The college was founded in 1854 and moved to its present location in 1909, where its seventy acres provide ample space for both sports and leisure activities. To accommodate Huntingdon’s wide selection of sports programs, the campus features both open air and indoor sports facilities. Outdoor amenities include a baseball field, tennis center, soccer and softball complex, outdoor volleyball court, and combination football and lacrosse stadium. Huntingdon’s outdoor spaces, however, are not limited to athletics; the grounds invite students, faculty, and staff to enjoy their beauty. In fact, Huntingdon was selected as a 2019 Tree Campus USA by the Arbor Day Foundation. As The Talon—Huntingdon’s campus newspaper—reports, this national program was launched in 2008 with a goal of “honoring colleges and universities for promoting healthy trees and engaging students and staff in the spirit of conservation.”
The campus also boasts a twelve-acre Green at its center. According to the online campus tour, this area is “a naturally picturesque park where members of the College family can stroll across the bridge, relax by the pond, gather in the gazebo, study in the sunshine, and spend time with friends.” It is no wonder that Suellen Ofe, Huntingdon’s Vice President for Communications and Marketing, compares this space to New York City’s Central Park—the landscape design was created by Frederick Law Olmsted, Jr., one of the famous brothers who laid out the Big Apple’s iconic landmark. The Green also houses Top Stage, one of two open air stages at Huntingdon. These stages host a variety of outdoor events, such as the recent Huntingdon Winds & Jazz Concert presented in March. The Green—with its brick sidewalks, wide lawns, and mature trees—already served as “the heart of campus” prior to the pandemic, when Huntingdon, along with many institutions of higher education, began to quickly search for ways to find or create outdoor spaces which could enable safer options for groups to gather.
The pandemic has demanded that campuses get creative about repurposing and constructing spaces to allow for necessary social distancing measures. Huntingdon joins other educational organizations in employing diverse methods for classes and other programs to continue as safely and effectively as possible. Many routinely scheduled programs, such as Huntingdon’s annual leadership training, have been moved to online spaces, and a number of classes have moved to larger venues. Huntingdon, however, has created several additional opportunities for using outdoor spaces to house both organized programs and casual gatherings alike.
One of the college’s strategies to accommodate social distancing was to create new, multi-purpose outdoor spaces. To prepare for the Fall 2020 return to campus, the college set up two large tents on the Green; these tents are placed in an ideal location for a variety of functions. Students can meet to study or simply hang out in these centrally-located outdoor spaces. The tents are also placed across from the dining hall, so the students can get their food trays inside, then eat in the tents.
The tents on the Green provide space for professors to depend on, as well. According to Ofe, faculty members have been using the tents for both advising meetings and class sessions. Having the ability to meet with students outside can give professors and students a break from having exclusively online interactions or tightly-controlled indoor contacts.
Huntingdon has moved longstanding extracurricular programs outdoors, as well. Prior to the pandemic, the campus had already established a custom of holding Tuesday night worship, and now this tradition has been moved to the stage on the Green; this gathering of fifty or so students had been conducted in the theater previously. While this event can be moved to the five-hundred-seat Chapel in case of rain, the outdoor space has been very popular with students, and the new tradition is likely to continue.
One of the most popular parts of the pandemic response has been the opening of the Hawk trailer, an outdoor food trailer which serves food at lunch as well as through the late evening hours. Students can pick up grill food at the trailer to eat at one of the many added picnic tables which have been installed to provide additional outdoor eating spaces during this academic year.
Another popular addition to outdoor amenities has been the construction of an open-air basketball court. This new court replaced a sand volleyball court that had been built in the footprint of the former Massey Hall. The space is being used by basketball players to make their practices a bit safer, and other students have been taking advantage of the new space to enjoy al fresco pick-up games.
Huntingdon’s Grove, a smaller green space outside of the student center, provides the setting for another big tent that was installed in preparation for the 2020-21 academic year. This tent, positioned near a small outdoor stage, offers easy access to the student center as well as more protected viewing of performances. According to the Fall 2020 welcome letter written by Cameron West, Huntingdon’s President, the Grove also serves as “an outdoor gathering space where students can congregate for social events” in the evenings.
As Huntingdon drafted plans for its pandemic response, it was able to build on an established campus culture which already valued outdoor sports, recreation, and leisure activities. The creation of new outdoor spaces, along with new uses of established open-air facilities, offered alternatives for covid-safe scheduling beyond moving gatherings online or into large-capacity venues. Some of these changes have been so popular with the students, they may end up being permanent aspects of Huntingdon’s outdoor traditions.
