Vol. 41, No. 7 MONDAY, FEBRUARY 11, 2013 nyunews.com WASHINGTON SQUARE NEWS NYU’s Daily Student Newspaper Bond Street eatre brings innovative art to NYU The university’s most recent portal campus addition is preparing to open in fall 2013 in Shanghai. FILE PHOTO BY CASEY KWON/WSN NYU Shanghai to pick inaugural class By FAY LIN NYU Shanghai, the third degree- granting portal campus to open for the global network university after NYU New York and NYU Abu Dha- bi, announced last week that 500 candidates are left to fight for seats in its Fall 2013 inaugural class. According to Global Times, the selected students will be interviewed in a series of activi- ties ranging from demo classes, group discussions and team- work assignments to evaluate leadership, teamwork, com- munication and writing skills. From there, the university will admit 300 of the applicants. John Beckman, NYU’s spokes- man, said the admissions process for NYU Shanghai is distinct from those in New York and Abu Dhabi because at least half the class will be recruited from China. “For those students, they ap- ply to NYU Shanghai through our regular admissions process, but their acceptance to NYU hap- pens only after they take the Gao Kao national college admissions exam and score within the high- est rank,” Beckman said. “Re- gardless of the process, we are confident that we will have an excellent first class, which we ex- pect to number between 150 and 200, when we open next fall.” According to an NYU press re- lease, NYU Shanghai’s under- graduate curriculum has a liberal arts focus in which all students will develop a foundation in the humanities, social sciences and natural sciences before pursuing their specified disciplines. SHANGHAI continued on PG. 3 By ARIANA DIVALENTINO When the Taliban gained power in Afghanistan in 1979, the militant group banned all forms of art, including the- ater, music and dance. More than 30 years later, Gallatin alumna Joanna Sher- man is working to bring the- ater back to Afghanistan and other areas in conflict. Sherman is a founding member and the artistic di- rector of the Bond Street Theatre Coalition, a group that uses theater arts as a tool for positive change amid po- litical turmoil. Tonight, Bond Street will present “The Pow- er of Performance: Theater in War Zones” at the Jerry H. Labowitz Theatre for the Per- forming Arts. Sherman will share a video at the event that discusses the organization’s work. Bond Street Theatre works with local organizations in the regions they visit, which range from pre-existing per- forming arts groups to wom- en’s shelters. The group trains people in these areas to create and use theater as a tool for social change. In many of the places Bond Street works, oth- er forms of entertainment are not accessible or do not exist. “After 30 years, we’re trying to invent theater again, [for] people who don’t even know what it is,” Sherman said. Since its inception in 1976, Bond Street has done every- thing from a non-verbal ver- sion of “Romeo and Juliet” in the conflicted Balkan re- gion to a show about frack- ing and environmentalism in the United States, in which film footage of the nuclear disaster in Bhopal, India was used. While shows vary based on language, subject matter and resources available, con- flict resolution is a common theme as it holds importance in both art and politics. “The Power of Performance” will be presented by the Alu- mni Arts & Society Program of the Gallatin School of Individu- alized Study. Gallatin profes- sor Laurin Raiken, a founding member of the Gallatin fac- ulty, created the Arts & Society Program as a way to display work by, and keep in contact with, successful and influen- tial alumni like Sherman, who graduated with a Master of Arts degree in 1996. Raiken was personally impressed by Sher- man’s work with Bond Street. “In the mid ’90s, I had a BOND continued on PG. 4 Bond Street Theatre performs in areas of political unrest. COURTESY OF NYU STUDENTS MEET AND GREET OVER COFFEE A new app called Brew! intro- duces students to each other during 15-minute pre-paid coffee breaks to foster community and friendship at NYU. INSIDE THIS ISSUE: MEN’S BASKETBALL TRAVELS LONG, WINDING ROAD Despite several losses on the road, strong showings by players like senior Kyle Stockmal may lead the team to another NCAA Division III Championship bid. BASKETBALL on PG. 8 BREW on PG. 5 BOLSHOI THEATER DIRECTOR BRUTALLY ATTACKED Underwhelming police and media reaction to a brutal attack on the Bolshoi Theater director are signs of corruption that will quickly become deadly if not remedied as soon as possible. GOLSHAN on PG. 7 COURTESY OF NYU ATHLETICS
Transcript
Vol. 41, No. 7 MONDAY, FEBRUARY 11, 2013 nyunews.com
WASHINGTON SQUARE NEWSNYU’s Daily Student Newspaper
Bond Street Theatre brings innovative
art to NYU
The university’s most recent portal campus addition is preparing to open in fall 2013 in Shanghai.
FILE PHOTO BY CASEY KWON/WSN
NYU Shanghai to pick inaugural classBy FAY LIN
NYU Shanghai, the third degree-granting portal campus to open for the global network university after NYU New York and NYU Abu Dha-bi, announced last week that 500 candidates are left to fight for seats in its Fall 2013 inaugural class.
According to Global Times, the selected students will be interviewed in a series of activi-ties ranging from demo classes, group discussions and team-work assignments to evaluate leadership, teamwork, com-
munication and writing skills. From there, the university will admit 300 of the applicants.
John Beckman, NYU’s spokes-man, said the admissions process for NYU Shanghai is distinct from those in New York and Abu Dhabi because at least half the class will be recruited from China.
“For those students, they ap-ply to NYU Shanghai through our regular admissions process, but their acceptance to NYU hap-pens only after they take the Gao Kao national college admissions exam and score within the high-
est rank,” Beckman said. “Re-gardless of the process, we are confident that we will have an excellent first class, which we ex-pect to number between 150 and 200, when we open next fall.”
According to an NYU press re-lease, NYU Shanghai’s under-graduate curriculum has a liberal arts focus in which all students will develop a foundation in the humanities, social sciences and natural sciences before pursuing their specified disciplines.
SHANGHAI continued on PG. 3
By ARIANA DIVALENTINO
When the Taliban gained power in Afghanistan in 1979, the militant group banned all forms of art, including the-ater, music and dance.
More than 30 years later, Gallatin alumna Joanna Sher-man is working to bring the-ater back to Afghanistan and other areas in conflict.
Sherman is a founding member and the artistic di-rector of the Bond Street Theatre Coalition, a group that uses theater arts as a tool for positive change amid po-litical turmoil. Tonight, Bond Street will present “The Pow-er of Performance: Theater in War Zones” at the Jerry H. Labowitz Theatre for the Per-forming Arts. Sherman will share a video at the event that discusses the organization’s work.
Bond Street Theatre works with local organizations in the regions they visit, which range from pre-existing per-forming arts groups to wom-en’s shelters. The group trains people in these areas to create and use theater as a tool for social change. In many of the places Bond Street works, oth-er forms of entertainment are
not accessible or do not exist.“After 30 years, we’re trying
to invent theater again, [for] people who don’t even know what it is,” Sherman said.
Since its inception in 1976, Bond Street has done every-thing from a non-verbal ver-sion of “Romeo and Juliet” in the conflicted Balkan re-gion to a show about frack-ing and environmentalism in the United States, in which film footage of the nuclear disaster in Bhopal, India was used. While shows vary based on language, subject matter and resources available, con-flict resolution is a common theme as it holds importance in both art and politics.
“The Power of Performance” will be presented by the Alu-mni Arts & Society Program of the Gallatin School of Individu-alized Study. Gallatin profes-sor Laurin Raiken, a founding member of the Gallatin fac-ulty, created the Arts & Society Program as a way to display work by, and keep in contact with, successful and influen-tial alumni like Sherman, who graduated with a Master of Arts degree in 1996. Raiken was personally impressed by Sher-man’s work with Bond Street.
“In the mid ’90s, I had a
BOND continued on PG. 4
Bond Street Theatre performs in areas of political unrest.COURTESY OF NYU
STUDENTS MEET AND GREET OVER COFFEEA new app called Brew! intro-duces students to each other during 15-minute pre-paid coffee breaks to foster community and friendship at NYU.
INSIDE THIS ISSUE:MEN’S BASKETBALL TRAVELS LONG, WINDING ROADDespite several losses on the road, strong showings by players like senior Kyle Stockmal may lead the team to another NCAA Division III Championship bid.
BASKETBALL on PG. 8BREW on PG. 5
BOLSHOI THEATER DIRECTOR BRUTALLY ATTACKEDUnderwhelming police and media reaction to a brutal attack on the Bolshoi Theater director are signs of corruption that will quickly become deadly if not remedied as soon as possible.
GOLSHAN on PG. 7COURTESY OF NYU ATHLETICS
ON THE SIDE COMPILED BY THE WSN STAFF
2 WASHINGTON SQUARE NEWS | MONDAY, FEBRUARY 11, 2013 | NYUNEWS.COM
Editor-in-Chief JONATHON DORNBUSH
Managing Editor
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About WSN: Washington Square News (ISSN 15499389) is the student newspaper of New York University. WSN is published Monday through Thursday during NYU’s academic year, except for university holidays, vacations and exam periods.
Corrections: WSN is committed to accurate reporting. When we make errors, we do our best to correct them as quickly as possible. If you believe we have erred, contact managing editor Amy Zhang at [email protected] or at 212.998.4302.
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Central Park’s lakes and hills became spots for sledding and skating after the weekend’s storm.
PHOTO BY AMY ZHANG
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IN AND OFTHE CITY
It’s a big city and a widespread university. Catch up with our daily updates on university and city/state news headlines other publications are covering.
PSYCHIC COULD NOT PREDICT HER OWN LAWSUITA former client accused a psychic of scamming her out of hundreds of thousands of dollars and convincing her to leave the country.
BLOOMBERG ORDERED TO TURN OVER EMAILS IN CATHLEEN BLACK INVESTIGATION
A panel of Appellate Division judges denied the city’s request to appeal a string of rulings requiring them to turn over the emails concerning the hiring of Cathleen Black, the New York City schools chancellor. Black left her post after less than 100 days in the position.
LOCATE GIRL SCOUT COOKIES WITH SMARTPHONE APPThe Girl Scouts have released an app called Girl Scout Cookie Finder, which tracks their pop-up shops and trucks around the city. The app is available for iPhones and Androids.
UNDERGROUND RAILROAD STOP IN MANHATTAN UNDER SIEGE
A building developer is adding an illegal fifth floor to a his-toric building in Chelsea, Man-hattan’s only underground railroad stop, which hosted several prominent abolition-ists. Officials and neighbor-hood residents are fighting to restore it to its previous state before the developer started building.
MTA TO INCREASE PUBLIC EDUCATION CAMPAIGN
The Metropolitan Transit Au-thority plans to launch in-creased signage, frequent announcements and various other forms of media on the back of MetroCards and on MetroCard vending machines. It will also increase help-point devices in stations, which will provide straphangers with in-formation during emergency situations.
TWO LIVE SHOWS NOT TO BE MISSED: RADIOHEAD AND KENDRICK LAMAR.
Music taste is as unique and personal as our fingerprints, but a live performance by an artist you might not normally listen to can still entertain. Radiohead provides a surreal, hypnotic vibe for its two-hour illuminated shows, and Lamar’s flow only improves when he’s on the mic. For Valentine’s Day, purchase tickets for Lamar’s concert in New York City at the Roseland Ballroom. He performs Feb. 26, and the tickets are perfect for a fun, memorable date.
CAFE MOGADOR, 101 ST. MARKS PLACEAlhough most NYU students probably have never visited the Kingdom of Morocco, they should not deny themselves the opportunity to taste some incredible Moroccan and Mediterranean cuisine. If you’re in the East Village, Cafe Moga-dor is a great spot for a relaxing, spicy din-ner. Perfect for dates, Mogador is a reason-ably priced choice for Valentine’s Day.
MINTIf, like all New Yorkers, you perpetually worry about the state of your minimal finances, consider downloading Mint on your phone. This handy app con-solidates all of your
spending, income, credit card and bank ac-count information, and also tracks what pur-chases you make. Be sure to set up spending budgets and don’t worry — a read-through of their privacy section should ease your secu-rity fears. While this is useful all the time, it is proves particularly handy around holidays.
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NYUNEWS.COM | MONDAY, FEBRUARY 11, 2013 | WASHINGTON SQUARE NEWS 3
Currently, NYUNY students have the option of studying abroad in Shanghai for a maximum of three semesters, and can choose to take classes in a variety of subjects including business, history, journalism and metropolitan studies.
“I spent a semester abroad in Shang-hai for metropolitan studies, and it was a great way to brush up on Chinese lan-guage proficiency,” CAS junior Irene Huh said. “Making it an official campus within NYU will make NYU even more diverse and will encourage students to learn about such an exciting culture.”
Some students hope to use the new campus as an opportunity to study longer in Shanghai.
“I’m taking Chinese and really want to spend a year in Shanghai. Unfortu-nately, I’m in a program that doesn’t have professors in Shanghai,” said CAS sophomore Dylan Welch. “Once the campus gets up and running, more programs and classes can be offered there more easily.”
Students anticipate Shanghai campus acceptances, opportunities
SHANGHAI continued from PG. 1
Tutoring program opens new NYU chapter
By LESLEY GREENBERG
Let’s Get Ready, a non-profit tutoring or-ganization started by a Harvard graduate, recently opened a site at NYU.
Providing free SAT and college prep guidance to under-served students throughout the Northeast, the organi-zation was launched in 1998. Founder Jeannie Rosenthal, who was inspired by the disparity in resources between Scarsdale and Mount Vernon, opened her first class in a church basement serving 40 students. Today, Let’s Get Ready runs 73 programs, serves over 2,900 students and is assisted by over 1,200 college volunteers.
Valerie Tomici, who graduated from CAS in December, and Galla-tin senior Elizabeth Temkin are co-directors of the NYU chapter. Together, they recruit students and coaches, oversee classes and plan in-formation sessions, trips and events.
According to Tomici, Let’s Get Ready’s most important quality is that it gives students with fewer opportunities an en-trance ticket into the admissions process.
“[The program] works to level the play-ing field by supplying low-income high school students with the resources they need to get to college,” she said.
“In urban high schools the ratio of stu-dents to guidance counselors is near 500-to-1,” Tomici said. “Let’s Get Ready is able to provide undergrad mentors to these students to walk them through the more difficult aspects of the SAT and college and scholarship applications.”
Fabienne Doucet, assistant professor of education at NYU, agrees that programs like Let’s Get Ready not only provide use-ful resources to get students to go to col-lege, but also help them stay there.
“Policies and practices surrounding test-
ing, the application process, admissions and so on are changing so rapidly that families may not be able to provide the support and information that it needed to best position students for college suc-cess,” Doucet said. “By going beyond ad-mission to supporting students toward re-tention and graduation, Let’s Get Ready is doing important work toward addressing the inequities inherent in the U.S. educa-tional system.”
Let’s Get Ready’s results indicate positive trends. Over the past 15 years, Let’s Get Ready has guided more than 16,000 under-served students through the college process, trained and sup-ported 6,000 college student volun-teers, helped over 90 percent of its students enter college directly after high school and increased its average student’s SAT scores by 112 points.
The strongest evidence of the pro-grams’s impact are the many high school students who return to the Let’s Get Ready program as coaches and site direc-tors themselves. Pooja Kumari, a coach for Let’s Get Ready and sophomore at NYU, remembers how much these stu-dents care and continue to keep in touch.
“[I’m just as] excited to hear about their college acceptances as they are. You get to meet a lot of great people, both students and coaches included,” Kumari said of the program. “And it really does feel like you’re doing something important.”
Kumari was forced to miss one session last semester, and multiple students tried to reach her through text because they were unwilling to forgo a class.
“I realized that they actually cared and that I was actually helping them,” Kumari said.
Let’s Get Ready, a volunteer program, works with low-income students in an effort to bridge the gap between high school and college.
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Controversial Bloomberg budget strains public education sector
By ISAAC MARSHALL
Mayor Bloomberg’s re-cently released $70.1 billion proposal for the final budget of his mayoralty was met by much controversy.
The 2014 budget does not include any tax increases, but closes a $1.1 billion deficit. City spending will decrease 1.1 percent, or $254 million, over the next fiscal year.
Doug Turetsky of the Inde-pendent Budget Office, a non-partisan publicly-funded bud-get monitor, summarized the sentiments of many pundits and policymakers.
“If you look at the budget, and the formal presentation of what’s in the budget, the gaps going forward are relatively small,” he said. “But it’s what you don’t see in the formal pre-sentation that creates the big-gest potential for problems.“
The first problem Turetsky identified is the 2010 expira-tion of labor contracts. The current proposal has not left aside any money for wage increases that many unions are expecting come 2014. He said that raises antici-pated by teachers and work-ers amount to $3.8 billion, which is not accounted for in the current budget.
Turetsky also addressed the fact that around $700 million of the presumed
revenue for the 2014 budget is contingent on the sale of 2,000 new taxi medallions. However, this deal is tied up in a lawsuit, as many taxi owners and companies are against the sale of these me-dallions. Turetsky said this could pose a problem for the next mayor if the deal does not materialize by 2014.
Maria Doulis, director of city studies at the non-parti-san Citizen’s Budget Commit-tee, said the recession will continue to have long-term effects on the city’s budget.
“What is really different about the last two budgets is that we’re entering a pe-riod coming out of the reces-sion where revenue growth is much smaller than we’ve seen over the past decade,” Doulis said. “As a result of that, it requires tightening on the expenditure side and really starting to grapple with the issues that are driv-ing budget growth.”
Education may take a hit from this lack of revenue growth. According to Doulis, with this budget proposal the city plans to reduce the size of the teaching workforce by 1,800 by next year.
Tisch freshman Ben Goalz worries that after-school programs will be the target of the budget cuts.
“Given the large number
of high earners this city has access to, I think that a pro-gressive income tax hike in NYC sounds a lot better than a slashing campaign, espe-cially one that targets our schools, which already have taken huge hits in the last few years,” Goalz said.
Overall, though, Doulis believes the mayor has han-dled the budget well over his past three terms.
“They established this health insurance trust fund, they were able to pay down a lot of debt and save a little on the debt service costs,” she said. “They took a num-ber of actions that were very prudent, realizing that good times weren’t going to last forever.”
City to open public pet adoption centerBy JACQUELINE HSIA
Within the next year, the New York City Animal Care and Control department will create an adoptions depart-ment as part of an initiative to help more New York City animals find homes.
AC&C experienced severe budget cuts a few years ago, causing the depart-ment to lose half of its workforce. In order to help animals find homes, they were forced to rely on vol-unteers and other rescue groups such as the Mayor’s Alliance for NYC’s Animals and the American Society for the Prevention of Cru-elty to Animals.
With the help of AC&C’s New Hope department, over 15,000 animals were pulled out of the AC&C to be adopted and trans-ferred to other shelters.
“Funding is an important component to any adop-tion and outreach pro-gram,” said Brian Shapiro, New York state director for the Humane Society.
Increased funding from the city enabled AC&C to hire back some staff and build up the adoptions de-partment. They hope that
with a new $13 million bud-get they will be able to ex-pand the agency staff from 150 to 250, make adoption counselors available, better use social media and hold more adoption events.
“It’s wise that the AC&C is utilizing these resources and partnering with groups in the community,” Shapiro said.
In 2003, 74 out of 100 animals that went to the AC&C were euthanized, but at the end of last year, only 30 out of 100 were eu-thanized, saving 230,000 cats and dogs. With the growth of social media, more people are seeing that there are more ani-mals in need of homes.
“We welcome these chan-ges,” said Jane Hoffman, president of the Mayor’s Alliance for NYC’s Animals. “We can keep euthanasia down because of transfers, but it’s always good to have people adopt directly. We can look for an increase in adoptions in AC&C.”
Hoffman also noticed an increase in people who want to adopt rather than buy a pet, to spay and neu-ter their animals and to provide a lifetime of care to
their pets. Owners are also becoming more responsible in vaccinating, licensing and microchipping their pets, which allows the city to help owners find their pets again, especially after Hurricane Sandy.
Other shelters greatly aid the adoption process, but the AC&C has one of the only open adoptions programs in the city, since they allow all types of animals.
“There are always disagree-ments on the best way to adopt animals out to the pub-lic, but we all have the same goals in mind,” Shapiro said.
For SCPS freshman Katha-rina Gadow, who recently adopted a kitten from Sean Casey Animal Rescue in Brooklyn, care and knowl-edge of the animals was key in picking a shelter.
“If I wanted to adopt from NYC Animal Care and Con-trol, I would like to see them offer benefits such as a vet-erinary check-up, shots and a microchip for free, otherwise I don’t think I would adopt from them,” Gadow said.
Jacqueline Hsia is a contributing writer. Email her at [email protected].
Bloomberg’s budget proposal received mixed reactions.
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4 WASHINGTON SQUARE NEWS | MONDAY, FEBRUARY 11, 2013 | NYUNEWS.COM
FEATURES
really brilliant student finishing her master’s,” Raiken said of Sherman. “Bond Street Theatre is one of the most extraordinary theaters in the country, if not the world. They take their talent into some of the most dangerous places in the world, and they’ve been very successful.”
Tisch freshman Ethan Abramson questions the relevance of theater in our own culture, but sees Bond Street’s approach as potentially beneficial in the war-torn and poverty-stricken ar-eas the coalition visits.
“They take theater — a virtually dead art in regions of mass media — and try to bring it where live performances still have a profound effect to, at its most basic level, inspire and revolu-tionize society as the practice once did,” Abramson said.
“The Power of Performance: Theater in War Zones” will be held at the Jerry H. Labowitz Theatre, 1 Washington Place, at 6:30 p.m. The event is open to the public.
Ariana DiValentino is a staff writer. Email her at [email protected].
Theater company uses art to inspire
social change
BOND continued from PG. 1 Great gifts for every type of ValentineBy HELEN HOLMES
It’s easy to dread the inevita-ble draining bank account that comes with Valentine’s Day. If the holiday’s portrayal in movies is any indication, you’re expected to spend on flowers, chocolates and anything else that reduces your affection to tired clichés. But it doesn’t have to be this way. Here are a few unique gift ideas that won’t trap you inside a bad romantic comedy.
BOYFRIEND:Get your boyfriend something
that shows him how well you know him. Go with a gift card to his favorite restaurant or a hand-made gift card with a personal of-fering. If your man loves to blare his favorite Fleet Foxes tunes, but you’re more of a Marina and the Diamonds girl, write him a coupon that can be redeemed for “Two Hours of Playing Your Music Without Me Complaining About It.” He’ll love the thought, and a little self-deprecating hu-
mor never hurt anyone.
GIRLFRIEND:You can bet girls will be ex-
pecting something special for Valentine’s Day. Be thought-ful: is she lactose intolerant? Milk chocolates are out of the question. Does she hate surprises? Then don’t rip the shower curtain aside while she’s in there and scream that you’re taking her to Disney-land. Instead, order takeout from her favorite restaurant, queue up a beloved movie on Netflix and stare into her eyes as you give her a foot massage.
PARENTS:Deciding on the best Valen-
tine’s Day gift for parents, who are likely spending thousands of dollars to allow you to live in Manhattan, can be a stressful task. Mail them a heartfelt let-ter in which you promise to cut down on personal expenditures this semester. Expect instant child-of-the-year status.
ROOMMATE:Your roommate deals with your
sleeping habits, your eating hab-its, your studying habits, etc. The
best valentine for them? Treat him or her to quality maid ser-vice: wait until your roommate leaves for class, then clean your room, make your bed, make their bed and polish everything until it shines. Your roommate can feel as though he or she is relax-ing back home. A roommate will actually miss you and want to do something nice for you when you return the next day.
CLOSE FRIEND:You know your best friend
more intimately than anybody else — likes, dislikes and what makes them tick. If your friend is as awesome as you are, he or she will also probably appreci-ate a healthy dose of irony. For your close friend, prepare the cinematic Valentine’s Day: choco-late, flowers, pricey dinner — the whole nine yards. He or she will giggle, scoff and then realize that you’re the greatest thing to hap-pen to them since they bought their first iPhone.
Happy Valentine’s Day, NYU.
Helen Holmes is deputy features editor. Email her at [email protected] thoughtful Valetine’s Day gifts on a college budget.
CLOCKWISE FROM TOP LEFT:COURTESY OF THE CENTRAL PARK BOATHOUSE
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COURTESY OF NEW LINE CINEMAVIA SHEKNOWS.COM
NYUNEWS.COM | MONDAY, FEBRUARY 11, 2013 | WASHINGTON SQUARE NEWS 5
Rachel Monfre, a Gallatin ju-nior studying business decision-making and consumer behavior, is always on the run. From at-tending Pi Phi chapter meetings and interning in the direct mar-keting department at J. Crew to serving as a Rent the Runway campus representative, the Boca Raton native uses every one of her New York minutes. And the contents of her bag prove it.
CORKSCREW THUMB DRIVE “This is literally my favorite
thing,” Monfre said. “It is actually a sponsored thumb drive I got when I was working at my old PR internship at Sally Fisher.”
What looks like a corkscrew from a bottle of wine is actually a viaswine.com corkscrew thumb drive that contains Monfre’s web design project. Last semester, she built a website for her mother’s non-profit thrift store in Florida.
“Building the site made me feel like a hired web designer,” Monfre said with a smile.
RENT THE RUNWAY $20 GIFT CARD
Monfre has served as an NYU Rent the Runway campus repre-sentative since the fall 2012 se-mester and is always prepared to hand out Rent the Runway swag, such as gift cards or sets of nail polish. For Monfre, a former Teen Vogue intern, the campus repre-sentative position was a perfect fit because of her outgoing na-ture and love for fashion.
Last semester, Monfre planned a Rent the Runway trunk show with the NYU cam-pus team. The event was timed
to coincide with sorority semi-formals and formals. She plans to hold another event this se-mester where girls can try on dresses at the trunk show.
DISPOSABLE CAMERA One weekend in the spring of
2012, Monfre studied abroad at NYU Florence and had the oppor-tunity to visit Croatia.
“I was traveling by myself, and I had an amazing time at Krka National Park,” Monfre said. “It is so incredibly beautiful, and I would love to go back.”
Monfre’s disposable camera replaced her digital camera that weekend, since her digital cam-era broke right before she left for her trip. It contains the still undeveloped photos from her visit , which she carries with the intention of one day developing. For now, the camera has found a home inside her bag.
PI PHI PINA small cube case with a Pi
Phi pin could easily be over-looked next to the larger contents of Monfre’s bag. But Monfre has been a member of Pi Phi for three years and, like her sorority sisters, must wear the pin with business casual attire at weekly chapter meet-ings and other ceremonies.
“We wear the pin to gain points every semester, but it is nice to wear the pin because it makes you feel connected to the soror-ity, like you are part of some-thing,” Monfre said. “Plus, it’s a fun conversation starter.”
Sarah Kamenetz is a contributing writer. Email her at [email protected].
Monfre is always on the run, and her bag’s contents prove it.RACHEL KAPLAN/WSN
By JONATHAN KESHISHOGLOU
Emily Kramer-Golinkoff has been battling cystic fibrosis for 28 years — her entire life.
The disease, which causes mucus to buildup and clog the lungs and other tubes in the body, is often fatal. The NYU chapter of Emily’s Entourage, a new student group brought to NYU by Stern freshman Phil Hayes, seeks to fight this incur-able disease.
The original chapter of Em-ily’s Entourage, whose founders include several members of the Kramer-Golinkoff family, began in the suburbs of Philadelphia over a year ago. Their goal was to raise money and awareness to help find a cure for cystic fibrosis. Since then, the group has estab-lished a strong foothold in Tulane University and has expanded to the University of Michigan, Ari-zona State University, the Univer-sity of Delaware and now, NYU.
“I noticed a gap [at NYU] ... there was no charity for cystic fibrosis,” Hayes said. “There are drugs in the market that are shown to significantly increase life expectancy. But there’s not enough funding, so we’re here to help find a tangible outcome.”
Hayes first joined the group last summer through Coby Kramer-Golinkoff, Emily’s brother and a student at Tulane University. After seeing Coby and his sisters give a TEDx talk on youth activ-
ism, he reached out to them to help facilitate the expansion of their organization to other col-lege campuses, including NYU.
Currently, the NYU chapter has big plans for the coming months. They hope to partner with Greek life on campus to throw parties and host other fun events to raise awareness for Emily’s Entourage. They are also working to estab-lish a strong online presence on Twitter and Facebook.
“Emily’s Entourage is not only about filling a gap in curing cystic fibrosis, but doing so in a way ap-propriate to its audience,” Hayes said. “We want to plan events that people like to attend.”
Emily graduated from the University of Pennsylvania and has since returned to pursue a master’s degree in bioeth-
ics. She and her family are all active members of the group. Her brother Coby is responsi-ble for making the group one of the most prominent organi-zations at his school.
“The breakthroughs that have come out this year have been staggering and life-chang-ing for a portion of the cystic fibrosis community,” Coby said. “It’s been a very promis-ing year but we definitely need more breakthrough drugs for my sister and the 70,000 others [worldwide] with CF. Our mis-sion will not be fulfilled until everyone with cystic fibrosis can take a deep breath.”
Jonathan Keshishoglouis a staff writer. Email him at [email protected].
New student group fights cystic fibrosis with entourage of support
Emily’s Entourage seeks to find a cure for cystic fibrosis. COURTESY OF EMILY’S ENTOURAGE
App brews relationships through coffee datesBy SANJANA KUCHERIA
A new smartphone app uses coffee to bring NYU students closer than ever.
CAS freshman Jaye Melino has partnered with Drew Durbin and Lincoln Quirk, who both graduat-ed from Brown University in 2008, to launch a new app called Brew! The iPhone and Android app pairs NYU students for 15-minute study breaks at coffee shops on campus. The app, which officially launched last month, already has 1000 users.
“With a lot of the other dating sites, you have to communicate with the person directly and coor-dinate where and what time you want to meet,” Melino said. “But the cool thing about [Brew!] is that it gives you a time and a place.”
Users create a profile, which prompts them to upload a photo-graph and specify their graduation year, whether they would like to meet a female or a male and their reasons for signing up for the ser-vice. Every Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday, the app recom-mends three potential students that best match the user’s inter-
ests. After agreeing to a Brew, each student must pre-pay three dollars online for a cup of coffee at the café of their choice. Upon arrival, a barista will swipe a time card and a fifteen-minute timer will begin.
The idea for the app origina-ted when Melino had difficulty meeting new people outside of her typical group of friends at such a large, diverse university. She talked to friends Durbin and Quirk, and the three entrepre-neurs began building an app that could be used as a tool to help people meet in the real world in a quick and casual way.
“That [frustration] really resonat-ed with Lincoln and I because [we] remembered that in college ... we had that problem,” Durbin said.
GLS freshman Nicole Wolf par-ticipated in a Brew last Wednes-day at Think Coffee and described her experience as being “like speed-friending.” She also said the time limit is perfect because a conversation can become awk-ward if the meetup lasts too long.
Unlike Wolf, CAS freshman Neeraj Suryanarayanan does not see a reason for using the app.
“My philosophy is because NYU is so big, it should not be difficult to find friends and meet people,” Suryanarayanan said.
Durbin, Quirk and Melino hope to expand to other universities and coffee shops in Manhattan.
“If things go really well at NYU, then it gives us the potential to grow,” Durbin said. “Part of the reason we chose NYU is because it’s a huge school, and so our philosophy is, if it works here, it’ll work anywhere.”
Sanjana Kucheria is a contributing writer. Email her at [email protected].
COURTESY OF BREW APP
6 WASHINGTON SQUARE NEWS | MONDAY, FEBRUARY 11, 2013 | NYUNEWS.COM
THE NEW YORK TIMES CROSSWORD & DAILY SUDOKU
ACROSS 1 Sudden
impulse 5 Applauds10 Imperfection14 Multinational
coin15 Just now16 Misplace17 Result of
tanning19 Wailing cry20 Nifty21 “There ___ an
old woman …”22 “Just messin’
with you!”23 The fourth
letter of “cancel,” but not the first
25 Pipe-playing god
26 ___ nous27 Kimono sash28 Generous spirit,
metaphorically31 “Oui, oui,”
across the Pyrenees
33 Dispose (of)34 Mythical bird of
prey35 Citizen of
Canada’s capital
37 Nobody doesn’t like her, in a slogan
41 Dairy farm sound
42 Long-distance letters
43 Use a Kindle, say
44 Hit 1980s exercise video
49 “___ Maria”50 Standoffish51 German city
where Einstein was born
52 Elizabeth of cosmetics
54 Sulfuric ___55 Santa ___
winds56 “I don’t think
so!”57 “Venerable”
English historian
58 Baldie’s nickname
62 Locale63 Touch base
after a pop fly, say
64 Prod65 “It’s ___ state
of affairs”66 Deletion
undoers67 Caesar’s words
to Brutus
DOWN 1 Fly catcher 2 “Ben-___” 3 What a tyrant
rules with 4 Impressionist
Claude 5 Tech news site 6 “Au Revoir ___
Enfants” 7 Singsongy
comment in a sticky situation
8 Flexible 9 Thesaurus
offerings: Abbr.10 “Vehicle of the
future” since the 1950s
11 Consult12 Spinning dizzily13 United with a
blowtorch18 Galifianakis of
“The Hangover”23 Meh24 Black-bordered
news item25 Ache26 Get an ___
effort29 ___ Good
Feelings30 Make a big
speech32 “My parents
are going to kill me!”
36 Great Dane sound
37 Green part of a flower
38 Speed demon39 Christmas light
site40 Garden of ___42 Not yet
apprehended44 Black sheep’s
cry45 Worriers’
problems, it’s said
46 “Heck if I know”
47 Wide-brimmed summer headgear
48 Do surgery on with a beam
53 Klingon forehead feature
55 Does stage work
56 Sound boxes at a concert
59 Not at home
60 Wrestling surface
61 End of a school e-mail address
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Appropriate or not, NYU Secrets symbolizes community
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The Bolshoi Theater in Moscow has been the center of media at-tention for several weeks, due to the mysterious attack on the the-ater’s director, Sergei Filin, in late January. The shocking incident oc-curred theatrically — Filin walked back to his car after a theater per-formance late at night as a masked figure approached carrying a can full of acid. Filin is now suffering from severe burns on his face and neck, as well as possible vision loss and the prospect of never again be-ing able to direct a production at any theater. The Bolshoi’s press sec-retary admitted to a suspicion that the attacker is a former or even cur-rent employee of the theater.
The recent developments in the ongoing scandals of the Bolshoi Theater seem to come straight out of an old school thriller; sex, money, lies — they form a script practically writing itself. The dr-ama of ballet has been admired and admonished for quite some time in both film and television, and is often depicted as cutthroat, unforgiving and psychologically damaging for anyone involved.
Never mind Natalie Portman’s tragic downfall in “Black Swan.” Her problems cannot measure up to the outrages of modern ballet. With all of this scandal and cor-ruption, violence and jealousy, the question must be raised: why are we all okay with it? Of course, the attack was horrifying and any related violence is a regrettable result of a dance company’s down-ward spiral into corruption, but the media coverage of the attack has been increasingly lenient in actually condemning the attacker, and the theater itself is partially culpable for allowing such deprav-ity to run rampant within its walls.
It is indeed a dramatic situa-tion, but within the world of per-formance art, there is a sense of light-heartedness and spectacle that even the darkest of events cannot quite stifle. If a Wall Street executive had been in-volved in the sort of physical vio-lence inflicted upon Sergei Filin, a more serious tone would likely have been taken in any report of the incident.
This is particularly evident in a CNN report in which a Bolshoi spokeswoman said to a Russian
news program, “We don’t know who would benefit from this ... The police should investigate.” So, then, does that mean that the po-lice weren’t already investigating? In what world would an acid attack not have already warranted a po-lice investigation? Surely, the Rus-sian authorities have launched an investigation, but it’s an oddly ob-vious statement to make. It also re-mains unknown why the Bolshoi is not participating with the police or urgently looking for the culprit(s).
The dramatic turn of events in the Bolshoi Theater should be trea-ted with the same urgency as any other attack. However, the employ-ees of theaters worldwide should understand that corrupt dealings provoke these types of attacks. Any business that deals dishonestly should, in some sense, expect an angry reaction to come its way.
The media and particularly the police force should recognize the seriousness of the corruption and try to stop it before it reaches the point of violence — again.
There is finally good news con-cerning the debate over drones. The Obama administration would proba-bly point to what they see as military successes as proof of the effective-ness of drones... However, I think the deaths of civilians and the ominous reliance on machines outweighs those victories. But now the admin-istration may be doing something to make this technology usable with-out violating the rights of American citizens and civilians abroad.
After the uproar that arose when President Obama informed Con-gress that he had the right to kill American citizens who are mem-bers of al-Qaeda — without any of the comforts of due process and pre-sumably through the use of drones — his administration has finally recognized the need for more over-sight of the drone program.
Several senators have been com-plaining — as they should — about the lack of information released to them about drones. The program is infamous for its secrecy, mean-ing that when the public finds out
that our government has killed an American citizen or a group of Pakistani children, our outrage is mingled with surprise at being con-sistently kept in the dark.
This may be changing, at least partially. The public will still not be aware of most of the details of the drone program, but the Obama administration is considering set-ting up a court to oversee the use of drones, similar to the secret court used by the American government since 1978 to oversee foreign spies.
As of now, no one in Congress or the executive administration seems to agree on exactly how this court should work, but since grid-lock is the new norm in Washing-ton, D.C., we should value the fact that our politicians are at least dis-cussing options to make the drone program more transparent.
Because the use of drones is so technically complicated and be-cause the program has been kept secret for so long, there is doubt as to whether a judge would be able to adequately understand cases. Therefore, most of the advocates for a drone court want the focus to be
on individual targets — especially American citizens — and whether the President has reason and, more importantly, the right to kill them.
Again, this court would not make additional information about drones available to the public. It might not prevent any deaths or violence from the drone strikes if, like the court that monitors spying, it approves nearly every request from the administration. There are probably better solutions to the public outcry over our increased military reliance on drone technol-ogy — releasing more information about the administration’s use of drones for defense and stopping the killing of American citizens would be a start, but the administration is clearly not prepared to do this.
A drone court would not be a panacea, but it would be comfort-ing if even one non-administration official — perhaps someone who was trained and paid to determine whether an action is just — were al-lowed such insight into the program.
Jessica Littman is a staff columnist. Email her at [email protected].
For all of the NYU students who constantly bemoan the lack of community at our university, it appears NYU Secrets has be-come our solution, for better or for worse. The Facebook page, which has now garnered over 8,000 likes, is a stream of anony-mous posts by its administrator, an NYU student who holds an incredible cache of often embarrassing secrets about our student body. If somebody has a burning passion to broadcast which NYU building they recently fornicated in or a sordid tale about room-mate indiscretions, they can email or message the NYU Secrets page and have it made public in 24 hours, identified only by a number. However, whether this “community” page is ultimately beneficial remains to be seen.
The attention that NYU Secrets has garnered is unparalleled compared to other similar pages. Take a look at Columbia Se-crets — as of Sunday night, it has a mere 19 likes (take that Columbia). But Columbia has an enclosed campus and a smaller student body in a smaller area, naturally generating a strong and cohesive community. Comparatively, NYU’s geography is far less conducive to the same kind of community, and thus it’s not sur-prising that we’ve turned to an online forum to foster it.
Obviously, a wall of anonymity implies that those who post to NYU Secrets have no obligation to abide by the truth. The service runs on the Internet after all, and besides, the recent “Reply All” episode has shed some light on how NYU students feel about capitalizing on comedic opportunities. Thus, the page at large could be seen as a great opportunity for the aspiring co-median to exercise his craft. As a consequence, the content tends to strengthen the stereotypes about sex and drugs that seem to define collegiate life.
It may be disconcerting that NYU students have found the strongest sense of community not in a physical, tangible place but through an online, faceless forum. Nonetheless, it does not change the truth that NYU Secrets brings us together as we laugh over our collective embarrassments and find fellow com-miserators in the challenges of university life. So, it is our turn at WSN to contribute our secret to the ongoing social conversa-tion at NYU.
#851: “We are all naked as we write this.”
8 NYUNEWS.COM | MONDAY, FEBRUARY 11, 2013 | WASHINGTON SQUARE NEWS
Men’s basketball aims for championship despite recent lossesBy MARY JANE DUMANKAYA
In the last seconds of yester-day’s game against conference foe Carnegie Mellon University, the NYU men’s basketball team failed to secure a victory, los-ing by one point. This was the Violets’ third straight loss on the road in the last week.
The heated game included 11 ties as the Violets and Tartans competed for the lead. In the fi-
nal plays of the match, co-captain and current senior Kyle Stockmal scored two free throws, bringing the score to 55-56 with 26 seconds left in the game. NYU then gained possession of the ball when Tar-tan junior Asad Meghani missed the basket, but was unable to take a final shot when Meghani’s teammate senior Sean Brophy stole the ball with 22 seconds left. Carnegie Mellon is now 5-17, hav-ing earned its second University
Athletic Association victory.The Violets may have lost their
last three games on the road, but their last win at home will inspire them for the rest of the season. On Feb. 1, NYU hosted the first Tear It Up! event for the basket-ball team. Over a thousand stu-dents attended the match, where the Violets beat the undefeated and previously No. 1 ranked Uni-versity of Rochester 65-51. The game featured great performan-ces by co-captain and junior Ryan Tana and Stockmal. Although the Violets lost their next two matches to Emory University and Case Western University, they still have a few games left in their UAA conference.
“As we have shown with Roch-ester, we believe we can still beat any team on any given night,” said Stockmal.
Recently, Stockmal became the second Violet on the 2012-2013 roster and the 29th Violet overall to score 1,000 points. Stockmal went into the match against Case Western Univer-sity on Feb. 8 needing only two points to reach this milestone, and surpassed it with a single game record of 20 points.
“For me, the 1,000-point was a
big mark and I’m very proud I was able to accomplish it,” Stockmal said. “Additionally, I look back and think about all the people who have had an impact on me to become the player I am today. It starts with my dad, who has had the greatest impact on me, and I thank him and everyone else who made a difference.”
The team’s hopes to make the National Collegiate Athletic As-sociation Division III Champi-onships are not lost. Last year, NYU made the championships for the first time in 14 years, but went on to lose in the sec-
ond round against Amherst Col-lege, which was ranked second. The Violets may yet again earn a bid to the Championship this year. NYU is currently ranked fourth in the DIII Eastern Re-gion with a 13-9 record.
The next game for the Vio-lets will be a Tear It Up! event against the University of Wash-ington Huskies, ranked No. 20, on Feb. 16, at Coles Sports Cen-ter at 8 p.m.
