Sargent Center to close Aug.

After 77 years of serving the Boston University community, the Sargent Center for Outdoor Education will close this August due to ‘budgetary concerns,’ according to a Wednesday Boston University press release.

The BU-owned New Hampshire education center and camp has traditionally hosted orientations and group retreats for BU students and faculty, as well as for outside organizations and groups.

Sargent College of Health and Rehabilitation Sciences senior Matt DeWolf said he first went to SCOE as a freshman for Sargent’s orientation.

‘It’s disappointing that they’re closing it down because that’s kind of one of the first chances that we have to form camaraderie in the school,’ DeWolf said.

As Vice President of the Student Alumni Council and Co-President of Peer Counseling, DeWolf has gone to the center five times in the past three years.

‘I feel like it was a very necessary part of my BU experience,’ DeWolf said. ‘It’s one thing I don’t think should go.’

College of Communication alumnus Greg Freed started a Facebook group, called Sargent Coalition, in an effort to save the center right after he heard of the school’s decision to close SCOE. The group already has over 400 members.

‘The Sargent Center isn’t just about BU,’ Freed said in an email to the Daily Free Press. ‘It’s an integral part of the University, yes, but it is also home to countless young people who are learning to lead themselves.’

Freed first went to a retreat at the center in 2004 as a First-Year Student Outreach Program coordinator.’ His experiences at the camp inspired him to pursue a career in higher education, he said.

The decision to close the center does not respect the traditions of the university, Freed said.

‘It sends an implicit message that BU is willing to close historically significant pieces of the institution in favor of moving forward,’ Freed said. ‘I think that is at odds with its principles of learning, virtue and piety.’

The center does not only benefit BU students, Becca Crossen said in an email. As a camper at the Adventure Camp, which SCOE hosts during the summer, for five years, and a staff member for an additional two, Crossen, a San Diego University freshman, said she has made SCOE into a second home.

‘I couldn’t imagine losing the place I’ve called home the last few years,’ Crossen, whose mother works in the School of Education, said. ‘I couldn’t imagine the young kids who return summer after summer learning they would have to find somewhere else to go.’

The surrounding community took refuge in the camp during the area’s ice storms this year, and campers provide community service, Crossen said.

Charles Flannery, who worked at SCOE as a staff counselor for a summer, thought the closure was only a rumor until his former supervisor emailed him saying the center would officially close at the end of August.

‘I was really shocked and thought about all the schools I worked with,’ Flannery said in an email. ‘All those kids that left that place and returned to school with more confidence, more self-esteem, more love for nature and actually found out that learning can be fun . . . I would have to say that kids need this place.’

SAR sophomore Rachel Swartz said her experience at the freshman retreat was great, but it is the activities, not the place, that matter when bonding when classmates.

‘I think the closing will have a minimal impact as long as they find other ways to help the freshman class bond or meet each other,’ Swartz said. ‘I think they can do that in a cheaper, less expensive way.’

DeWolf said he did not think a less expensive replacement venue would suffice for retreats.

‘I think it would be similar, but it still wouldn’t be the same experience,’ DeWolf said. ‘It wouldn’t be something that’s really a part of BU.’