By By Ashley Coto, Staff Writer
Automobiles are the ideal invention for a world dominated by humans that lead busy lives. However, the invention of the automobile brought about the irritated commuter students here at Hofstra University, who live exceedingly different lifestyles, yet are still categorized and generalized as full-time students.
“It is not bad. I usually leave forty-five minutes to an hour before class,” said freshman Dan Wright.
While Dan is leaving his house, resident student Andrew Singer is just getting out of bed.
“I usually wake up about an hour before class and leave my building twenty minutes before class starts,” said Singer. When asked if he would want to be a commuter, he responded, “No, I think it is worth the money to live on campus rather than commuting back and forth every day.”
Many times, students who commute do so to save money. The tuition for room and board here at Hofstra comes out to a total of $13,000 a year, so it makes sense that a person would choose to commute in today’s economy.
Sophomore Michelle Lenis, who commutes from Uniondale, finds other advantages to commuting. “I like that I am close to my family and not getting carried away with partying and drinking,” she said. “Also, it is great getting homemade meals and being able to rely on my parents.”
While she sees the positives as a commuter, Lenis has some harsh feelings about the parking space, as does student Shannon Tomascak.
“Parking is extremely difficult and stressful. I have gotten a lot of tickets,” said Tomascak. “I think we need a parking garage.”
Space isn’t the only problem when driving to campus. Commuters like Ashley Murphy from Manorville have to incorporate rush-hour traffic into their travels. Besides waking up four hours before class in order to fit in a bumper-to-bumper traffic Murphy has to make sure that she reserves a half an hour to devote to finding a spot. “I resorted to driving around the parking lots for at least a half an hour waiting to catch someone leaving their spot,” she said. While commuters dedicate half an hour just to find a spot, in the same time frame, some residences are only waking up.
“I usually wake up about a half an hour before class,” said Alex Bloom. She delcared that she would never commute because, “I like how independent living on my own makes me feel,” Bloom. Like Bloom, resident Jake Liebowitz manages his time in the morning based on the question: to have breakfast, or not to have breakfast?
“If I plan on getting a light breakfast before class, I usually leave myself about 35 to 45 minutes before class leaving my dorm,” said Liebowitz.
While both lifestyles experience a range of different sentiments, Tomascak summed up the general commuter attitude.
“I like living off of campus because it is more comfortable and cheaper, but living on campus would probably make me take part in activities more, and it would be much less of a hassle to get to class,” said Tomascak. In other words, being a commuter has its positive aspects with additional irritations. Overall, commuters feel more stress to be on time, and they have to accommodate it wisely in everything that they do. In the long run, however, this may work to their advantage.
Students who commute do so with a different perspective as far as the role of school in their lives. Whether the decision to commute goes toward saving money, working or staying near family, their concept of school is much different than that of a resident, who regards Hofstra as both home and school setting. Although students of both lifestyles are considered full-time students, priorities and perspective vary greatly.