MEMO

Summary                                                                                                                                    

The purpose of this memo is to encourage you to evaluate the current status of students’ ability to be punctual, as viewed by the students following a focus group held on campus. If a campus wide survey agrees with the results from the focus group, I would then like to collect hard data from test result for proof.  If the data proves that the nature of the early morning commute to CCNY is detrimental to the student’s ability to perform, I have then provided recommendations for courses of action.

Discussion                                                                                                                                         

An English class of 20 students was used for a focus group to ask what if any were the problems students found with the CCNY campus. The ensuing discussion lead me to believe that there is a growing concern among the students at CCNY about their early morning commute, once they make it on campus. The students are concerned about having to wake up extraordinarily early in order to be punctual for an 8am class, even after allotting sufficient time for their commute. A key point was made by one student, this was that they had to get up 30 min sooner to get an earlier train just to make it to the 7^th floor in the NAC building, and be in their seat by 8am. He explained that the later train would get him to campus with 5 minutes to make it to his class under normal conditions, but the lack of a reliable way up to his class once he is on campus makes him late. He said that most mornings the elevator would not come for over 10 minutes, and then the escalators would be out of order. At the conclusion to his explanation over half of the students in the room agreed that this was a problem for them. Before any further action can be taken, a more comprehensive evaluation of the problem should be conducted. The morning routine of students once on the CCNY campus is currently in need of evaluation. I would like to propose starting with campus wide student survey. This survey can ask the students general scheduling, performance based and mental status questions. Unfortunately, even if a majority of the student population does agree with our focus group, we can only conclude that it is the student’s opinion that this issue exists. In order to have factual data to prove what we have collected from the survey is true we can collect and analyze anonymous research using test result data through one of the Universities’ graduate programs. The data collected can compare test results to not only test time, but class location.  This can help to narrow down problem areas. I feel as though if the issue of the students moving around campus in the early mornings is explored in the sequence suggested minimal time and effort will have forfeited if the issue is found not to exist.

Recommendation                                                                                                                             

I believe that the problems incurred by the students may be viewed by some as their own lack of preparation, but after listening to this focus group I do honestly believe sufficient time and effort was put to make it to class on time.  This was shown by the student going out of his way to take an earlier train just not to miss the beginning of class. Missing an introduction to a class may leave a student lost through the rest of the lesson, while a few minutes may seem insignificant, this could have a major impact on the students test performance.  It is my opinion that alleviating some of the early morning congestion and having a reliable way up to their classrooms will have a positive impact on resolving the students’ issues with punctuality.

My first solution to the problems that the students are complaining of is to alleviate some congestion around campus.  Hybrid classes can help alleviate scheduling concerns by drastically reducing a student need to physically be on campus. It would help to do this by reducing the amount of days a student would have to physically be on campus.  The revised schedule would replace he early morning classes with the hybrid equivalent.  This would mean the same teachers, rooms, and budgets could be used to supply the hybrid classes.  The main difference would be that the students would only need to come in one day per week. If this schedule is done on a rolling bases where the students were divided Monday thru Friday only one fifth of the students will be on campus per day for the replaced classes.

The second solution is to give the students a reliable way up to their classrooms once they have arrived on campus. Ensuring the elevators and escalators are running in a consistent manner will help to ease how early the students need to arrive to make it up to their classrooms. Upgrading the escalators is a possible solution, but while the rotating assembly of an escalator is basic and hasn’t changed in years it may be a wiser decision to allocate a higher budget for the maintenance department to hire someone with many years of experience in escalator repair. This will be very expensive but will completely alleviate any need to pay for outside consulting, and having an engineering school on campus, we may have the equipment to fix or reproduce some parts ourselves, reducing the yearly operating costs. Lastly, with someone being on campus daily the routine maintenance is likely to be kept more up to date, and any issues are more likely to be realized before causing catastrophic failure.

This first step is necessary to warrant the need to collect hard data. Once you receive and review the data analytics comparing test times and locations to test results you can make a decision on moving forward. For further insight on room and staff assignments for adding more hybrid classes I have sent a CC to the registrar facilitator. The facilities facilitators were also sent a CC to their insight on how to keep the elevators and escalators running properly. I would like to set up a meeting for next week to submit a copy of the student survey I would like to distribute which I have mentioned above. Please contact me at [email protected] to discuss.  Thank you for your consideration on this manner.

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