It’s Friday night. The majority of college students are getting ready to go out for the night to kick off their weekends, but not at Cabrini.
On any given weekend, Cabrini’s campus empties. Almost every parking spot is open, little to no students are seen walking around campus and Cabrini’s stereotype of being a “suitcase school” is reinforced as the majority of students head home at the end of the week.
Walking around campus on a weekend compared to during the week feels lifeless.
I am currently a junior at Cabrini University and have been living on campus every year, with the exception of the time period that school was online during the COVID-19 pandemic.
As these past three years have come and gone, the same goes for the Cabrini community as we watch everyone head home once Friday rolls back around.
It seems to be a never-ending cycle; the domino effect.
If all of my friends are going home, why would I want to stay here alone? So I do what the rest of them do.
The school has seemed to try to do away with this this “suitcase school” stereotype by hosting events on the weekends and trying to plan different things to keep the students on campus, but in my opinion, nothing has seemed to change from my freshman year until now, where I am almost finished as a junior.
On top of that, the two main options to get food on campus are only open for certain hours, specifically only until noon on Sundays. Now I have no friends staying on campus with me for the weekend and not many options left on campus to eat if I miss that time slot.
On other college campuses, people gather around college restaurants and take part in events and activities.
Maybe some ideas to keep students around and the community engaged would be Cabrini planning fun weekend trips such as going to the mountains or hosting live music. For example, Stockton University hosts music festivals every year showcasing big names in the music industry including this year’s headliner, A Boogie Wit Da Hoodie.
Both these ideas can give students the opportunity to meet more people and potentially want to stay on campus in the future.
When I first decided to come to Cabrini, I imagined I would have the opportunity to meet a new bunch of people, learn during the week and then be able to have fun on the weekends.
College is supposed to be an exciting and different experience from high school. It’s supposed to be the first time students are able to live on their own and grow without their parents. How am I supposed to get that experience when we all drive back to our high school homes and live right back under mom and dad’s roof three out of the seven days in a week?
It’s definitely a hard cycle to break.
Cabrini’s campus is placed in the middle of a very beautiful area, but it’s always the same activities. There’s not much nightlife in Radnor and doing the same things over and over eventually starts to get old.
When there’s nothing to do, no one to see and nowhere to go, it almost makes it inevitable to be labeled as a suitcase school.
So I pack up my suitcase, tell my roommates “I’ll see you on Monday” and follow the trail of Cabrini cars down residential boulevard.
