Final Draft of the Memo

To: Vincent Boudreau

From: Farha Zaman

Subject: Escalator Signs

Date: February 5, 2019

The purpose of this memo is to discuss ways we could improve everyday campus navigation at the City College of New York. More specifically, I will explain how students are getting lost getting from floor to floor in the NAC building.

Summary: Students need to get around the maze that is the NAC building, and one simple yet effective way to help is to create signs throughout the walls each floor pointing towards the escalators for campus exit. A meeting should be held to discuss if the Art club would like to take up this project for incentives like free food or CCNY merchandize.

Discussion: I have noticed that the NAC building is designed in a very complex way. This is the building which most classes meet; as there are over 2000 classrooms, labs, meeting rooms and lecture halls, making it the biggest building on campus. Though this building contains the Cohen library, two cafeterias and many computer rooms, it is the building most difficult to navigate. This is because students often find themselves lost when they are trying to exit the floor they are on. Elevators are hopeless, but how can students use escalators they cannot find?

There wouldn’t be a problem if there were signs all over each of the floors pointing in the direction of the facilities in each of the floors. We do have signs that indicate how to get to the classes that you need from the escalators, and they are very helpful, I appreciate them greatly. However, there are no signs showing how to get back to the escalators that we actually use to get from one floor to another. This problem is evident as it takes students running around between huge doors trying to decipher the maze that is the NAC building. Often times,15 minutes is all students have between two classes, and with running around trying to find their classes, students really don’t have time to prepare. Of course it’s understandable that this problem may not be visible until we ask students to really assess the situation. 

Recommendation: First, we need to illuminate the issue. To clarify, let us conduct a survey for every student who has a class in the NAC or has had a class in the NAC. Ultimately, this will prove the issue I explain. Of course, we need your permission to write on the walls of our building, so I ask you to please consider this huge problem with a very simple solution. All we need is paint, brushes and paint remover, which is the only thing that we would have to purchase for the new signs. We can easily get rid of this problem, by asking the student council to find volunteers to simply paint signs on the walls pointing towards the escalators to exit the floor that they are currently on. The art club would fit as the perfect volunteers to create the outline and physically paint the signs themselves! They could be reimbursed with CCNY merchandise or simply some free food for participants of the club.