New York University

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New York University
Motto	Perstare et praestare (Latin for "To persevere and to excel")
Established	1831
Type	Private
Endowment	$1.55 Billion
President	John Sexton
Faculty	6,240
Students	50,917
Undergraduates	19,401
Location	New York, NY, USA
Campus	Urban
Athletics	19 varsity teams
Nickname	Violets
Mascot	Bobcat / Fighting Violet
Website	www.nyu.edu
Public transit access	Eighth Street-NYU (BMT Broadway Line)

New York University (NYU) is a major research university in New York City. Its primary campus is located in the Greenwich Village neighborhood of Manhattan. Founded in 1831 by Albert Gallatin and a group of prominent New Yorkers, NYU has become the largest private, not-for-profit university in the United States with a total enrollment of 39,408 (and another 12,526 enrolled in noncredit programs). The University comprises 14 schools, colleges, and divisions, which occupy six major centers across Manhattan. As a truly global university, NYU also has its own facilities in London, Paris, Florence, Prague, Madrid, Berlin, Accra, Shanghai, and will have facilities in Singapore by Fall 2007. There are also proposed sites being finalized in the Gulf Region, Latin America, and in the Middle East.

Contents 1 History 1.1 University development 1.2 Cultural life 2 Academics 3 Admissions 4 Schools and colleges 5 Faculty and staff 6 Facilities and monuments 6.1 Washington Square campus 6.1.1 NYU theaters and clubs 6.1.2 Bobst Library 6.1.3 Washington Square Arch 6.1.4 Recent developments 6.1.4.1 Kimmel Center for University Life 6.1.4.2 Furman Hall 6.1.4.3 Life Science Facility 6.1.4.4 E. 12th Street Residence Hall 6.2 Medical and other campuses 6.3 Foreign facilities 6.4 International houses on campus 6.5 Residence halls 7 Student life 7.1 Greek life 8 Athletics 9 Notable NYU alumni and faculty 10 NYU jargon 11 NYU in film and literature 12 Trivia 13 Traditions 14 See also 15 Further reading 16 References 17 External links

[edit] History

New York University was founded on April 18, 1831 by a group of prominent New Yorkers — the city's landed class of merchants, bankers, and traders — who felt that New York needed a university designed for young men where admission would be based on merit, not birthright or social class. Albert Gallatin, Secretary of Treasury under Thomas Jefferson, described his motivation in a letter to a friend: "It appeared to me impossible to preserve our democratic institutions and the right of universal suffrage unless we could raise the standard of general education and the mind of the laboring classes nearer to a level with those born under more favorable circumstances." To the school's founders, the classical curriculum offered at American colleges needed to be combined with a more modern and practical education. Educators in Paris, Vienna, and London were beginning to consider a new form of higher learning, where students began to focus not only on the classics and religion, but also modern languages, philosophy, history, political economy, mathematics and physical science, so that students might become merchants, bankers, lawyers, physicians, architects, and engineers. This new school would also be non-denominational, unlike many colonial colleges, which had at the time offered classical educations grounded in theology. Such innovations would lead to the modern university which New York University would pioneer.

New York University would provide education to all qualified young men at a reasonable cost, would abandon the exclusive use of "classical" curriculum, and would be financed privately through the sale of stock. The establishment of a joint stock company was meant to prevent any religious group or denomination from dominating the affairs and management of the institution. Although the university was designed to be open to all men regardless of background, NYU's early classes—due to contemporaneous social and economic patterns—were composed almost exclusively of the sons of wealthy, white, Protestant, New York families.

[edit] University development

On April 21, 1831, the new institution was incorporated as the University of the City of New York by the New York State Legislature, and older documents often refer to it as such. The university has been popularly known as New York University since its inception. The school was officially renamed to New York University in 1896. In 1832, NYU held its first classes in rented rooms in four-story Clinton Hall, located near City Hall. In 1835, the School of Law, NYU's first professional school, was founded.

Clinton Hall, which sat in New York's bustling and noisy commercial district, would only be NYU's home for a few years as administrators looked uptown for a more suitable and permanent academic environment. More specifically, they looked towards bucolic Greenwich Village. Land was purchased on the east side of Washington Square and, in 1833, construction began on the "Old University Building," a grand, Gothic structure that would house all of the school's functions. Two years later, the university community took possession of its permanent home, thus beginning NYU's enduring (and sometimes tumultuous) relationship with the Village.

While NYU has had its Washington Square campus since its inception, the University purchased a campus at University Heights in the Bronx, as a result of overcrowding on the old campus and the desire to follow New York City's development further uptown. NYU's move to the Bronx took place in 1894, spearheaded by the efforts of Chancellor Henry Mitchell MacCracken. The University Heights campus was far more spacious than its predecessor, and housed the bulk of the University's operations, along with the undergraduate College of Arts and Science and School of Engineering. With most of NYU's operations moved to the new campus, the Washington Square campus declined, with only the Law School remaining until the founding of Washington Square College in 1914. It would become the downtown Arts and Sciences division of the university. In 1900, NYU founded its undergraduate School of Commerce, Accounts and Finance, which eventually became the Leonard N. Stern School of Business, to provide professional training for young people in the business world. NYU's Long Island extension started in 1935 eventually became the independent Hofstra University.[1]

NYU offered women access to graduate studies in 1888, teaching and law in 1890, undergraduate studies at Washington Square College (then a satellite campus). When women were finally admitted to the University Heights College (which would later become CAS) in 1959 many alumni and male undergraduates were not pleased. The student newspaper remarked upon the instituting of co-education by applying a quote from Mark Twain offered upon another subject, “the position undignified, the pleasure momentary and the consequences damnable”.

One early attempt to increase the egalitarian nature of the university failed: in 1871 an attempt to offer free tuition to academically qualifying students backfired. The wealthy, Protestant alumni viewed a free university as a charity institution unfit for their own children to attend and thus the attempt of implementing free tuition was abandoned.

Beginning in the 1920’s, NYU attracted the most talented Jewish students as they were turned away from Ivy League institutions due to “Jewish quotas” which especially targeted first generation Jewish (and other) immigrants living in New York City for exclusion. While NYU flirted with such quotas, a good portion of its students were Jewish during this era. Today the university has representation from all races and creeds and only 10 percent of students are from New York.

In the late 1960s and early 1970s, financial crisis gripped the New York City government and many of the city's institutions, including NYU.[2] Feeling the pressures of imminent bankruptcy, then-President of NYU, James McNaughton Hester, negotiated the sale of the University Heights campus to the City University of New York, which took place in 1973. While University Heights alumni fought to keep the campus, many suggest that the sale was a "blessing in disguise" as the Uptown campus was losing money and the management of two campuses was financially impossible for NYU. Chancellor Sidney Borowitz said on the matter, "There was so much pressure from Uptown alumni to preserve the Heights that it was only under the threat of possible financial ruin that the campus could be sold. With two campuses, NYU could never have prospered as it has." After the sale of the University Heights campus, University College merged with Washington Square College. NYU's most significant loss from this challenging period was the School of Engineering which officially merged with Polytechnic University in Brooklyn.[3]

Beginning in the mid-1980's, NYU became increasingly popular to students from outside of the New York City area. To meet the demand for housing and classroom space, the university began purchasing old office buildings, hotels, and even nightclubs.^[1] In the 1980's, NYU launched a billion-dollar campaign which was spent almost entirely to update facilities^[2] under the leadership of President John Brademas.^[3] In 2003, under the leadership of current President John Sexton, the university launched a 2.5-billion dollar campaign for funds to be spent especially on faculty and financial aid resources. [4]

NYU's aggressive recruitment of renowned professors has been a large factor in the university's prestige. It has often been involved in bidding wars to lure top faculty to consistently improve the academic environment. NYU has been insistent that its widely renown faculty be active in instruction on the undergraduate and graduate level, as well as active in research.[5] The University is remarkable in that it went from near-insolvency to become one of the country's top research universities, in large part due to the fact that, instead of building its endowment, the university spent its money on building new facilities, hiring more faculty and increasing aid to talented students. New York University is one of the largest landholders in New York City. However, endowment investments have delivered mediocre returns in recent years. [6]

[edit] Cultural life

Washington Square has been a center of cultural life in New York since the early 19th century. Artists of the Hudson River School, the country's first prominent school of painters, settled around Washington Square at that time. Samuel F.B. Morse and Daniel Huntington were tenants of the Old University Building. (The university rented out studio space and residential apartments within the "academic" building.) Edgar Allan Poe, Mark Twain, Herman Melville and Walt Whitman contributed to the artistic climate, having notable interaction with the cultural and academic life of the university.

In the 1870s, sculptors Augustus Saint-Gaudens and Daniel Chester French lived and worked near the Square. By the 1920s, the Washington Square Park area was nationally recognized as a center for artistic and moral rebellion. Notable residents of that time include Eugene O'Neill, John Sloan and Maurice Prendergast. In the 1930s, the abstract expressionists Jackson Pollock and Willem de Kooning as well as the realists Edward Hopper and Thomas Hart Benton had studios around Washington Square or the Village. From the 1960s on, Washington Square and the Village became one of the centers of the beat and folk generation, when Allen Ginsberg and Bob Dylan settled there.

During the era that the University Heights campus served as the main campus, an apparent rift developed with some organizations distancing themselves from students from the downtown schools. The exclusive "Philomathean Society" operated from 1832 to 1888 (formally giving way in 1907 and reconstituted into the Andiron Club. [7] Included among the Andiron's regulations was “Rule No.11: Have no relations save the most casual and informal kind with the downtown schools.” The Andiron may or may not have passed into abeyance in 1988. The Eucleian Society, (rival to the Philomathean Society at New York University), was founded in 1832 and appears to have dissolved several times only to be reformed and is currently extant.

Fraternities (like Zeta Psi, founded at NYU in 1847 and Delta Phi, in 1841) were also popular in the late nineteenth century. The first fraternities at NYU were social ones, later groups sought to attract students with their athletic, professional, intellectual, and service activities. Students also formed other groups. The Knights of the Lamp was a social organization founded in 1914 at the School of Commerce. It met every full moon and had the glowworm as its mascot. [8] The first university year-book was formed by fraternities and "secret societies" at the university. [9] Clubs today fill interests from cultural heritage to business to politics to Victorian studies. Fraternity membership has peaked and fallen from decade to decade: according to the Office of Fraternity and Sorority Life [10], there are currently 25 fraternities and sororities at NYU. There is also fraternity housing on campus (or if you prefer, in the Village.)

A major new addition to NYU's and Washington Square's cultural life is the Jack H. Skirball Center for the Performing Arts, a professionally-operated and programmed 850-seat proscenium theater that opened in October 2003. Presentations there have included the Abbey Theater of Dublin's Playboy of the Western World, the world premiere of Mabou Mines Red Beads, a series of concerts by World Music Institute and a series of first-rate dance companies, including Lar Lubovitch and Bill T. Jones.

[edit] Academics

The university was named by Kaplan as one of the New Ivies, so-called because of said schools' prestige, educational quality and desirability which are supposedly roughly equivalent to those of the traditional Ivy League.[11] NYU counts 23 Nobel Prize laureates, 9 National Medal of Science recipients, 12 Pulitzer Prize winners, 19 Academy Award winners (more than any other American university), several Emmy, Grammy, and Tony Award winners and many MacArthur and Guggenheim Fellowship holders among its past and present graduates and faculty.

New York University is ranked at #14 among its peers as a research university by "The Center"[12] at the University of Florida. NYU's Stern School of Business undergraduate program is ranked among the top 5, Stern's MBA program among the top 15 programs in the country (# 13 U.S. News,# 7 Financial Times 2006, # 13 Business Week, #8 Economist, # 3 by research contribution), Stern's part-time M.B.A. program is ranked #1 by U.S. News. The School of Law is ranked among the top 5 U.S. law schools by U.S. News. The Law School is noted among other things, for its success of its graduates obtaining prestigious clerkships on the United States Supreme Court.

The NYU law school now has a jointly offered Osgoode-NYU LLB/JD degree with the prestigious Osgoode Hall Law School of York University in Toronto, Canada allowing students to obtain both a top tier American JD and a top tier Canadian LLB in only four years.

NYU's philosophy department has been ranked # 1 in the English-speaking world. The economics department is considered top 10[13]. NYU's Steinhardt School of Culture, Education and Human Development is ranked among the Top 15 Schools programs in the nation. The Wagner Graduate School of Public Service has the highest-ranked Health Policy and Management program and is ranked one of the top 20 programs by US News & World Report. The Courant Institute is ranked #5 in citation impact, and #1 nationwide in applied mathematics. The Courant Institute is known for its research in pure-mathematical areas such as partial differential equations (Professor Emeritus Peter Lax won the 2005 Abel Prize for his research in this area) as well as applied-mathematical areas such as computational biology and bioinformatics. The politics department is ranked in the top 20 annually, and its International Relations program is ranked 10th nationwide.

With the inauguration of NYU’s Hellenic Parliament Global Distinguished Professorship, which the university created with the Greek Parliament to commemorate the 30th anniversary of the signing of the Greek constitution, NYU became the first university to have a chair established by a European parliament.

[edit] Admissions

New York University has a large and diverse international student body with nearly 40,000 students representing over 100 different countries.^[4] In addition, over 70% of NYU's incoming freshmen come from outside of the Tri-State Area. Ten per cent of students come from one of New York City's five boroughs and 20% come from the surrounding 17 counties. About 65% of NYU's undergraduates attended public high schools. NYU's main feeder schools reflect a heavy Northeastern presence, and particularly a strong New York City influence; Stuyvesant High School, Bronx High School of Science, and Brooklyn Technical High School are among NYU's top 3 feeder schools. The 2004 top three competitor schools among students were the University of Pennsylvania, Boston University, and the University of California, Berkeley.

As the number of applicants has increased the admissions has become more competitive than ever. NYU has seen a continuing trend of increasingly greater numbers of applicants, lower acceptance rates, and higher average GPA and SAT scores for freshmen. NYU has the largest undergraduate applicant pool of all private universities in the U.S. NYU is also among the top 20 for all universities in the number of National Merit Scholars in the undergraduate student body. In the 1990's, applications to NYU increased by more than 300 percent, while the acceptance rate declined to 28.4% percent as of 2006^[5] [14] For the last 3 consecutive years, NYU was ranked by the Princeton Review as America's #1 "dream school" (first choice when factors such as the price and the school's selectivity are not considered) among high school seniors.^[6]

[edit] Schools and colleges

New York University is comprised of 14 divisions, colleges and schools:

• College of Arts and Science 1831
• School of Law 1835
• School of Medicine 1841
• Graduate School of Arts and Science 1886
• College of Dentistry 1865
• Steinhardt School of Culture, Education and Human Development 1890
• Stern School of Business 1900
• Institute of Fine Arts 1922
• School of Continuing and Professional Studies 1934
• Courant Institute of Mathematical Sciences 1934
• Wagner Graduate School of Public Service 1938
• Ehrenkranz School of Social Work 1960
• Tisch School of the Arts 1965
• Gallatin School of Individualized Study 1972
• College of Nursing 2005

The following divisions were closed or merged with other institutions:

• Daniel Guggenheim School of Aeronautics 1927 - 1973
• School of Engineering 1894 - 1973 (merged with Polytechnic Institute of New York)
• Washington Square College (merged with College of Arts and Science)
• University College (merged with College of Arts and Science)
• New York College of Veterinary Surgeons 1857 - 1922
• College Hofstra Memorial of New York University 1935 - 1963 (now Hofstra University)^[7]

[edit] Faculty and staff

See also: List of New York University people

Numerous noted scholars have taught at New York University since its inception in 1831, among them numerous Nobel Prize, Pulitzer Prize and MacArthur Fellowship winners, and many Guggenheim Fellows and members of the National Academy of Science.

NYU's aggressive recruitment of renowned professors and high-potential graduates has been a large factor in the University's growing prestige. It has often been involved in bidding wars to lure top faculty in an attempt to consistently improve the academic environment. NYU is remarkable in that it went from near-insolvency to becoming one of the country's most prestigious research universities, in large part due to the fact that, instead of building its endowment, the University spent its money on building new facilities and hiring more faculty.

[edit] Facilities and monuments

Most NYU buildings are scattered across a roughly square area bounded by Houston Street to the south, Broadway to the east, 14th Street to the north, and Sixth Avenue (Avenue of the Americas) to the west. The majority of NYU buildings surround Washington Square Park. In the past, there has often been tension between NYU and other neighborhood residents and businesses over real estate issues.^{[citation needed]} Much of this tension occurs as NYU is the largest commercial and residential landowners in the city, as of 2006.

[edit] Washington Square campus

Since the late 1970s, the center of NYU is its Washington Square campus in the heart of Greenwich Village. While there is no fence (and no particular need for one) enclosing the academic buildings around Washington Square, the area is considered NYU's main campus. Every year it holds its commencement (graduation) ceremonies in Washington Square Park. A number of lesser important university events also occur in "the Square". Surrounding is one of the city's most creative and energetic communities, the Village is a historic neighborhood that has attracted generations of writers, musicians, artists, and intellectuals. Today, Greenwich village is one of the toniest areas in New York City, and home to many young professionals.

Notable facilities on Washington Square are the Elmer Holmes Bobst Library, designed by Philip Johnson and Richard Foster, who also designed several other structures, such as Tisch Hall, Meyer Hall and the Hagop Kevorkian Center. Historic landmark buildings include the Silver Center (formerly known as "Main building"), Brown Building (formerly called the "Asch building", site of the enormously tragic Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire), Judson Hall, which houses the King Juan Carlos I of Spain Center [15], Vanderbilt Hall, the historic townhouse row on Washington Square North, the Kaufman Management Center and the Torch Club, (the NYU dining and club facility for alumni, faculty and administrators). Just a block south of Washington Square, there is NYU's Washington Square Village which houses graduate students and junior faculty, and senior faculty residences in the Silver Towers, designed by I.M. Pei, where an enlargement of Picasso's sculpture Bust of Sylvette (1934) is displayed.

In the 1990s, NYU became a "Two Square" university by building up a second community around Union Square, which is about a ten minute walk from Washington Square. NYU's Union Square community consists of the upper classmen residence halls of Carlyle Court, Palladium Residence Hall, Alumni Hall, Coral Towers, Thirteenth Street Hall, and Third North Residence Hall. The Union Square area has countless upscale restaurants, lounges, bars, Barnes and Noble "flagship superstore" (the chain was founded and is still owned by NYU alumnus Leonard Riggio), the famous Strand Book Store and markets such as Whole Foods and a new Trader Joe's.

[edit] NYU theaters and clubs

NYU operates a number of theaters and performance facilities which are frequently used by the university's music conservatory and Tisch School of the Arts but also external productions. All productions are generally open to the public. The largest performance spaces at NYU are the Skirball Center for the Performing Arts (850 seats) at 566 LaGuardia Place, just south of Washington Square South, and the Eisner-Lubin Auditorium (560 seats) in the Kimmel Center. Recently, the Skirball Center saw important speeches on foreign policy by John Kerry^[8] and Al Gore^[9] as well as the recording of the season finale of The Apprentice 3. Of fame is also NYU's Provincetown Playhouse on MacDougal Street, where Eugene O'Neill among many others launched his career and the Frederick Loewe Theatre. Catalyst to many careers in music (Bruce Springsteen started here among many others) was the famous nightclub The Bottom Line located on the corner of West 4th and Mercer Streets. Despite the protest of the music scene and many fans, the club was evicted by NYU after being unable to meet the increased rent payments for several months.

[edit] Bobst Library

The Elmer Holmes Bobst Library, built between 1967 and 1972, is the largest library at New York University and one of the largest academic libraries in the United States. Designed by Philip Johnson and Richard Foster, the 12 story, 39,000 m² (425,000 square feet) structure sits on the southern edge of Washington Square Park and is the flagship of an eight-library, 4.5 million volume system that provides students and faculty members with access to the world's scholarship and serves as a center for the University community's intellectual life. Bobst Library houses more than 3.3 million volumes, 20 thousand journals, and over 3.5 million microforms; and provides access to thousands of electronic resources both on-site and to the NYU community around the world via the Internet. The Library is visited by more than 6,500 users per day, and circulates almost one million books annually. [16] In addition to its regular collection it houses a number of special collections and archives, including the Archives of Irish America and the Tamiment Library and Robert F. Wagner Archives.

The floor of the library, when viewed from above, was designed to appear three dimensional. In late 2003, Bobst Library was the site of two suicides. Two students jumped from the open air crosswalks inside the library onto the marble floor below. Both later died from their injuries.^[10] After the second suicide, NYU installed plexi-glass windows on each level to prevent further attempts. In 2003, Bobst Library was also in the news for being the home of a homeless student who took permanent residence at the Library since he could not afford student housing.^[11] [17] When these circumstances came to the attention of administrators the school provided the student with free housing for the remainder of the semester.

[edit] Washington Square Arch

Despite being public property, the Washington Square Arch is the unofficial symbol of NYU, expanding the 5th avenue axis into Washington Square Park. The arch was designed by Stanford White in 1889 to commemorate the centennial of George Washington's inauguration in New York City. Originally of wood and papier mache, it was rebuilt as a massive marble and concrete structure from 1890-1895. Today, thousands of NYU graduates march through the arch into Washington Square park to participate in the annual commencement exercises. The arch was renovated in a $2.7-million restoration project from 2002-2004.^[12]

[edit] Recent developments

Over the last few years, NYU has developed a number of new facilities on and around its Washington Square Campus:

[edit] Kimmel Center for University Life

The Kimmel Center for University Life gives students, faculty, alumni, and staff at NYU the space to come together as a community for major events, ceremonies formal and informal, and artistic performances of all kinds. Named for benefactors Helen and Martin Kimmel, the center also houses the Skirball Center for the Performing Arts, the Rosenthal Pavilion, the Eisner & Lubin Auditorium, and the Loeb Student Center. The Kimmel Center is known for lighting up Washington Square at night, as the lights in the building are never turned off. Annually, the electricity bill for the Kimmel Center for University Life tops $1,000,000.^{[citation needed]}

[edit] Furman Hall

Furman Hall was named after NYU Law alumnus Jay Furman (JD '71). It includes classroom space, student meeting areas, the Law School clinical program, faculty and administrative offices, and faculty residences. The new building is located on West Third Street between Sullivan and Thompson streets, south of Washington Square Park. It totals 170,000 gross square feet. The building’s architect is Kohn Pederson Fox Associates PC. NYU worked closely with the Greenwich Village community to integrate the new building into surrounding architecture. Reconstructed elements of two historic buildings were incorporated into the new facade, one of which was occupied by poet Edgar Allan Poe.^[13]

[edit] Life Science Facility

In 2005, NYU announced the development of a new life science facility on Waverly Place. The facility will house laboratories and related academic space for the life sciences and will be the first NYU science building developed since the opening of Meyer Hall in 1971. The new facility will be created through the renovation of three existing buildings at 12 - 16 Waverly Place whilst preserving the original, existing facades.^[14]

[edit] E. 12th Street Residence Hall

In November 2005, NYU announced plans to build a 26-floor, 190,000 square foot residence hall on 12th Street. The residence hall is expected to house about 700 undergraduates and contain a host of other student facilities. It is to be the tallest building in the East Village.^[15] This has caused quite a stir among East Village and New York residents, as the new building would be built over the old St. Ann's Church.^[16]

[edit] Medical and other campuses

The main NYU Medical Campus is located at the East River water front at 1st Ave. between 30th and 34th street. The campus hosts the Medical School, Tisch Hospital and the Rusk Institute of Rehabilitation Medicine. Other NYU Centers across the city include NYU Hospital for Joint Diseases and the Bellevue Hospital Center. NYU's Ehrenkranz School of Social Work operates branch campus programs in Westchester County at Manhattanville College and in Rockland County at St. Thomas Aquinas College. NYU maintains a research facility in Sterling Forest, near Tuxedo, New York, which houses several institutes, notably the Nelson Institute of Environmental Medicine. The Midtown Center at 11 West 42nd Street and the Woolworth Building in the financial district are home to NYU's continuing education programs.

[edit] Foreign facilities

NYU has an extensive study abroad program which a good portion of the student body participates in and the school has earned the nickname "Global U". Unlike most other universities, NYU maintains its own international facilities in several countries. Most notable is the 57-acre campus of NYU Florence at Villa LaPietra in Italy, bequeathed by the late Sir Harold Acton to NYU in 1994.^[17] NYU operates undergraduate academic year study abroad programs in Florence, London, Paris, Prague, Berlin, Accra, and Madrid, and recently started a program in Shanghai.

[edit] International houses on campus

NYU has several international houses to foster the study of international culture and languages. The international houses have their own classroom space, libraries, offices and often host campus events. The NYU international houses are:

• Deutsches Haus
• La Maison Française
• Glucksman Ireland House,
• Casa Italiana,
• King Juan Carlos I of Spain Center
• Hagop Kevorkian Center
• Africa House
• China House

NYU was also the founding member of the League of World Universities.

[edit] Residence halls

Main article: NYU residence halls

With 12,500 residents New York University has the 7th largest university housing system in the United States, the largest among private schools.^[18] NYU Residence halls are unique in that many are converted apartment complexes or old hotels. Most freshman residence halls are in the Washington Square area. While nearly all of the upper classmen dorms are in the Union Square area, a few are as far as the Financial District, Manhattan. Until the Spring 2005 semester, NYU utilized a lottery system to determine eligibility for residence hall preference. Under this system, a student received one point for every semester they had lived in campus housing. Freshmen are exempted from the lottery system and are traditionally placed in the halls closest to the main campus area. Therefore, historically most of the students who lived in dorms located off-campus were sophomores. However, beginning in the Fall 2006 semester, sophomores received priority housing, giving them first choice of residence halls. The purpose of this was to keep the sophomore class together in the Union Square area. As a result, the junior class (class of 2008) never benefited from first pick as sophomores or seniors. The university operates its own transit system to transport its students, via bus or trolley, to campus. Undergraduate students are guaranteed housing for the duration of their tenure at NYU.

There are currently twenty-one buildings in the New York University undergraduate housing community. NYU residence halls receive favorable ratings overall, and some are downright luxurious. Many rooms are spacious, and contain amenities considered rare for individual college residence hall rooms such as kitchens and living rooms/common areas. All residence halls are staffed by 24 hour security staff, contain multiple resident assistants (RAs), and several halls contain faculty in residence. Unlike many other universities, NYU rooms all have their own bathrooms and thus there are no common bathrooms. Many residence halls have their own dining hall, and the university has meal options to suit various diets. Almost all of the residence halls have a laundry room that is open to resident students twenty-four hours a day. The price of using these facilities varies from hall to hall, due to the fact that some halls are leased and NYU cannot control the laundry prices.

All of the residence halls are governed by the Inter-Residence Hall Council (IRHC), which is an umbrella student council organization. Each hall elects student representatives to the IRHC, and these representatives meet with one another to form committees and vote on an executive board. The goal of this group is to create programs for university students and to act as a liaison to university administration.

[edit] Student life

NYU's location in Greenwich Village — a vibrant and creative neighborhood that has attracted generations of artists, writers, intellectuals, and musicians — provides a unique perspective in which to study. NYU's campus is a patchwork of buildings and structures across much of the Village making the campus truly an urban university that has embraced the city as an essential element of the academic experience. Admissions are need blind and over 50% of students receive some need based financial aid. There is significant racial, cultural, political and religious diversity within NYU's student body. The vast majority of students live in the Greenwhich Village neighborhood in residence halls thus forming an enclave within the larger city.[18]

In 2004, NYU unveiled its new Kimmel Center for University Life, on the south side of Washington Square, which includes a 1,022-seat performing arts center (the Skirball Center for Performing Arts), space for student clubs and activity programming, and student lounges.[19]

NYU prides itself on encouraging students to create their own sense of environment within the campus activities. NYU's policy of needing only four members to constitute a club makes this a popular trend among today's students. [20] Aside from the sports teams, fraternities, sororities, and clubs that focus on fields of study, some of the most visible on-campus organizations are those that provide the students with entertainment, arts, and culture. These include various print media clubs such as daily newspaper the Washington Square News, comedy magazine The Plague and the literary journals Washington Square Review and The Minetta Review, as well as student-run event producers such as the NYU Program Board and the Inter-Residence Hall Council.

[edit] Greek life

Greek life first formed on the NYU campus in 1837 when Psi Upsilon chartered its Delta Chapter. Since that time, Greek letter organizations have multiplied to include 25 social fraternities and sororities.

Four governing boards oversee Greek life at the university. The Interfraternity Council (IFC) has jurisdiction over all 14 recognized fraternities on campus. Seven sororities are under the jurisdiction of the Panhellenic Council (PhC) and there are currently four multicultural sororities who maintain membership in the Multicultural Greek Council (MGC). All three of the aforementioned boards are run under the auspices of the Inter-Greek Council.

While a small Greek system by most standards, NYU’s Greek organizations have a unique history and level of success not common at many urban campuses. Both The Zeta Psi Fraternity of North America and Alpha Epsilon Pi were founded at NYU, with the former being chartered in 1847 and the latter being chartered in 1913. The NYU chapter of Delta Phi is the longest continually active fraternity chapter in the world, having been founded in 1841. The local chapter of Delta Kappa Epsilon is the highest ranked chapter within DKE for 2006. The local Pi Kappa Alpha chapter is the largest fraternity on campus and is ranked one of the best chapters within that fraternity annually.

The Panhellenic Council features three national sororities and four local sororities. Notably, the first chapter of Delta Phi Epsilon was founded at NYU in 1917.

Fraternities at NYU:

• Alpha Epsilon Pi
• Delta Kappa Epsilon
• Delta Lambda Phi
• Delta Phi
• Iota Nu Delta
• Lambda Phi Epsilon
• Phi Gamma Delta
• Phi Iota Alpha
• Pi Delta Psi
• Pi Kappa Alpha
• Sigma Alpha Mu
• Sigma Phi Epsilon
• Tau Kappa Epsilon
• Zeta Psi
• Psi Upsilon is an underground chapter; that is, they are not recognized by the university.

Sororities at NYU:

• Alpha Epsilon Phi
• alpha Kappa Delta Phi
• Alpha Phi Zeta (local)
• Alpha Sigma Tau
• Delta Phi Epsilon
• Kappa Phi Lambda
• Kappa Psi Delta (local)
• Omega Phi Beta
• Sigma Iota Alpha
• Theta Phi Beta (local)
• Zeta Sigma Phi (local)

[edit] Athletics

NYU's sports teams are called the Fighting Violets, the colors are the trademarked hue "NYU Violet" and white; the school mascot is the bobcat [21].

NYU competed in Division I athletics very successfully, exemplified by a great list of athletes who are honored in the Hall of Fame.[22] Almost all sporting teams have participated in the NCAA's Division III and the University Athletic Association since NYU left Division I athletics in 1981 at the urging of then president Dr. L. Jay Oliva. Exceptions are men's volleyball, which competes in the Division I Eastern Collegiate Volleyball Association. The fencing team also competes in Division I, and is considered one of the best teams in the nation. The National Intercollegiate Women's Fencing Association (NIWFA) was founded by NYU freshmen Julia Jones and Dorothy Hafner.

While NYU has had many All American football players, (most notable among them Hall of Famer Ken Strong)'56, NYU has not had a varsity football team since the 1960s. The sale of the University Heights campus in 1971 further hampered these efforts, owing to the lack of recreational space downtown. Several valiant but ill fated attempts have been made to resuscitate football at NYU at club level, both as an intramural activity and as an intercollegiate sport. From 1964-66, NYU participated with Georgetown in NYU's first attempt to play non-division I football, reviving Georgetown football but not doing the same for NYU. [23] The same fate was met after club "competitions" with Fordham almost two decades later. [24] As recently as 2003 several students created a football club but struggled to find extra funding to defray expenses, find fans or reliable participants for practices and games (held at the surprisingly convenient) East River Park football fields at 6th and FDR.) [25] New efforts may be underway in the fall of 2006.

Intercollegiate sports at NYU have had moments of importance beyond anything suggested by a scoreboard. In the 1940 season, prior to a football game between NYU and Missouri, students protested against the "gentlemen’s agreement" to hold out black athletes (at Missouri’s request); this is the first time such a protest against this practice was recorded to have occurred. [26]

NYU’s rival, as dictated by history and geography has been Columbia University, though it appears from older fight songs, that Rutgers also filled that role at some juncture. Currently, the University of Chicago, a fellow member of the University Athletic Association, serves as a rival of sorts.

NYU, in its short history in NCAA Division III school has won a single national team championship (and numerous league championships). The basketball program has enjoyed an good deal of success since its return to intercollegiate competition. In 1997, the women's basketball team, led by head coach Janice Quinn, won a championship title over the University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire and in 2007 returned to the Final Four. NYU men's basketball and head coach Joe Nesci made an appearance in the Division III National Championship game in 1994. In 2007, the Violets captured the ECAC Tournament Championship.

NYU men's and women's swimming teams, under their respective head coaches Bob Sorensen and Lauren Smith, have done well in recent years capturing consecutive (2004-2005) Eastern College Athletic Conference (ECAC) Division III Swimming and Diving Championships.

The women and mens track and field teams, under their respective coaches Jeff Smith, Lauren Henkel, and Nicholas McDonough practice at both Coles and the 169th St Armory. Christian Majdick of the men's track and field team captured the NCAA Division III championship for the triple jump in 2003. Lauren Henkel one of the most accomplished athletes in NYU track and field history and the current assistant coach of the women's track and field team garnered All-American status three times for High Jump under the tutelage of Jef Smith.

The men's and women's soccer teams, under their respective coaches Joe Behan and Amanda Vandervort practice at Riverbank State Park in Harlem. (Intramural clubs also practice at the East River Park soccer fields.) In 2003 the women's soccer team competed in the NCAA Division III Sweet Sixteen. The men's soccer team won its league ECAC championship in the 2005-2006 season. Their most successful campaign came in the 2006 season however, as the team set numerous records including total wins and longest shutout streak. Furthermore, the team qualified for the Division 3 NCAA tournament for the first time in over thirty years, reaching their first Final Four before losing to eventual champions Messiah College.

Many NYU students also compete in a number of "club" (which may or may not compete on an unofficial intercollegiate basis) and intramural sports, including lacrosse, crew, squash, rugby, badminton, ice hockey, baseball, softball, equestrian, martial arts, ultimate frisbee and triathlon. The Coles Sports and Recreation Center serves as the home base of several of NYU's intercollegiate athletic teams, including basketball, wrestling and volleyball. Coles is considered the hub of recreational and athletic needs for the university's students, faculty, staff, and alumni. Coles has substantial facilities such as weight rooms, squash courts, tennis courts, 25 meter swimming pool, basketball courts, and a rooftop running track. It also offers around 130 classes, serving approximately 10,000 members of the university community.

Many of the university's varsity teams sometimes play their games at various facilities and fields throughout the city due to the scarcity of space for playing fields in Manhattan. The soccer teams play their home games at Van Cortlandt Park and the track and field teams have their home meets at the New Balance Track and Field Center. The golf team does not have a home course in Manhattan, but they often practice at Chelsea Piers Athletic Facility and at various country club courses in the New York area that have a relationship with the team and university.

In 2002, the University opened the Palladium Athletic Facility as the second on-campus recreational facility. Its amenities include a rock climbing wall, a natatorium with a 25 yard by 25 meter swimming pool, basketball courts, weight training, cardio rooms, and a spinning room. The Palladium, erected on the site of the famous New York night club bearing the same name, is now home to the university's swimming and diving teams, and water polo teams.

[edit] Notable NYU alumni and faculty

A strength of NYU is its supportive alumni network.[27] As befitting the largest private non-profit university in the country, the NYU Family is one of the largest alumni bodies in the world. At the of the end of 2004, New York University counted about 350,000 alumni around the world. Of these at least 17,000 live abroad. The New York University Office for Alumni Affairs oversees the various activities, such as class reunions, local NYU Club gatherings, NYU alumni travel and Career Services. NYU alumni are aware that maintaining a supportive relationship increases the value of their education.[28]The Alumni club on campus is the Torch Club.

For a partial list of notable alumni, see List of New York University People[29].

[edit] NYU jargon

• Albert - the online system, named after Albert Gallatin, by which students can register for courses, check grades, pay bills, and obtain school records.
• BBQ - The original Dallas BBQ restaurant located very close to campus on University Place.
• The Bobst Diving Team - referencing the large number of suicides committed by jumping from a high level in the Bobst Library.
• BobCat - Short for "Bobst Library Catalogue." The bobcat is also the mascot of the university.
• Campus Cash - a system by which students can deposit money on their NYU cards, and the card can be used to purchase goods and services at both NYU locations and various campus area merchants.
• Campeatery - nickname for the Campus Eatery, an extremely popular deli on West 4th Street that sells famously delicious food.
• Courant - is used usually in reference to Warren Weaver Hall, which houses the Courant Institute of Mathematical Sciences.
• Declining Dollars, formerly Dining Dollars - a fixed sum of money which comes with NYU meal plans. Declining Dollars are used in NYU dining halls for things other than normal meals such as paying for guests or buying snacks. Declining Dollars now carry over semester to semester.
• Explorations - a special residence program which places students on floors pertaining to their interests.
• Freshman Cluster - the freshman residence halls near Washington Square consisting of Hayden, Goddard, Weinstein, Brittany, and Rubin.
• F.Y.R.E. - First Year Residence Experience. FYRE is part of the Department of Residential Education and is focused on enhancing the intellectual and social experience for new students and helping them develop a community at NYU. [30]
• G-ho - reference to Greenwich Hotel, a residence hall located in the West Village. This residence hall also has maid service.
• Gallatino - nickname for a student in the Gallatin School of Individualized Study.
• Grad Alley - the celebration and street fair that takes place in the Washington Square area before graduation. Grad Alley is capped with a fireworks display.
• GSP - The General Studies Program. A two-year liberal arts education after which the student can transfer into other NYU colleges.
• ITP - Interactive Telecommunications Program. A program in the Tisch School of the Art which focuses on developing new, interactive, digital media. http://itp.nyu.edu
• J-Sex - a common nickname for the University's president, John Sexton.
• Josie's- the Josie Woods pub on Waverly Place.
• Laf/Laffy - The Lafayette Street residence hall in Chinatown.
• MAP - the Morse Academic Plan, which is the liberal arts core curriculum of CAS. Other NYU schools also require their students to fulfill certain portions of MAP.
• NYUHome - web portal that allows students, faculty, alumni and staff access to their email, online classes, and other university resources. Located at http://home.nyu.edu .
• NYURoam - NYU wireless network.
• PUG - The Palladium Unified Government, the name of the Palladium's Hall Council.
• "Suicide-Proof Windows" - The windows that only open 4 inches in all NYU buildings.
• Sternie - nickname for a student in the Stern School of Business.
• The None - Bar None, a bar on 3rd avenue which is very popular amongst undergraduates.
• The Stern Curve - The notorious bell curve in the Stern School of Business that's designed to prevent grade inflation.
• Tischie - nickname for a student in the Tisch School.
• Union Square Cluster - residence halls near Union Square consisting of Carlyle Court, University Hall, Palladium Hall, Thirteenth Street, and Coral Towers.
• U Hall - University Hall, a residence hall located in the Union Square area.
• Upstein/Downstein - The two dining venues within Weinstein Residence Hall. "Upstein" is, obviously, upstairs and is a foodcourt. "Downstein" is an all-you-can-eat traditional dining hall.
• WSN - the Washington Square News, the daily campus newspaper.

[edit] NYU in film and literature

NYU has been portrayed or been the scene in several films and novels:

• Will Truman (from "Will & Grace") attended NYU Law. Grace Adler's office is portrayed in the show as being in the Puck Building, home to NYU's Wagner School.
• Kramer hires Darren, an intern from NYU, to help him run "Kramerica Industries" on season 9 of Seinfeld (episode 158 - "The Voice").
• Jerry is interviewed by a reporter from the NYU student newspaper (and mistakenly believed to be gay) on season 4 of Seinfeld (episode 57 - "The Outing").
• Finch in the American Pie films is noted to attend NYU when he graduates high school.
• The movie Loser was set at NYU.
• Denis Fleming in the film Can't Hardly Wait is an NYU student.
• Alvy Singer in Annie Hall is an NYU student.
• A Friend of Dorothy is set at NYU.
• The Freshman, 1990, is set at NYU with Matthew Broderick portraying an NYU Film student.
• The Apprentice 3 season finale was shot at the NYU Kimmel Center.
• Scenes from The Exorcist were filmed at NYU Medical Center.
• The film Greenwich Village Writers: The Bohemian Legacy was filmed at NYU, starring several NYU Professors.
• In the film In Good Company, Alex Foreman (Scarlett Johansson) is an NYU student, just moving into Hayden Residence Hall off Washington Square Park.
• Dr. Guy Luthan played by Hugh Grant in Extreme Measures is an NYU Med Student.
• Henry James' novel Washington Square is set around the NYU area. Several movie and TV adaptations have been made of the novel (1949, 1975, 1996).
• Rose of Washington Square, 1939 and 13 Washington Square, 1928, directed by Melville W. Brown, are centered around the NYU Campus.
• Tibby in the novel The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants attends NYU.
• In the movie Road House, Dalton graduated from NYU with a major in philosophy.
• Nicolas Cage attended NYU in college in the movie The Family Man and ends up as a prominent investment banker.
• True to life, Al Pacino's character of Frank Serpico attends NYU in the film Serpico.
• Theo Huxtable (played by Malcolm-Jamal Warner) in The Cosby Show graduated from NYU in the series finale.
• David Kessler, the title character of 1981's "An American Werewolf in London," is an NYU student; an NYU t-shirt is featured in the film.
• In Clueless, Cher gives Josh advice: "I hear the girls at NYU aren't at all particular."
• In Wall Street, Charlie Sheen's Bud Fox is an NYU graduate. Without saying Stern, "the NYU business school" is mentioned frequently as his alma mater.
• Ross Geller in Friends becomes an NYU Professor in Season 6.
• Justin Cobb in the 2005 film Thumbsucker secretly applies and is accepted to NYU.
• In Jonathan Larson's musical Rent, one of the characters (Tom Collins) is a teacher at NYU and another (Mark Cohen) studied film there as an undergrad.
• The WB show Felicity was set at the "University of New York", clearly modeled after NYU.
• Linda Fairstein's crime fiction Entombed references a fictional NYU secret society called “the Ravens”, linked to Edgar Allan Poe.
• The novel Cecil Dreeme (1861) by Theodore Winthrop is set at NYU's old Main Building.
• NYU's old University Heights Campus in the Bronx provided the scenery for A Beautiful Mind (2001), Mona Lisa Smile (2003), Sophie’s Choice (1982), The Thomas Crown Affair (1999), and Maid in Manhattan (2002).
• Celine in Before Sunset attended NYU.
• The character Kaitlan in the MTV movie All You've Got attends NYU.
• In the book Gossip Girl, the character Vanessa Abrams was accepted early into Tisch School of the Arts. (in the book, it was simply "NYU's film school")

[edit] Trivia

• In 1941, the graduating class included three later Nobel Prize laureates (Julius Axelrod, Gertrude B. Elion and Clifford Shull), Olympic Gold Medalist John Woodruff, sportscaster Howard Cosell and sociologist Morris Janowitz.
• Until 1973, NYU owned pasta company C.F. Mueller in a trust fund.
• When designing Bobst Library, Tisch and Meyer Halls, Philip Johnson and Richard Foster also set up a master plan for a complete redesign of the NYU Washington Square Campus. However, it was never implemented.
• At the age of 16, David Copperfield was teaching a course in magic at NYU.
• In 1840 John William Draper, professor of chemistry and natural history and president of the Medical faculty, produced one of the earliest daguerreotype portraits of the human face. Draper also produces one of the first photographs of the moon.
• The contractors of the Old University Building used prisoners from Sing Sing to cut the marble. This hiring was the catalyst for the famous Stonecutter's Riot.
• NYU's Tisch School of the Arts has produced more Academy Award winners than any other institution in the U.S.
• The graduating class of 1955 at NYU included: Nobel Prize laureate Eric R. Kandel; Grammy Award winner Fred Ebb; the CEO of MetLife John J. Creedon; Herb Kelleher, founder of Southwest Airlines; the founders of Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen & Katz; Allan L. Schuman, CEO of Ecolab; and three members of Congress, Ambro, Guarini, Meskill.
• There are two versions of the origin of the university color, violet. Some believe that it may have been chosen because violets are said to have grown abundantly in Washington Square and around the buttresses of the Old University Building. Others argue that the color may have been adopted because the violet was the flower associated with Athens, the center of learning in ancient Greece. Today, the NYU violet is registered with the Color Association of the United States as Mayfair Violet, 17575.
• Although the nickname for the University’s sports teams has always been The Violets, the need was felt for a mascot to appear at athletic competitions. In the 1980s, the Department of Athletics began using a Bobcat as the mascot. The choice was derived from the abbreviation then being used by the Bobst Library computerized catalog — short: Bobcat.^[19]
• The model for the football player on the Heisman Trophy was Ed Smith of the 1934 NYU football team.
• The university logo, the upheld torch, is derived from the Statue of Liberty, signifying NYU's service to the city of New York. The torch is depicted on both the NYU seal and the more abstract NYU logo, designed in 1965 by renowned graphic artist Ivan Chermayeff. There is also a real silver torch designed by Tiffany and Company of New York (a gift from Helen Miller Gould in 1911) which is housed in the Torch Club, NYU's alumni club on campus. The torch gets passed at Commencement from a senior faculty member to the youngest graduating senior.
• The Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire on March 25, 1911 took place in the Brown Building which today is part of the NYU campus. More than a hundred garment workers, most young women and girls, died or jumped to their deaths after a fire broke out whilst all exit doors were locked. The fire led to legislation requiring improved factory safety standards and helped spur the growth of the International Ladies' Garment Workers' Union.
• Washington Square Park was used as a mass grave during the cholera pestilence in New York. Today, the skeletons of more than 20,000 victims still remain buried underneath the square. Until 1819, the square (then known as potter's field) was used for executions. The great English elm in the northwest corner of the park, also known as Hangman's Elm, was supposedly used for executions as well, fueling ghost stories.[31]
• The class of 1977 included: former Fed Chairman Alan Greenspan; IRS Commissioner Mark Everson; INSEAD Dean Gabriel Hawawini; Pulitzer, Oscar and Tony Award winner John Patrick Shanley; NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman; NASDAQ CEO Robert Greifeld; and Cathy Minehan, Federal Reserve Chairman Boston
• At NYU, Samuel F.B. Morse and Samuel Colt invented the devices named after them.
• The Palladium Residence Hall is named after the night club, The Palladium, owned by Steve Rubell and Ian Schrager (both former owners of Studio 54). The Palladium was built on the site of the Academy of Music. It became the Palladium Theatre in the 1970s, serving both as a movie theatre by day and a concert venue by night (hosting artists such as Bruce Springsteen, the Rolling Stones, U2, Pat Benatar, Aerosmith, Journey and featured on the cover of the Clash's 1980 London Calling album cover.) NYU purchased the land and built the Palladium Residence Hall in 2001.
• The American Chemical Society was founded at NYU on April 6, 1876.
• The old University Building was subject to several ghost stories. It was believed that the building was haunted by a young artist resident who had died in one of the building's turrets. The spirit was said to pace through the hallways and staircases. In 1880, the San Francisco Chronicle reported that “the structure has an evil repute with the servant girls of the neighborhood…They have a notion that deep in subcellars lie corpses, skeletons and other dreadful things.”
• NYU Professor of Physics Daniel Webster Hering is credited with taking the first human x-ray in the United States on February 5, 1896 at Bellevue Hospital.
• The NYU Victory, a US Navy Cargo Ship, launched May 16, 1945, was named for NYU
• A mock revolution was held atop Washington Square Arch in 1916. One night, Gertrude Drick, John Sloan, Marcel Duchamp, and five other friends ascended the interior stairway to emerge on top of the arch. There, they announced the secession of Greenwich Village from the Union, stating that it would henceforth be known as the “Free and Independent Republic of Washington Square.”
• Def Jam Records co-founder Rick Rubin is an NYU graduate who founded the company from his dorm room as an undergrad.
• Since 1885, the most spirited undergraduate class has been awarded “The Bun.” The award consisted of a bun enclosed in a silver casket. The phrase “You take the bun,” parallels the more modern saying, “You take the cake,” thus the name. Taken three times in 1921, 1971, and 1981, the Bun was last returned in 2002 and now resides in the Silver Center.

[edit] Traditions

Below are a few of the many student traditions of New York University:

• During the First Week of Classes: Since 1900, a series of initiation ceremonies have welcomed entering NYU students. At the Bronx University Heights Campus, seniors grabbed unsuspecting freshmen and led them to an early 19th century horse-watering trough. The seniors dunked the freshmen headfirst into what became known as “the fountain of knowledge.” This practice lasted until the 1970s. Today freshman cool off in Washington Square Park during the initial week of classes- voluntarily, often with upper classmen "overseeing" and participating.

• During the First Week of Classes: The Rope Tug of War began between School of Commerce (now Stern) Freshmen and Sophomores (often with “aid” from upper classmen and graduate students.)

• Apple Fest, October: What’s the best part about spending autumn in the Big Apple? Apple Fest of course! Featuring the whole country get-up, including hay bales, pumpkins, cider, games, contests, prizes, arts & crafts, live music and of course, lots of apples. An ageless country fest that once occurred in the then semi-rural University Heights Campus.

• Violet Ball, March: Annual spring ball for students that's held in the atrium of Bobst.

• Harvest Dinner, November: The Harvest Dinner is the annual fall banquet for graduate students featuring a distinguished speaker. Another one of the old country fests.

• Winter Fest, February: The Winter Fest is also held in Washington Square. Winter Fest celebrates this chilly time of year featuring winter lights, an array of food, music of all sorts, winter games and activities.

• Strawberry Fest, April: A tradition for decades, this festival gathers students, staff and faculty in celebration of wellness, community, and of course, strawberries. This street fair includes carnival games, and allegedly the longest strawberry shortcake.

• Sherbet Fest, Spring Reading Day: On the day before spring finals begins, the Delta Kappa Epsilon Fraternity brings students together to eat cool, tasty sherbet in Schwartz Plaza just as spring's warmth begins to settle in.

• Midnight Breakfast: An exam-time ritual where free midnight dinner is offered (at Weinstein and Palladium) consisting of breakfast foods, presumably to increase student time-disorientation during such periods of all-night study.

[edit] See also

• Education in New York City

[edit] Further reading

• Dim, Joan, The Miracle on Washington Square. Lanham, MD: Lexington Books, 2000.
• Frusciano, Tom and Pettit, Marilyn New York University and the City, an Illustrated History. New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press, 1997.
• Gitlow, Abrahm L., NYU's Stern School of Business: A Centennial Retrospective, New York, NY: NYU Press, 1995
• Harris, Luther S., Around Washington Square : An Illustrated History of Greenwich Village,Baltimore, MD, Johns Hopkins University Press, 2003
• Jones, Theodore F.New York University, 1832 - 1932, London, H. Milford, Oxford University Press, 1933
• Lewis, Naphtali, Greek papyri in the collection of New York University, Leiden, E.J. Brill, 1968
• Tonne, Herbert A. (ed.), Early Leaders in Business Education at New York University, National Business Education Association, Reston, Va., 1981
• Potash, David M., The Graduate School of Arts and Sciences at New York University: A History. New York: NYU Arts and Sciences Publications, 1991.

[edit] References

[edit] External links

• New York University
• New York University Student Guide
• NYU Interfraternity Council
• Washington Square News - NYU's daily student newspaper
• WNYU 89.1 FM - NYU's student radio station
• NYU Exposed - Information on NYU finances, real estate, and administration
• NYU Athletics
• NYU Engineering Program
• STERN Opportunity
• NYU Factbook
• About NYU
• New York University Buys 118,000,000 kWh of Wind Power!
• Location: 40.729500° N 73.995600° W

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