Baruch College students need more space on campus and deserve updates on ongoing renovations on campus.

There are not many places a Baruch student can go to relax between classes on campus without coming across large crowds. The William and Anita Newman Vertical Campus building in particular is known to get very crowded during the semester. The former Baruch bookstore area in the NVC building has great potential to be a space for students to socialize.

After its closure was announced in fall 2022, Baruch President S. David Wu told The Ticker in a 2023 interview, that the bookstore space would be the new home of BOSS, Baruch One Stop Shop.

The space opened temporarily as a student area in spring 2023, which helped make the campus feel less crowded and provided more space for students to hang out between classes. However, it has remained closed since fall 2024.

Students have not received any other updates from Baruch about the bookstore space renovation’s progress or when they can expect to be able to use the space. The space seems to be serving as storage space, as of the beginning of this spring semester.

This lack of communication from Baruch is not exclusive to the bookstore space renovations. There are a few other updates being made to the NVC building that students were not made aware of.

At the start of the semester, students were greeted with scaffolding at the main entrance of the NVC building. Baruch has not communicated with students about why the scaffolding was installed over the winter break, or how long it will be there for.

A large crane was also first seen in fall 2024 in the Clivner=Field Plaza, on top of which was a person cleaning the outside of the NVC building. The crane was again spotted this spring semester, continuing to take up a few feet of space in the plaza.

While these may be small inconveniences, students deserve to be informed on what is happening on their campus. Baruch should have sent out an email about the ongoing cleanings, when they are expected to be completed and explain why the scaffolding was installed.