The Graduate Baruchian

B.A.R.U.C.H.

Beyond Any Repair, Uncommunicative and Considerably Hindering

Yes, we all know it, we’ve all dealt with it—the horrific, absolutely atrocious administrative services available at yours truly, Baruch College. Baruch, you and I need to have a little chat. It’s time you step up your game.

 

Financial Aid & Bursar’s— D+

                Completely unwillingly, I spent an hour and a half during finals week last semester at the Bursar’s office due to a financial aid error that did not end in my favor. The details of this error are irrelevant and would completely blow your mind as to how such a series of mistakes throughout the Financial Aid office could even occur, like mishandling your loan and scholarship disbursements. I will tell you that at one point, they dropped me in the middle of the semester because my loans were  delayed, then re-added me in December and I got a surprise tuition bill. And part of my loan money came to me instead of being paid towards my tuition. Does any of this make any sense? This was after endless phone calls of being tossed back and forth between the Financial Aid Office and the Bursar’s. Can’t anyone just do their job or be resourceful and answer my questions? Seems they don’t want to help, or couldn’t, because they had no idea how such a mistake could have been made. Neither could I. And forget getting help from either office individually—anyone you speak with passes you off to someone else who never answers their phone or their e-mails, but you can’t speak with them because they’re either on the phone or out of their office. Awesome! Even with a combined effort you two fail miserably.

 

GCMC— B

Your advising hours are ridiculous—4-5pm Monday through Thursday. Even if by a small chance you don’t work during those hours, most graduate students have class. But then again, I will give you credit for being available to make appointments to speak with an advisor apart from these hours.

Hearing several complaints from my international friends, you should start building connections with companies that are open to employing international students and are willing to put up the costs of the visas and paperwork involved. I feel I shouldn’t have to say this as a school that’s located centrally in New York City, and in such a diverse city that has cultures from every part of the world. International students shouldn’t be encouraged to come to Baruch and find it impossible to find internships and employment. It contradicts itself. Employment post graduate studies go hand in hand.

As a non-accounting or finance major, I would truly love it if you had more internship and job postings on Zicklin Career Link that don’t cater to these 2 common areas of study, but to the rest of us as well, including HR, Marketing, CIS, etc. Also, OCR is completely useless to me. They only offer jobs geared towards tax, accounting, and finance. I know what you’re going to say—network, network, network. I’m tired of hearing it, though I know it’s the best way to find jobs. But, it’d be nice if the GCMC provided more jobs that cater to the rest of the majors as well. Why should we be left in the dust? Frankly, I don’t care that these areas of study are particularly more competitive. I expect more from you.

 

Graduate Academic Services— EPIC FAIL.

Where do I start? I myself, have waited over 2 hours in this lovely office waiting for one of two women that work there for their assistance in course-related questions. My friend waited just over 3 hours. If you can’t get there before 5pm, expect to wait well over an hour. Bring homework or reading material because they move  s – l – o – w – l – y. Worse than snails. They should have the graduate assistants in the office help with the students that come in regarding simple questions, and train them on the easier issues students have so the line can move faster, and to make full use of the GAs. They should also implement time limits, say 15 or 20 minutes maximum. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve waited in the office and there’s always this one person who thinks the office is open just for them and they spend well over a half hour speaking with an advisor. Oh, and next time one of the advisors is falling asleep at her desk while she’s trying to “help” me with my double major and credits, I will say something, and it won’t be nice.

Janitors— B-

I’m sure you all work hard, but come on!!! The women’s bathrooms are completely repulsive. How many flooded stalls do we need until we scream for better maintenance of our restrooms? There’s always toilet paper rolls on the floor, stalls with no toilet paper at all, and there’s never any soap to wash your hands with. And the back stairways?? Not quite as gnarly but definitely could use some work out there. Get your stuff together!! Please keep our school cleaner. Sometimes doing what is just necessary is not enough. The back stairways have tumbleweed-sized clumps of dust and garbage built up in the corners. It makes our school look like the students and staff don’t care, and it just looks poorly maintained. I won’t say the students themselves aren’t to blame for being dirty, inconsiderate, and just gross, but the janitors should step it up—they’re part of the effort.  I’m also opting for larger garbage bins that hold the classroom doors open, both for our sake and the janitors’. They get so overfilled that garbage pours out onto the floor and makes for more work for the janitors. And it gets messy.

 

First Floor Cafeteria—A- (literally)

Our school cafeteria had received a B rating from the New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene last November, and was recently re-inspected on February 28 receiving an A grade. Here is the grading system as posted in the NYC Department of Health’s website:

• Grade A. 0 to 13 points for sanitary violations.

• Grade B. 14 to 27 points for sanitary violations.

• Grade C. 28 or more points for sanitary violations

“In the first year or so of grading, we expect that most restaurants will earn a B grade. Restaurants

with B or C grades should improve their overall food safety practices, but the Health Department

immediately closes restaurants with conditions that may be hazardous to public health.”

Here are the reasons why they received the grade that they did:

“Violation points: 12

Violations were cited in the following area(s):

Sanitary Violations

1) Cold food item held above 41º F (smoked fish and reduced oxygen packaged foods above 38 ºF) except during necessary preparation.

2) Food contact surface not properly maintained.

3) Non-food contact surface improperly constructed. Unacceptable material used. Non-food contact surface or equipment improperly maintained and/or not properly sealed, raised, spaced or movable to allow accessibility for cleaning on all sides, above and underneath the unit.

Baruch received 12 violation points,  which is only 2 points away from a B grade, but a much better improvement from the 24 points they scored in October. Bleh.