As part of our research we asked students to log and sketch or map their activities over the course of a typical school day, and interviewed them to learn more about the day they logged. These maps and interviews offer a glimpse into the everyday lives of commuter college students. Visualizing student days in a timeline allows us to explore students’ academic culture outside of the classroom. What do students do during their breaks between classes or their free time on campus? How much time does the commute to campus take each day, and can students recoup that time for academic purposes? What constraints do they encounter as they move through their days on campus, at home, and in other locations?

Ten students at each of the six CUNY colleges in this study completed daily activity logs and sketched maps for us (find our mapping diary protocol on our project website). We used Timeline JS to create timelines of selected students’ days — use the links below to view individual student timelines.

New York City College of Technology, October 26, 2009

Brooklyn College, November 24, 2009

City College, in the Residence Hall, September 29, 2010

City College, October 13, 2010

Bronx Community College, March 2, 2011

Hunter College, April 14, 2011

Borough of Manhattan Community College, May 16, 2011

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