan.

Additionally, two individuals from the New Hampshire Board of Nursing will be present for the site visit as well. Over the course of the visit, the individuals from the CCNE and the New Hampshire Board of Nursing will meet with students, faculty, the dean, the provost and the college president. They’ll have the opportunity to observe student clinicals and classes, and on the last day, they’ll conduct an exit interview to share their findings with Shinn.

In preparation for the visit, Shinn said she and the nursing faculty have been writing a comprehensive self study over the course of the year that describes the nursing program and how KSC students are meeting the learning outcomes. It’s been a “group project,” with faculty meeting each week to work collaboratively on the report.

In August of 2018, Shinn will officially find out whether KSC’s nursing program has been granted national accreditation. If achieved, the next re-accreditation visit would not occur until 2028.

Jessica Ricard can be contacted at jricard@kscequinox.com

The Keene State College Bruder House, or as many students know it, the “toilet paper house,” has been sold to the Historical Society of Cheshire County.

Graphic by Laura Romaniello / Art Director

The final purchase price for the property at 349 Main Street totaled $199,958, and the agreement between the University System of New Hampshire (USNH) and the Historical Society was settled on Feb. 2, 2018, according to a right to know request submitted to Administrative Assistant of Partnerships and Shared Services for USNH Lily Newton.

In terms of KSC’s $5.5 million deficit, Interim President of KSC Melinda Treadwell said the sale of the Bruder House was not part of any original conversations surrounding the budget.

“It just happened that it was happening this year,” Treadwell said.

A commitment to the sale of the Bruder House property was among one the first documents Treadwell said she signed when she first came to KSC this past summer, but the sale was a “total coincidence,” she said.

“It had nothing to do with the budget, it had to do with the timing of when the Historical Society was ready to [purchase] it. It does help us because we’ll book revenue this year, but it was not part of a long plan for this budget cycle,” Treadwell said.

History

Director of Physical Plant at KSC Frank Mazzola said long ago, the Bruder House served as a bakery and café and was later carved into three apartments.

The units were then rented out to students attending Antioch University and KSC by an individual who is believed to have lived in Harrisville, New Hampshire, according to Mazzola.

As the ’90s and early 2000s approached, he said KSC experienced a growth curve and began to take an interest in properties that bordered campus. In effort to “protect our front door,” and provide land to the college if ever needed, KSC officially acquired the Bruder House in 2010.

When renovations were being done to Fiske Hall in 2006, the Bruder House happened to be where the toilet paper and paper towels were being stored at the time, hence the “toilet paper house” name.

Although KSC took ownership of the property about eight years ago, it’s always remained empty, Mazzola said. The 2013 Master Plan established that KSC was unable to find “any good use for the house.”

Soon after KSC acquired the property, the Historical Society indicated interest in the building, and in 2015, an intent to purchase letter was signed, which “locked them in as the buyer of preference for the house,” Mazzola said. This, then, allowed the society to submit grants and fundraise for full purchase.

According to Development Director of the Historical Society Rick Swanson, the society launched a capital campaign to repair, improve and expand the Bruder House facilities.

They raised $2.4 million and reached their target in 2017.

In spring of 2017, the Historical Society notified KSC they were ready to consummate the purchase, and a check was written from the Law Office of Thomas R. Hanna on Dec. 19, 2017 for $199,958 to the University System of New Hampshire.

The property value has decreased over the years, however.

In February of 2009, the house was first appraised by Susan E. Tierney at $265,000, according to the right to know request submitted to Newton.

In February of 2014, the property was appraised again, this time by Mary-Ann D. Robator, at $237,000, and in March of 2017, the most recent appraisal date, the property’s market value, also by Robator, had reached $199,000.

Mazzola said the building is in “rough condition,” and is unusable for anything in its current state.

However, Swanson said the Historical Society will require several hundred thousand dollars worth of work to renovate and make suitable for use. Renovations will begin in April, as it’s currently in the design phase.

Future Plans for the Historical Society of Cheshire County

The Historical Society of Cheshire County plans to renovate the building, which sits adjacent to the Wyman Tavern, and use it as a cultural heritage center to welcome individuals and families to both the society and the city of Keene. “We see it as two-fold, Swanson said, “welcoming people to the Historical Society, but also welcoming people in terms of tourism and economic development.”

It’s purpose is far from simple, however. “About five years ago, we kind of made a decision, our Board of Trustees made a decision, that the future of historical societies or historical house museums like the Wyman Tavern was not in being like a dusty archive where somebody might come once and take a look, but more like the the idea of a cultural heritage center, where people want to come back again and again because history is coming alive, through performance, through music, through dance, through reenactments, food, all of that kind of stuff and helping find relevance and a sense of place,” Swanson explained.

In order to roll out more programs, the Historical Society needed more space. Rather than renovating and expanding the Wyman Tavern, which proved impractical because of its historical aspects, the society opted to purchase the Bruder House from KSC instead.

Future Plans for KSC

In terms of other buildings on the KSC campus, President Treadwell said the Bushnell Apartments and Randall Hall need a lot of infrastructure updates. Taking them “off our books” may benefit the college, she said.

An immediate asset write-off of the buildings, meaning closing them or taking them down for more green space, would not only provide an immediate budget reduction, but would allow the college to recover depreciation, which she said has been put in the budget for several years.

Randall Hall, she said, needs almost $15 million in investment to make habitable.

Overall, however, students and community members can expect to see both new and traditional programs at the Historical Society’s newly-purchased cultural heritage center.

Jessica Ricard can be contacted at jricard@kscequinox.com

Keene State College will implement a new grading system, incorporating (+) and (-) grades, rather than A, AB, etc. letter grades. Additionally, discussion surrounding the College Senate’s program elimination guidelines was discussed and pushed to a later date during the College Senate’s meeting on Feb. 14 in the Mountain View Room.

With the college’s new grading system, effective Aug. 27, 2019, all courses that were offered prior will use the current system, and all courses offered after that date will use the new system. No grades for courses offered before Aug. 27, 2019 may be changed to a (+/-) grade.

The new grading system was unanimously approved by the College Senate.

Additionally, in discussion regarding the College Senate’s program elimination guidelines, the Executive Committee decided now would not be the best time to proceed in discussing changes to be made. Senator Sue Castriotta spoke and suggested with the three-school system changing to two, and the fact that the names of those faculty and staff taking voluntary separations from the college has still not been made public, it’s best to hold off on having the conversation until the “dust has settled” with the college.

With the growth of the college’s widespread learning outcomes, Jo Beth Mullens, professor of geography, addressed the senators, on behalf of the committee of six, regarding the new outcome of sustainability. After distributing feedback forms, she asked for all suggestions regarding the language of the outcome. However, she said the committee wanted there to be three definite focuses: awareness, responsibility and action.

Two open forums will be held on Feb. 22 and Feb. 28 from 12 p.m. to 1 p.m. to acquire feedback.

The College Senate will discuss the possibility of using financial aid to fund summer courses. The hope is for students to apply their financial aid to the summer session by the summer of 2019. The concept has been sent to individual committees for discussion.

In terms of new business, Senator Castriotta shared that the Dean of the School of Professional and Graduate Studies Karrie Kalich and Academic and Career Advisor Jen Drake-Deese expressed interest in making KSC a Yellow Ribbon school.

The program “allows institutions of higher learning (degree granting institutions) in the United States to voluntarily enter into an agreement with [Veteran [Affairs] to fund tuition expenses that exceed either the annual maximum cap for private institutions or the resident tuition and fees for a public institution. The institution can contribute up to 50 percent of those expenses and VA will match the same amount as the institution,” according to the U.S. Department of Veteran Affairs website.

The reason for doing so, Castriotta said, would be to consider KSC a more veteran-friendly institution compared to others.

Provost William Seigh said, “We need to have a policy in place that takes care of our vets.” If student veterans were to be deployed, he said, what would happen to their credits?

Senator Kim Schmidl-Gagne said the topic is likely to be put forth during the College Senate meeting in March.

The College Senate will meet once again on March 21, 2018 in the Mountain View Room of the L.P. Young Student Center.

Jessica Ricard can be contacted at jricard@kscequinox.com

College affordability: most students cringe at the term.

Laura Romaniello / Art Director

In reality, affordability is one of the most significant barriers students encounter when deciding where to attend college after high school, or whether to attend at all.

In New Hampshire – ranked as the seventh most expensive state or district to attend college – the average in-state tuition totaled $17,675 during the 2016-17 academic year, which is $4,089 more expensive than the country’s average, according to collegecalc.org.

However, the financial burden just got a little easier for Granite Staters.

Keene State College has introduced the Granite Guarantee, which is a pledge to incoming first-year students from the Granite State to cover the cost of tuition for four years.

Those who qualify must be New Hampshire residents entering their first year of college in fall of 2018 and eligible for the federal Pell Grant. As long as incoming students remain enrolled full time, 12 credits minimum, maintain a 2.0 GPA and remain Pell-eligible, the pledge will remain in place.

In other words, if between federal, state and college scholarship funds, the cost of tuition is not met, KSC will add additional funds to the student’s financial aid package, Interim Director of Financial Aid Susan Howard explained. The funds do not apply to room and board, however.

Vice President for Student Affairs and Enrollment Management Dr. Kemal Atkins said conversations surrounding the Granite Guarantee have been occurring not only at the institutional level, but the system level as well. The residential institutions within the University System of New Hampshire (USNH) have all made this commitment to their incoming students.

“It’s not only an institutional commitment, it’s a system commitment, a commitment by the USNH system through our institutions to try and make college education more accessible and affordable for New Hampshire residents in particular,” Atkins said.

The University of New Hampshire rolled out the Granite Guarantee this past year, Howard said, and the enrollment numbers for their New Hampshire residents increased by twice as many. Howard said KSC is anticipating about 20-40 additional students next fall.

Plymouth State University plans to roll out their Granite Guarantee in fall of 2018, Atkins said.

In a conversation with the New Hampshire Center for College Planning, Howard said she was informed that KSC wasn’t serving the neediest Granite Staters as well as it could be. If Keene is the best fit school for an incoming student, Howard said the Granite Guarantee is a way to make sure they can get here.

“The purpose of it is to make Keene State possible for the neediest New Hampshire students, and in looking at our university system, if a student gets [the Granite Guarantee] at UNH but they’d rather be at Keene State, we don’t want that to be a barrier. We want them to be able to choose Keene State because it’s a better fit for them.”

When Interim President of KSC Dr. Melinda Treadwell first arrived on campus this past summer, Howard said she started a scholarship challenge fund, which would be used to cover the costs associated with the Granite Guarantee.

Based on data from this year’s first-year class, the estimated cost for first year of the Granite Guarantee for next year’s incoming class is about $100,000.

“I think we’re hoping that there will be interest on the part of donors to make this happen and think it’s important enough that they’re going to help us with that,” Howard said.

In terms of marketing this information to current New Hampshire high school students, Director of Admissions Peg Richmond said her team has been sending emails to high school guidance counselors, high school students, calling high schools and sending posters to be hung at schools as well.

“We are really trying to get the word out because I believe it could really make a significant difference for these students in terms of affordability. Access and affordability are really important at Keene State,” Richmond said.

Likewise, Atkins said the benefit of the Granite Guarantee is increasing affordability for New Hampshire students in need.

“In public higher education, Keene State in particular, we are committed to making education accessible and affordable, so that’s doing what we can to remove as many barriers to higher education for students across populations, and so this is one way we address more students who have more financial need. That’s the benefit,” Atkins said.

In terms of scholarships for current students, Atkins said this year, KSC will be marketing the endowed scholarships better by simplifying and streamlining the process. In an email sent to KSC students on Jan. 16, Atkins stated there will be more funds available to current students through the President’s Challenge Scholarships, and the application period to apply for aid will open in February.

While some current KSC students like the concept of the Granite Guarantee, some find it frustrating that they weren’t able to benefit from it.

KSC senior Bethany Cashman said, “I think it’s awesome for the incoming students that are able to have it, but it’s not really fair to those of us who are graduating. I had to work nearly full time during school on top of taking out a lot of loans just to afford it.”

Additionally she said the Expected Family Contribution on the FAFSA isn’t always accurate.

“The FAFSA has an “expected family contribution,” which is really not realistic for many students, as the parents aren’t able to provide much financial help.”

Overall, the Granite Guarantee may give New Hampshire students an opportunity they never thought they’d have, allowing them to attend a liberal arts, four-year college and receive a degree in fall of 2018.

“We’re hoping that by making this effort, more people will take a closer look at Keene State,” Atkins said.

“We know that once they take a closer look and get on campus and engage with our talented faculty and our students in particular, it could be a game-changer for them with regard to them saying, ‘This is where I want to be for the next four years,’” Atkins said.

Interim President of KSC Dr. Melinda Treadwell was unavailable for comment.

Jessica Ricard can be contacted at jricard@kscequinox.com

Interim President of Keene State College Dr. Melinda Treadwell made an appearance at this month’s College Senate meeting, and a variety of revisions were made to various majors and minors. The group met on Wednesday, Nov. 8, at 4 p.m. in the Mountain View Room of the L.P. Young Student Center.

During the courtesy period, Treadwell reported the college is ahead in their year-to-date fundraising efforts when compared with last year, and any additional funds the college acquires will go toward scholarships for incoming students in the next academic year.

Additionally, the college is 100 admitted students ahead of where it was at this time last year.  Treadwell also announced that throughout this current week, she will be holding meetings with faculty members in order to gather input on how to go about the restructuring of our campus.

On Nov. 28, there will be a campus-wide meeting held in the Redfern Arts Center at 2 p.m..

In terms of the fiscal year 2019 (FY19) budget, she reported there is a larger deficit to close when taking different factors into account, such as yearly raises. The exact number was not said, but the FY19 budget must be drafted and finalized by the second week in January, Treadwell said.

When updating the group on search processes for the Vice President of Financial Affairs position, Treadwell reported there are 35 candidates who have applied for the position, and of that number, 12 were reported as “highly qualified.” Eventually, Treadwell said the pool will be narrowed down to three top candidates.

The Provost search has not yet been posted.

In the Executive Committee report, a conversation was had surrounding the Senate’s program elimination guidelines, which were originally created in 2011 with a different outlook than is had now.

Then, they were designed to help struggling majors recover, and in 2015, minors were included in the description as well.

Now, a new question has been posed: When the only tenure-track faculty member in a department retires, how should the Senate proceed?

The Academic Policy Committee reported that KSC courses with the prefix “KSC” did not undergo curricular review because they aren’t associated with a specific school or department.

It was proposed that these courses be approved by all school curricular committees and the Senate Curriculum Committee.

After some discussion, the proposal was amended, and a new motion was made. Since courses with KSC as a prefix serve the entire campus, these courses should be reviewed by all school curriculum committees, as well as reviewed and approved by the Senate Curriculum Committee and approved by the College Senate. The amended motion was unanimously approved.

The Curriculum Committee presented the minutes from two of their meetings, which both resulted in a motion to have a variety of courses revised.

There was a motion to revise the following programs/courses: communications & philosophy major, communications minor, philosophy minor, health science major, addictions minor, IIPH 350, IIPH 445, INPH 175, ISPH 285, history major & history honors program, English major, chemistry minor, English writing minor, English professional writing minor, management minor, exercise science major and the physical education major.

Although the revisions to the above programs weren’t explained during Wednesday’s College Senate meeting, all changes were unanimously approved.

No new business was reported.

The meeting adjourned at 5:35 p.m..

Jessica Ricard can be contacted at jricard@kscequinox.com

Previous concerns over the possibility of the KSC geology program’s “extinction” became apparent in an e-mail sent to students last year. Now, over a year later, concerns regarding the program haven’t dissipated.

In an Oct. 6, 2016 article from The Equinox titled, “KSC puts a dent in geology program,” low enrollment and anticipated retirements of both tenure-track faculty members within the program triggered an administrative hold. New students were not being admitted to the major or minor, pending a program redesign.

More recently, however, conversations surrounding the future of the program have indicated that geology may soon fall under the environmental studies program umbrella, where faculty members would redesign a geology minor and eliminate the major for the time being.

At the College Senate meeting on Oct. 11, a member expressed worry regarding the program, suggesting the program elimination guidelines set forth by the group weren’t being followed.

According to Provost William Seigh, there have been long conversations between geology faculty members, environmental studies faculty members, Dean of the School of Sciences and Social Sciences Dr. Gordon Leversee and himself, and none of those, he thought, indicated anybody wanting to bring this to the College Senate regarding program elimination.

“We knew we were not going to have the faculty, but I wasn’t ready to say, ‘Let’s end it…’” Seigh said. “If [the future includes] having a geology major at some point again, that’s great. If it’s not time to take the geology major to the [College] Senate, I respect that choice, but I have a feeling because of retirements and future, I have a feeling that’s the path this is going to go down at this point.”

If the administration had said they were going to completely shut off the program, the College Senate would have come into play, but since they’re not deciding to replace full-time faculty members, “it’s kind of a grey area,” Assistant Professor of Geology Dr. Steven Bill said. The administration would ultimately have to make that call.

At the end of last year, full-time Professor of Geology Dr. Peter Nielsen retired, and the other full-time professor, Bill, said he plans to retire “sometime in the near future,” leaving only adjuncts to teach geology courses.

Seigh said the reality of immediately replacing these positions was looking unlikely, which he said led them to look at other ways to manage the situation.

In moving forward with the program, Seigh explained there were a series of small plans, one being to place the administrative hold while ensuring the current students could graduate “with a really solid curriculum that serves them.”

Second, administration and faculty members wanted to redesign a geology minor for students, while simultaneously continuing conversations about possibilities for the future program, whatever they may be.

Essentially, Leversee said the geology major would go away for the time being. In the past, he said, the political science major at KSC took a similar route, where it switched to a minor, and then became quite popular. After a redesign process, the program was offered as a major once again.

According to Leversee, this is a reasonable way to see programs change over time and predicts the geology program will be “reframed” as a minor in the “different departmental design framework” in environmental studies.

“You know, the fact is when the dust settles, the major program in geology as we’ve had it would no longer exist, so you can think of that as a program elimination, but it really is, I think, a redesign in the form of a new minor that, then, has the potential to grow into a new major over time,” Leversee explained.

However, Bill, who’s been teaching geology at KSC for 30 years, said there doesn’t seem to be much support in keeping the program around. Not only has the college removed all introductory geology courses, which were to be taught this coming spring semester, but they’ve also removed all major and non-major courses, as well as Integrative Studies Program (ISP) courses in geology.

Whether the classes were ghosted, meaning the geology department proposed the section and it did not appear on Student Planning during course selection, or the class was cancelled altogether before registration even began, eight courses are off the market for the spring semester.

Among the cancelled or ghosted courses include one section of GEOL-252 Evolution of Earth, three sections of INGEOL-110 Earth Systems Science, two sections of INGEOL-151 Physical Geology and two sections of INGEOL-320 Earth’s Climate: Past and Future. A total of five geology courses remained active for students to enroll in during the registration period.

Bill said, however, if he were to come up with a list of 10 students who needed to take a cancelled course, Leversee would consider reinstating the class. By cancelling so many sections though, a number of programs are both directly and indirectly affected.

“I would take this as a vote of non-confidence that they cancelled so many sections,” Bill said. “If you don’t even let the intro courses [run], it doesn’t really sound like you have much support for doing a minor in a program.”

Many geology students are feeling the effects of cutting the upper level courses. For one KSC junior and geology major Crystal Pringle, one class in particular that isn’t being offered could keep her and classmates from going off to graduate school following graduation.

A necessary prerequisite for graduate school, Field Study, has been cut from the schedule, according to Pringle.

Pringle said geology students were told if they kept up with their major and program, they were promised to graduate with the major they intended on receiving, but this seems to be inhibiting that promise.

“We’ve had to take a lot of these classes, like they’re offered now, this is your last chance, which is why schedules are so out of control. This is why we’re taking four lab classes in one semester and trying to find enough hours in the day to make this work and still have some sort of sanity…It’s take them now or you don’t get them and you don’t get your degree,” Pringle said.

In terms of the changes said to be made to the program in the future, Bill said he doesn’t want to see the program go away.

“It definitely hurts me to see the program go away,” Bill said. “We kind of are in never-never land….We don’t really know, [and] nothing’s been solidified.”

Jessica Ricard can be contacted at jricard@kscequinox.com

As accreditation standards change from year to year in various academic programs, deans and department faculty members are forced to make decisions that are sometimes quite difficult.

At the College Senate meeting on Oct. 11, Provost William Seigh announced the athletic training program has been placed on administrative hold, and according to the Keene State College website, “Effective 10/05/17 this program is under administrative review. There will be no admission to the program for newly admitted students (i.e., 2018FA on) while on administrative hold.”

The program is accredited by the Commission on Accreditation of Athletic Training Education (CAATE), which has recently changed the degree requirements of the program.

Dean for Professional and Graduate Studies Anne Miller said, “[CAATE] are going to require that the athletic training program be a master’s level program, and in order to be able to support that, that requires a level of resources that, right now, we just don’t have…”

Considering the minimum degree requirement for athletic training is now a master’s, Miller said costs would be higher and additional faculty members would have to be hired if they were to continue the program at that level.

KSC Professor in Human Performance and Movement Sciences and Program Coordinator for Athletic Training Dr. Wanda Swiger said the college is delaying the decision because the exact CAATE requirements for the master’s program have not been fully established. A lot of schools, she said, are just switching without knowing what the new requirements entail. KSC’s plan is to not admit any incoming first-year students for the fall of 2018, teach out the current students in the major and then make a decision whether to add in a master’s program at that point.

One of the major concerns, Swiger said, is that adding the master’s program is expensive. Additionally, doing so would require athletic training students to take more coursework in chemistry and physics, which, Swiger said, might put a burden on the science department.

The new requirements, for example, will also require athletic training students to do IV hydration and administration, which the current faculty doesn’t know how to do, as it was never previously required. The nursing program teaches this skill to their students, but do their faculty have enough time to teach athletic training students how to do so as well? “There’s all of these ramifications that have to be looked at. It’s not just as simple as, ‘Oh, let’s keep this program or that program,’” Swiger explained.

However, the hold means the program can be looked at again later. If our resources change or something else points to the master’s program being a possibility, Miller said, then a different change can be made.

In terms of enrollment, Miller said it hasn’t been “robust.”

The program typically brings in about 30 first-year students, Swiger said, but as students make their way through the program, between 12 and 15 graduate with an athletic training degree. After graduation, before the accreditation requirements were changed, about half went on to get their master’s degree at another institution.

Typically what happens is when the student gets to KSC, there are decision points they make along the way, and many don’t realize how science-based the major is or that it actually is a medical profession. Many end up switching to exercise science human performance, and other students have difficulty passing all of the sciences with the minimum grade requirement.

When they don’t meet minimum grade requirements, Swiger said they end up having to switch their major.

Oppositely, if KSC chooses not to add the master’s degree option, Swiger said another option would be to “prop up” the exercise science program, which could prepare students for a pre-athletic training or pre-physical therapy degree. This would, then, allow students to go elsewhere to receive a master’s degree in either program.

“I think there’s going to be a dip [in enrollment], but I do think it will rebound. The question will be, how much?” Swiger said.

KSC senior athletic training major Amber Curran said a master’s program would be nice to have and the changing accreditation requirements make sense. “Eventually, if you want to continue in the athletic training field, if you want to get a job, they’re going to require you to have a master’s degree, so just having that five-year program instead of going back to school, which I would have to do for two years, just makes more sense.”

However, both Curran and Swiger agree that the fact that it’s going away, at least for now, is sad, for not just currently students and faculty members, but alumni as well.

“Certainly for the alumni, the quality of our program has meant a lot to a lot of people, so I think that part of it, it’s sad for me to see that part of the ties go in that direction, but I don’t exactly know that that’s the end of athletic training at Keene State. It’s just, we’re doing a pause, we’re doing a reset,” Swiger said. “Whatever program emerges moving forward, whether that’s us saying, ‘Yes it is the right time to do a master’s in athletic training here at Keene State,’ or it’s time to pause and say, ‘You know what, we’ve got a great exercise science allied health option here and it really prepares students for that graduate school opportunity,’ then that’s going to get me excited too.”

Jessica Ricard can be contacted at jricard@kscequinox.com