As of now, the Boston Red Sox currently have the top spot in the American League standings (91-65), but not many players have a top spot in all of baseball history. On Sept. 28, 1941, Red Sox player Ted Williams became the last player to hit a .400 batting average in baseball history.

On this day, Williams cracked six hits of his eight chances at bat against the Philadelphia Athletics, which boosted his batting average to .406. This allowed him to become the first baseball player to hit .400 since Bill Terry of the original New York Giants in 1930.

Williams began and ended his career with the Boston Red Sox, beginning in 1939 and ending in 1960, and no major league player has hit .400 since he did. Contrary to being a baseball phenomenon, he served in World War II and the Korean War as a pilot in the Marine Corps, missing five total baseball seasons.

Nicknamed “The Splendid Splinter” and “The Thumper, he led the league with 37 home runs, 135 runs, a slugging average of .735 and an on-base percentage of .553, according to history.com. His on-base percentage was a record that was left unbroken for 61 years, but was broken by Barry Bonds in 2002 when he earned a percentage of .582.

Additionally, Williams achieved a total of 521 home runs throughout his baseball career, hitting his final ball out of the park his last time at bat on Sept. 28, 1960.

Williams won the American League Triple Crown in 1942, a title given when a player leads a league in three categories, usually in batting average, home runs, and runs batted in (RBI) within the same season. He had the Triple Crown honor both in 1942 and 1947, and was named the American League’s Most Valuable Player in 1946 and 1949. Also, he was named to the All-Star team 17 times and was the fourth player in history to hit 500 home runs.

Once he retired in 1960, he left his mark on baseball with a lifetime batting average of .344, a .483 career on-base percentage and a total of 2,654 hits, according to history.com. He was inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1966 and the Boston Red Sox retired his number (nine) in 1984.

After managing the Washington Senators, now called the Texas Rangers, from 1969 to 1972, he died of cardiac arrest at 83-years-old.

Since Ted Williams hit a .400 batting average in 1941, other players have been close to hitting the same goal. To name a few, Tony Gwynn of the San Diego Padres hit a .394 in 1994, Kansas City Royal George Brett hit a .390 in 1980 and Rod Carew of the Minnesota Twins hit a .388 in 1977, as reported by ESPN.

Both a veteran and an accomplished baseball player, he made history in many ways, especially in our home city of Boston, Massachusetts.

Jessica Ricard can be contacted at jricard@kscequinox.com

A winner of the Heisman Trophy, a running back with the Buffalo Bills, a TV star and a murderer, Orenthal James (O.J.) Simpson was acquitted of murder after a 252-day trial on Oct. 3, 1995.

After the brutal murder of Nicole Brown Simpson, his wife, and Ronald Goldman, her friend, in Brentwood, Los Angeles, California, O.J. Simpson pleaded not guilty in front of the judge.

Simpson married Brown in 1985, and reportedly regularly abused her throughout the length of their relationship, stated history.com.

To a charge of spousal battery in 1989, he pleaded no contest, and in 1992, Brown left him and filed for divorce. On June 12, 1994, however, Brown and Goldman were both stabbed and slashed to death in Simpson’s front yard. Just five days later, police charged him with both murders. 

In the 40 minutes following the murders, history.com stated, a limousine driver, who was scheduled to take Simpson to the airport, witnessed a man in dark attire running toward Simpson’s home; a few minutes after the person in dark clothing made it into the home, the limousine driver was let in via gate phone.

But when the driver had tried to call the house in the minutes before he arrived there, nobody had answered.

During the time frame in which the murders occurred, Simpson had no alibi, and all evidence was leading to him.

A leather glove found outside his house matched another found at the crime scene, and blood on it was proven to have come from both himself and the two victims of the murders.

Additionally, a pair of socks found at Simpson’s home matched the blood of Brown, and the coroner concluded the killer had used a “Stiletto” knife to commit both murders, which Simpson had just recently purchased.

Shoe prints in the blood at his home matched his shoe size and were later shown to match shoes he owned as well, although the knife and shoes weren’t found by police, according to history.com. A warrant was put out for Simpson’s arrest on June 17, but that evening, he was located by police. Being driven around by Al Cowlings, Simpson’s friend and former teammate, police spotted Simpson’s white Ford Bronco; over the phone, Cowlings told them he was suicidal and had a gun to his head.

Because of this, police did not forcefully stop the vehicle.

While police were chasing the car, Los Angeles news stations began televising the events as they were unfolding.

The car eventually turned into Simpson’s home and, after over an hour of negotiations, he finally got out of the vehicle and surrendered.

With him was a travel bag consisting of his passport, a disguise kit (fake mustache and beard) and a revolver, and when brought to court, he pleaded guilty in front of a judge.

Simpson’s trial was the longest trial ever held in the state of California, and much of the proceedings in the courtroom were caught on camera.

Simpson’s team of attorneys made cases that he was being framed by racist police officers, and the DNA evidence was attacked for many weeks.

The jury, which was made up nine African-Americans, two whites and one Hispanic, came to a conclusion in just four hours that Simpson was not guilty on both murder charges.

When this was released on Oct. 3, 1995, over 140 million Americans tuned in to watch or listen.

However, he was found liable for many charges related to the murder, according to history.com, and was forced to pay $33.5 million to the victims’ families of the murder, but avoided it because of the length and complexity of his trial.

In 2007, Simpson was arrested, once again, but this time for breaking into a hotel room in Las Vegas and stealing sports memorabilia that was stolen from him, he claimed.

On Oct. 3 of 2008, he was found guilty of 12 charges relating to this incident: armed robbery, kidnapping and sentenced to nine to 33 years in prison.

Thus far, Simpson has spent about nine years in prison and is preparing for release this October after being granted parole in July, reported the Chicago Tribune on July 20, 2017.

By Oct. 1, he would have served his minimum sentence of nine years, making him eligible for release.

Jessica Ricard can be contacted at jricard@kscequinox.com

After three years, Keene Pumpkin Festival was set to return to downtown Main Street as a fall celebration for the children of public schools in Keene and other surrounding towns.

However, the potential return has come with much concern and worry as to whether Keene State College and the town can afford the risks associated with the event.

On Sept. 8, Interim President of KSC Dr. Melinda Treadwell released a statement on the KSC Facebook page, addressing the risks and concerns that many have. 

After being approached by Let it Shine, the non-profit organization associated with the Main Street Pumpkin Festival event, Treadwell stated KSC would be there to provide service and participation wherever possible if the event were to happen.

Shortly after, however, Treadwell learned of the Monadnock Pumpkin Festival that takes place at the Cheshire Fairgrounds, “an event with the same goals of building community and civic pride, appealing for KSC resources, and involving the same regional school children and families in similar ways. The Monadnock event is 2.5 miles up the road, and a week earlier,” the Facebook post stated.

An event away from the main streets and neighborhoods of Keene, Treadwell said, would create the same sentiment of families coming together to celebrate without the possibility of spilling out into neighborhoods.

After meeting with city officials, Treadwell said pooling resources together to put on one event at a venue away from Main Street at a secure location would be best for the reputation of the college.

“We had a very limited number of social media posts that we picked up right after the announcement of the Keene Pumpkin Fest returning was received, and right now, in Keene’s history, I do not want another reputational question about the quality of our students [or] the quality of our programs,” Treadwell said.

“So what I have been trying to repeat again and again to the city is why would we bring the potential risk of photographs of college-aged students behaving badly to social media again? Why would we potentially open up, even if it’s a minor event, one photograph that goes out onto social media suggesting that Keene State students, even if it’s not our students, are doing something inappropriate? It’s going to harm our reputation again, which doesn’t help me create a broader vision of what Keene State is,” Treadwell said.

If the downtown Pumpkin Festival were to occur, however, Treadwell has plans in place to ensure KSC is ready for anything.

Treadwell said she will be working with Residential Life to limit or prohibit guests from staying on campus in the days before and after Pumpkin Festival, and under the student conduct code, she will be activating “aggravated circumstances,” meaning if students are misbehaving on or off campus, the penalties will be significantly heightened for students from the Wednesday before to the Monday after the event.

In addition to heightening conduct codes, Treadwell plans to utilize the student leaders on KSC’s campus to influence their peers to make smart and responsible decisions over the Pumpkin Festival weekend.

“I’m going to meet with Student Government; I’ve asked [Vice President for Student Affairs and Enrollment Management Kemal Atkins]  to bring together the Greek Life members of our community, [Orientation Staff], [Residence Hall Directors] and [Resident Assistants] to talk as leaders of the community to speak to their peers to say this is really important for Keene State to be seen as something different, and at a minimum during this period, let’s do our best to be good citizens and not involved because I really want us to try to avoid any reputational blemish,” Treadwell said.

When the festival in Keene was cancelled in 2014 and a permit was not issued for the 2015 event, the Monadnock Pumpkin Festival was born and took place at the Cheshire Fairgrounds each of the three years since.

Owner of Memorable Events, the producing company for the Monadnock Pumpkin Festival, Jennifer Matthews said the major difference between that festival and the downtown Keene Pumpkin Festival is the location and the fact that the fairgrounds are set up for large scale events.

“There are things like security, it’s gated so we know who’s coming and going, so it’s definitely a safer environment. There’s on-site parking, ample parking, so people aren’t having to take shuttles here and there. We focus more on making it a family event rather than just the amount of pumpkins that it is, so it’s got a lot of other activities [for kids as well],” Matthews said.

Although she said she understands the nostalgia behind wanting to bring back the Main Street Pumpkin Festival, Matthews said the security risks of bringing it back can’t be overstated.

“I feel like the Monadnock Pumpkin Festival kind of fills that niche, and if the group behind the Keene Festival got behind ours and we were able to pool resources, I think it would be a better solution and work for everybody,” Matthews said.

Board Member of Let It Shine Tim Zinn said, however, that he believes the city and the college deserve a second chance.

The event would be one tenth the size of what it was in previous years because they aren’t going for a Guinness World Record like they were in 2014; this year, the focus is “kids’ smiles and pure pumpkins,” said Zinn.

Additionally, there will be no vendors present, for they add many complications and challenges, as well as draw in outside people. The event is also being held on a Sunday [Oct. 29]from 1 p.m. to 7 p.m., making it “a little more removed,” said Zinn.

Zinn also stated in an email that they will not be accepting pumpkins from the general public this year. He added the display of pumpkins is focused on the children.

The board is hopeful that the event this year will give second chances to them, the college and the community, according to Zinn.

“It’s about forgiveness,” Zinn said. “A lot of people seem to paint Keene State College students with a bad brush and we know as well as anybody that 98 percent of you are hardworking, well-intentioned young adults. I know from good experience that there’s good culture change happening at Keene State. It’s not perfect yet and it’s a process, but the fact is the college is working pretty hard to make improvements.”

Zinn also said people are underestimating KSC students’ ability to do the right thing, and he hopes to prove the critics wrong.

“This graduating class in 2018 will be the last class that will have a memory of 2014, and I think that’s actually a good thing because they have the power in them to leave their school, the community and the festival in better shape than they found it in no fault of their own,” Zinn said.

KSC sophomore Gerty Flagg never got to experience the festival, but said if the 2017 Pumpkin Festival were to return, it would give KSC students a chance to redeem themselves.

“I think definitely it would help out alot with the local economy here, it would make so much money…I just think it’s kind of unfortunate that people had to ruin it, but I think the chances of that happening again are really slim…I think it’s also kind of unfortunate that we as college students and adults can’t just behave in public as a decent human beings, so I hope that it comes back and people can see that not every college student is like that,” Flagg said.

KSC senior Diana Coady agreed with Flagg and said she thinks students have learned their lesson.

“I definitely think it should be returning….From what I’ve been told and what I did see, it brings a lot of business to downtown Keene…I think now that we’ve witnessed what can happen, there’s going to be a lot more crack down on following rules and guests. I think law enforcement will be a lot more vigilant on what is happening and students as well. I think with that in their mind, they’re going to be like, ‘Okay, we don’t want to lose it again, so maybe we should have fun but not go crazy,’” Coady said.

Treadwell wants to make it clear to students and community members that regardless of whether the downtown festival happens or not, KSC will be ready for anything.

“I want to make it very clear to our students that we won’t have tolerance for bad behavior, particularly around alcohol and substance abuse on campus or off campus. I want to make clear to the community that we are a campus that’s proud of who we are and that cares about this community and that we recognize responsibilities as citizens and neighbors and…that Keene State is about supporting this region. We care deeply about it,” Treadwell said.

This week, the full council will vote whether to hold the license in force and allow the Main Street Pumpkin Festival to occur or not.

Monadnock Pumpkin Festival is set for Oct. 21 from 12 p.m. to 8 p.m.

Jessica Ricard can be contacted at jricard@kscequinox.com

At this time just 54 years ago, Keene State College students were already registering for their spring semester classes. Although it seems like we just moved back into our residence halls, apartments or houses, that time of the year is coming up quicker than we may realize, and now, although many may disagree, the process is almost painless.

In 1963, the online registration we use, also known as Student Planning or Self-Service, was non-existent. KSC student Tom Clow wrote a Letter to the Editor in the Sept. 19, 1963 edition of The Monadnock, the former version of The Equinox, explaining his frustration with the older system:

“Last Wednesday, registration was its usual drawn-out, tiring, but quite necessary self. The worst, however, was not the long wait in line, but the disappointment at the end of the line.

Dozens of students were turned away from courses that they wanted and in many cases, needed, because of the drastic shortage in teaching personnel at KSC.

Required courses were packed to their brim, with lines still waiting to get in. A good many students finished registration with a completely different schedule of courses than they had set out for.

We have been given a new name, a couple of new buildings, and a few new professors, but this is only a start. We need MORE professors– enough so that there are no longer students left waiting to get into courses that are already overcrowded.”

As Cox stated, registration required a wait in line, which may seem hard to imagine with the amount of students currently on our campus, but he also mentioned how the school was struggling with having enough professors available to run necessary courses. During a transition, where the school was changing its name, adding buildings and attempting to build up their faculty and staff, students clearly had some growing concerns.

In a more positive light, 1963 was the first year upperclassmen began helping first-year students get accustomed to the campus. As stated in The Monadnock, “Leading upperclassmen, instead of staying of staying home, or watching from the sidelines, got right in there and helped the newcomers find their way around.”

Helping first-year students find their rooms, sharing schedule suggestions and providing a welcoming and helping hand were all tasks upperclassmen took on during the first few days of what they called “freshman orientation.” Sixteen students participated in question sessions with the first-year students as well.

It seems that in more recent years, Keene State has kept the idea of having upperclassmen welcome first-years to campus, but now the college actually hires students, or orientation leaders, to do just that during both June and August during first-year student orientation.

In terms of construction and renovations, KSC was in the midst of building a married couples’ dorm, which contained 24 single bedroom apartments and eight double bedroom apartments. Single bedroom apartments could be rented out for $75 and a double for $85.

Highlights of the dorm included garbage disposals, telephone wiring and cable television. Additionally, coin operated washing machines were included as well.

Over the years, KSC changes in drastic ways; seeing how far we’ve come as a college, as well as seeing where we can improve is not only important to remember and document, but important to reflect upon as well.

Jessica Ricard can be contacted at jricard@kscequinox.com

1860: A time when African-Americans were owned by slaveholders before and during the Civil War in the United States. On Sept. 22 of 1862, however, President Abraham Lincoln recognized that change was needed, and he issued a date for a preliminary Emancipation Proclamation.

But what does that even mean? Lincoln was inaugurated as the 16th president shortly after the Civil War began, and originally, his mission as president during the war was to encourage restoration of the Union; slavery was not the main concern.

Although he personally believed that slavery was unacceptable, he avoided addressing the slavery issue immediately so he could gain widespread support from the public regarding the repugnant matter.

About a year later, Sept. 22, 1862, Lincoln set a date for the freedom and release of over three million black slaves in the United States, and the new priority of the Civil War was to fight against slavery in the states.

Prior to the proclamation, slavery was legal in the following states:

Sean Kiziltan

• Alabama
• Arkansas
• Delaware
• Florida
• Georgia
• Kentucky
• Louisiana
• Maryland
• Mississippi
• Missouri
• North Carolina
• South Carolina
• Tennessee
• Texas
• Virginia

At the time when the proclamation was issued, Lincoln exempted the border states (Delaware, Kentucky, Maryland, Missouri and West Virginia) because the slaveholders were loyal to the Union. After a Union win at the Battle of Antietam in September, it was announced that within 100 days, slaves in areas of rebellion would be freed.

The official Emancipation Proclamation was issued and put into effect on Jan. 1, 1863, which stated “‘that all persons held as slaves’ within the rebel states ‘are, and henceforward shall be free,’” according to history.com.  In the Union forces, Lincoln ensured the proclamation required recruitment and establishment of military units for those slaves being freed, which prompted 180,000 African Americans to serve in the army and 18,000 to serve in the navy.

Not only did the Emancipation Proclamation free millions of slaves, but it built up Lincoln’s Republican party and allowed them to stay in power for the following two decades.

The original, handwritten document was destroyed in the Chicago Fire, but the official version of the document resides in the National Archives in Washington, D.C.

Considering the proclamation was not a law, it wasn’t considered permanent, meaning the statement could have been taken as very relaxed unless made an official law. In 1865, slavery was eliminated in America after Lincoln fought for and passed the 13th Amendment to the Constitution.

Just because slavery was eliminated at the time didn’t mean African Americans were considered equals, for they faced many years of struggles before finally gaining equality in 1964 under the passage of the Civil Rights Act.

Jessica Ricard can be contacted at jricard@kscequinox.com

Plastered on TV screens across America over the past few weeks have been images and statistics about the roaring hurricanes in Texas, Florida and other neighboring states. Here in New England, we’ve been pretty lucky, but that wasn’t always the case.

Pictured above is significant tree damage after the Great New England Hurricane hit Keene, New Hampshire, in 1938.

The Great New England Hurricane of 1938 slammed southern New England and Long Island on Sept. 21 about 80 years ago, and was known as the most destructive hurricane of the 20th century in the region.

Originally a tropical cyclone that developed in the eastern Atlantic, the hurricane was set to hit southern Florida, which prompted many citizens to board up their homes and stock up on supplies. Suddenly, the storm turned around and began to head for the eastern seaboard, however, and considering New England hadn’t been hit by a large hurricane in well over a century, many didn’t believe it was actually coming, including the chief weather forecaster of the U.S. Weather Bureau.

Without access to radar, radio buoys or satellite imagery to track the unnamed storm, it was impossible to warn anybody that it was coming. Eventually, the U.S. Weather Bureau learned it was a Category 3 storm, but at that point, it was much too late to warn anyone.

As the sky blackened and the wind began to gust in Long Island, people were still aboard boats at sea and others were laying out on the beach, not prepared for what was about to come.

At 2:30 p.m. on the 21st, at high tide unfortunately, water started swallowing homes, destroying 150 in Westhampton alone. Fifty of those homes were pulled entirely into the ocean, people on land were drowning from the flooding and as trees were falling and electrical lines were toppling over, more and more people were dying.

At 4 p.m., the storm hit Connecticut, completely washing out roads and causing a fire that rapidly spread from the 100 mph winds. After burning away much of the business district in New London, Connecticut, it passed into Rhode Island as the winds increased to 120 mph. At yacht clubs and marinas, fleets of boats were demolished.

As 5 p.m. approached, Providence was submerged in more than 13 feet of water, and the storm was so strong that even people were washed away into the storm.

Across to Massachusetts and Canada, the hurricane caused significant flooding and damage, but by night of the 21st, the hurricane dissolved.

Hale building on the Keene State College campus was crushed by fallen trees during the hurricane in 1938, This photo is from Striving, a Keene State College book published in 1984 and written by James G. Smart.

Overall, 700 people were killed and another 700 suffered from injuries of all kinds. About 9,000 homes and buildings were destroyed, another 15,000 were damaged and 3,000 ships were destroyed as well, according to history.com. The total damages added up to $18 billion.

As of late, three hurricanes have made their way across the United States, destroying almost everything in their path.

Hurricane Harvey was labeled a Category 4 hurricane, and produced winds up to 130 mph. In all, Harvey dropped 40-52 inches of rainfall in both Texas and Louisiana and broke all tropical cyclone rain records in the continental U.S. From August 26-30, Harvey moved incredibly slow, causing catastrophic flooding, damages and fatalities to people in the affected areas.

Hurricane Irma just recently passed through Florida, Hurricane Jose is making his way towards the East Coast and Hurricane Maria is said to intensify into a Category four hurricane and hit the Leeward Islands over the next few days; it’s safe to say it’s hurricane season.

As we remember the catastrophic Great New England Hurricane of 1938 and continue to watch and hear of those significantly affecting states across the country, it is important to stay up-to-date on weather information and evacuate if need be.

For more information on hurricane safety, visit http://www.nws.noaa.gov/om/hurricane/.

Jessica Ricard can be contacted at jricard@kscequinox.com

As an office “charged with moving Keene State College to become New Hampshire’s premier undergraduate institution for leading, educating and demonstrating visionary sustainability,” the Office of Sustainability is rolling out new initiatives this year and in the future to do just that.

Senior environmental science major, geology minor and Eco-Rep Justin Landry said the sustainability department on campus has really changed since he first started, meaning as whole, they’ve done some great things for our campus.

Heating Oil

Just last year, Keene State made national and international headlines for being the first college in the country to switch out a portion of the heating oil used to heat campus. Previously, the campus used No. 6 heating oil, which was a dark black fossil fuel. Director of Campus Sustainability Cary Gaunt said it’s the most polluting heating choice known to mankind, but historically, many places in the region have used it. In effort to find a carbon neutral product that didn’t emit greenhouse gases and was fully renewable, used and refined vegetable oil entered a trial period at Keene State.

Jacob Paquin / Photo Editor

Thirty-six percent of of Keene State’s campus was heated with purified waste vegetable oil this past year, but currently, Gaunt said they want to step up their game even more. Although the exact amount is still being negotiated, Gaunt said they’re hoping to use between 50 and 70 percent of the vegetable oil to heat the campus, almost twice as much as last year.

“We don’t want to go 100 percent…because just to be safe, any campus this size…you really want to have multiple heating sources just in case there’s a problem on the supply chain anywhere along the line. So we’ll never probably go 100 percent, but I hope we can get up to about 70 to 75 percent of this renewable used heating vegetable oil for our heat. When we do that, that’ll take us leaps and bounds to getting a much better score for greenhouse gas emissions,” Gaunt said.

Additionally, Gaunt said the Office of Sustainability is actively researching other renewable ways to heat our campus. For example, the University of New Hampshire uses natural gas that comes from the landfill in Durham, which is considered a renewable carbon-free resource as well. Gaunt said KSC is looking at similar sources that we can use.

Gaunt said, “So our goal is…we don’t have a date yet, but our goal is that in the next number of years, certainly by the middle of the century, that we would be 100 percent renewable heating, so that’s one thing that we’re actively pursuing and I think that’s one of our highest priorities truthfully.”

Food Waste 

Another initiative the Office of Sustainability has rolled out this semester is in effort to reduce our footprint and minimize our campus waste. In order to do this, the Eco-Reps have taken over the Zorn Dining Commons (DC), encouraging students to compost their food waste. For the past five or six years, according to Gaunt, the dining commons composted their kitchen waste, which included organic vegetables from the kitchen, such as carrot tops, potato peels and other forms of vegan waste.

However, the state of New Hampshire presents some barriers on how to handle food waste; more specifically, the state doesn’t allow industrial composting of dairy and meat waste, which prompted Gaunt to form a new partnership in Vermont.

In hopes of eventually becoming a zero waste campus, Gaunt said Keene State has contracted with Windham County, which is across the river in Brattleboro, Vermont. “[They] are doing some very innovative things on how…you compost food waste, well we call it post-plate waste, whatever you scrape off your plate, bones, chicken skins, the whole gamut…and really this will almost double the amount of waste that we compost…[and we] will have complete food waste composting in the DC and then next step would be Lloyds and that’s going to be huge too,” Gaunt said.

Currently, Keene State diverts about 30 percent of campus food waste, meaning it isn’t sent to a landfill. With complete food waste composting in the DC, Gaunt said our campus should get up to diverting 49 to 50 percent of our food waste. “Our goal, of course, is zero waste, which means between 90 and 100 percent will eventually be diverted. That’ll be challenging because we’ll have to get an all hands on deck thing, but I’m excited by the food waste composting because it’s really innovative.” Gaunt said.

When it comes to sustainability, Gaunt said they like everything to come full circle, or “cradle to cradle” they call it, meaning that product gets completely reused and it never enters the waste stream. The kitchen scraps from the DC, as well as all the leaf litter, grass clippings and other things they pick up around campus is composted here at Keene State and then the compost is used to supplement in any of the flower beds and in the mulch under the trees, for example, according to Gaunt. All of it has been handmade and hand-grown right here. Gaunt said, “We buy practically nothing in terms of fertilizers from anyplace else…we just make it all here.”

Curriculum Changes

In addition to the operations side of things, Gaunt has also been working on making sustainability at Keene State an area of distinction by leveraging our current programs and taking them to the next level. Gaunt said this year, the office is working to implement a possible sustainability minor, as well as some certificate programs.

Gaunt explained, “We’re trying to develop, in conjunction with the academic departments and the provost, a series of certificates and also some professional trainings, CEUs, through continuing ed, on sort of the emerging green areas that Keene State shines in. So I think this year, we’re aiming to get a sustainability minor, I think we’re aiming to get a certificate program in recycling coordinator and also a certificate program in high performance building….We’ve done a lot of really innovative stuff that people can really learn from and then get a certificate or a professional continuing education credits….We want to actually create some new offerings that will help people specifically get ready for the workforce and also be of interest to professionals that are already working that want to come to learn more.”

As if Keene State wasn’t sustainable enough, in May, the college was recognized as one of nine U.S. Department of Education Green Ribbon Schools nationwide and was the only institution to be selected from New Hampshire. According to Gaunt, the Chancellor of the University System of New Hampshire Dr. Todd Leach called and suggested we apply for the award. After completing the lengthy application, Gaunt found out we won at the state level and then went on to win at the national level.

As an Eco-Rep, senior Landry wants to emphasize the Ban the Bottle campaign, which he said has been going on for five or six years now. “That [Pepsi] contract is up for reconsideration pretty soon…so we’re hoping that the school will decide to ban plastic water bottles or not renew the contract for plastic water bottles…. I think that would be a huge step. There’s some towns that have banned plastic bags and stuff and there are some towns and colleges that have banned plastic water bottles, but we would definitely be one of the first colleges in the nation to actually do that, it would be great.”

Jessica Ricard can be contacted at jricard@kscequinox.com

With a new director of the nursing program, a drastic increase in test scores and a variety of newly revised courses, the Keene State College nursing program is proving to be stronger than ever before.

New Director

Nursing Program Director Dr. Patricia Shinn temporarily arrived at KSC as a consultant back in December, when Dean of Professional and Graduate Studies Dr. Karrie Kalich called her and asked if she could help KSC’s nursing program develop a systematic evaluation plan, which would later be sent to the Board of Nursing in January of 2017. On May 30 of this year, however, Shinn arrived at her new home on Appian Way for good, determined to get the program back on track.

Shinn said since she’s started working with the program in May, she’s been getting to know faculty and gaining insight as to what they have all seen as problems within the program, as well as those that still remain. “There have been a lot of changes with the nursing program, but we haven’t seen all those changes come through yet in graduates, so we’re really excited with this senior class that’s on board because they’re the first class to have all of the changes, particularly the admission requirements that were put on the year before last,” Shinn said.

photo Illustration by Jake Paquin / Photo Editor

In terms of admission requirements, in order to be accepted into the program, applicants must have a 3.4 GPA overall, a 3.2 GPA in their preparatory science courses (chemistry, anatomy and physiology I & II and microbiology), a passing score on the math proficiency exam for nurses and a score of proficient or above on the Test of Essential Academic Skills (TEAS) which is accessed on the ATI Nursing Education website.

The seniors that graduated from the program in May of 2017 had experienced some of the changes, such as courses that were changed or differing credits being given here and there, but they didn’t have the admission requirements that the current seniors have now. According to Shinn, that’s why it’s so exciting that the 2017 seniors are doing as well as they are on the National Council Licensure Examination (NCLEX), which costs anywhere between $300 and $400 to take each time.

Test scores

Of the 32 seniors that graduated from the KSC nursing program in 2017, Shinn said 30 have taken the exam, six failed on their first attempt and the remaining 24 students passed. Of the six failures, three retook it and passed the second time. As of August 30, there were only two students remaining who needed to take the NCLEX exam.

Currently, the May 2017 nursing graduates are at an 80 percent pass rate on the NCLEX, a drastic improvement after the 48.28 percent pass rate in 2014.

In the first year of the program (2013), just nine nursing students graduated and only one failed in their first NCLEX attempt; this started the program off with a 77.79 percent pass rate in their first year.

In year two (2014), the program reached their lowest point: a 48.28 percent pass rate. Shinn said the reasoning behind this was a drastic jump in enrollment during the 2014 year. “The faculty tell me what really happened was, all of a sudden, they had 40 students compared to nine [in 2013] and no more extra faculty full time. I mean, they had to have added some adjunct clinical [faculty members] because we are restricted to eight students to one faculty in a clinical setting, and so they [the faculty] feel that’s why it went down to a 48.28 percent pass, but at that, but I’m sure the Board of Nursing in 2014 was saying, ‘Hold it here, this is not okay. Less than half of your students passed,’” Shinn explained.

In 2015, the rate increased to a 62.16 percent. Considering the state average passing rate is between 87-88 percent and the national average is between 85-88 percent, Shinn said concern from the Board of Nursing kept growing.

In 2016, the percentage improved by less than four tenths to a 62.5 percent which, according to Shinn, really was not enough. “At this point the Board of Nursing is saying, “Hmmm, you know, you guys are on probation and you’d better be doing something fantastic here,’ and that’s what the college did. The college paid for this and paid for that and did a lot of things to try and help get that group really ready for their licensing exam,” Shinn said.

With the 2017 passing rate currently hovering at 80 percent after revising courses and curriculum, the KSC nursing program is finally starting to see progress and improvement.

Shinn has high expectations for those seniors planning on graduating in May of 2018. Will these strict GPA requirements they were required to stick to be staying the same? Dr. Shinn said for now, they will be.

“Until we really know that we’re out of hot water and, again, that will be this May ’18 group, you know, I’d love to see them in the 90 percents, so if that is the case, then we might look at being able to back down some on those requirements, but for right now we’re sticking to them,” Shinn said.

Accreditation

In the end of February 2018, the department will be reevaluated for their accreditation, meaning they must write a self-study, which is about a 90-page document, and an appendices. Then, the Board of Nursing will visit the campus in the middle of April and, if everything goes well, Shinn said the accreditation should be extended for the full length of time (approximately 10 years).

In terms of the program’s probationary status, on Sept. 21, KSC Interim President Dr. Melinda Treadwell, Provost William Seigh, Dean Kalich and Shinn will be meeting with the Board of Nursing. Shinn said although they would have liked to see the NCLEX exam scores at 87 percent, they’re not quite there yet, but an improvement has been made and she doesn’t believe they would reward the program by closing it completely.

“I know they [the Board of Nursing] are on our side. I really do know that they want us to succeed and I think they feel very comfortable that I’m now here with this program because they know me and I know how to do this…. I don’t realize how much I really do know and how much I have to bring to the program. I’m here to get this program on really solid ground and keep it there,” Shinn said.

Senior nursing students are also beginning to see new and improved changes within the program. Senior Amy Orsini said the first week has felt really positive and she hopes the rest of the year continues in the same way. “In the beginning, I think with any new program we…weren’t really sure what to expect with the new program. We thought it’d be a little bit uncertain, we were kind of concerned but so far this year, I can already see so many big changes that have already happened in the program, like really positive changes. I feel like the communication between the director and the professors has been really great this semester and I feel like the new director is even going above and beyond to help us,” said Orsini.

Revised Curriculum & Faculty Changes

After hearing feedback from faculty members, graduated seniors and current students, Shinn said the department members are working on “little things.”

Assistant Professor of Nursing Carolynn Ernst said the nursing program is at a much better place than it was a couple years ago. “We have all have been involved in that restructuring, we all have brought our own experiences with our previous classes in the first few years… and felt like we had a good handle on the things we thought were working and not working. So we were moving forward with redesigning classes, redesigning when courses were offered, adding courses, shifting our credit hours around and feeling really good about the forward movement we’ve been making,” Ernst said.

One small step taken in order to restructure the program has been strengthening the Medical Surgical Nursing classes, or MedSurge for short. In the proposed plan, Shinn said when students come into the program their junior year, they will take a fundamentals class, which would act as their “basic” MedSurge. Following that semester, they will take MedSurge I, II and III, which really strengthens that component of the program.

In addition to building up the MedSurge portion of nursing, Shinn said the department has brought on a new MedSurge faculty member, as well as a full time Simulation Lab Coordinator.

“It [the Simulation Lab] is never open because our faculty are in class or at clinical and they’re not even on campus sometimes, so those doors are shut and locked. So now, we’re going to have somebody there all the time and students can drop in and if they don’t feel comfortable, you know, if you have a patient tomorrow that’s going to have a urinary catheter that they need put in or flushed or whatever, you can come in and practice it before you go into clinical,” Shinn said.

Additionally, the nursing faculty are working to redesign the course load for students during their junior and senior years in the program and have added a focused and dedicated two-credit NCLEX preparation and review course, according to Ernst.

When redesigning the course load, rather than having one semester with a 14-credit course load, one with an 18-credit course load, as they do right now, Shinn said there is going to be a consistent 16 credits in each of these semesters, making it more user-friendly for students, as well as ensuring they aren’t overloading or underloading students credit-wise.

As if Nursing Program Director Shinn didn’t have enough on her plate, she’s also agreed to do some teaching this semester, which, she said, she’s very excited about. “I haven’t done this much lecturing in quite a while because I’ve been a director….I had agreed to teach one class a semester, but now I’m teaching two, a clinical component and the classroom simulation component of the clinical, and there’s one I want to teach next semester, so…I might do that anyway,” Shinn said.

Goals of the Future

For the future of the program, Shinn said she doesn’t just want to see high pass rates on the NCLEX exam, but she wants to see high retention rates within the program as well. Nationwide, nursing retention is about 60 percent, said Shinn, and the lowest retention Keene State has seen was this past year’s graduating class at a 79 percent. Every other graduating class has had between an 80 and 90 percent retention rate each year.

“Keene has good retention. That may have been part of the problem with the boards [the NCLEX] is that they were retaining students that weren’t able to pass the boards. We just have to marry those two [passing rates and retention rates] and keep students in that we mentor them the way they need to be mentored so they pass the boards, and I think we’re getting there. The faculty are so dedicated to helping this program produce quality professional nurses and I’m really excited to a part of that because I think that we’re desperate for nurses and it’s not going to ease up anytime soon,” Shinn said.

As scores continue to rise, Ernst said she has high hopes for the future of the program. “I see the scores continuing to rise, students are doing much better on the NCLEX, we’re doing really well right now, which I feel really good about, and I think it’s only going to improve and the program is going to be stronger. The faculty are strong and will continue to be strong. We’re a very committed, dedicated faculty and I feel like the college and the community are very committed to our program which feels wonderful,” Ernst said.

Although Director Shinn isn’t planning on leaving Keene State anytime soon, she said one of her long-term goals before she leaves would be to see a graduate program in nursing education. “The area needs it desperately…I can’t produce anymore nurses if I don’t have faculty and you have to have your master’s degree for that…all of us colleges are hurting because we pull from a very small pool of master’s-prepared nurses and it’s scary. You know a good nurse in the hospital is not necessarily a good educator. A good educator is not necessarily a good practice nurse, but when you get the two together in the right combination like I see in these faculty here, [it works].”

All in all, Shinn said she hopes to be at Keene State for quite a while, for her and her husband just bought a house in Swanzey, about five minutes from campus. “I do not want to change jobs again, I really hope that I’ve found my home.”

While some people develop lifelong passions for sports, musical instruments or the arts, others develop passions for more selfless acts, such as community service and combatting social justice issues.

KSC sophomore and criminal justice and women’s and gender studies major Ashley Betancourt has done just that.

Born in Brooklyn, New York, and raised in Springfield, Massachusetts, both stereotyped as dangerous and high-crime cities, Betancourt has both dealt with and defended the stigma surrounding the places she’s lived, which is where her initial passion for social justice and service work came about.

Compared to the small city of Keene, New Hampshire, Betancourt said Springfield is “very diverse, like 70 percent African American and Latinos,” whereas in Keene, she said, the percentage is less than two percent, according to the United States Census.

Jacob Paquin / Photo Editor

“I think growing up, we heard a lot of, ‘We’re the worst city in New England and it’s dangerous,’…It was very normal hearing gun shots down the hill from where I live,” Betancourt said.

Although Springfield is often associated with a negative reputation, Betancourt said people aren’t reminded enough of all the good that happens in the city. Known as “The City of Firsts” and home to the Basketball Hall of Fame, Springfield is comprised of many people, like Betancourt, who simply want to make things better.

“Specifically this generation, I think it’s just in us to want to help…so I’ve seen a lot of that [such as] people wanting to help their community and better their community and there’s so much activism that goes on and connecting between different neighborhoods…which I think is great, but people, I think, don’t highlight that,” Betancourt explained.

The biggest social justice issues she tries to fight for are diversity and inclusion, but more specifically, racial equality and women’s rights. “I think some personal experience [has to do with it] and just I am a women of color, so it is personal because I am what I’m fighting for. I’m fighting not only for myself, but for others that identify like myself.”

In order to combat these stereotypes and issues, Betancourt started her own community service group in high school to connect with other community programs and organizations. Whether it was co-sponsoring events, leading nationwide initiatives or organizing a clothing drive, Betancourt’s mission involved helping and connecting with as many people as she could.

One project Betancourt described involved organizing and running a clothing drive to benefit the Salvation Army during the winter holidays, a time commonly associated with giving. She put boxes in every classroom at her school and even went to the local community college’s radio station to spread awareness for the drive all across New England.

However, what got Betancourt directly connected to the community itself was the mayoral campaign she interned for for two years. Through this, she had a mentor who connected her with downtown organizations, city councilmen, politicians and other community organizations in specific neighborhoods, which, she said, allowed her to “build her brand,” so to speak.

“My face was well-known. People may not know who I am, but they know my face, so just going to different community events…[and] it was interning for a campaign that got me more familiar with people, social justice issues, awareness and just different things that go on in the city that I didn’t even know that went on,” Betancourt said.

In addition to being involved in her home community, Betancourt is employed as the Events and Advocacy Coordinator in the Community Service Office on campus, meaning she organizes and implements events on campus to combat different social justice issues. “As I was talking to [Coordinator of Community Service] Jess [Gagne Cloutier] about getting involved and volunteering…the position came up and I loved the idea of being the coordinator because not only did it provide me with a job…but it allowed me to be a feminist and an activist at the same time.”

Among the various events Betancourt has put on this year, one event she explained was facilitating diversity workshops with daycare children at Keene Day Care. She said she read the book, “Same, Same But Different,” by Jenny Sue Kostecki-Shaw, which told the story of two pen pals from America and India who were portrayed as very much the same, but also different in terms of their ways of life.

“Children here might see squirrels on their way to school, but children in India might see horses and cows and roosters and stuff on their way to school. So yeah, we’re the same because we still see animals, but we see different animals and we might look different, but we still do the same things: school, homework [and go] home…so just sharing that with kids and having them at an early age have those thoughts in their head [was beneficial],” Betancourt said.

In addition to the diversity workshop, Betancourt facilitated the Hunger Banquet during Hunger and Homelessness Awareness Week on campus with the other Events and Advocacy Coordinator Patrick Regan.

Regan said working with Betancourt has been amazing. “She brings her own point of view to everything we do together. While she definitely has social justice issues she is passionate about, she always seems to keep and grow that passion on every project we worked on together…I would be very excited to see what new events and opportunities she will be able to pull off next year.”

Collectively, everything Betancourt does is for a greater purpose and speaks to the giving and caring person she says she is. Helping, she said, has always been ingrained in her. “I just always want to help…and I think some of it is just conditioning from where I grew up, cultural conditioning and then my mom. She’s a very giving person and always helping others, so growing up I saw that and I think I learned from her,” Betancourt said.

It’s the mixture of all these factors, she said, that has molded her into the person she is today.

For the future, Betancourt said she hopes to work with survivors of sexual abuse. “I’m very open to either policy change advocacy, detective, any range, but I do know that that’s the group I want to work with…everything that goes on with women is obviously very close to my heart.”

Jessica Ricard can be contacted at jricard@kscequinox.com

Named Keene Normal School in 1909 and later changed to Keene Teachers College, the college’s name has undergone many changes over the years.

Here at Keene Teachers College in the early 1960s, students were itching for the college’s name to be changed to reflect a more liberal arts education, in addition to teacher training. In the June 8, 1961 edition of The Monadnock, The Equinox’s prior title, a bill was introduced that much of the college had long been waiting for.

“Here is the bill that will grant us the right to teach liberal arts, as well as teacher training. In better words, you soon may graduate from Keene with a BE or a BA. It does not, from the wording, say we can change our name from a state teacher institution to a plain state college! Maybe that will come later, or perhaps that can be done without a bill to say we can do so,” The Monadnock stated.

Sean Kiziltan / Art Director

Being able to teach liberal arts at the college was a milestone in itself, but the institution’s name change? That came just two years later in 1963.

In the May 16, 1963 edition of The Monadnock, KTC students addressed their concern with the board of trustees: Should the college’s name be changed to the University of New Hampshire at Keene? Or should it be changed to Keene State College (KSC)?

As reported by The Monadnock, Senate Bill 68 (SB 68), which was introduced by Interim Commission members, addressed seven concerns. A few of them included:

Both KTC and Plymouth Teacher’s College (PTC) to become multi-purpose institutions with more selection of courses.

Members of the faculty at the two teachers colleges would no longer be classified as state employees.

A junior college program to be set up at each teachers college.

KTC’s name would change to the University of New Hampshire at Keene and the same would go for PTC. The University of New Hampshire, however, would stay the same.

This would go into effect July 1, 1964.

In response, Governor John W. King introduced House Bill 547, which called for many of the same things HB 68 called for with the change of one thing. “…the governor recommends that the teachers colleges’ names be changed to Keene State College and Plymouth State College,” stated The Monadnock.

Of the two names, Keene State College (KSC) or University of New Hampshire at Keene, he preferred the latter because of its greater prestige value to the student body and our graduates in the years to come. In an interview with President Lloyd P. Young, he said, “We would be in line for greater benefits…that up to now, would only benefit the university.”

In a KTC faculty meeting, a vote was cast 2-1 in favor of the name being changed to Keene State College (KSC).

“Regardless of this, and it is not unanimous by any means, our name will be changed by July 1, 1963,” The Monadnock reported, and the rest is history.

Jessica Ricard can be contacted at jricard@kscequinox.com