by Anna Fofana
Two RA's, Sarah Siano and Frankie Vaughan, having a socially distanced hangout outside of the library (Image via @purchasecollege on Instagram)
Despite having classes in person, most of the 900 students currently on SUNY Purchase’s campus have a couple of their classes online.
Junior theater and performance major Andrew Miranda said that he only had two classes a day, which was really about five hours daily. He couldn’t put a number on the number of hours a week, but it’s definitely a lot more than he wants.
However, he tries to take advantage of his time to hang out with his friends as much as he can and tries to socialize frequently by doing activities such as having picnics on the great lawn as well as taking walks while the weather is still nice.
Lenore Hernadez, a junior painting and drawing major, has used their art as a way to stay sane while staying on campus as an RA. Just like many other students, they also have a lot of free time which allows them to spend time with their friends who are also RA’s on campus.
Since Hernadez is an artist, they use their time as a way to turn their art into commission.
Being on campus for them feels very different. For one, moving in was extremely stressful. But as time drew closer and they finally moved onto campus, they were excited to have their own space.
“There are things that are missing on campus that would make the community feel like a community,” said Juan Carlos Franquiz, a sophomore dance major. “Things feel different because there’s people that I want on campus that aren’t here.”
Franquiz is very passionate about the natures of dance, likes to navigate in his career choice whenever he can, especially while they have access to the studios in the dance building where he choreographs dance pieces. Depending on the day and his mood, he will practice dancing with a friend in the conservatory or go by himself.
Similarly to Franquiz, freshman dance major Elliot Walla, has found motivation to want to continue to dance in his free time especially now that he has the physical space to move as much as he wants to.
Franquiz tries to crunch in time during the day for his hobbies outside of dance such as working on making music or going to the gym to play basketball.
“I mainly do everything for my career,” said Franquiz. “Even though I’m not planning on playing basketball professionally, it helps me with my dancing in other ways that I couldn’t get in class.”