For commuter students, a place to call home on campus is not easy to find. Elizabethtown College hopes to change that. This is why the college is making its first exclusive commuter lounge designed specifically for students who do not live on campus.

This project was made possible with funds allocated by the Student Assembly last year, and it

officially opened on Friday, Oct. 3.

“I’m surprised it doesn’t already exist,” commuter Brady Kline said. “It’s a place to hang out and study with other commuters is a really good idea because it’s harder to build communities as a commuter.”

Assistant Director of Student Activities & Commuter Engagement Brooke Hollinger says that the lounge is located on the second floor of the Baugher Student Center (BSC) in room 246, and includes amenities such as a fridge, microwave, couches and lockers. The space is available to commuters by scanning in with their ID, and allows them to heat up lunch, study or build community there with others who don’t live on campus.

With 22% of Etown Students living off campus, the commuter lounge has a large impact on a significant portion of the student body. For most students on campus, their dorms are just a short walk away; for commuters, it could be up to a 30-minute drive to their off-campus housing.

“It’s a whole different world to be driving back and forth,” Kline said. Instead of going home between classes or events, the lounge will give them somewhere to hang out instead of going to their dorms like residential students would.

“I truly do believe that having that intentional space for them will help foster and create that

sense of belonging for commuter students,” Hollinger said. With a majority of students living on campus, Kline reflects that he feels like they’re almost forgotten. By providing this space for students to call their own, Kline expresses that “it gives more legitimacy to commuters.”

The lounge will be flexible and will change with the needs of the students using it. “We take

[commuters’] feedback to help alter it to make it even more what they want,” Hollinger said. By

tailoring the lounge and its events to the various classes that utilize the space, she hopes that “it’s a place where they want to be.”

Looking forward, Hollinger hopes that through “providing this intentional space, intentional

programming, and intentional outreach, our commuter students do feel connected to the

campus.” This was put to action at the official open house on Oct. 3 to show off the new

space. More commuter-specific events will be hosted there in the upcoming months.