Students Are Settling in at Southampton
 Kate Maier
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(10/02/2008) The manicured lawns at Stony Brook Southampton were speckled last week with some of the 300 full-time students enrolled there — lounging, running, practicing yoga, doing things college kids do.
This year over 150 of them live on campus, more than double last year’s number. As the campus enters its second year as a full-fledged member of the state university system, the seeds of student culture are taking root in the ashes of Southampton College, a former Long Island University campus that once was home to more than 1,400 students.
New clubs have been formed in surfing, creative writing, and ultimate Frisbee, “like they used to have here in the old days,” said Darren Johnson, the school’s media relations manager.
Mr. Johnson, who started at Southampton College as a writing student in 1988, went into the field of journalism and returned to Southampton for a master’s degree, also in writing. Now he’s getting set to move his office to a building where he used study, the former school library. For him, watching the campus redevelop brings on excitement and nostalgia.
“A lot of things are the same,” he said. “I find them hanging out in the same places,” even telling tales about the same “haunted windmill.”
A new library is set to open next fall; meanwhile, students have access to the Southampton Village library and the one at the State University at Stony Brook. Southampton students can order books from that library to be delivered the next day, or they can take a 40-minute shuttle to the main campus, where many of them are obliged to take classes anyway.
The windmill is undergoing a facelift with help from a $200,000 donation from an anonymous alumnus. After the college was “abandoned” in 2004, Mr. Johnson said, the blades weren’t turned and subsequently rotted away.
The interior has now been renovated, as well as half the facade. The plan is to use the historic space for small receptions.
Many have asked Mr. Johnson if the windmill will be used to harness energy once the blades are working; it will not. But it is an important symbol nonetheless, he said, not only for some 10,000 former students, like himself, who “really don’t have an alma mater,” but also of the sustainable vision the present school’s curriculum is built around.
Besides the marine science and graduate writing programs, majors this year include ecosystems and human impact; environmental design, policy, and planning; sustainability studies, and environmental studies. The college plans to include a “green” business major by next year.
The student body may be flush with future marine scientists and others ready to clean up the mess prior generations have left. But it doesn’t take much more than a second look to find the typical college frosh in the mix.
“I’m just trying to not be a waitress my whole life,” said Danielle Muratore, a first-year student from Selden who commutes home on weekends to work at the Applebee’s there. “I might do something with art, maybe . . . and I do like the environment,” she added as she pushed an organic meal from the school’s cafeteria around her plate during the school’s Harvest Dinner.
On Sept. 23, students who stopped by the dining hall were treated to a selection of delicacies culled from a 40-by-40-foot garden maintained over the summer by a handful of growers. Leading them was James Hoffmann, a professor with degrees in plant biology and computer science.
At Stony Brook Southampton, Dr. Hoffmann has taught classes in ecology and the sustainability of the pine barrens, as well as one teaching students how to simulate ecosystem models on computers.
Although the population is relatively small, dorm life seems to be flourishing as it would at any college. “My suite in my building is pretty cool,” offered Ms. Muratore, who sported a freshly shorn pixie-style bob that complemented her lip ring. “We hang out a lot . . . we cut our hair today in the bathroom,” she said.
Because the admission standards at Southampton are the same as at its sister school, commonly referred to as “big Stony Brook,” Mr. Johnson speculated that SAT scores are a lot higher now than they were when he attended the private college there. For many students, the decision to attend Stony Brook Southampton didn’t come until after reading the fine print.
“I sort of stumbled upon the Web site, after I got accepted, and knew this was the place for me,” said Jessica Adamowicz, a freshman from Queens who was busy working on her first story for the student newspaper she had volunteered to run.
Clad in kelly-green Converse All-Stars and a matching green and white striped shirt, she hopped from table to table grabbing bits of interviews from key players at the Harvest Dinner, including Dr. Hoffmann, the school’s cafeteria director, two guest chefs, Peter Dunlop and John Stella, and a table full of outsiders wearing gingham, flannel, and blue jeans.
Rex Farr, the vice president of the Northeast Organic Farming Association, was flanked by a handful of couples who had contributed produce and information from their own farms.
“I was editor in chief of my high school paper, and at orientation I asked about it,” and found out that so far, the college didn’t have one, said Ms. Adamowicz. “I thought, every college should have a newspaper,” so she’s intent on starting one.
Stephanie Wade, who teaches undergraduate writing and runs the school’s writing center, an “incubator of ideas” where she hopes not only to improve students’ techniques but also to design community outreach programs, lives in Northwest Woods. She began her teaching career at the main campus and is in her second year at Southampton.
“It’s wonderful to be surrounded by students, and when I ask them, ‘Why are you here?’ they say, ‘I want to change the world,’ ” she said.
“We’d like to welcome not only students but staff and faculty,” announced Dr. Hoffmann as he pitched the gardening club to the half-filled dining room. After tweaking the ventilation system in the greenhouse, he said, the group hopes to grow herbs and vegetables for the cafeteria to use year round.
Each garbage bin at the school is separated into three compartments, for paper, bottles, and common refuse. In the cafeteria, students are asked to scrape their plates into a separate bin for organic waste. “If you’re interested in composting — a glamorous subject, and a very important subject — we’re going to be doing that as well,” Dr. Hoffmann said.
Since the beginning of the term, the garden club’s membership has increased by over 20 students, he said. He hopes it continues to grow.
The marine science component was represented at Tuesday’s dinner with crab-stuffed squash blossoms and fresh scallops. Sarah Broadwell, a student who fishes commercially out of Montauk, was supposed to bring the scallops, but high winds prevented her from fishing that weekend.
Ms. Broadwell is a shining student, Dr. Hoffmann said, “really committed to understanding” the effects of her trade on the bottomlands, and her work brings a unique perspective to class discussions.
The food is usually up to snuff on campus, said Autumn Droste, a commuter student who helped maintain the garden over the summer, but the scallops were not a typical menu item. Wherever the kitchen managed to procure them from, they certainly made a splash, as did a student-produced butternut squash soup, apple cider, and habanero hot sauce.
“The scallops were just caught about a half hour ago,” said Joe Glorioso, the assistant director of the cafeteria. “It doesn’t get any fresher.”