This story was reported in Fall 2023 by the students in JRN 220 – Digital Reporting and Writing taught by Jodie Gil, with photographs contributed from students in JRN 270 – Photojournalism and Drones taught by Jonathan Elmer. The JRN 220 students who contributed reporting to the project include Brandon Cortés, Miah Green, Guillermo Hernandez, Benjamin Martin, Solé Scott, Jay’Mi Vazquez and Jasmine Williams. The JRN 270 students who contributed photographs include Matthew Cain, Trumayne Guy, Antonio Cavanaugh Lillo, Ricardo Pena and Jasmine Williams.

12 – 3 a.m. – A new day technically begins

It’s about midnight on a weeknight in the fall semester, and Saniyah Brown is just arriving on campus to join a group of friends to study for their psych class in the common room in Neff Hall. 

Brown lives off campus, but often returns after her long day of classes or work, to study and do homework with friends. 

“If I don’t meet up with them, I’d probably get nothing done for this class,” says Brown, a junior sociology major. “Most of my friends live in Neff Hall, so we each spend about one to two hours in the study room.” 

She’s one of 5,737 students – undergraduate and graduate, part- and full-time – who attend The University. 

Brown is currently working as a pharmacist technician part-time, getting home by 9:10 p.m.

“I’ll take a shower, eat and then start reviewing notes I took during class,” Brown says. “I then meet my friends on campus and study as a group.” 

Even on the days she doesn’t work, Brown says she attends class, goes home for a nap, and then returns for the late-night study sessions. 

“Most of the time I’m leaving between 1 or 2 a.m.,” Brown says. 

As Brown is typically leaving Neff Hall, Janessa Bartell, junior political science major, is finishing up her long shift in Wilkinson, which is one of the many duties she handles in her role as a resident adviser in the freshman dorm.

Answering phone calls throughout the night, evaluating each floor of a dorm, planning events and decorating the lobby and floors and being on duty for a designated day are some tasks that Resident Advisors do throughout the year.

All the roughly 70 Resident advisers must maintain a 2.5 GPA, attend information sessions that are held throughout the year, and move onto campus two weeks early. 

“Wednesdays are actually my duty night, so I sit in the lobby from 8 p.m. until 11 p.m. for active duty and also do tours until 2 a.m.,” says Bartell.

3 a.m. – 7 a.m. – As dawn approaches, athletes engage

It’s 5 a.m. and the sun has not yet appeared. Campus is mostly deserted; You can hear a pin drop, and most students are still sleeping. 

But not Jonathan Tressel and Emily Lange, who make up a small part of the 500 student athletes who compete for 19 different university teams, according to the Equity in Athletics Data Analysis Report for 2023.

Athletes often have early morning practices before their day of classes.

Tressel, a junior special education major and diver for the swim team, wakes up at 5:15 a.m. and leaves at 5:30 a.m., to attend swimming practices at Moore Field House. In the spring, during softball preseason, outfielder Lange also wakes up by 5:15 a.m. 

“After I get up, I brush my teeth and head to the building where my teammate resides so we can walk to practice together,” Tressel says. “We enter the building and make our way to the locker room.  We change into our uniforms once we enter the locker room.” 

Tressel and the swim team’s two other divers typically do one diving board a day, using a one meter or three-meter board depending on the day. 

“After an hour or so of abs exercises, we get in the water and begin practicing our dives,” he says. “The coach would talk to us and inquire about how the dive went as we began with fronts, which are one-and-a-half tucks into the water. Next, we practice two-and-a-half flips before diving into the water and then we flip back towards the water.

Lange said her practices usually consist of conditioning focusing on endurance and strength training by hitting and throwing softballs.

“My morning pretty much looks like either lifting or practice with the whole team or coaches,” Lange said. “We have lift for three days followed by practice.”

When the weather gets nicer, Lange said she and the rest of the softball team practice outside in their field. During the traditional season, Lange said she wakes up later than during the preseason to do lifts and practices.

She said she feels she has done a good job at balancing academics and athletics.

“If we have a heavy game week on top of a lot of work, that can be challenging,” Lange said. “When that happens, I’ll try to get [schoolwork] done early.”

7 a.m. – 10 a.m. – Commuters begin to arrive on campus

As the early morning birds begin to chirp and the sound of cars driving near campus increases, Karla Carrasquillo is arriving to campus. Classes for both the spring and fall semester start no earlier than 8:00 a.m., according to the university schedule.

After a 40-minute commute to campus, Carrasquillo usually makes it to the Fitch Street Garage in time to park and walk to her 8:10 a.m. art class in Earl Hall.  

“Sometimes it takes me a little bit more depending on the traffic,” she says. 

Carrasquillo is among the 71.1 percent of students who commute each day, according to the university’s department of institutional research’s 2022-2023 common data set. 

“Fitch St. is a lot closer in my opinion; It’s only a 10 minute walk to Earl Hall,” she says. 

Students are only allowed to park on the second floor and up at Fitch, since the first floor is only for faculty and staff. 

“My chances of immediately finding a parking spot is 90% higher than if I arrived later,” she says.

If you find a parking spot, says Carrasquillo, don’t hesitate to take it because the car behind you will. 

Carrasquillo has to walk through the gymnasium in order to get to Earl Hall but during her journey to her class she makes a stop at the Student Center.

“I stop at the Student Center because I need caffeine in order to take on the day; usually during this time Dunkin is super busy because everyone else is doing the same thing,” she says.

 A couple hours later, commuter Lucina Kim is also arriving on campus, to start her long day as a student leader.

Mondays and Fridays from 10 a.m. to 7 p.m. and Wednesdays from 12 p.m. to 8 p.m. — This is Kim’s busy schedule as a political science major, Student Government Association representative, peer mentor and tutor at the Center for Academic Success and Accessibility services.

 ”I arrive at southern at 9:35 a.m. to take my introductory criminology class, then I go to my peer mentoring class at 10:25 a.m. and then I take my German class from 12 p.m. to 1:30 a.m.,” she says.

 After taking her morning classes, Kim takes her Marxism class from 4 p.m. until 5 p.m. and starts working from 5 p.m. until 8 p.m at CASAS, which is located on the third floor of the Buley Library. CASAS offers help from tutors in majority of courses offered such as Math 100P, English 110, Spanish 200 and many more.

 “I usually tutor political science and sociology classes for students who need help,” says Kim.

“I really don’t have a single day where I disconnect from everything,” Kim said.

10 a.m. – 1 p.m. – Busy class and study time

On Tuesdays the busiest time for classes on campus is at 11:10 a.m. according to student population data in the SCSU Fact Book, published by the Office of Institutional Research. 

It’s during this busy class time when many students find themselves in the Hilton C. Buley Library, which is open from 8 a.m to 11 p.m on Monday-Thursday; Fridays the library opens from 8:30 a.m  to 4:30 pm. It is an academic hub on campus, offering study rooms, printers, computer labs, a coffee shop and even the IT Help Desk.

The extensive arrangement of books in alphabetical order on library shelves is meticulously managed by a dedicated team. Any deviation, such as a book being misplaced, is promptly noted by the team.

Christian Mansfield, a junior majoring in special education and elementary education, works at the Hilton C. Buley Library in the circulation area.

“Me and other people are primarily in charge of answering questions that students may have and checking if the books are in their place,” says Mansfield. “I usually walk around the hallways with a small cart and organize the books that are left around.”

Mansfield is not only in charge of organizing the books but is also in charge of answering calls at the library’s main desk and also searching the database for books, journals or articles that students are looking for.

“All my days are very busy,” says Mansfield. “I’m here every Monday to Thursday from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m., obviously I have classes between work but I’m almost always here in the

Library.”

1 p.m. – 4 p.m. – Clubs and activities

There are about 190 clubs and organizations at the university, varying from club sports, to academic groups to general interest clubs, according to the club listings on OwlConnect. Many of them meet on Mondays or Wednesdays at 1 p.m., when fewer classes are scheduled.

At 1 p.m. each Monday, Pierce Kozlowski, a member of the executive board for the Student Government Association, is busy discussing prevalent issues at the university.      

Every Monday, SGA hosts its meetings with one common mission, according to Kozlowski: “To dedicate all of our efforts and energy towards the improvement of student experience across all dimensions academic, social, resource and otherwise.”

At meetings, executive board members and committee members report on issues around campus. 

“We sit on committees to find out how do we deal with that problem, how do we

ascertain that problem and what’s a solution we can build towards,” says Kozlowski,  sophomore psychology major.

It’s during this 1 p.m. club meeting time that junior English major Erieana Pappano begins her duty for Crescent Players, one of the several creative clubs on campus. There are also an art and literary magazine, a modeling club, dance teams and student media outlets.

For the last five plays, Pappano has been playing a role on and off the stage.

A week before the plays run, she begins her duty hanging, removing and working on the stage lights. Pappano is the electrics crew head of Crescent Players. She takes the initiative to gather a group of volunteers willing to help with the technical aspects of a play’s production.

“We go up in the scaffold and or go up to the grid above the stage,” Pappano says. “[Working on] lighting is always fun.”

After the shows have been completed, Pappano and a few others take down all that was added and reset everything, states Pappano.

Aside of being the electrics crew head, Pappano has also acted in the last five plays.

“Doing both has been difficult but I enjoy being involved in both aspects. It really has given me confidence in myself and helped me feel a part of something,” Pappano says.

  Students can also get involved in several club sports, including volleyball, ice hockey, rugby and cheerleading, and work out at the Recreation and Fitness Center in Room 204 of the Michael J. Adanti Student Center. That’s where Sam Papp, a senior marketing major, works during the afternoons.

“It’s mostly busy during the weekdays, depending on the type of day and time,” says Papp, who commutes to campus from Hamden.

Once he clocks in, he makes sure to follow the list of daily tasks, checking the fitness machines and making sure everything is up-to-date. Continuing the rest of his shift from the front desk, Papp and his co-worker answer calls, greet people, and make sure that everyone is following the rules.

“Other than making sure you’re doing tasks every 30 minutes, everything is pretty

simple,” says Papp. “Really just doing homework and keeping an eye out.” 

4 p.m. – 7 p.m. – Night classes start, campus winds down

Sophomore international business major Lissette Vega is one of many commuters who come to campus in the evening for later classes.  

Navigating the Wintergreen parking garage at night proves less difficult than it does in the morning, she says. Vega concludes work at 4 p.m. on Mondays, Tuesdays and Thursdays, then commutes to the university to take her evening classes.

Vega works at Allstate insurance in Milford. Although Vega lives in New Haven, she must commute both from work to home and from home to the university. She says the university has become like a “second job” for her. 

“Wednesdays are my only day off all week,” says Vega, “but it’s only my day off from the university, not from work.”

“Sometimes it is very difficult to maintain a balance between work and college,” says Vega, “It would be nice if I could work on campus, at least then I wouldn’t have to spend so much money on gas.”

Over in Earl Hall, Kayla Christie, A freshman year nursing major, prepares for Gospel Choir Practice. On Tuesdays, that’s not until 6 p.m., but Fridays they start practice at 4 p.m. 

“The campus is usually rather empty by the time I get to Earl Hall,” says Christie. “Everyone sort of went home or stayed in their dorm rooms.” 

Christie says The Gospel Choir Practice is filled with two hours of singing and discussion.

“We would discuss which scripture from the Bible either spoke to us or what God has accomplished for us during that week,” Christie says.

The Choir has featured songs such as “One Thing Remains” and “Friend of God” by Israel Houghton, and “Let Praises Rise” by Todd Galberth.

Around that same time, as the lights begin to dim and the eerie quietness on campus occurs, Lena Nguyen, A +sophomore, applied math major, is starting her shift of helping students as a CASAS math tutor.

 “I work late afternoons from 4 p.m. to 9 p.m., which is closing,” Nguyen says. “Except for Wednesdays, I usually work from 2 p.m. to 9 p.m.,” 

Nguyen says she finds balance in her everyday life as she is not only a tutor but the president of the class of 2026 and a representative at large for the Student Government Association. Nguyen has been working as a math tutor since her freshman year. In a week, she has about five to eight appointments scheduled with students.

“It makes me very happy when someone understands what I am showing them and they’re getting through problems by themselves,” says Nguyen.

7 p.m. – midnight – Night falls on campus

While Nguyen is two hours into her shift, Isaac Brown, a university assistant for the art department, is clocking into his shift. 

Brown monitors the art lab, assisting students who need help. The art lab is open until 10 p.m. during the week, and until 1 p.m. on weekends.

“I’m not the maintenance team but I do keep up with the lab, keep things up to par. I make sure printers are running properly and attend to students in any way I can,” Brown says.

Brown credits track coaching and camp counseling with valuable information and guidance, which he now uses in the art lab.

“I’m not just here because I like photography, but I like helping students,” Brown says. “I like showing up in places I would’ve benefited from if I was in their shoes.”

An hour into Brown’s shift, Kim Dudley, sophomore criminal justice major, leaves her last class to put on her work attire and goes to the Adanti Student Center food court.

Thought food starts getting served at 11 a.m., Dudley has worked the closing shift. The last food gets served at 10 p.m. at Tres Habaneros Monday through Thursday.

“I kind of enjoy working at the food court. It’s definitely been an experience and a lot of work somedays,” Dudley says. “But overall, it has been great.”

Dudley is a student employee who bounces from place to place, working for the food court since her first semester at the university. She says she is well trained to work at Dunkin Donuts, Tres Habaneros, SubConnection and The Grill. 

“At Dunkin, I make drinks, make food and take orders. At SubConnect and Tres, I make sandwiches, take orders and prepare food,” Dudley says.

Dudley says that working in the food court has not been the most challenging for her. Although, when she has courses scheduled directly before work, she finds that more difficult to manage. 

“One of the semesters when I had both in one day, it was hard to manage. So, I’m glad that I am working later shifts now,” Dudley says.

The latest classes conclude at 10:10 p.m. in the spring and 10:35 p.m. in the fall, according to the university schedule.

And by 11 p.m., when the Buley Library is closing its doors for the day, Saniyah Brown, the sociology major who does late-night study sessions in the dorms, is often among the last students to leave, finishing one day, and starting the next.