BLOG POST: ADVICE TO BARUCH COLLEGE

My experience at Baruch College has felt like years at another high school. This is because Baruch College does not have dormitories, leading to the fact that the social atmosphere at Baruch is severely lacking. That is why I would advise Baruch to crate its own social networking website. This website would be devoted entirely and only to Baruch students and faculty. It would be similar to facebook in that you can plan events, except that the events must be Baruch College related in some way. A different way to view this proposed social networking website would be to think of it as a much more extended and customizable version of Blackboard. Students can keep in touch with their professors and fellow classmates and plane vents. Though users will have the ability to post personal information, a good amount of the content on the website will be academic and school related. This website can also serve as an online planner where students can post their schedules and make it public for the world to see. Students will be able to stay on top of what they have to do for school, and interact with other Baruchians in a virtual social atmosphere.

I would also make a suggestion to Baruch College to make virtual classrooms available. I do not know if Baruch has these already (I know that Baruch has online classes but my idea goes beyond that), but they can serve several different purposes. For example, it can enhance the online class experience, by giving students a set time in which students can access their virtual classroom from anywhere and learn. This would be helpful for students who have a long and/or hard commute to school who want to take an online class but also want a more interactive atmosphere. This kind of technology would also be helpful to Baruch College students who are sick, bed-ridden, and/or physically disabled, whether temporarily or permanently. If such students desire an interactive academic atmosphere but cannot make the trip to school, then they can log onto the virtual classroom. This classroom can be entirely virtual, or the student can log in and participate through a computer in an actual physical classroom with actual physical professors and students.

Baruch College definitely has not taken advantage of the technologies of new media. Though lack of funding might be a problem, soon, due to the advances in science, this technology will be much cheaper, more affordable, and more readily available to universities and colleges like Baruch.