City Tech Resources

On the City Tech homepage, click on Current Students at the top and you will be taken to a page that details the resources available to you. Some things that will be useful for you in this class:

The Companion for the First Year at City Tech, which aims to help students meet challenges in their transition to college life.

Student Handbook

“The Guide”: This guide, created by students in a Fall 2013 Learning Community (Laura Westengard’s English 1101, Karen Goodlad’s HGMT 1101, and John Akana’s HMGT 1102), includes tips and advice about City Tech’s campus and the surrounding community, including the Brooklyn Waterfront. The site includes helpful advice on college skills, guides to buildings and student spaces within the City Tech campus, and reviews of local restaurants, businesses, Brooklyn Waterfront attractions, and tours of downtown Brooklyn.

Learning Center
This Center can help you in many areas, but for this course you should consider visiting for English tutoring. I encourage you to visit the center and get tutoring to help you on your essays and other writing assignments. Always remember to bring a print out of the assignment (which you can download/print from our course site) and the reading with you to your tutoring session so that you and your tutor can work on the particulars of your assignment.

Academic Calendar
This calendar has important dates, including holidays (when there are no classes scheduled), reading day, final exams, and CUNY conversion days.

Computer Labs
You have access to computers, printers, and other technology at City Tech. Some examples of where you can use technology on campus are the library, Atrium Learning Center and the Tech Learning Center (TLC).

As a City Tech student, you have free digital access (both through their website and apps) to The New York Times. Read this post from the library to learn more about this wonderful benefit, and how to set up your account. We will often be using material from The New York Times in our course, so make sure to establish your access at the beginning of the semester, if you don’t already have it set up.

*A note about printing in computer labs:

While you can print 30 pages per day at the City Tech computer labs from your account, you will not be allowed to make duplicates (copies) of the same file. Therefore, if you ever need to bring multiple copies of the same document (e.g., for peer review) into class, make sure to copy the document (as many times as is needed for copies) within the document itself, so that you can workaround this restriction and still print all copies of the same file that you need. You must have printed copies of your work in class when the schedule requires it.

Ursula C. Schwerin Library
The college library is a great resource for you. Take some time to browse through their website to get a feel for the types of resources they offer to you. These resources include: access to electronic databases–either from campus or remotely, books/articles from the entire CUNY library system (and beyond if CUNY doesn’t have what you are looking for in its system), research librarians, research appointments, and research workshops, tutorials, etc.. The library and its librarians will be particularly essential/useful for you as we move into your course projects.

Computer Information Services (CIS)
The Help Desk is located on the first floor of Namm, and they will help you with problems with your student e-mail, CUNY Portal account, and other issues related to using technology at City Tech. You can also contact them by e-mail/phone. If you are having a technical problem (especially with your City Tech e-mail), you should contact the Help Desk (not me) ASAP to resolve the issue. Technical issues are not a valid excuse for not completing all requirements of our course; help is available to you in many forms, but it is your responsibility to seek it out.

OpenLab
You already know about this platform, since you registered for it in order to use our course site (our course site is part of OpenLab). Check out this OpenLab tour to get an overview of many of the amazing things happening in the community. If you’re having trouble on the site (posting, etc.), you should visit OpenLab’s Help section. You also can contact the OpenLab team for an e-mail response to questions you have about using OpenLab (the OpenLab team is very friendly, helpful, and quick to respond … please do reach out to them if you’re having trouble using OpenLab).

You should also check out the English Department website, which lists information about departmental faculty, courses, events, news, and detailed information on the B.S. degree in Professional and Technical Writing.