Commuter Nightlife at Oz
By Nicholas Endres and Zach Garner
There are many students who choose to transfer to SUNY Oswego but not every transfer student decides to live on campus. Some students choose to commute from another city like Syracuse or Fulton or live off campus within the city of Oswego. Being a commuter student can make your transition even more challenging than normal and may lead you to have more questions than if you were living on campus.
If you’re a commuter student in college, you face many difficulties because you’re not living on campus. Being a commuter has its positive and negative aspects. For one, being a commuter student gives you the freedom to come and go as you please. It also saves you thousands of dollars in room and board fees, and gives you more time away from campus.
On the other hand, being a commuter student has its drawbacks. Because commuters do not live on campus with other students, it is much more difficult to make friends, get involved, and hear the latest news around campus. It can seem like a commuter student actually lives a double life: one life while on campus, and one life outside of campus.
This can lead to a disconnect from campus. There are plenty of sports and clubs at SUNY Oswego, but it is difficult to participate when many commuters live an hour away. Because clubs are catered to students that live on campus or nearby, commuter students often must spend extra hours on campus rather than going home and returning to campus for the club. Commuter students have to find a balance of how willing they are to spend extra time on campus in exchange for a social circle.
For students who live on SUNY Oswego’s campus, nightlife becomes almost an every-night occurrence. There are several ways for students to enjoy themselves every night of the week. For instance, the most popular nights are Wednesdays and Thursdays with “Yard Night” at The Shed and “Mug Night” at Old City downtown. Moreover, for students who primarily live on campus this is their way to relieve stress, have fun, and hang out with friends from campus.
For commuters, it’s a different world when the idea of nightlife is addressed. For most commuters, it can feel like they’re being left out of loop with friends and campus activities.
“As a commuter, I don’t really feel connected to the campus community. I just go to my classes and I leave,” says Kylie Clifford, a commuter from Fulton, 20 minutes south of Oswego. Clifford also said that she doesn’t have much of a social life on campus due to her commuter status. “I never really get invited to go out on weekends either, because the only people I really know on campus are the people in my classes, and I wouldn’t necessarily call us friends.”
One of the biggest events in SUNY Oswego is the Bridge Street Run, which is an end of the year bar crawl around the various bars and pubs that dot the town. For students on campus, this is a great way to cut back and have some fun before finals week. For commuter students, however, it’s just a regular day, and while some friends may invite them to go, most commuters won’t drive all the way to Oswego just to do what they could do at home.
For some commuters, nightlife in Oswego isn’t even all that appealing. “I do get invited to go out from time to time,” says junior Claudia Depalma, a commuter from Fulton. “But I’m more of a homebody, so I don’t go out too much. I’m really not one for the bar scene anyway, which is all there really is anyway.”
For some the on-campus “party” mentality isn’t all that appealing, which is why they choose to commute. However, this can hamper the relationship-forming aspect of college that on-campus students receive. Many commuters have part time or full time jobs which can also hinder their chances to go out on the weekends, because they have to work the next morning or day. “I work full time and it’s not possible to spend anymore time on campus,” says Clifford.
A mutual feeling between the majority of commuter students is that campus doesn’t have that “home” feeling and interactiveness when walking around and going to class, says junior Grace Crimi. Grace travels fifty minutes from Syracuse three days a week. “I feel like I am not in the loop really and don’t feel connected,” says Crimi. “I don’t feel at home at all, I drive to school then go home right after feeling very isolated.”
Depalma feels the same way that on top of school work, work and the daily drive it can be hard to find time for extracurricular activities with the few friends that she has made at Oswego. “Unfortunately, I don’t really feel connected to the campus community. I feel like with commuting I really just drive to school, finish class, then go home.”
Commuting might not be your first choice, but it can also be a smart move. For some people, being connected on-campus and living at school to get the full college experience means everything. For others, the option to save some money, focus more on school work, and lose the sharing-a-small-space situation is better. It’s all about personal preference, and finding out what’s best for you can help you make your college experience everything you want it to be.
