Since the beginning of the semester, hammocks have been popping up around campus, creating a comfy place to relax and study that has a far better view than can be found within the walls of your dorm room. At first, it was speculated that these cozy outdoor couches were independently owned, yet soon rumors spread that their existence was due to something unique, something people mused must be the work of a UNE Hammock Club.

Although the idea is pleasing certainly because it is quite original, it doesn’t hold much truth. Sure, there are people who put up the hammocks and even students who proposed the idea, but there is no organized club promoting the hammocks. Cynthia Furber, the office manager for Student Involvement, kiddingly donned Brian Wallace the “president” of this “club.” Furber, who is the assistant director for student activities, claims that the hammocks were originally an idea brought to him by UNE students last spring. In working with other UNE associates, Furber organized this student inspired idea into a reality, as he stated the idea itself allowed him to “make it happen this fall.”

Of course, this doesn’t mean that there can never be a UNE hammock club. In fact, the future existence of these hammocks may lie in the hands of UNE students, as to whether administration should reinstall them after winter has passed and the snow is no longer. It can be observed even that there is a newly-found interest in hammocks, especially in the sphere of college campuses around New England; at Unity College in Unity, Maine, there is a certain population of students that set up their own hammocks around campus, approximately three times the amount of hammocks we have here at UNE. At Merrimack College in Andover, Massachusetts, a similar situation ensues. There, a handful of students have changed up the everyday norm by occasionally sleeping in hammocks outside, an idea that could definitely be interesting to anyone who would be at all inspired to start a Hammock Club here at UNE.

Even if the myth of the Hammock Club is to be lost as UNE students come into campus and move off of campus, the quaint and comfy use the hammocks served will most certainly not be forgotten.