SUNY @ Old Westbury: Where the Story Takes Place (Part II)
That Guy in Our Women's Studies Class takes place predominantly in three venues: a facility for homeless people with psychiatric histories located on the grounds of Creedmoor Psychiatric Hospital, a SUNY college campus in nearby Nassau County, and, later, a larger SUNY campus farther out on the island.
At the story's open, I -- via my alias in the story, Derek Turner -- am living in the facility while commuting to and from the first SUNY campus where I'm taking my courses.
My books are nonfiction and autobiographical, but I did change all the names, including my own for the sake of consistency, to protect the privacy of a small hanful of characters. I extended that to the naming of the two schools involved, which was probably kind of silly... can't hurt, but there are a limited number of likely campuses and some readers might conclude that the first one is probably SUNY College at Old Westbury.
It has historically been a progressive and experimental campus. It started out with a commitment to student authority in the design of one's own curriculum and course of study, and then later was structured around a mission to provide education for marginalized people who were often bypassed and left out of the opportunities for higher education. The Feminist Press was founded and originally located there, so the flyleaf of quite a few feminist publications were marked with the fact that they'd been printed at SUNY @ Old Westbury.
It's a fairly small college, although some other colleges in the SUNY system have yet smaller enrollments, and yet it sits anchored on a large plot of land (originally the Clark estate, if I recall correctly); students attending there are somewhat isolated and insulated from Hicksville, the nearest community of any size. Old Westbury itself -- the village -- is a world of mansions and old money, horse stables and yet more privacy and isolation, and is not socially a home to the college campus.
Architecturally, the buildings are bright and 1970s-futuristic, neither cubist modern nor self-importantly imposing; a good portion of the pedestrian travel routes take students outdoors or through glass tunnels, and it's a world of windows and walls projecting at interesting and unexpected angles.
The majority of commuter students are suburbanites from nearby communities, whereas a substantial number of the resident students were recruited from traditionally underserved populations from wtihin New York City, along with an additional sprinking of international students. Since the era covered in my book, there have been additional dormitories and additional classroom buildings built, so some of this description may be a bit dated, but I think the depiction still holds for the most part.
Much of the faculty was attracted to the site by its special missions, and then from the cameraderie of being among similar-minded educators with a shared sense of vision and purpose. To an extent that has also been mirrored by the attitudes and perspectives of the students, although mitigated by the presence of students who attend because it is affordable and conveniently located.
It is a small enough community for the students to become known to each other by experience or reputation, and, from that, to demand things of each other, to develop expectations and a sense of accountability.
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My first book, GenderQueer: A Story From a Different Closet, is published by Sunstone Press. It is available on Amazon and Barnes & Noble in paperback, hardback, and ebook, and as ebook only from Apple, Kobo, and directly from Sunstone Press themselves.
My second book, That Guy in Our Women's Studies Class, has also now been published by Sunstone Press. It's a sequel to GenderQueer. It is available on Amazon and on Barnes & Noble in paperback. eBook version and hardback versions to follow, stay tuned for details.
Links to published reviews and comments are listed on my Home Page, for GenderQueer now and for Guy in Women's Studies once they come out.
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This DreamWidth blog is echoed on LiveJournal and WordPress. Please friend/link me from any of those environments on which you have an account.
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Index of all Blog Posts
At the story's open, I -- via my alias in the story, Derek Turner -- am living in the facility while commuting to and from the first SUNY campus where I'm taking my courses.
My books are nonfiction and autobiographical, but I did change all the names, including my own for the sake of consistency, to protect the privacy of a small hanful of characters. I extended that to the naming of the two schools involved, which was probably kind of silly... can't hurt, but there are a limited number of likely campuses and some readers might conclude that the first one is probably SUNY College at Old Westbury.
It has historically been a progressive and experimental campus. It started out with a commitment to student authority in the design of one's own curriculum and course of study, and then later was structured around a mission to provide education for marginalized people who were often bypassed and left out of the opportunities for higher education. The Feminist Press was founded and originally located there, so the flyleaf of quite a few feminist publications were marked with the fact that they'd been printed at SUNY @ Old Westbury.
It's a fairly small college, although some other colleges in the SUNY system have yet smaller enrollments, and yet it sits anchored on a large plot of land (originally the Clark estate, if I recall correctly); students attending there are somewhat isolated and insulated from Hicksville, the nearest community of any size. Old Westbury itself -- the village -- is a world of mansions and old money, horse stables and yet more privacy and isolation, and is not socially a home to the college campus.
Architecturally, the buildings are bright and 1970s-futuristic, neither cubist modern nor self-importantly imposing; a good portion of the pedestrian travel routes take students outdoors or through glass tunnels, and it's a world of windows and walls projecting at interesting and unexpected angles.
The majority of commuter students are suburbanites from nearby communities, whereas a substantial number of the resident students were recruited from traditionally underserved populations from wtihin New York City, along with an additional sprinking of international students. Since the era covered in my book, there have been additional dormitories and additional classroom buildings built, so some of this description may be a bit dated, but I think the depiction still holds for the most part.
Much of the faculty was attracted to the site by its special missions, and then from the cameraderie of being among similar-minded educators with a shared sense of vision and purpose. To an extent that has also been mirrored by the attitudes and perspectives of the students, although mitigated by the presence of students who attend because it is affordable and conveniently located.
It is a small enough community for the students to become known to each other by experience or reputation, and, from that, to demand things of each other, to develop expectations and a sense of accountability.
-----
My first book, GenderQueer: A Story From a Different Closet, is published by Sunstone Press. It is available on Amazon and Barnes & Noble in paperback, hardback, and ebook, and as ebook only from Apple, Kobo, and directly from Sunstone Press themselves.
My second book, That Guy in Our Women's Studies Class, has also now been published by Sunstone Press. It's a sequel to GenderQueer. It is available on Amazon and on Barnes & Noble in paperback. eBook version and hardback versions to follow, stay tuned for details.
Links to published reviews and comments are listed on my Home Page, for GenderQueer now and for Guy in Women's Studies once they come out.
-------
This DreamWidth blog is echoed on LiveJournal and WordPress. Please friend/link me from any of those environments on which you have an account.
--------
Index of all Blog Posts