Keene State College

Residential Life

If you need to know how to spell a word, you can look it up in a dictionary. If you need information about the Louisiana Purchase, you can look it up in an encyclopedia. And if for some reason you need to know the lyrics to the song "Louie Louie," you can look them up on the internet. But where do you go when you need assistance with how to help your son or daughter be successful at college (while at the same time maintaining your own sanity)?

A number of resources are available for parents; unfortunately, these resources are often not well known, and finding them can be quite a chore. That's why Keene State College decided to develop this "Parents/Family Guide" for our web site.

Our goal is to provide you with one-stop shopping for information regarding how you and your student can succeed during your child's four (or five or six…) years in college. We don't purport to be able to answer every question or solve every problem you and your student will run into. What we hope to do is to offer you interesting and insightful info that will help you help your student grow and mature. And if we can help you sleep at night, all the better!

We want this resource to be something that you, the parents of our students, find helpful. If you have any information, articles, web sites, or other resources that you think the parents of KSC students would benefit from, send them our way! We'll do everything we can to include them here on our site.

Campus Life
There's more to living on campus than simply having a bed to sleep on. This section offers details and advice about the non-academic areas of your student's life.

• The Co-Curricular Environment
  Quite a bit of learning happens outside of the classroom. Here's how the College helps your student learn and grow outside of the formal academic setting, including both educational and social opportunities.
• Getting Involved
  Helpful hints on getting involved in clubs, organizations and leadership activities.
• Staffing: Resident Assistants and Resident Directors
  We have a host of well-trained student and professional staff members who live and work in the residence halls with your students. This will give you some idea of what they do and how they interact with your son or daughter.
• How Are We Doing?
  Each fall we survey our residents to see how well we're performing. Included here are results from the latest Community Development Survey.
• A Fist Full of Dollars
  Things break, often not due to normal wear and tear. Here are the ins and outs of how we handle damage and vandalism in the residence halls.
• There's Nothing to Eat!
  Oh yes there is! Here's a listing of the foods served in the Dining Commons at every meal.

Before You Arrive
Preparation is a key component of success, and the more you and your student plan for your arrival on opening day the more successful - and enjoyable! - the move-in process will be.

• Preparing for Move-in Day
  Getting ready for move-in day starts now! Here are some hints to help you and your student prepare for the big day.
• Live It Up!
  Living on campus can have a very positive effect on students, a number of which are listed here.
• Talking Points
  Once orientation is over you and your student will have a truckload of things to talk about. To help facilitate those discussions, here are some topics to go over BEFORE you come to campus in the fall.

Transitions
You and your student will undergo many changes once he or she leaves for college. The information in this section will help you prepare for and handle the changes that come!

• Student Success: Tips for Families
  A few surefire ways to help you and your student make the most of the college experience.
• Coming Attractions
  More than likely you're going to be amazed at the changes in your son or daughter after they've spent a few months at college. These letters from students contain some wonderful information about the transitions you and your child will experience.

Student Conduct
Every once in a while a student - not yours, somebody else's - will violate College policy. This section will help you understand how we handle these situations as well as provide you with information about how to keep apprised of your student's judicial standing.

• Getting Back on Track
  If you're curious as to how we work with students who get involved in violations of College policy, this will tell you all you need to know.
• Letting You Know
  Yes, we do let parents know about their student's judicial standing - once the student is no longer in "good standing" with the College. Here's the rationale and detail behind KSC's parental notification policy.
• Closing a Loophole
  If you want to be sure to be notified when - I should say, if - your student gets into more serious judicial trouble, here's how you go about it.
• Finals Week Quiet Hours Policy
  Finals are a particularly stressful time of year, and how well students do on these exams often determines whether or not they can return for the following semester. Given that, here are our expectations of and repercussions for students who violate this policy.

Resources
This section contains highlights from resources outside of KSC that parents/families will find useful - and may want to consider purchasing.

• What You Need To Know
  A few interesting and humorous selections from the book "100 things Every College Freshman Ought to Know."
• If I Could Tell You One Thing It Would Be…
  Communicating with your student isn't always easy, but it is very important. Here are some things you might want to consider sharing with your son or daughter.
• As Time Goes By
  A perspective from the book "Letting Go: A Parent's Guide to Understanding the College Years" that will help YOU survive your student's four (or five or six...) years at college.