Tag: students

08/5/14

Modernizing: A New Look for Baruch

See the construction scaffolding above the Vertical Campus?

That’s one phase of a five-year plan implemented by Baruch College, which went into effect last year and will continue to be in effect until 2018. Dubbed the “Strategic Plan,” its mission is to create a brand new way of doing work at Baruch and strengthening the relationship between the faculty and the students. By putting this plan into effect, Baruch College hopes to provide a more collaborative, communicative and enjoyable experience for future undergraduate students.

The ambitious agenda consists of five main goals or phases.

One goal is to expand academic programs including emphasizing various communication fields such as journalism and graphic design.

“I think it’s a good idea because it raises awareness that Baruch is a great example of a high achieving college for intelligent high school students,” said Cheio Santana, a faculty member.

In addition to offering better programs, Baruch would like to strengthen the quality of the campus and its neighboring buildings.

campus_01_BARUCH
Photo Credit: Arch Paper
This is the proposed renovation of the Lawrence and Eris Building. It is part of the second phase of Baruch College’s 2013-2018 Strategic Plan.

Many buildings around the Gramercy community are very outdated and in need of proper wiring for technology.

The oldest building in the campus, the Lawrence and Eris Field Building, hasn’t been renovated since 1929. However, earlier this year, Baruch College announced that a $90 million makeover will take place soon. Antiquated elevators are replaced by modern ones and new glass walls will replace any of the cracked or damaged bricks. This won’t be completed until mid-2015 at the earliest.

“The main purpose of this renovation project is to open up and broaden horizons with a modern look,” said Eric Lugo, the community relations director at Baruch.

Baruch would also like to tackle any weather obstacles. After an especially snowy winter this past year, the president of Baruch, Mitchel Wallerstein, announced that a tent-like cover will be made above the entrance of the Vertical Campus to block the accumulating snow from the trees.

Besides strengthening the quality of the campus, Wallerstein hopes to build connections between the cultural diversity of the student body and the interactions with international students.

 “A global perspective will be the hallmark of the Baruch experience,” Wallerstein said in a statement before the plan was introduced.

Another goal in the agenda is to establish a friendlier, more transparent and comfortable place to study and work.

Basically, it means that Baruch will raise the college’s reputation through an array of messages and other sorts of communication such as phone calls, emails or even from notifications in its own Baruch mobile app.

Another phase in the Strategic Plan is to improve the foundation of the campus and strengthen it financially. Wallerstein explained how establishing a sustainable funding plan is the main priority and how oral communication skills are essential for this to work. As a result, a plan can be developed to generate funding and hopefully the plan will provide more revenue opportunities for others.

Photo: Michael Moran
Photo Credit: Michael Moran
A 25th Street Plaza and a student center is slated to open in the near future.

The other half of this phase is to “expand space and create place.” According to Wallerstein, one of the projects will “build a new student center and a 25th Street Plaza as an important focus for the Baruch community, while renovating new facilities to improve their appearance.”

However, the Strategic Plan will also have a big impact on the Gramercy community as well. Wallerstein said, “We will recommit to deepening our already strong relationships with the local communities that we have traditionally served in New York: businesses large and small, non-profit organizations, or cultural institutions.”

Baruch is dedicated and committed to work toward these goals every day. Each goal will almost certainly change the face of Baruch and hopefully will raise Baruch to a new level of achievement and success.

See you in 2018, Baruch.

08/5/14

Keeping the Bar Up

BrooklynTech
Photo Credit: Wikipedia
Legislators are considering changing the standards of the SHSAT exam, which is the only way to get into Brooklyn Tech, one of the eight elite schools in the city.

A group of legislators has been pushing Albany to increase diversity among the specialized high schools in New York City. On paper, it seems like a great idea for future applicants.

However, to achieve this, the legislators want to change how students are accepted to these prestigious and competitive schools.

“I don’t want them changing the test that gets to Stuy or Tech,” said Kevin Lin, a student that attends Brooklyn Tech.

In their proposal, legislators explained how instead of a single score in the Specialized High School Test (SHSAT) being the determining factor of whether students are accepted or not, there should be multiple factors taken into account. These factors include classroom grades, attendance, and scores from state exams.

This concept seems to make sense because it could broaden the ethnic and racial makeup of the elite schools.

After all, Asians compose about 54% of all students in the eight specialized high schools with whites second at around 30% of the student body. But in New York, Blacks and Hispanics are the two dominant races, combining for 70% of the students attending public schools in the five boroughs.

That’s a stark difference compared to the same races in the students attending these elite schools as blacks and Hispanics were offered seats at a measly 5% and 7%, respectively.

But, if the proposal does go into effect, the special in specialized high school will be nonexistent since anyone could be accepted.

“If people want to get into a specialized high school, they should work for it and the admission test demonstrates if you have the mentality to do so,” said Brandon Chang, a student that attends Stuyvesant.

Also, classroom grades can be biased sometimes because some teachers pick “favorites,” that is they prefer one student to the other. As a result, the “favorite” gets a better grade than the other person.

“The SHSAT is a standardized test that acts like a barrier between the students who have the brainpower to get in and the students who just have high grades from their teachers,” Kevin Lin continued.

Instead of weakening the standards, legislators should find other ways to broaden the racial distribution while maintaining the same high level of excellence.

According to Brooklyn Tech’s school newspaper, The Survey, the alumni suggests increasing expectations and toughening the middle school curriculum in order for middle school students to be able to transition well to high school. They also stressed tutoring as an opportunity for students to keep up and be on the same page.

When the city’s middle schools undergo a makeover and expectations are raised, the number of Blacks or Hispanics in some of the best middle schools should increase. As a result, there would be a better distribution among the races in the city.

According to a news source called ibTimes, many students including Blacks and Latinos weren’t even aware about these testing procedures.

Because of this, a good idea is that all eighth graders should be able to register online automatically in the admission process. Then, they should include an opt-out button for students who don’t want to attend these schools. That way, students are more informed on these competitive schools.

All in all, the SHSAT exam is the only fair way to get accepted because every accepted student has to earn his or her spot in one of the eight elite schools.

08/7/13

Why Does the Gunman Shoot?

painted by Kan MufticWhen one is informed of tragic events that happen on a world scale one may ask himself thought-provoking questions about how this could happen. Some may say that evil is the creation of God. Another would disagree, likening it to the actuality of dark and cold. But consider this. Acts of violence cannot only be attributed to the absence of God but also to inclinations within the human condition. In other words, the human race has the inclination to do something wrong whether it be to cheat on a test or to go so far as to commit an act of violence. The presence of God is what prevents one from committing a wrong thing.

When arguing the validity of God and Christianity some would say that God created everything. In addition to that, some may even imply that, if God created everything, then God created evil since evil exists. Therefore according to the principal that our actions define who we are then, God is evil.

Coming to this conclusion is logical but the flaws in this logic must be exposed. Liken this to the existence of cold. One may say that cold indeed exists simply based on the reason that they have felt cold. In fact cold does not exist. According to the laws of physics, what we consider cold is in actually the absence of heat. Everybody and every object is susceptible to examination when it has or transmits energy, and heat is what makes a body or matter have or transmit energy. Absolute zero is the total absence of heat; all matter becomes incapable of reaction at that temperature. In actuality heat, on Earth, can never be absent. Rather it can vary in its intensity.

One may also believe darkness exists based on what they have experienced. Once again this empirical evidence is baseless and invalid. Darkness is in reality the absence of light. We can study light , but not darkness. We can use Newton’s prism to break white light into many colors and study the various wavelengths of each color.

You cannot measure darkness. How can one know how dark a certain space is? You measure the amount of light present. Darkness is a term used by man to describe what happens when there is no light present.

Now ask yourself does evil exist? Evil in fact does not exist, or at least it does not exist unto itself. Evil is simply the absence of God. It is just like darkness and cold, a word that man has created to describe the absence of Jah. God did not create evil. Evil is not like faith or love that exist just as light and heat do. Evil is the result of what happens when man does not have God’s love in his heart. It’s like the cold that comes when there is no warmth or the darkness that comes when there is no illumination.

The actions of men are those that come from overwhelming inclinations that stem from the human condition. When one does things that seem to defy our nurtured reasoning, that is evidence of the natural inclination of man. Philosophers like Thomas Hobbes and Kongfuzi believed that humans all have a sense of evil within them that must be contained in one way or another. Kongfuzi believed that men should understand the order of respect and mutual respect. He felt that if all men understood those levels of subjugation, evil would have no place and if those who have liberating powers, like fathers and leaders of countries, practiced ultimate benevolence evil would have nowhere to take root.

Thomas Hobbes on the other hand expressed his radical conservativism towards the autocratic subjugation of peoples whether it be brutish or benevolent. To Hobbes all humans were evil and needed to be subject to a higher power. He once said, “The condition of man…is a condition of war of everyone against everyone.” Hobbes implies that men do what they want within the confines of their own material gain. He felt men create a “social contract” between one another so that they may be able to coexist without mutilating one another because that is their natural tendency.

To both of these philosophers of old evil is the constant and goodness is simply a catalyst. However, evil is not the constant. Goodness, kindness and benevolence are the constant but, like heat, vary in intensity. One may ask oneself that if we have this “social contract” why do men kill other men? Well to simply answer, it is the absence of God.

In 2010, America suffered a homicide total of 12,966, 67.5 percent of those homicides were firearm related. This is an ever-so-often occurring issue in America. We hear about these events and then wonder how does God allow these things. Why are they happening? The fear of God is not in the hearts of the men who commit them. They kill for pleasure and even as a quick fix to their own problems. They have disregarded Hobbes’ “social contract” and Kongfuzi’s hierarchy of respects. Evil has outshined the light of goodness.

How can politics solve a problem that is simply more than just crime? This issue is not about how many guns are in the nation. This issue is not about how many bullets are in a clip. This issue is not about some conspiracy to disarm the nation. This issue is an issue within the fabric of humanity and has been and will always be. A man will kill when he feels he wants to. The only way to control this is by regaining the goodness we were born with. We regain it through God.