Advice

    If I were hired by Baruch College, there are several areas in which I would recommend the school to implement new media for improvement. Primarily, there would be a greater push for access to online reading materials. While textbooks are important and have their place in academia, for a vast majority of students the expense of old school textbooks can be a roadblock to success. Baruch is primarily home to students of lower socioeconomic status than other universities and asking students to spend hundreds of dollars on books they won't read again after the completion of one course is tone-deaf. Many students complain about the books they are forced to buy simply for access codes to certain platforms, with the actual learning material coming from other more accessible resources.

    I would suggest these courses reevaluate their methods and chose teaching material that is free or affordable and more accessible than expensive textbooks. In certain courses what can be printed on a textbook can become outdated or obsolete by the time it prints, for example, some textbooks on marketing or advertising may miss new developments in the ever changing landscape of marketing and advertising. In these instances using case studies and recent articles can shed greater learning opportunities than expensive old media books.

    Also, Baruch College by nature of being a commuter school without a large / traditional campus suffers from a lack of a sense of community. I would encourage the school to implement more attention to online platforms like blogs and social media to encourage students to share their interests and create online communities. College can be a bit isolating and where there may not always be a place to gather physically, encouraging the gathering online can help bridge a gap to new friendships.