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Community Corner

Campus Life Is Alive and Well in Marietta

About 1,400 people live in student housing at Southern Polytechnic State University, and more are coming.

Their front door is on South Marietta Parkway, and their back door is on South Cobb Drive. They’ve got a side entrance off U.S. Highway 41, too. It’s a big house by any standards, but quite comfy.

About 1,400 people live there, all students at Southern Polytechnic State University. They live in traditional dorms (“a rite of passage,” said Sylvia Carson, the school’s director of public relations, but not a requirement). They also live in brand new suites for two or four. They live in apartments, and they live in fraternity and sorority houses.

They are all residents of Marietta.

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They are joined by another 3,600 students who commute to classes at fast-growing Southern Poly, plus another 1,000 from Georgia Highlands College, a two-year school based in Rome that uses SPSU classrooms.

“We were a technical school many, many moons ago and slowly have transitioned into a more liberal arts, four-year, comprehensive institution,” said Carson. “And, even more, from being commuter-based to having on-campus residence housing which many people, to this day, aren’t really aware that we have.”

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Enrollment is up 27 percent in the past four years, said Carson, and new housing opening soon will add another 400 residents, but Marietta’s boom of college kids is not just at Southern Poly. Life University, right next door, adds another 2,000 students to the mix. And Kennesaw State University, just north of Marietta, now has more than 22,000 in its classrooms.

So how does student life blend with city life when the students leave campus?

Allison Feldman, a senior at Southern Poly, has lived on campus for four years and has seen the growth spurt first hand.

“All my life I had planned to go to Georgia Tech, but I did a campus visit at SPSU and fell in love with the small campus,” she wrote in an email. “I love that there are really no roads going through the campus and it's so easy to get around. It feels like a small town--everyone seems to know everyone. Also, I had originally come here for architecture but switched to English shortly after. Even then, it's a perfect fit for me--a creative degree with a technical twist to it because it's SPSU.”

For off-campus fun, Feldman said: “I'll spend a lot of time over at Six Flags Over Georgia. I love roller coasters, and it's only 20 minutes away, so it's not uncommon to grab some friends and head over there for the day.        

“Usually if I go out, I'll go up to Kennesaw and hang out around Town Center Mall. There's a lot to do up there. Marietta in itself really isn't anything special, to be honest. … It's not really meant to be a college town, as it feels like SPSU was just kinda plopped down randomly in the town and half the people don't realize it's there, but I think it's slowly shifting to accommodate us a little better now that we've finally hit that growth spurt.”

Eleanor Rochelle, another SPSU senior, lives on campus in the Gamma Phi Beta sorority house, where the biggest problem is “sharing a relatively small kitchen (and fridge) with 11 girls lol,” she wrote in an email.

“Mostly when I get out to other parts of Marietta, it’s for food lol,” Rochelle added. “The city has a lot of potential, but I think it still needs a lot of work to get where it could be. There are improvements starting around Marietta Square, and it’s a wonderful thing to see.”

Jenny Brown, Southern Poly’s coordinator of housing and residence life, has a unique perspective on that issue. She was born and raised in Cobb County, went to school at KSU, worked at Life and is now living, working and attending classes at Southern Poly, studying for her master’s in business administration.

She lives with her husband and a puppy in the Hornet Village suites.

“Speaking from experience of one who lives here, works here and goes to school here, you can only take so much of this community,” Brown said. “You do want to see what all is out there.

“I would like to see Marietta become similar to [the Chastain area] up in Kennesaw. We go up there frequently and enjoy it. You don’t feel like you’re in Athens after a UGA game, but at the same time … you don’t want to be eating at 5 o’clock either.

“I think they do a good job of catering to both audiences. I don’t think Marietta is there just yet.  I think Marietta is still catering to the older crowd but with these two schools being as large as they are it’s not going to be easy to ignore them for long.

“We’ve tried a couple of (student activities) at Marietta Square--at the Strand Theater, things like that. We’ve gotten mixed responses (from students) as far as that goes.

“There’s definite potential there. The square is a very special place for me.  My parents got married on the square. My husband and I eloped, but we were officiated on the square too. I love the square and I don’t want to see that historical value disappear or that charm. It’s a very quaint town but I think that they can welcome in those college crowds too. 

"You know, Hemingway’s, MacCracken’s, those are both popular pubs with our students, but I think you can still have the antique shops but you can still have the nightlife. I think that’s a very doable thing. I’d love to see Marietta embrace that a little more.”

While Brown’s job requires that she live on campus, college life suits her.

“I think a lot of people who are attracted to this field, like me, are people who came into their own in college, and you want to see your students do the same thing,” she said.

“Whether it is a roommate conflict, or two sorority sisters not getting along, or student government that can’t decide how to handle their funds, you teach them that you can talk through it, you can work together, you can grow, you can learn.”

Brown is still in her 20s but may stay in school for a while. “It’s very gratifying,” she said. “I could stay here until I retire, honestly.”

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