Tag: school

Opinion: Baruch College CUNY won’t excuse me from having to interact with students.

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This is an email I’m sending to colleges in the United States asking for guidance about a situation I’m having at Baruch College in Manhattan.

Greetings, 

I’m a student at Baruch College CUNY in New York City. 

I’m requesting guidance from you regarding a situation I’m having at Baruch College CUNY in Manhattan. 

I have gone through the proper channels at Baruch College CUNY and asked to be excused from interacting with students in my classes. For example, there are times when professors will ask the class to get into small groups and pairs with each other. 

I always treat everyone at Baruch College with the utmost respect at all times. That is more important than anything. 

I have politely asked the staff at Baruch College if I could be my own group in classes. I don’t feel comfortable getting into groups with students and interacting with them. 

I have had several students try and pick fights with me since I started at Baruch College CUNY. I have no idea who any of them are. I ignored the students and reported it. At this point, I don’t even report when I’m harassed at school anymore. I ignore students when they tease me for no reason, which is often. 

I have been living in the street homeless for five years. All I have right now is Baruch College CUNY. I don’t want to jeopardize my standing at Baruch College CUNY due to unwarranted and unsubstantiated student complaints. 

I read that the amount of student complaints from students against students is out of control in New York. It doesn’t surprise me after experiencing the amount of abuse I have to endure at college. 

I don’t drink. I don’t smoke. I don’t party. I don’t date. I don’t do anything illegal. I don’t have a criminal record. 

I’m only using my personal email to request feedback from the staff at various colleges regarding this situation. If you don’t want to respond, I understand. If you have any information that you or anyone at the school can share, it’s appreciated. 

I have already gone through all the proper channels at Baruch College CUNY, and the answer is I have to interact with students. If a student makes an unsubstantiated claim against me, it’s going to be a major distraction. 

I have been informed that student interaction is necessary to create a well rounded student. 

My response to that is I’m 45 years old. I’ve performed web marketing services for dozens of companies. I have experience interacting with hundreds of individuals throughout the years. 

Even though I’m homeless, I’m still trying to launch my own companies. In my spare time, I’m networking. 

Outside of school, I don’t have to worry about people complaining about me and trying to get me kicked out of college. I treat everyone respectfully. I don’t do anything illegal. 

I’m optimistic that one day I’ll have a roof back over my head. In the meantime, I’m street homeless in New York City. 

I prefer to be street homeless than living in a homeless shelter. I have a place to shower and keep clean clothes. I look presentable. 

I’ve been a student at CUNY for two years. After I graduate from Baruch College CUNY, my plan is to attend a CUNY graduate school. 

The CUNY staff and professors at CUNY are very helpful. This is the only issue I’ve ever had at college. 

From your experience in the education field, is there anything I can do so that I can be excused from having to interact with students in my classes? 

Please advise. 

Thank you and have a great day. 

Ever upward, 

Mark Pine

450 Lexington Avenue Unit 1375

New York, NY 10163

917-815-5415

Email to CUNY English Department about how to improve classes [opinion].

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Greetings Professor and English Department, 

I would like to provide quick feedback, including my opinion on how to improve all the English classes. 

I feel many of the decisions are up to the school, state, federal government, etc. Nonetheless here is my view on how the classes can be elevated. 

There are several digital resources on the web about how to write essays, how to improve grammar, how to be a better writer, etc. As a student, I have no idea which of these resources are credible and apply the English class I’m taking. 

The English department, the school, and the professors can’t replicate all that content. In my humble opinion, they should make use of it. For example, YouTube videos, articles, websites, mobile apps, etc. 

Regardless of what English class it is, the professor, department, and anyone else who is involved should spend a few days, weeks, months, going through the various resources and filter out the quality ones. 

If there is an assignment to write an analytical essay for an English class, provide a dozen additional resources available for free on the internet that would allow students to dig in deeper and write it better. Even if only 3 to 5 percent of students use the digital resources, that will make it worthwhile for the ones who are going the extra mile to learn the material and go for the A. 

I have a feeling the percentage will be higher than that. To illustrate, if you recommend YouTube videos people will watch them. If the school wants to create the content themselves, that’s great, in the meantime, it’s sitting on the web right now. The issue is, we the students need professionals to filter out what’s real and what’s not applicable. 

The professors can share a PDF with all the links at the beginning of the semester. That way students can spend their time productively and learn the information for the whole semester immediately if they take the initiative. The links can also be given as an attachment with each assignment. 

[Opinion] Grammarly.com should be recommended to all students. 

The school should make a deal with them and provide the premium version for free. I’ve become a much better writer because of it. It’s not fair for some of the students to have it and not others. I’m homeless and I have the premium version purchased with student loan money. 

I have a lot more ideas but those two would be a game-changer. I’m confident the powers that be have thought about everything I’ve written, regardless these are my ideas. 

Thank you and have a great day. 

Ever upward,

Mark Pine 

I love CUNY. 

Email to the CUNY Chancellor about a remarkable professor.

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Greetings everyone,

Professor X is as sharp as a tack.

I’ve been a student at LaGuardia Community College for 3 semesters. I’m transferring to Baruch College next semester.

I’m going on the record right now that the way Professor X set up Blackboard is the most organized I have ever seen it. Regardless if you stick with Blackboard or use another system everyone should see how it’s supposed to be organized. When it’s not organized students miss important information and fail.

I give Professor X a 4.0 for organizing Blackboard, being an awesome professor, and making learning fun. If we were in school I would have had my hand up in every class asking questions.

Furthermore, the preliminary review Professor X provided for my term paper shows how seriously she/he takes the job of teaching.

We need more professors like Professor X.

Thank you and have a great day.

Ever upward,

Mark Pine

I love CUNY.

Disclaimer: I have been homeless for about 5 years. I don’t drink. I don’t smoke. I don’t have a criminal record. I treat everyone with the utmost respect at all times.

Long story short, there are some people I know who are harassing me. I’ve contacted the proper authorities and hopefully, they will be arrested one day.

The reason I mention this is because people keep going into all my online accounts, email, etc. They sabotage the accounts and impersonate me to try and get me in trouble. I don’t understand why people are harassing a homeless person who minds his business 100% of the time and doesn’t owe anyone anything.

Regardless, I’m not giving up. I’m working 7 days a week to try and get an apartment and succeed at college.

If anyone ever receives an email from this email address that isn’t 100% respectful please alert me so I can forward it to the NYPD. Thank you for your consideration and have a great day.

Thank you and have a great day.

Ever upward,

Mark Pine

I love CUNY.

Email to a CUNY professor about my grades.

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Greetings Professor,

Thank you very much for the generous grades and feedback on how to improve my research project. You allow students to learn without putting them in a pressure cooker.

Currently, I have 349 out of 365.

The only score I see that is less than one hundred percent is the 60 out of 65 for the research paper. It’s no big deal, I was just curious how did I lose the other 11 points?

Please advise.

Thank you and have a great day.

Ever upward,

Mark Pine

I love CUNY.

Email to a professor about a timed exam.

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Greetings Professor, 

I’m homeless. I use the internet in the subway, street, or I have a WiFi hotspot from my phone to my laptop. Sometimes the internet locks up. 

It’s not anything like being at home or at school. When it locks up, it slows down, and I’m knocked offline sometimes for 10 or 20 minutes easily. 

What should I do? The whole exam is 30 minutes. 

I have read all the chapters. I’m reading them again every day from now until the exam so it’s not a matter of preparation.

I’ve been homeless for 5 years, I’m used to it. It’s just the reality of the situation. Subway, street, and mobile hotspot WiFi occasionally freeze. I’ve been using all 3 every day for years. 

I’m not looking for an unfair advantage or to exploit my situation. With school being off-campus, being homeless becomes an issue every once in a while. 

Please advise with any feedback you deem appropriate. 

Thank you and have a great day.

Ever upward,

Mark Pine

I love CUNY.

Email to one of my professors at CUNY.

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Good morning professor,

I finished the first draft of the second homework. I have an appointment with the writing center and I’m going to continue to improve the assignment up until it’s due on Thursday.

If you are able to take a quick look at what I have and provide feedback, that would be great. I understand you are very busy, I completely understand if you are unable to look at students assignments pre official submit.

I’m reading the textbook every day and I’m researching for my term paper.

When I was writing the assignment I had a few new questions. 

1. How much does the federal government send back to NYC out of the federal income taxes from NYC residents?

2. Where do the NYC sales tax and property taxes go? Do they go to the federal government or NYS government and then a percentage comes back?

3. What taxes does the NYS government (Albany) take from NYC and NYC residents besides state income taxes?

4. What other income does NYC have?

Any feedback you can provide would be great and I’m researching and studying to figure out everything as well.

Thank you and have a great day.

Ever upward,

Mark Pine

I love CUNY.