Between classes, part-time jobs, extracurricular pursuits and maintaining a healthy social life, college students undeniably have a lot on their plate on any given day. There isn’t a student anywhere who feels that their time, energy and (in particular) money isn’t as precious as it gets. Even so, one of the biggest mistakes college students make is becoming so wrapped up in their own concerns that they forget about making time to live in their own communities.
Ask any student on campus where they live and most won’t say the village of Fredonia, but more likely than not, they go weeks and even months at a time without leaving. Students are here in August to experience the last breaths of summer, and they live through the reliably cruel winter too. They shop and eat and pass time in the same places as year-round residents and provide an incredible boon to the local economy. They may live in a dorm room or an upstairs apartment, but they are Fredonians.
Fredonia students are often among those making the biggest positive differences in town. One shining example can be read about elsewhere in this issue of The Leader, as Fredonia Radio Systems (FRS) just put on another tremendous iteration of Rockin’ the Commons. An annual fundraiser for Roswell Park Cancer Institute, Rockin’ the Commons transcends being just another charity by bringing Fredonians of all stripes together to enjoy food, music and fun in the village center.
Rockin’ the Commons is the culmination of months of planning by already-busy students, a totally selfless tradition which continues only because of their hard work, a brilliant example of collaboration between student groups (kudos to WNYF and Sound Services!) and an example of how students can effect incredible change.
Of course, there are headaches. Recent issues of The Leader have focused on a rash of vandalism along some of the village’s residential streets, where students have allegedly been responsible for property damage on the porches of houses, among other things. This behavior might not be particularly surprising, but it still should not be excused as yet another hazard of living in a college town. It paints a particularly ugly picture of who Fredonia students are and who they ought to be as members of the same community.
Students face a near-infinite number of choices in their four years of college, and there’s no handbook written for how to get them all right. One thing that every student would benefit from, however, is rethinking their place in Fredonia as less of an outsider and more of a fully-fledged Fredonian committed to making it a better place.