State of Baruch: Week 22

As you may know, the plan to close down 25th Street and turn it into a public plaza was rejected a few months ago by the Department of Transportation (DOT).

Even with strong community support there was a small issue that lead to the DOT’s decision. It was an unfortunate and a terrible outcome befallen onto this year’s USG.

For over a year now, I have been attending Community Board meetings with other student leaders to help garner support for Baruch.

After several statements and letters to local representatives, we had finally gained the support we needed in a unanimous vote for the visionary project.

All seemed great and the project likely to pass just this past Fall semester.

Then came news of the DOT’s rejection.  At that moment, it felt as though all the hard work that the College leadership, the student leadership and myself had put in to this was all in vain. Easily stated it was a discouraging shock to the system.

Being a leader, though, merits the ability to handle some failure. Sitting in the President’s chair means that from time to time, there might be a moment or two where you have to stare disappointment in the face and defy it.

If it weren’t for that outlook towards the role of my position in USG, then I would have given up a long time ago. It’s not an easy job but it’s not terribly difficult if you actually have the desire to do it.

With student government, and really with any job in life, it’s that persistence that really gets things done.

Thinking about a project every minute of every hour of every day to make sure every detail has been thought through is as important as putting in the hard “manual” work.  

The students currently in USG continue to push forward and conjure up and follow through with great ideas. Even when things fall apart, the people that surround me continue to push forward.

Day in and day out, the effort of student leaders at Baruch amazes me which is why, even though some students might still complain, the College continuously gets better.

Unfortunately, this is the type of work that most students do not see. In fact, recently, there have been a lot of complaints that the current USG hasn’t fought hard enough for these behind-the-scene issues.

The truth is that we have done it and haven’t asked for thanks you’s. Since day one, we’ve worked non-stop and have made progress.

With that work ethic, when the plan for 25th Street failed, the College and students got back up and did it again. We have even more support for the plan now and it’s with a high degree of certainty that it will become a reality sooner rather than later.

One thing is for sure: once the public plaza is built it will have been done on the backs of the members of USG from this year, who have seen the project through from beginning to end.