Suffolk University is seated within the spirited city of Boston, but even surrounded by the city’s morale, it seems that the Suffolk’s pride has been lost.
The dearth of pride within the general population of Suffolk can be in its lack of a defined campus. Students do not feel like they are on a college campus, they see themselves as being a part of the city of Boston. This causes students to pick city events over Suffolk events like ice-skating on the Frog Pond, instead of going to a Student Affairs event.
Since Suffolk has an unbound campus, the sports team’s facilities are scattered across the city. This can explain why many students choose not to attend the different sporting events barring those that take place in Ridgeway.
Even new students who want to rally and attend a sports event may not feel comfortable yet using the T, or the silver line to reach these different fields.
If Suffolk were to set up group meet-ups in the dorms or academic buildings, students who don’t know where they are going, or are uncomfortable going by themselves could get to the games more readily. It could even be as easy as making the locations and directions to get to the sports games more accessible to students. This accessibility could also be helped if the University set up a shuttle system to get students to and from the games.
A shuttle system could also be used as a way for Suffolk to start a transportation system for surrounding areas if students do not want to take the T.
If the university offered the shuttle service for free, students could start commuting with other students and a community can be established, all while creating a low cost for students.
Commuter students struggle in a different way to make a connection with Suffolk. An extremely large part of the Suffolk community commutes from home, and this means they are only on campus certain days or hours throughout the week, so they are limited in what they can take part in and join, especially if they commute from more than an hour away.
These students may want to go to games, and attend performing arts shows, and even want to join clubs on campus, but they are not available when these events happen.
There are ways to take part in Suffolk events from afar by watching the Snapchat story, seeing Instagram posts and even emailing the groups about being interested in joining. The problem is, these substitutions don’t create the connection face-to-face meetings can establish. To form a sense of community at Suffolk, a student needs to spend time at the university and for commuter students, through no fault of their own, don’t spend this time on campus.
Suffolk could improve this by live streaming events on their social media accounts so students who cannot make it can gain an insight of what it’s like to be involved. By doing this, Suffolk would also be increasing it’s social media presence, which is beneficial for the university’s message and students alike.
The university could also improve commuter students experience by building more dorms in the area that are at a lower price.
In this way, Suffolk could see an influx of students wanting to spend the extra money to live on campus when they otherwise would live from home. The discounted price would only be available for commuter students that live within an hour of the campus.
Again, this would be a good way for Suffolk to create a sense of community.
The only way Suffolk pride in the student population is going to rise is if Suffolk starts putting more effort in establish it.
