Today: Mar 28, 2024

S’mores night at North

Donovan Wilson Reporter

As the S’mores night would show, the new fire tables at North Campus have brought students out and together as the campus opens up and the weather warms up.

We planned for these to be in both the res quad and North Campus,” said Nora Anderson, hall director of North Campus.

North Campus has installed two new fire tables; one in front of the main building and one in front of the townhouses. A fire table, is a protected table that has propane to start a fire rather than having a fire pit where students would have to play around with kindling, firewood and flames. An event was held last Tuesday night where students were given materials to make s’mores and were encouraged to sit around the fire and eat s’mores together and just socialize.

Anderson said, “We are always looking for more outdoor equipment.”

Anderson is also a major part of residence life and with how much focus they put into their outdoor equipment as it gets warmer, especially during COVID-19 where it becomes much easier to host events when they can be outside. One of their biggest components up until now have been the volleyball court and basketball court located near the underclassmen dorm buildings. They offer things more pertinent to each building, such as chairs to be checked out and used to lounge outside.

“I feel like there should have been more, especially during COVID but I do like it,” said biology major Syrenitee Kee, a junior.

Some of the students complaints comes from feeling like the fire tables are a good start but not enough. There has been a focus on creating more outdoor activities for students while in a COVID-19 world and students recognize that. However, Syrenitee and the group of friends she was with feel as if just two fire tables for the whole campus simply is not enough.

Kee said, “I would just add more, we definitely have the space. We should have like 4. We don’t want to sit with people we don’t know. Add a time limit per group.”

One of Kee and her friends’ biggest notes was the amount of fire tables. They thought it would be more user friendly if there were four instead of two. They detailed not wanting to sit with people that they did not know and would prefer to just be among themselves. However, their biggest suggestion was to add a time limit because they consistently feel as if they will go out to use the fire table and it’ll will be occupied and then they will return hours later and find the same people there.

“The Hamden Fire Marshall was more okay with that idea as long as we have guidelines in place,” said Marvin Wilson, an associate director of residence life.

The original goal was to have the fire tables in both the residence quad near the underclassmen dorms and where they currently are, as Anderson previously stated. The issue was that the New Haven Fire Marshal would not budge on allowing that, which Wilson stated was interesting considering Yale has fire pits. However, the Hamden Fire Marshal was open to it as long as certain guidelines were followed and thus the fire tables were implemented.

Wilson said, “We’ve done a few things, both on the traditional residence hall side and north side. Our students wanted more outdoor spacing and seating in the last few years. COVID-19 expedited that. Based on guidelines, we realized it was better to do things outside.”

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