For this assignment I had to write a letter to the president of City College discussing a problem on campus.

To: Vincent Boudreau

From: Nabeel Butt

Subject: Parking Issues on CCNY Campus

Date: February 9^th, 2019

 

The purpose of this memo is to address the issue students have of finding parking spots on campus and around campus. Additionally, this memo will address possible solutions to this problem that will be beneficial to both the students and to the college.

 

Summary:

Students who drive to school find that parking is a major issue at the City College of New York. It is very time consuming and the school itself doesn’t provide any parking resources in which a student is able to leave their car unattended for the entire day.

 

Discussion:

Students who drive to CCNY are always at an unfair advantage when it comes to parking. I live in Staten Island and for me to arrive to school I must leave my house at least two hours before my class starts in order to ensure I arrive on time. Also, depending on the time of day at which I leave, I will leave according to the traffic schedule. For example, if I have an 8:00 AM class I would have to leave my house at around 5:30 to compensate for the traffic that I will have to face. This means that I would wake up at around 4:30 to get ready. The reason I wake up this early is because parking the car would take around 20-40 minutes each time. Additionally, most of the time I will find a spot that is a couple blocks away from campus which means, there is another ten to fifteen minutes added on. On average, I would say it takes around 40 minutes to find parking and arrive at the school. As a person who drives to school I find it very difficult to locate parking as well as leaving my car somewhere for a long duration of time. This is due to the constant necessity to move your vehicle due to the street cleaning signs. Although this specific situation is unique to me, many other students suffer similar fates. This college is a cultural melting pot and people come from many different parts of New York to attend school. Those who drive to school will all agree that the worst part is not the actual commute, it is simply finding an appropriate spot to leave your car while also remaining relatively close to the school. For example, I asked ten seniors who drive to school what the most difficult part of driving to school was. Was it the commute, the traffic or the parking situation? Every senior responded with the same answer, which was finding a spot to leave your car at for the day when you have multiple classes. This is because, even if a spot is found, there is no guarantee that you will be allowed to park there the entire day due to the restrictions placed by the street cleaning signs. There needs to an area in which students can park their cars for the entire day without fear of receiving a parking ticket or being towed.

 

Recommendation:

The answer to solve this problem and to persuade the school to be on board is quite simple. The solution is to create a parking lot in which students can pay for semester or yearly passes. The college has loads of unused space in which a parking lot can be implemented. For example, the Aaron Davis Hall, has a considerable amount of empty space which students simply use to walk on. If the school installed a parking lot in this area they would receive a new yearly income based on parking passes alone. Also, the students who drive to school would be on board because they won’t have to endure the grueling process of locating a parking spot that follows with accordance of the street cleaning signs. Instead they can simply park on campus for the entire day and be 2-3 minutes away from whatever class they will have to attend.

 

Self Reflection of Memo

 

     This assignment was very insightful and different from the material that I have written in the past. This was the first assignment I have done where I had to write professionally and follow a structured format to complete the task. Usually, the assignments I tackle don’t require this level of professionalism which made this assignment challenging to complete.

     As for the genre of the memo, I would consider it to be a persuasive essay. This is because throughout the entire essay I have one main problem that I address and that I would like to be solved. I give the reader background information on the problem and then I provide a solution which I would like to be implemented. The whole point of the memo is to try and bring an issue to light and convince the reader to use my solution as a method of fixing the problem. This piece is exactly what a persuasive essay should hope to achieve.

     As for the motivation that inspired me to write this piece, it would have to be the problem that I faced myself with the issue of parking. Throughout my memo, the main point that I stress is that parking is a very difficult task to achieve when attending City College. I also make it a point that the school should provide some kind of parking privileges if students were able to pay a small fee for this privilege. The reason I wrote about this topic because I relate so closely to the issue since I drive to school. When writing this I hoped that perhaps somehow the memo would reach the president of the school and he would listen to my suggestions. The audience for the essay is stated in the heading of the assignment, which is the president of the school. However, I feel as anybody could read my memo and understand the issue that I addressed as well as the solution I proposed. The relationship that exists between the president of the college and me is basically non-existent. I know who the president is but he has no idea who I am. However, this didn’t sway me from writing my piece because I was very passionate about the issue I was writing about.

     From this piece, I feel as I truly accomplished one of the many course learning outcomes. The specific learning outcome would have to be the one which states, formulate and articulate a stance through and in your writing. This piece really allowed the writer to do that as they were discussing an issue which is present at the school as well offering a fix to the problem. Personally, I was very passionate about my issue which made it easy for me to take a stance on the issue. I feel as if throughout my future writings I will also use this same method of writing about a topic I feel strongly about. This will accomplish two things. Firstly, I will never be bored with writing assignments if I make sure the topic is something I care about. Secondly, it will solidify my stance as a writer because I would be discussing something I care about and I would want to voice my opinion. All in all, this assignment was very helpful and fun to take on.