Alicia Meehan, Campus Carrier deputy news editor

Berry opens its campus during the daylight hours to visitors throughout the semester, but the highest influx of visitors is during the spring semester. Prom season starts mid-March and runs through early May, with high schoolers coming in from Floyd, Bartow and other counties to take photos. While prom photos tend to fall on Saturdays, quinceañeras and engagement photo schedules can fall on any day of the week.

Director of Public Relations Chris Kozelle said that in the 16 years she has worked for the marketing and communications department, Berry has always invited groups to take photos on campus. Berry has been listed as a great place to take photos in various publications.

“Over the years, especially as social media has developed, people post online about where they took their prom photos so word spread about how amazing Berry looked for photos,” Kozelle said.

This spring, the marketing and communications department hired student ambassadors to be on the ground at Ford every Saturday. Their job is to manage photography groups and make sure that they do not block walkways or doorways so that students can access their rooms.

“We hope that if any Berry students have any issues that they will immediately let us know because we are there, we are on the ground,” Kozelle said. “Instead of letting the parents and prom-goers police themselves we are trying to provide more of an organized structure.”

Freshman Charlotte Chappell said that before the introduction of the student ambassadors, she encountered problems with visitors being in the walkways and taking up a lot of space.

“It’s a really pretty space and it makes sense why a lot of people would come do their photo shoots, but at the same time they would block the sidewalks and the doorways into the building,” Chappell said.

Ford resident and freshman Anna Fox said that she has had to deal with visitors taking up the walkways, making it hard for her to bike back to her room.

“I have to slam on the breaks and then they look at me like it’s my fault for being there,” Fox said. 

Fox was out of town the first weekend that the student ambassadors were working, but she said that photography still happens outside of the weekends. 

“Maybe with the ambassadors, they might listen because someone’s actually watching, but on a typical weekday, you still have people come and take pictures who aren’t really respecting our space,” Fox said.

Fox said that the visitors can be rude and sometimes neglect to pick up after themselves. Chappell listed balloons, glitter and confetti as being commonly left behind by photography groups.

“The other day I noticed there was a balloon that somebody just left in one of the trees, so I climbed up and I pulled it down,” Fox said. “They leave trash all the time. They’re not very considerate.”

Chappell said that a student ambassador helped her get into Ford by telling a visitor to finish taking photos in front of a doorway. 

“I appreciated that support, I like that they’re there,” Chappell said. “I feel like they help, especially during the busiest photo shoot seasons.”

According to Chappell, the student ambassadors help out during the weekends, but there are still visitors during the weekdays that need to be managed.

“With the ambassadors it kind of helps, at least during prom season, but I think it could still be improved,” Chappell said. “I’ve been seeing people on campus up at Ford almost every day now. It’s not just over the weekends or like on Fridays.”

Chappell suggested that Berry start charging visitors a small amount to enter Berry to take photos. She said that it could lower the amount of people coming in and generate extra revenue for security. 

“I know we’re open to the public, but at the same time, you can’t help but be nervous when you just see strangers walking around outside your dorm building,” Chappell said. 

Kozelle said that Berry benefits from public interest in its scenery. The marketing department knows that potential students know about Berry because of its beauty.

“It’s one of those free marketing tools; we don’t have to tell everyone how pretty [the campus] is, they just know,” Kozelle said. “We have been aware of that in our marketing department for a while because we’ll have students that are at Berry now say, ‘We came for our prom pictures.”