More infrastructure success at Brooklyn, or is that Broklyn, College? #BroklynCollege http://t.co/wnDoQzpTQz #CUNY pic.twitter.com/fU9Ped7nXd
— Karl Steel (@KarlSteel) September 11, 2015
By Daniel Stein-Sayles
Published: September 16th, 2015
Brooklyn College students and faculty have taken to Twitter over the past week to expose and highlight problems with Brooklyn College technology and its aging infrastructure.
The Brooklyn College chapter of the Professional Student Congress (PSC), a union which represents faculty and professional staff, launched an initiative to highlight things that are broken at Brooklyn College by urging people who see issues to post about the issue and use the hashtag #BroklynCollege. In addition to the hashtag, a website, broklyncollege.nyc, explains the PSC’s goals and discusses the problems that exist.
“This site documents and publicizes the decay on campus. Brooklyn College students deserve better—and so do the staff and faculty—and this campaign is part of our effort to do something about it,” the website says in a September 7 post.
Since the campaign launched, students and faculty have been posting examples of this deterioration on campus including broken doors, water fountains, toilets and even posting technical issues with the academic website, Blackboard.
One Twitter post with the #Broklyncollege hashtag showed what looked to be a yellow tarp hanging below the ceiling of a room, and claimed that the tarp was used to catch falling debris from the ceiling.
Brooklyn College Sociology professor Timothy Shortell explained that what the PSC hopes to accomplish with the campaign.
“Our main goal for the campaign, as we say on the website, is to initiate a campus-wide discussion about health and safety that leads to a rigorous and sustainable health and safety plan for the college,” Shortell wrote in an email to The Excelsior.
He continued in the email by fleshing out what he feels the college needs to do.
“This is the only way to improve the quality of life for our community,” he wrote. “What we need is a change in priorities. We need more transparency with regard to the budget. We need a more inclusive discussion about how to use resources to best further the academic mission of the college.”
The website and campaign are managed by Health and Nutrition Science professor Jean Grassman, who chairs the health and safety subcommittee for the Brooklyn College PSC chapter.
Clogged drain in 105 Whitehead causing flood. Students have slipped #BroklynCollege #BrooklynCollege pic.twitter.com/AULyDCCYpq
— Timothy Shortell (@brooklynsoc) September 10, 2015
Someone just scraped themselves on this in Whitehead. #BroklynCollege pic.twitter.com/cvLt1oZ55a
— Brooklyn College PSC (@psccunybc) September 10, 2015
Just came back to my desk to find out that blackboard is down ?#BroklynCollege #BrooklynCollege pic.twitter.com/fqmFOOBshx
— Brandon P. Martinez (@BPM_Design) September 10, 2015
Finally someone says what we’re all thinking! Entrance to Boylan Hall. #broklyncollege #brooklyncollege #respectCUNY pic.twitter.com/nfooQ5azo3
— Mobina (@mobinah) September 9, 2015
