Campus Currents

May 4, 2026

A photo showing the Student Union Activities Board Booth at a previous Sandbox celebration


The Greatest Sandbox

Friday, May 8, 11 a.m. to 3 p.m., State Street

The Student Union Activities Board presents The Greatest Sandbox, the annual festival celebrating the last day of classes. 

Tranquility & Connection Series: Echoes of Nature

Thursday, May 7, 6 p.m., Danforth Art Museum

Join us for an evening program with Echoes of Nature, a collaboration between poet-naturalist Kim Hoff and singer-songwriter Jess Martin.

Jess and Kim, both Massachusetts-based artists, will perform original pieces inspired by four artworks in the Danforth Art Museum’s Memory Is a Verb and Rachel Loischild: Quarantine Islands exhibits, as well as on four distinct natural areas across Massachusetts.

Their song and poetry collaboration focuses on the ways that nature offers both comfort and community in times of grief and upheaval. The artists embrace joyful collaboration with community stewards such as the Danforth to create performances that inspire reflection, dialogue, and action.

Pollinator Garden Volunteer Opportunity

Please join the Bee Campus Committee for our annual spring workday in the FSU pollinator gardens on Monday, May 11 from 1:30-3:30pm!  You are welcome to join for all or part of the session.  We will meet in the newest pollinator garden, which is located behind Hemenway Hall at the bottom of the steps.  See attached screenshot for an image of the location.

We will provide gloves and garden tools, so just come dressed in clothes/shoes you don’t mind getting dirty. Please help spread the word to your students and colleagues!

The McAuliffe Center Hosts Science on State Street

By Francisco Omar Fernandez Rodriguez
Publications Intern

Natalie Daly, the environmental and sustainability programs coordinator for the Christa C. McAuliffe Center, said she was representing the MetroWest STEM Education Network (MSEN) at the annual Science on State Street fair, held on April 25th in O'Connor Hall parking lot.

MSEN helps “support this festival. So we help put it on every year - we help bring in audience members every year,” Daly said.

She said MSEN is based in the McAuliffe Center, and they support the festival by providing staff.

Daly ran a table for MSEN where participants spin a wheel that decides what question they’re going to be asked.

“If you get it right, you get a prize. If you get it wrong, I nudge you until you get it right and you get a prize anyway. We don’t really turn people away,” Daly said while laughing.

Suzanne Wright, the assistant director for the McAuliffe Center, ran the table for the planetarium shows.

She said FSU is the only state university with a planetarium, which they use frequently for visiting groups and public programs.

The shows related to the festival were free, she added. They had a couple shows developed by their planetarium program presenters, Alyson Rankin and Robert Pierzynski.

Justine Greenwood, the communication and event manager, said there were 37 exhibitors at the fair, all from the MetroWest area.

“A lot of these groups we have done collaborations with before, so it’s a great way to show all of our partnerships coming together into one big science festival,” Greenwood said.

The festival is held in collaboration with the MSEN network, she said.

“This is my favorite day of the year. There’s so many people that come out. It’s a great day for Framingham. The same day, there’s an Earth Day festival right across Route 9 today too. So it’s just a really fun day in Framingham to get people moving around and on campus,” Greenwood said.
 

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