Baruch, as has been established in the glossy pages of our brochures and in the laudatory speeches of our public relations staff, is a great college.
There are many things about this campus that we can take pride in. We offer a world-class education at an affordable price in one of the most diverse and dynamic settings imaginable.
But, as any student will tell you, all is not right in the world of Baruch. Our building's escalators, despite years of false promises, have not moved one inch since many of us first stepped foot in this college. On the rare occasion that our elevators do work, they make the sardine can-esque 6 train look positively roomy.
As a business student, I am not allowed to double major, unlike our neighbors at NYU. As a club president, I am frustrated by the virtual impossibility of booking a room for the date I need. As a patron of the gym, I am fed up with the endless waits for broken lockers so I can exercise on rusty equipment.
Our tuition and fees are climbing towards the stratosphere with every passing semester, and we have nothing to show for it except a larger burden of student loan debt.
Classes are becoming more and more packed, and textbooks cost more than their weight in gold.
While I applaud their successes, our Undergraduate Student Government has largely failed our student body. We hear promises, but we don't see results.
Club budgets are allocated by favor, not merit. In a year of all-around belt tightening, a certain well-connected few saw increases, while everyone else pinched pennies.
These trying economic times seem to have not affected USG, as we have seen them take our money and spend it lavishly on themselves and their friends.
Just recently, USG earmarked $20,000 to buy themselves new furniture.
This is a Baruch problem. This is why I am running for president of the Undergraduate Student Government. Today, every dime is important. While the club room is important, so is the classroom, the exercise room and the lunch room. It's high time to actually get something done.
Guttmann: A presidential hopeful
Published: Monday, February 15, 2010
Updated: Saturday, February 27, 2010 00:02
is a member of the 
35 comments
Very healthy discussion, but only one side is being articulated well. I wish mr. guttmann lots of luck on the points he's brought up, because those issues definately need addressing!
If you people want to have a "typical college experience" don't come to Baruch. Plain and simple.
What does "typical" mean anyways? Should we do beer bongs and have frat parties to prove we're in college?
People who come to Baruch are hard working students, who sometimes are the children of immigrants or immigrants themselves. We're here to study, not to walk around in a toga like we're some idiot frat boy in the some small college town.
Get real people, if this is not the school for you, transfer out! Just don't try to make us pay for your idiotic parties with a fee raise. Don't you even try because you will fall from your high horse just like One Baruch did.
I think the way Baruch has these parties and gathering amongst the clubs is a little bit tacky. It is another high school for god sake. If we had dorms, if the school was open 24 hours at our dispense, if there wasn't campus security baby sitting every five minutes, maybe you can achieve the stereotypical college atmosphere. Ofcourse that's not the case. We should make Baruch an academically and athletically strong institution, then maybe CUNY will have balls to charge more tuition for quality education, maybe then we might be able to afford a strong interactive student community. Now our student life is a joke compared to NYU, even Stony Brook.
VPJP.S. - I think those walls are currently painted hot pink with matching pink carpet; no judgment, just simply stating the FACTS. Please do correct me if I am wrong, though.
in the past you have done nothing for your school as a student leader. you have done nothing to be seen as a good leader in that you did not care about your party as a whole during election time last year. YOU wanted to be president. YOU didnt care about the others running with you and YOU lost.
Ben Guttmann,
maybe you should let go of your past failures and leave it to someone else to pick up after your mess. After all the new USG has been targeted for the wrong doings of the past USG and has wasted precious time picking up after you guys. No changes? maybe cause they were too busy fixing old problems rather than spending time productively attending to new problems cause of you. before you point fingers at other people... look around and see who's standing next to you when you run in this election. Are they and are you really best for baruch? and if you decide that they are then stick by your partners during this election at least. when you do and you most definitely will, at least you guys will fail as a TEAM.