Waking up to a blaring alarm, you jump in your car, attempting to beat traffic and make it to your 9 a.m. class. Afterward, you search for somewhere on campus to sit and do homework, before driving home and preparing to do it over again tomorrow.
This is what a day looks like for your average commuting student.
For the most part, Webster is a commuter school, with the most recent figures available to The Journal indicating a majority of undergraduate students commute to class.
“There’s some serious FOMO as a commuter. It’s like I’m on the outside looking in sometimes,” student Aubory Bugg said. “Not to the fault of my friends, but just because I do live 30 minutes away from where everything is happening.”
In an effort to connect commuters, The Commuter Council was created in 2010 as a department initiative advised by director of student engagement Jennifer Stewart.
The committee worked to improve commuter-student engagement through creating an environment for those who drive to school to feel at home.
The Commuter Council connected off-campus students to activities on campus through partnerships with other clubs.
“The idea was that they were more partnering and bringing commuter students to the things that are happening within campus life and to things that are happening on campus rather than continuing to isolate them,” Stewart said.
The council advocated for the creation of the Commuter Lounge in 2010 as a way for commuting students to have a place to reside on campus.
“The commuter students absolutely had a strong response to [the Commuter Lounge] just because there hadn’t really been any space for them,” former Commuter Council president Chris Penberthy said. “Before then, all of the residents have their main floor lounges or you could go to your room to hang out in between classes, so it was great for the commuters to have a space for them to meet up with each other and have some of the just kind of have space to commune and even just to study with each other.”
However, a lack of commuter-student engagement with the council led to its eventual end. The Division of Student Affairs recognized a pattern: Once commuters successfully connected to campus life, they no longer sought out the council for support. The information the council once shared on social media was slowly absorbed to be announced at events during orientation week and GROW days.
“Commuters didn’t need a Commuter Council in the way it was structured,” Stewart said. “We need something for commuters that is more resource/office and less organization-based.”
Today, students living further from campus are able to stay connected to Webster through the relationships they build with faculty and staff. Penberthy believes that the bonds he created with his professors on campus allowed him to succeed as a commuter student.
“I would say how important it is for the students as commuters to find the connections,” Penberthy said. “I think it’s important for commuter students to find one, if not multiple, staff and faculty connections to really make it seem like it’s a home and have the mentors in place, if you will, so that they feel like there’s almost a parent when they have issues.”
Full-time undergraduate students, living on or off-campus, are also strongly encouraged to participate in on-campus events. Every full-time undergraduate student pays for the student activity fee, and Stewart recommends each student take advantage of the opportunities available to them.
“Everything’s open for everybody you know, all the events are open for every student,” Stewart said. “Think of it as kind of like a tax – you’re already paying for these things, so please take advantage of them, whether that’s through SGA, through Campus Activities programs and multicultural center programs. Just because you’re a commuter student doesn’t mean that it’s not for you.
Share this post
