When asked her favorite place on campus, senior Tatyana Anand does not even need a beat to think before grinning and answering: “Case, obviously.”

While many Colgate students spend their free hours working relentlessly within the walls of Colgate’s library, Anand has an outlook that counters the common sense of dread that accompanies Case-Geyer. A resident of the fourth floor back corner, she spends her time curled up in one of the comfortable chairs or hunched at a cubicle working on her psychology thesis. It has become part of her Colgate experience, but even more so, her identity. 

“I’ve been a library person my whole life. There is something so special about this library, because of how socially flexible it is,” she says. “My theory of why I love this place is because it’s perfectly normal to sit alone not talking to anyone, but also you have the choice to socialize when you want to. You can be surrounded by people but not say anything,” Anand explains. 

Her seemingly peculiar passion for Colgate’s library is a much larger reflection of what a unique and impassioned person she is. She has lived all across the world, spending her formative years in Mumbai, India, a place that was hard to transition to but quickly became, and remains, a place that feels like home. Currently, she lives in Berkeley, CA with both parents working at University of California, Berkeley as professors. 

When she is not burning the midnight oil on Case’s fourth floor corner, she is an active member of Colgate’s Swinging ‘Gates, an a cappella group on campus. Too scared to audition her first and second year, she was a member of the University Chorus. Junior year, Anand realized choral music was not her vibe and put herself out there to audition in front of peers. The outcome? Not only does Anand have the opportunity to sing songs she loves, but it is the people that make it special. 

“I made a lot of friends. I feel I made friends with people I never would have had the chance to even meet had I not joined,” she said. 

As a senior reflecting back on her time at Colgate, alongside the Swinging ‘Gates and Case Geyer Library, the Psychology department stands out in her academic career. Her seminal work within the department has culminated in the writing of her senior thesis, focusing on bisexuality. Anand is specifically exploring the ways in which the flexible aspect of the bisexual identity has created a trend in which they are perceived as less trustworthy. 

“I love my professors and I just love the Psych department,” Anand reflects.

In looking to the future with graduation looming, psychology hopefully remains part of it. Her end goal is to be a professor of psychology herself—maybe she’d even like to live in Hamilton.