INTRODUCTION:

Esteemed administrators and faculty, fellow students, and members of the Baruch community, I’d like to thank you all for this opportunity to discuss our vision. Before we began, I’d like to ask you to close your eyes: Imagine an open area, with plenty of greens, a few benches, perhaps even some walkways and flowers for reflection. On one end a small group is testing the power of the wind with a small apparatus constructed in a physical science class.   Standing on a bench a young man practices a public speech. Two women gather footage for a campaign proposal for the city parks. In the center a large group pours over the great works of Shakespeare. Here is a community of scholars, coming together for the common purpose of knowledge, progress, and innovation. Their conversations and debates extend beyond the class time and into their social and their everyday routines. Now open your eyes. Welcome back to Manhattan.   For years, the vision we have just taken you through has been the ideal university and perhaps the standard for the liberal arts college.

We are fortunate and proud to be members of Baruch College. We do not want to be Harvard. We do not want to be UC Berkeley. We do not want to be Wesleyan. We are a superb institution with a nationally renowned business program; we are public; we are diverse; and we are CUNY. We want to be Baruch. Perhaps with the realities of Manhattan (space and high cost of living), public institution (bureaucracy and budgets) being Baruch seems totally distant than that ideal we saw with our eyes closed. With our eyes open Baruch is a commuter school, a vertical campus, with people constantly rushing to and from jobs, families, more jobs, the trains, class, internships, and committees.   We are aware that the college is about to undergo some major renovations, and we have come here to say that as you consider those changes, we believe that being Baruch doesn’t have to be so distant from that ideal. We believe that building a better Baruch must involve keeping in mind not necessarily that exact image of the ideal but its underlying principle of a scholarly community that integrates the academics of the classroom and the learning of everyday life and nature.   There are many ways to accomplish this goal, but we stand here today in hopes of offering a few ideas. We have targeted areas that we as students are passionate about, and we appreciate your taking these ideas into serious consideration.

 

 

CONCLUSION:

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 possibles. 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 sky rocketed, 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.