Author Archives: r.ibrahim

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Draft Ray

Ronald Reagan was the president of the United States of America from 1981 to 1989.  He is beloved by many Americans today, and this is no accident.  Reagan worked hard to control the legacy he would leave behind after he was no longer president, often working very subtly to do so.  One striking example of this is In Reagan’s farewell speech – he repeatedly mentions some form of the word “America,” linking it with other positive concepts such as money, human rights, freedom and the pilgrims.  In doing so he subtly links his presidency to the concept of being American, and then links the idea of being American to everything good in the world. Patriotism is a very strong factor in American culture, and Reagan takes advantage of this. He creates a legacy that Americans would feel emotionally connected to – after all, it’s much harder to feel antipathy towards someone your subconscious has linked to a significant part of your identity.

One of his strongest and most obvious links he creates is between America and freedom. Of course, he is not the first president to link America and freedom. In fact all of the presidents have likely done so multiple times in their presidency. However, he works much more subtly than simply stating something as simplistic as, “America means freedom.” Instead, Reagan brings up an anecdotal feel good story. He sets the scene by describing a boat carrying refugees from Asia to America as being a “leaky, little boat.” This is incredibly important. These refugees have been set up as weak, and almost pathetic. Their boat isn’t only little, but its leaky. Then he says one of the refugees called out to the American sailor “Hello American sailor. Hello freedom man.”   The refugees have essentially been reduced to children, calling out for the adults (the Americans) to save them. This no doubt swelled up the ego of most Americans listening to this speech – they are the saviors and are such good people too – after all they are helping these people who have been set up as being so defenseless. Reagan doesn’t stop there however. He says “Because this is what it meant to be an American in the 1980s. We stood again, for freedom.” This isn’t something that happened in the general history of America – it’s something that happened in the 1980s, in Reagan’s America. He dresses this up by using the words “we” and speaking in the third person, but that’s the real subconscious connection he has set up (Reagan=savior).

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Intro Ray

Ronald Reagan was the president of the United States of America from 1981 to 1989. He is beloved by conservatives today, and this is no accident. Reagan worked hard to control the legacy he would leave behind after he was no longer president, often working very subtly to do so. One striking example of this is in Reagan’s farewell speech – he repeatedly mentions the word “freedom,” often linking it with other concepts Americans love, such as money. In doing so he subtly links his presidency not only to freedom, but to a lot of other positive concepts as well, even things not directly linked to him or freedom. Reagans popularity shows that Americand have an idea of freedom that doesn’t match the standard- it is so much more than that to Anericans. to the people of 1989 (at least the ones Reagan was focusing upon) freedom was the embodiment of everything good in the world, and relatedly, it was also quintessentially American to them.

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Indian Reading

The writing was trying to bring to light the author’s struggles as a Native American going to an American “white man” school.  The story seems to be fairly old, from before the 20th century began.   One thing she mentions a lot is how people stare at her, and how uncomfortable this makes her feel.  On the train both children and adults look at her, and her “mocassin” feet, and this brings her almost to tears.  This is probably the strongest statement of her struggles as a Native American – she is stared at as if she is a novelty, contributing to her feeling of being an outsider.  By bringing it up more than once, it really hammers in the point how such a seemingly small thing badly affected her.

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On Top of The World

I’ve selected the song, On Top of The World,by Imagine Dragons.  The song equates being on top with being happy.  The basic meaning is supposed to be inspirational, with the song aiming to get you to believe that you accomplish your dreams, and how you can do so.  Two interesting lines were “Now take it in but don’t look down”  and “But get up now, get up, get up now .”  You can see that the song not only equates being on top with success/happiness, but encourages people not to even look down, which is equivalent to feeling bad/down, on their journey to the top.  Similiarly getting up would be like trying again, to try to reach the top.

 

 

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Dorm Edited Part

Lastly, a community of scholars needs more than just fast elevators and shuttle buses; it needs green spaces that can improve the health and well-being of its students. One glaring difference between Baruch and the ideal college we imagined is the lack of greenery, and this cannot be ignored. The advantages that greenery provides students are vast. Studies done by Classroom in Nature, reveal that learning outdoors increases students’ cognitive and comprehension abilities due to the utilization of senses. The outdoor environment allows for more practical conversations and changes the students’ perspectives of their teachers. Furthermore, the students become engaged when they aren’t confined by the classroom. If we employed green spaces on campus, we would facilitate a more productive learning environment for all students at Baruch College. The benefits do not end there;  studies done by mental health experts at the University of Exeter Medical School show that greenery lowers stress levels and improves long term mental health. There are multiple options to choose from when incorporating greenery. One way is to plant trees around the campus, which could have a major impact on students during times of high stress. We can follow City College’s example and bring greenery to Baruch by getting volunteers from “Million Trees NYC” to come down to our campus. Another alternative would be a roof-top garden on either the Mason Hall building or the Vertical Campus. Adding a garden would be simple, only requiring a small renovation. Once again, we can look to CCNY’s new green building as an example for this project.

Professional organizations and groups are not the only places from which we can get help. Student organizations and clubs can help integrate greenery as well. One method to get students involved is to offer them community service hours in exchange for their time and efforts. You can utilize the community you have created in Baruch, and allow it to come together and help the school grow.

We leave here in hopes of change. We hope you will keep our speech in mind as you consider how to make this school—our school—even better. It is time to renovate, build community, and increase access, to make Baruch home- everybody’s home. We could say it’s impossible to make such an ideal vision of a campus community at Baruch, but we know that the impossible is only a series of smaller possibilities. Before the renovations of the Newman Vertical Campus, think how many said it was impossible for Baruch to secure a place as a graduating four year institution let alone a prominent place in the lower east side skyline. But now Baruch is in the sky and student loyalty has skyrocketed, with the first year student retention rate currently standing at 91%. If the same is done for the Lawrence and Eris Building, we think Baruch could soar. We can achieve these changes; if we did it once- we can do it again. For the students. For us. For Baruch.

 

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Corrected Dorm Paragraph To Use

Of course, simply stating that shuttle buses should be implemented fails to take into account how to pay for it.  For the increased convenience, comfort and nurturing of a more ideal dorming experience, dormers can burden the cost of the shuttle bus service.  We would be grateful for any subsidization Baruch could provide, but believe that the immense benefit the shuttle bus provides would be well worth paying for.  Moreover, Baruch students are already paying for transportation in the form of micro purchases when they swipe their metro card every day – it would be much less noticeable if the cost was just included in their college bills.

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Dorms

2) Our section should either be put at the beginning, or in the middle.

3)  Using a phrase like “Our first/second suggestion to improve the Baruch experience is to make dorm life better”

4) things that are needed bold – it’s fine to cut down on the sentences/words, but keep the general meanings of the bolded parts.

5). things that can definitely be cut italicized

 

 

Dorm life has been a quintessential trademark of the college life for a long time. The dorms encourage students to make friends, provide students with their first taste of independence and help create a learning environment with many scholars under one roof. The principle purpose of dorms is to make the college feel like the students’ second home. When people think of dorms, they think of a feeling of closeness existing between the student and his/her campus. However, the Baruch dorms fail to provide that feeling of closeness. The college is located on 23rd street and Lexington avenue, while the dorms are all the way on 97th street and 3rd Ave 70 blocks away,, which equates to a half hour commute if the students are lucky.  Often they aren’t – the 6 train is either delayed or has planned work 23% of the time.  This is in addition to the fact that students have to pay around $800 dollars a year in subway costs, while already paying around $12,000 in room and board costs.  
There are ways to make the dorms feel closer. A very plausible solution to this distance issue is to follow the example of City College of New York and implement a shuttle bus service. While a shuttle bus service won’t physically make the dorms and college closer, it will create a feeling of closeness. Maybe one day the CUNY system will do a major reorganization of the dorms in its colleges and switch the Baruch dorms with the Hunter dorms that are located near Baruch, thus making each dorm closer to its respective college. However, right now what a shuttle bus service will allow the students to do, is to travel to and from school in an easy fashion.
Of course, simply saying shuttle buses should be implemented isn’t all it takes to accomplish that task. The financial burden it would take must be taken into consideration. The shuttle bus service, would run three times in the morning and three times in the evening. We have calculated that each student who dorms could pay $500 more a year to cover for most of the cost – the rest of the cost would just amount to five dollars per student who doesn’t dorm.  We have taken into account the cost of the buses, bus driver salaries, and the cost of gas.  We are, of course, open to discussing how we did our calculations with you, since we’re sure you have more financial information than us, but we are sure that we’re in the right ballpark.  Dormers already have to pay around $800/year for subway fare, so paying the $500 would actually save them money, along with creating a  genuine dorming experience.
Living in New York City has its advantages and faults. Unfortunately, the students of Baruch will never truly have the full dorming experience due to the city’s limits. The Baruch administration can bring the students of the dorms closer to that experience by making the college campus feel like home. Facilitating the feeling of closeness is possible with the shuttle bus service, and if the administration is willing to work with students, Baruch will be able to provide its dorming population the full college experience.
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Intoduction and Conclusion

Introduction:

Hello everyone, I’m glad that you’re all here.  Always progressing, innovating and striving towards improvement is the hallmark of business, and it is fitting that Baruch, one of the top undergraduate schools in the nation for business should do so as well.  You have all worked hard on improving the Baruch experience, and half the battle is identifying what the issues that students really care about are.  We are here today, as students, to let you know what we believe should be your next focus.  Fixing the elevators in the Lawrence and Eris building is critical, as this issue inconveniences thousands of students every day.  Adding greenery is also important, as many studies have shown that doing so has many positive benefits.  Lastly, we believe that making the commute for dormers easier is important, as it will let them experience a more quintessential dorming experience.  We have also come up with a variety of ways in which these issues can be addressed.

Conclusion:

I hope you will keep our speech in mind as you consider how to make yours, and our, school better.  These are important issues, and we have all thought long and hard about the solutions we shared with you today.  We know that we may not have accounted for everything, and that some things we ask may not actually be feasible or possible; all we ask is that you try to fix these issues in anyway you can, even if our specific methods are insufficient.  Most of the benefits of the things we suggest right now would not be immediate, and would take several years to implement.  We understand this, but don’t mind, because we want the same thing as you; a better experience for future Baruch students.  Thank you for listening to us, and we hope you enjoy your evening.

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Dorm Experience Enhancement 2

Hello Baruch Administrators, fellow students, and faculty. We are here to suggest an idea for an improvement of the college experience for the 240 students that pay to live in the Baruch dorms. Baruch is located on 24th street and Lexington Ave. However, the Baruch dorms are located on 97th street and 3rd Ave., approximately 70 blocks away from the college. A major reason students choose to dorm is to reduce the commute, but students that dorm in Baruch still face the hassle of commuting. We will show that there are feasible solutions to this issue of commuting.

Ideally, a quick fix to this problem would be purchasing a building that is closer to Baruch. But of course, this is an unrealistic solution. A more logical approach would be to implement a shuttle bus service, and this would not cost that much.  The four major costs associated with operating a shuttle bus would be the gas, insurance, the driver’s paychecks and actually buying the bus.

Buses generally get 4-9 MPG. Baruch is about 3.5 miles away from the dorms, so that’s 7 miles in one day if we assume the shuttle bus will take students to Baruch and back. Taking the midpoint of that MPG range (6.5) we get that it would require 1.07 gallons every day per bus. Buses can carry around 40 people, so 6 buses would be required a day, which means 6.42 gallons of gas a day would be used on this. Gas prices vary depending on where you’re getting your gas from/it just generally fluctuates but it goes for about 4 dollars a gallon on average. This means that’s $25.68 a day. There are about 20 school days a month, but we have around a third of December off. So that’s 73 days a term, which means the total cost would be 73*25.68 = $1874.64 per term. So around $3750 a year. However people have varying class start times and end times, so a bus would have to come before the earliest possible class and after the latest possible class, which would make this system almost entirely useless. Therefore, you would have to split it apart into 3 different trips at different times in the morning, and three trips back in the afternoon/evening to try to account for everyone. This multiplies the cost by three to $11250 per term, which means 22,500 a year.

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Dorm Research Rayhanul

The two most important things regarding providing transport from the dorm to Baruch is cost and convincing non-dorm students that it’s worth it.

Cost:

Using Shuttle Bus: Buses generally get 4-9 MPG (http://www.limo.org/Upload/Operator-Need-To-Know/Need%20To%20Know%20Buy%20Bus.pdf), and there are 240 Baruch students living in the dorms (http://www.baruch.cuny.edu/studentaffairs/housing/index.html).  Baruch is about 3.5 miles away from the dorms, so that’s 7 miles in one day if we assume the shuttle bus will take students to Baruch and back.  Taking the midpoint of that MPG range (6.5) we get that it would require 1.07 gallons every day per bus.  Buses can carry around 40 people, so 6 buses would be required a day, which means 6.42 gallons of gas a day would be used on this.  Gas prices vary depending on where you’re getting your gas from/it just generally fluctuates but it goes for about 4 dollars a gallon on average.  This means that’s $25.68 a day.  There are about 20 school days a month, but we have around a third of December off.  So that’s 73 days a term, which means the total cost would be 73*25.68 = $1874.64 per term.  So around $3750 a year.

However people have varying  class start times and end times, so a bus would have to come before the earliest possible class and after the latest possible class, which would make this system almost entirely useless.  Therefore, you would have to split it apart into 3 different trips at different times in the morning, and three trips back in the afternoon/evening to try to account for everyone.  This multiplies the cost by three to $11250 per term, which means 22,500 a year.

Of course this does not account for the cost of buying 6 shuttle buses, mainteinance , insurance and the cost of a driver.  A bus driver costs 15/hr, and would drive for 6 hours a day most likely, so that’s 90 dollars a day and 90*73 is 6570 a term.  13140 a year.

Insurance is 342 a month,so that’s 4104 a year.

I couldn’t find costs for mainteinance and the actual buses – so more research needs to be done on this, but right now the total cost would of a shuttle bus would be 39744.

Insurance and driver source;http://www.limo.org/Upload/Operator-Need-To-Know/Need%20To%20Know%20Buy%20Bus.pdf

 

Providing Student Metrocards: High schools often provide student metrocards.  There are 550,000 students who use these, and it costs the MTA about 161,500,000 a year to provide this (http://secondavenuesagas.com/2009/12/14/to-save-money-mta-may-axe-student-metrocards/).  For high school students 90 million dollars is covered by the city and state but we can assume they won’t be eager to cover the cost for Baruch students.  Student metrocards have 3 rides a day on them, but Baruch students would only need 2 a day.  So we can cut the cost by 1/3 to $108,205,000.  If we do $108,205,000/550,000 we get 196 dollars a year per student.  Multiply this by 240, and you get 47000 for the total cost to Baruch.

However what if we just provide regular metrocards?  There are fewer school days in a college school year than a high school one.  So with 150 days in a full school year, 240 students and 5 dollars a day for back and forth transit, we get 187,500. From this you can see that the regular metrocards have an actual margin, while student metrocards would be provided at cost.  This makes me feel that the MTA would be unlikely to do that.  Give these two stats, I think the shuttle bus would be the better option

Non-Dorm Students

I don’t see non-dorm students being willing to accept this unless the cost was shifted onto the dormers.  For the shuttle bus that would add 39744/240 = $165.6 per year to each student (if you have 6 total bus rides a day), which is an inconsequential cost given that the cost of campus room and board costs 14672 right now.   (https://www.cappex.com/colleges/CUNY-Bernard-M-Baruch-College/tuition-and-costs).  Providing student metrocards would cost slightly more (but is unlikely that the MTA would be willing to agree to this since they’re already losing money on student metrocards) while providing regular metrocards preloaded with 5 dollars a day would cost over four times as much.

Overall, unless I messed up on my math, it would not be too expensive for the dormers, so a shuttle bus is feasible.  I am unsure when the earliest and latest Baruch classes are, so more than 6 bus trips a day might be needed.  Even if we doubled it to $330 (assuming twice as many bus trips), and then rounded that cost up to 400 to account for inefficiencies that cost is still inconsequential compared to the current campus room and board cost.