 "Photo: DN Illustration David Downham")
Every Friday, freshmen Samantha Higginbotham and Stacie Stevenson know the drill. As soon as Higginbotham finishes her last class of the day, she's off to start her weekend back in her hometown of Noblesville. Meanwhile, Stevenson makes plans to get together with other friends who are staying on campus for the weekend.
Higginbotham and Stevenson met at Freshman Orientation in June and are roommates in Woody/Shales of LaFollette Complex. During the week, Higginbotham and Stevenson spend a lot of time together. Every Monday, Wednesday and Friday, they eat lunch together, and they spend most weeknights together watching TV or movies in their room. The roommates have a lot in common, so they always have something to talk about by the end of the day.
But one major difference between them is how they spend their weekends. So far this semester, Stevenson has gone back once to her hometown of Lafayette for Spring Break, whereas Higginbotham has not spent one weekend in Muncie this semester.
Although many students choose to stay on campus for the weekend, Higginbotham is not alone. Every Friday, some campus residents, equipped with their suitcases they haven't bothered to unpack from the previous weekend, crowd onto the Green Loop shuttle buses, making their way to the Scheumann Stadium parking lot to load up their cars. By late Friday afternoon, campus is noticeably less populated.
In contrast, Indiana University doesn't seem to have as drastic of a decrease of its student population on the weekend, according to Steve Hinnefeld of IU Communications.
"A lot of students are from out of state, so they don't have the option of going home every weekend," Hinnefeld said.
Eighty-seven percent of Ball State students are Indiana residents, whereas 62 percent of students at IU and 63 percent at Purdue are from in-state. Because so many Ball State students live in Indiana, it is more practical for those students to go home on the weekends, Hinnefeld said.
Alan Hargrave, associate vice president for Student Affairs and director of Housing and Residence Life, said there are a variety of reasons as to why students may choose to spend a weekend at home, as opposed to staying on campus.
"Some of them may have to work, and they have a job at home. Others have very close family members or friends at home that they miss during the week, and they want to go home and see them," he said.
Just as any other student, Higginbotham has her own reasons for leaving Muncie every weekend.
"A lot of people I know go home," she said. "I don't really go home because I'm homesick. It's just that, in my opinion, there's not a lot to do here."
For many students, entertainment is a deciding factor for where they will spend their weekend.
"I honestly didn't think I would go home as much as I have been, but when I stay here, it's like, I'm stuck in my room," Higginbotham said. "In my opinion, it's just a lot of parties [at Ball State], and I'm just not the party type."
Stevenson said she's had a similar experience.
"The girls across the hall drink a lot, not every day, but every weekend. And at least by Thursday night, they're starting up again. And for the first couple weeks, I went out with them. But I didn't feel comfortable doing that kind of drinking, so I just stopped," she said.
Tom Paczolt, interim director of Residential Life at Purdue, said he believes there is a lot more entertainment on college campuses than most students give credit.
"Any typical mid-size city has movie theaters, bowling alleys, a number of shopping centers and malls, bookstores, a roller rink and an ice rink [for winter months]. There are always community- and church-sponsored events that welcome students as participants," he said.
On the other hand, Hargrave said that entertainment is not always a student's top priority.
"I don't know that every student feels like he or she needs to be entertained every minute of the week. They're looking for a variety of experiences, and, for the most part, students are pretty good about creating their own entertainment," he said.
Although Muncie falls into the "mid-size city" category and does have the entertainment options Paczolt listed, transportation is a roadblock for many students that stay on campus on the weekends.
Higginbotham said she can't drive around to find anything to do because she doesn't have a car on campus, however, she said she would stay in Muncie more often if she did.
"It's just that if I stay up here, I'm stuck here, and I can't really go anywhere," she said.
The MITS buses are always an option for transportation, but they stop running at 9 p.m. on Fridays and at 6:15 p.m. on Saturdays, which limits students to early evening entertainment off campus during the weekends.
Even with students that do have their cars on campus, it is difficult for them to get to their cars because the shuttle buses stop running at 8 p.m. on Friday and don't start again until 5 p.m. on Sunday.
"The purpose of the shuttle system is to get students from outer parking lots to the center of campus for classes. There is no need for the buses on Saturdays since there are [fewer] classes. We are a parking shuttle service, not a bus system," said Sue Weller, director of Facilities Business Service and Transportation.
Because of these limited hours of operation, students who are not able to move their cars from the stadium parking lot Friday are inconvenienced.
Another limited service to students on the weekends is dining. As someone who has spent most of her weekends on campus, Stevenson has had her share of inconveniences in trying to work around the shortened dining hours.
"I don't wake up in time for breakfast [on the weekends], and then I eat kind of late. I often forget what time it is, so I miss dinner too," she said.
Woodworth and Noyer both close at 9:30 p.m. on Saturdays, and LaFollette and the Student Center close at 8:30 p.m. In addition, the Atrium isn't open for dinner because it closes at 3:30 p.m., and Elliott dining is closed all day. Students that get late-night cravings must rely on the food in their residence hall rooms.
Director of Dining Jon Lewis said that money is the reason behind the weekend dining hours.
"It's very simple; it's financial. Students are more mobile on the weekends without classes, so they don't need longer hours. Therefore, dining hours are less flexible."
Hargrave said Ball State is constantly searching for ways to improve campus life, and as the student population expands, so will the university's range of entertainment and services.
Although there are many ways in which the university could improve its policies to become more weekend-friendly, in the end, it comes down to money.
"We can have everything open all the time — if students want to pay for it," Hargrave said, "but there's a cost to all that, and unless they want to see increases in rates, those are the policies. And these policies are really based upon need and finances."
