A College for Commuters
Commuting to college is never easy, especially with a commute as long as mine. It takes around 2 hours each way to get to Seattle Pacific University (SPU) from where I live in Issaquah, since my commute involves both rush hour traffic and a transfer in downtown Seattle. SPU’s Collegium, also known as the commuter lounge, is a nice place to go in between classes, since the phrase “I’ll go back to my dorm” doesn’t really apply for commuters. And I’m not the only one. I have friends who spend hours driving to school, or those like me who take a bus or buses. I even have a friend who has to wake up at 3:00 every week day morning in order to take a boat and two buses from Bremerton. For us, the Collegium offers not just a place to be part of a community, or a place to study. It is a place for us to exist, to still be part of SPU even without participating in as many clubs or activities. The Collegium is a place for commuters to be students.
That is why in 2004, the Associated Students of Seattle Pacific (ASSP) put forth $90,000 of their rollover funding money to create the Pacific Collegium, modeling after Collegiums from Seattle University and Trinity Western University. Seattle University explains that the word Collegium “is from the Latin root meaning ‘gathering place’ (University).” Originally, our Collegium was the Student Union Building Fireside room, but after touring the collegiums of Seattle U, ASSP senate members felt the need to renovate it and invest in a exclusive multipurpose commuter room. Jason Fisk, a commuter senator for the ASSP at the time of the Collegiums opening, explains that it was aesthetically designed to look and feel like a “Northwest log cabin ski resort.” The coordinators of the project, including the previous coordinator of student programs Brian Cole, wished this new space would “mirror the resources and community environment that are available to on-campus students in their residence hall lounges.” They wished to not only make a home away from home for SPU commuter student, but to also make SPU as much of our home as it is for students who live on campus (Sorter).
If you have never heard of the Collegium before, it is probably because there is no signage in front acknowledge it. This Collegium, formally but never acknowledged to be the Pacific Collegium, is a place where silence is prevalent but not necessarily encouraged. The centerpiece of the space is the giant stone fireplace on one wall, opposite the curtains that try very hard to convince you of privacy, even though they are somewhat unsuccessfully trying to cover the floor to ceiling windows into the gazebo room. The fireplace successful draws the beholders eyes to its stone’s that reach up to the beige ceiling as it is one of the first aesthetic pieces you see upon entering. Surrounding a rustic wooden coffee table in front of it are cushioned chairs and couches of leather that form a square so perfectly angled that it becomes awkward to try and squeeze between the seats just to sit in one. Behind the couch that has space for three but only ever occupies two is a round dining table that can only seat four in the center of the room. Two desktops are lined up along the wall in front of the entrance, which to be honest has no reason to be there. To one corner of the fireplace is a kitchenette with an always full fridge and a Keurig machine that also makes hot chocolate if you know where to look for the K-cups. In the corner all the way on the opposite side of the room diagonally is another but different wood coffee table surrounded by cloth couches and chairs, offset from the other couch and chair arrangement by the fire by the emergency exit that is clearly labeled “alarm will sound” on a bright orange handle cover. The space by this emergency exit is filled by a bookcase that I’m pretty sure is just there for aesthetic purposes, and a couple of chairs along the wall that look lonely without coffee tables or couches to keep them company.
Unfortunately, not all commuters are allowed access to this space. The Collegium itself only has room for about 80 people at a time, so the Collegium is membership exclusive, only accepting membership for about 300 people, as opposed to the approximately 2000 commuter students we have at SPU this year. There have been many complaints about the exclusivity, saying that “if everyone had access to a nice space they would keep it nice.” However, I agree with the views of previous ASSP Senator John Clemo, who explains that the membership limitations allow for a “shared the sense of accountability for the stewardship of the space” in the people who use it (Clemo). What seems to be even worse than snubbing on campus and graduate students is that not all commuter students get accepted if they apply. Freshman automatically get it, since there are fewer of us and we may be the ones in most dire need for a community, but other grades may not get in if they don’t sign up fast enough. To those people, Clemo also explains that if the Collegium has already reached capacity “you will not be granted a seat. No one will be kicked out who applied earlier than you, but lives closer” (Clemo). I have friends who travel as far as me and didn’t get in because they were older, and I do wish there was a space for them to go as well.
In some ways, this scenario is similar to that in Henri Barbusse’s short story “The Eleventh”. The story takes place in a hospital in Paris, where at the beginning of every month the first-person unnamed narrator of the story is tasked with allowing ten and only ten vagabonds on the street into the hospital for free. These homeless residents are treated of all wounds and ailments for the whole month, but on the last day they are put back into the street and are replaced with ten new patients. As the narrator lets these lucky few into the building, he is always haunted by the face of the eleventh person, the person right in front of the door, but still too late to get in. In the end, the narrator begged to be placed in another position so that he could no longer be forced to help such a “horrible evil” (Lapham 44). Similar to the Collegium, the people who ran the hospital only let in 10 people, and had to turn away everyone else who needed it.
Henri Barbusse’s story does bring up a good point: Does refusing to help most of those who need a service negate the good that was actually given, even if it was to only a few people? In my situation, the answer would be no. As much as I hate seeing people not be accepted into such a wonderful space, the fact that the space is restricted does give a sense of homeliness to the space that would not be there otherwise. Having more spaces like this on campus for everyone would be better, but for the moment, our Collegium is a wonderful start of something much greater than just a room. With more spaces like this, our fantastic Seattle pacific University will truly be a school for all.
Works Cited
Clemo, John. “Collegium Was a Gift.” The Falcon. Seattle Pacific University, 13 Apr. 2005. Web. 27 Nov. 2016.
Lapham, Lewis H. Lapham’s Quarterly: Philanthropy. New York, NY: American Agora Foundation, 2015. Print
Schroeder, Ryan. “Collegium Gives Home-away-from-home.” The Falcon. Seattle Pacific University, 24 Nov. 2004. Web. 27 Nov. 2016.
Sommerdorf, Kailey. “Collegium Not Enough for Commuters.” The Falcon. Seattle Pacific University, 26 Oct. 2016. Web. 27 Nov. 2016.
Sortor, Fiona. “Move for Collegium Affirmed by ASSP Vote.” The Falcon. Seattle Pacific University, 4 Feb. 2004. Web. 27 Nov. 2016.
University, Seattle. “Mission, Vision and History.” Mission, Vision and History — Collegia Program. -Dean of Students — Seattle University, n.d. Web. 27 Nov. 2016.
