Category: New York City

Greetings Professor, 

First and foremost I have the utmost respect for you and all my professors. I love this class and the material is fascinating. I will remember it forever. 

Treating people respectfully is more important than anything. That goes triple for you. I’m 45 years old and I can handle a no. 

I just like to mention that upfront because I’m CUNY for life. I’m going to graduate from Baruch College and then I’m off to a CUNY graduate school. 

I want to remain on the best of terms with the entire staff at CUNY and I don’t want anyone to think I’m complaining. I make the best of all situations. That’s how I landed at CUNY.

I am requesting to take Wednesday’s exam next week instead of this week.  

If the answer is no, I 100 percent respect your decision and I’ll make the best of the situation. Either way, I’m studying every waking hour minus work I have to do for other classes. 

I have a good handle on all the material.

I’m not looking to change the rules. I’m not looking for special treatment. I’m merely presenting my situation and asking what the policy is regarding a one-time extension for this one exam. 

I do not speak with any students in the class. I don’t speak with any students in the whole school. 

The reason being is that I’m 45 years old. Furthermore, I’ve been living in the street homeless for the past five years. 

I don’t drink. I don’t smoke. I don’t have a criminal record. Just bad credit, no money, and evictions on my record. 

I mention that because usually when people mention homeless a number of individuals think trouble. Homeless people have a bad reputation. 

The reality of the situation is that there are a lot of homeless people like me. No one would know we are homeless unless we tell them. We are doing everything like everyone else, except at the end of the night, we sleep in cars and the train. 

I’ve been a full time student at CUNY for two years. Street homeless the whole time.

I don’t think the majority of student’s parents would want their children associating with homeless people so I keep to myself. 

I always treat the Baruch College staff with the utmost respect at all times with zero exceptions. The only time I interact with students is during mandatory in class student projects. 

If a comet hits the earth, I will not ask for another extension for any assignment or exam. 

Now that I understand how the class works, I will catch up and stay up with the material. 

I think I can do OK under the circumstances as it stands now.

What put it over the top and made me want to ask is that I’m at the Mount Sinai Hospital Emergency Room right now and I might have to come back here on Tuesday or Wednesday to another department where I’ve been before. 

Plus I’m not even sure if I have the right material for the exam. Meaning the two poems and two stories.

Please let me know if you require any additional information from me. I can provide all documentation to back up the information in this email. 

I don’t lie to anyone at CUNY or anywhere for that matter. There is no need to. When I’m out in the street the way I am, things happen and sometimes I end up in the hospital. This isn’t including urgent care visits.

I’m mostly healthy. I have all my shots, I’ve been tested for many things. I had a negative COVID test today at CityMD. I keep as clean as humanly possible for a homeless person. 

February and March 2022 Hospital Emergency Room Visits:

March 21, 2022 Mount Sinai Hospital Emergency Room (here now). 

March 14, 2022 Mount Sinai Hospital Emergency Room 

March 1, 2022 NYU Langone Hospital Emergency Room 

February 19, 2022 New York Presbyterian Hospital Emergency Room

February 18, 2022 New York Presbyterian Hospital Emergency Room

February 16, 2022 NYU Langone Hospital Emergency Room 

February 12, 2022 New York Presbyterian Hospital Emergency Room 

Please let me know if you require any additional information from me. I will gladly provide any and all information required.

In the meantime, I’m going to study non-stop and make the best of the situation. 

Thank you and have a great day. 

Mark Pine

Greetings Baruch College,

Someone has a video camera on the podium in this classroom pointing at the class. 

I’m not taking a picture of it because I’m not taking any pictures inside of a classroom. 

It’s not my professors. I suspect it’s another professors. 

It just seems a little strange to have a video camera pointing at the class from a podium. It’s one of the video cameras that people buy when they want to upgrade the video camera on a computer or laptop. 

Not sure if I should contact you or the help desk about this. 

I did not mention a word to my amazing professor about this because I highly suspect it’s not his video camera. 

Thank you and have a great day. 

Mark Pine 

Greetings Baruch College,

This was a very quick one. 

I was walking up the stairs in the vertical building. 

A student walked in front of me, so I slowed down to give him the right of way. He sort of faked like he was going one way and then went another way. Then he started to waive his cell phone in my face. 

This happened on the six floor by the steps, not the escalator side. 

I did nothing as usual. I didn’t say a word, I just kept walking. I have no idea who the student/person is. 

Also, I don’t understand why students would be taking pictures or video recording other students, isn’t that against the rules? I don’t understand what someone might do with that video?

Thank you for the offer to speak with Baruch College security about these issues. I’m going to respectfully say no thank you. 

I don’t want to report any instances of students harassing me unless they are caught on Baruch College security cameras. I would prefer to avoid getting into she said/he said scenarios that would happen during the pre-technology era decades ago. 

Regardless of what anyone does to me, I never say a word so I have nothing to defend. I don’t care if a student put her/his hands on me. I would just run away and then email you or the NYPD.

There is nothing anyone at CUNY can do to me to get me to react in a negative fashion under any circumstances. 

First of all, it’s the way I am. Second of all, CUNY is too valuable to me. 

On a positive note, everything at school is going amazing. I love it here even with some students that I have no idea who they are harassing me for no reason. 

Hopefully one day there will be more security cameras in the hallways although I know that there are a lot of people that have to connect to make a decision such as that at Baruch College / CUNY. 

I’m about to do an informative speech in COM 1010. That is one of my favorite classes. 

I’m going to do my speech about CUNY / CUNY grad schools so I can start to research where I want to go for graduate school. I’m sticking with CUNY. I love being part of the CUNY family. Nothing is perfect, overall CUNY is a stellar offering. 

The only thing that would make me want to leave CUNY is the million to one long shot that my outside ventures start earning hundreds of thousands of dollars. This month I earned about $3 so I’m not quite there yet. 

I owe a lot to CUNY, so I don’t want to give the impression that I’m always complaining. I started to attend office hours with my professors and it’s giving me a huge advantage in my classes. Office hours are such a valuable resource, I can’t believe I’m just learning it now. 

Last thing, I wasn’t even filing my Federal or New York State taxes before attending CUNY. Now I file every year in January. That is one of dozens or hundreds of benefits I enjoy on a daily basis thanks to CUNY. 

I’m going to continue to stay on top of my studies and one day soon I’ll get a roof back over my head. There is a lot of staff members at CUNY that helped me along the way that I can’t wait to go back to and say I’m not homeless anymore one day, including you. 

Thank you again and have a great day. 

Mark Pine