Spring Weekend Sparks Interest at Lakeview
by Mike Davies
edited by Phil Enright
The Franklin Pierce University campus was littered in red Solo cups and beer cans after the annual tradition of spring weekend was held on May 1.
A majority of students made their way down to Lakeview, the senior housing area, to spend the entire day drinking and partying. Lakeview was heavily patrolled by the Rindge Police Department and Campus Safety officers from sunrise to sunset on Saturday.
Corey Lawson, Senior Area Experience Director, has been here for two years and has seen events similar to Saturday. “It was messy, but students did a good job being relatively responsible,” said Lawson.
As of late Sunday afternoon, there was still trash all around Lakeview. Senior Nicki Champion spent her Sunday cleaning up her townhouse and thinks the University should hire a street sweeper for the parking lot. “The grossest thing I saw was probably seeing people eat gummy bears off our disgusting kitchen floor,” said Champion.
Lakeview residents were asked by Lawson and other staff members to clean up the trash on Saturday night into Sunday morning. Lawson personally handed out trash bags to each townhouse and noted that the cleanup process went very well.
A majority of residents cleaned up the trash on Saturday. By Sunday night, Lakeview looked back to normal. Campus Safety spent Sunday morning reporting acts of vandalism from around campus. They would not reveal where the acts have occurred.
Campus Safety was also unable to reveal any information about acts that occurred on campus, but students have been spreading numerous rumors about arrests from Lakeview. None of the arrests have been confirmed.
What a horrible misrepresentation of this past weekend. There is absolutely no mention of the cooperation from students to make sure this tradition was carried out safely and smoothly. In addition to the unnecessary focus on vandalism and the presence of Rindge PD (which has been known to occur on any given weekend) the picture choice is disheartening. I find it hard to believe that a shot of garbage (placed where it sure be) was the only picture available for this article.
Saturday was a day of great weather, wonderful company, and great atmosphere that only Franklin Pierce can provide; it’s unfortunate that nobody will learn that by reading this article.
I agree Katelyn, the students and staff did a really nice job. Everyone had fun, and most people did so responsibly. I think the article itself was unintentionally focused in the wrong direction, especially after speaking to the author. I made it clear to him that the Seniors did a great job cleaning up afterwards, and that despite police presence, there were minimal issues. Also, the reports of vandalism have been greatly exaggerated.