Ever notice on the weekends how empty campus is? During the week, campus is always lively; there's always some sort of event going on for cultural credit. Even on Thursdays, you can always go to a frat-house/bar to chill and hang out with your friends if you are into partying. The weekends, though, are a different story.
You can walk around campus and it's like Stetson has turned into a ghost town. Walking into the Commons on a Saturday makes you feel sad because it's empty and the chances of sitting with your friends has decreased exponentially. Thus the term "Backpack Campus" is born.
A "Backpack Campus" refers to a campus in which most students are at their specific college during the week. They decide to go home on the weekends, or go off campus for that weekend because there's nothing to do on campus. Usually on a Backpack Campus, most places (such as the coffee shop) will barely have any people in it; other places on campus will be empty because people will have better things to do with their lives than be on campus.
Which brings me to my next point: Stetson needs to have more weekend events.
There's homecoming weekend, which is always fun, but that's only one weekend in November. Lately, I've noticed the number of cars gone from the Chaudoin and Emily parking lots on the weekends. It doesn't help that last year Stetson decided to close both the coffee shop and the C-store on Saturdays due to the lack of turnout.
My freshman year, Hatter Productions had a movie night every single week in Nightlights. It was great for those of us who decided to stay on campus that weekend because there was always something planned every single night of the week. When Hatter productions decided to cut movie nights the spring semester of my freshman year, my friends and I were heartbroken; what were we supposed to do with ourselves on Friday nights now? Go home?
There's a solution to this type of problem, though. For example: Nerd Culture Society is having their Halloween party on October 31st (a Saturday night). Every now and then, an RA will have a movie night in the common lounge of their dorm for those that are not big fans of the social scene. Clubs will usually have some sort of event going on at least twice a month on the weekends.
In a way, Stetson should be more accommodating to those students who decide to stay on campus for a weekend. At the same time, though, campus organizations are at least trying to solve that problem, to try to make people stay on campus so that there's at least one thing to do on campus on a Friday night.
