aye Foster (’89) can’t help but smile as she thinks back on her time at Baruch College. “Long days,” she laughs, “and longer nights.”
Ms. Foster’s experience was not unique. Like thousands of Baruch alumni, she attended the College’s Evening Session—a distinct, longstanding program that allowed students to work full time during the day while pursuing their degrees part or full time at night. In many ways, the Evening Session was a world unto itself, separate and distinct from Day Session, with its own faculty, staff, students, and activities.
“Maybe we bonded over our shared misery,” jokes Foster, an immigrant from Barbados who also served as president of the Evening Session Student Assembly (ESSA), the nighttime equivalent of the Day Session Student Government. She fondly recalls her busy days working as a manager at Donnelley Directories (which owned the Yellow Pages), then hustling across town to get to class at Baruch, grabbing food along the way. “Baruch’s wonderful, supportive community taught us lessons well beyond the classroom,” she says.
Although Baruch has since discontinued separate daytime and nighttime sessions—now offering flexible schedules that enable students to take a variety of day, night, weekday, weekend, and online classes—the impact of Evening Session, with its hard-working, dedicated alumni and emphasis on mentorship and professional development, can still be felt today.
