Most colleges depress the hell out of me, but LIU at C.W. Post was actually a pretty terrific experience It really was. Most schools on Long Island are full of phonies trying to look like big shots, but this place actually had some soul to it.
First off, the campus is gorgeous. It doesn't try too hard, but it calms you with how quiet and old-world it feels after some grueling finals.
Look at those brick arches covered in ivy with Tudor style buildings, the manicured hedges and the stone walls. Sometimes I would stand out there in the grass, surrounded by all those green bushes, and i feel like I'm somewhere that actually matters.
They have these huge, fancy stained-glass windows inside with ships carved right into the glass and the university seal in the middle. The light comes streaming through, and it doesn't look cheap or fake at all. It makes you feel sort of peaceful, if you know what I mean.
Even the inside of the library gets to you. You walk down those long, quiet aisles between the tall wooden bookshelves, with the soft carpet and the bright fluorescent lights overhead, and you see someone standing way at the far end by the glass doors, waving back at you like you're the only two people in the world.
It's a great setup for actually getting some work done without a bunch of phonies yelling in the halls.
And when they put on a graduation event, they really do it right. Out on the lawn at night, they set up all these round tables with white tablecloths and little glowing candles, right under the trees while the sun goes down behind the main building with the cupola on top.
Then they've got that massive white tent pitched for the graduation ceremony, colleges of management they're holding, packed full of students ready to get their degrees under a big green LIU Post banner hanging right in the middle.
I really missed it, so I went to graduate school there as well. My father was a tenored professor an sometimes we shared lunch together in the cafeteria or in his office. It really hits you right in the gut now, it really does.
Seeing that bronze plaque in his honor hanging there on the wall "The Department of Criminal Justice, In Loving Memory of GEORGE VAN NOSTRAND, Public Servant, Teacher, and Colleague." It says right on it that his love of God and country, combined with his desire for knowledge, made him the perfect role model and mentor for students. Dedicated April 23, 2008.
That's not just some phony corporate sign or a piece of plastic meant to impress visitors. That's real. Knowing your dad was a professor right there in those halls, teaching people, actually caring about what he was doing, and leaving something behind that people still stop and read and remember.
Fir me, it turns a beautiful campus into something personal. I still walk past those brick arches and stained-glass windows, down those long library aisles, and you aren't just visiting, i am walking in his footsteps, finishing what he was all about. It kills me how special that is, it really does.
What's your favorite memory of him teaching or working around the department? read more
