The Ithacan’s photo team invited Ithaca College students and professors to share the at-home workspaces that they created for the remote fall semester. The college’s campus provides plenty of dedicated spaces where focus and productivity are the goals — the Ithaca College Library, computer lounges, study lounges and professors’ offices, to name a few. Now that those spaces are inaccessible, students and professors are forced to innovate.
Students strive to create spaces that inspire them and keep them motivated. Their bedrooms became the classroom, the library and the dorm room all at once. The same place meant for relaxation and sleeping must now be equally suitable for the fleeting sense of focus that can only be found on the fifth floor of the library. Professors no longer have regular access to their offices on campus, dedicated places to be in work mode. Instead, they must carve out office spaces in often cramped and chaotic homes.
Freshman Alyssa Beebe, “At home, my workspace needs to be open and clean or else I will stress out more. At the end of each day, the laptop, notebooks and textbooks are closed and organized so each morning is a fresh start.”
Sophomore Anna McCracken, “Gotta stay hydrated! But also try to keep my workspace as clean as possible.”
Susan Delaney, Integrative Core Curriculum director and associate professor in the Department of Writing, “This semester finds me — literally — facing the cubbies of this desk, my school-issue laptop perched on a pile of books and wooden boxes to reach the desired ergonomic height, my chair borrowed from the kitchen. The desk is littered with my attempts at doing this new version of my job better (like the extra monitor I rarely use) but also with talismans: a dragonfly wing in a glass block frame, a small bronze Durga given to me by a therapist while I was up for tenure, a photo of my wife and I on the day we married in Provincetown, [Massachusetts]. I have curtains behind me to give the illusion to all I visit via Zoom that I’m in a finished space.”
Freshman Adylise Nicholas, “I am a first–year film, photography and visual arts major, and I wanted a new workspace that could inspire me when working.”
Freshman Deena Houissa, “My workspace has mostly personal items and K-pop albums as well as my computer and camera for ‘[Introduction] to Photography.’”
Junior Mikayla Rovenolt, “This workspace is different from my remote spring semester since I’ve moved from Danville, [Pennsylvania], to Ithaca. It’s a comfy area, but it’s not the same as being home. My desk there is surrounded by a ton of artwork and is honestly a headache of color, but I enjoy it. I tried to bring some of that color with me when I moved.”
Jaime Warburton, assistant professor in the Department of Writing, “I miss my office in Smiddy Hall, which is filled with rosy light that comes in through the curtains, books, snacks and more art and action figures than you can imagine. But I’ve carved out space in a sunny corner of the guest room where I’ve added some Carrie Fisher quotes and a cushy place for the cat to lie, and it feels a bit like a portal to campus.”
Freshman Paige Tolan, “My desk has been decorated in a way that makes me excited to work. Because I spend more than half of my day here, it was important for me to make it bright, colorful and clean.”
Sophomore Lucas Cavanagh, “Over the past few months, I’ve found that I spend a lot of time at my desk. Whether it’s for Zoom calls with friends, class, work or just for fun, my workspace is sort of like an all–in–one battle station.”
