Not long into her first year at St. Thomas University, Sarah Forbes was questioning whether the school was right for her.
Forbes, who commutes to school from her home in Douglas each day, considered transferring and even went as far as to prepare applications to those schools.
“It was no different than high school for me except that I was driving a bit further and I was seeing a couple people less,” she said.
“I really liked what I was studying but the community itself, it felt like there was no community. I felt isolated.”
By the end of the year, Forbes had decided to stay at STU. But as one of the St. Thomas University students’ union’s off-campus representatives, Forbes wants to make sure other off-campus students have a better feeling of community.
“It’s so easy, especially being from here, to get in your school routine. You don’t really look for opportunities to get involved in the school.”
The third-year student was elected, along with Colin Belyea and Ella Henry, as off-campus representatives in the the recent STUSU fall election.
She was one of seven people vying for the three positions, a number almost unheard of in an election where three candidates ran unopposed.
Forbes said the added interest in the position may have been because others felt the alienation she has felt.
“Maybe the off-campus community has died down and we’re all starting to notice more. It’s become so incredibly alienated that everybody noticed more this year than in other years,” she said, adding that she didn’t know who the off-campus representatives were in past years.
Forbes plans to use her new position to model STU’s off-campus community after the UNB Townhouse. Off-campus students at UNB have a townhouse to meet in and regularly hold events like pub crawls.
The lack of a physical place for off-campus students at STU to get together is an issue Forbes hopes to tackle this year.
“It’s hard to find out about the activities if you’re not in one central place.”
She wants to investigate the possibility of finding a lounge for off-campus students to socialize in, although she knows it may be a hard to accomplish this year.
“Maybe it’s a very high aspiration to find a lounge but it’s something that should be looked into at least.
“I think everyone’s staying away from it because it’s a far goal, but if you never work towards it, you’re never going to know if it’s too far [away] or not.”
Forbes served as the off-campus welcome week head and was surprised to see so many first-year students turn out to off-campus events. There are likely more who want to get involved but didn’t know about welcome week events, she said.
She plans to get these people involved by holding events similar to residence challenges.
For example, last year when Forbes participated in Trick-or-Eat, she noticed there was a spot on the sign-up sheet to indicate which residence you live in. The residence with the most students participating was supposed to win a prize, she said.
But there wasn’t anywhere for off-campus students to sign and Forbes said they could have participated in the challenge too.
She’s also interested in having an apartment decorating contest, similar to the way those in residence decorate their doors for holidays.
By the end of her term, Forbes aims to create the type of change that’s tangible, “that you can clearly compare one year to the last and you can see [the difference in community].”
