Five Seventy Four is the address for one of the new buildings on campus; it’s a warehouse-looking building on the outside, but it is one of the most colorful, well designed buildings on campus. It is formally called the Collaborative Learning and Innovation Complex (shortened to CLIC) but all students call it Five Seventy Four. It is home to the Entrepreneurial Leadership Studies program, the Physics department, and the Engineering Psychology program. For me, it is almost exclusively a study spot; I spent 11 straight days of finals last year studying there. I’ve greeted friends, laughed uncontrollably on the couches, and said goodbye to friends going abroad. I’ll show up there and find a friend already sitting at the table, and luckily for me, the tables are pretty much always free.
My favorite spot is the lounge on the third floor. It’s got two tables, a massive couch (which my friends nicknamed “the antibody”) and two whiteboards. The chairs roll around really easily on the hardwood floors, so you can race down the hallways in them (shh!!).
But the best part of this aesthetically beautiful building is Paul. Paul is the lab coordinator for the Physics department, and he can be found in 574 very late at night. He is a friendly sight to see as he jumps between classrooms with various mechanical systems used for the labs. He will stop by our table to show us how a disk drive works. When he sees us charging laptops, he’ll wordlessly bring over an extra power cord. When my roommate was drawing organic structures on the white board to study for Biochem, he asked her about what she is learning and what the various shapes mean. Sometimes, you’ll catch him in the right time and he’ll share cookies or chocolate with you too.
In day to day life at college, it is easy to get caught up in workloads and activities. My favorite parts of Tufts are the small gestures from people that make me happy every single day.