The Rocket

Issue date: 5/4/07 Section: Focus

Media Credit: MCT Campus [Click to enlarge]

For one reason or another, everyone looks forward to May in Slippery Rock.

SRU students and faculty get some time to rest and regroup before the fall semester. Some students graduate and move on to the next phase of their lives. For Slippery Rock residents, the town will be relatively quiet for the next three months.

Before this all happens, SRU students must complete one final task. It's not a presentation, it's not a final exam and it's not one last tuition payment. It's moving out, and some students look forward to it more than others.

Whether they live in a residence hall or an off-campus apartment, most students have to vacate at the end of the school year. Many find themselves with rooms that are much fuller than they were when they moved in. These students are left asking themselves, "What do I do with all of this stuff?"

Some students plan for this question in advance.

Kyle Miller, a 22-year-old senior athletic training major, will be moving back to West Chester, Pa., at the end of the semester. He said his parents have visited a few times this semester and he has sent them home with vanloads of clutter from his Kiester Road apartment, which is now virtually empty.

"I've been sleeping on my mattress on the floor," Miller said. "I look like a hobo."

Gina Fanara is another student who has tried to plan ahead for the year-end move. The 18-year-old freshman elementary education major came to SRU from Tallahassee, Fla., because she said she loves the cold weather. She said winter clothes were only a small percentage of possessions she brought with her to her Harner Hall residence.

"I came up with 25 boxes, eight garbage bags and lots of containers," she said. "And I bought even more this year."

Fanara said her parents plan to bring a conversion van to help her move out. She said she is going to store her winter clothes and some other things at her aunt's house in Buffalo so the trip back to Florida and next semester's move will be easier. Though troublesome now, she said she has learned a lot about living in a dorm room this year.

"I'm bringing much less next year," Fanara said. "Clothes, movies, school supplies, maybe a quarter of the stuff I brought this year."

Continued...

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