Walk into Hunter College of the City University of New York on the Upper East Side, here, and you’re bombarded with more sites, smells, and sounds than 42nd Street-Times Square during rush hour. Serving more than 20’000 students, and part of a university system (CUNY) that serves some 270’000 students, Hunter College is no place for the easily distracted. Focus is almost impossible to come by.
Students rush through the corridors with the same hurried gait as a Midtown business crowd. Does anyone have time to stop and think? Multiple boom boxes blare their sounds from a cacophony of student groups, all competing for the attention of a hurriedly passing crowd. Student Athletics. Lesbian Rising. Minority Association. Moot Court Group. Religious, cultural, and ethnic groups tempt passing students with foods that emit an incompatible array of smells. The louder the better, the bolder the stronger.
No wonder student focus seems to be lacking here. It’s all you can do to remember where you’re going, not be swept up in the crowds, join an impromptu dance party, fast-breaking feast, food drive for the poor, or other worldly cause.
(In comparison, Times Square seems peaceful.)