A Senior Bucket List

Many of you may be in Bobst right now, slaving away on what will be the last paper or final of your undergraduate career. With the end of an era looming over head, we still have a few more days of the best four years of our lives. To ensure that you maximize the fun and crazy things you can only do under the moniker of a college student, we’ve compiled a bucket list for then end of your senior year. As a second semester senior, this is the one time when being drunk every day is not only acceptable, but encouraged. So blow off your papers, procrastinate like your studying it in Gallatin, and check some items off of our “fuck it” list.

BYOBobst

So if you can’t be flippantly irresponsible because you actually do need to turn something in to ensure that you graduate, then you should have fun while doing it. Fill up your water bottle with your elixir of choice and hit the stacks. Ernest Hemingway said it best: “Write drunk; edit sober.”

Read more…


College Of Dentistry Student Alexis Cohen Named Student Speaker For 2012 Commencement

As the year draws to an end, the graduating class prepares to brave the real world and a frightening job market. But before we start scavenging for job opportunities and attempt to integrate ourselves into the “grown-up” world, we have cause for celebration. The commencement exercises offer us an opportunity to celebrate the hard work and dedication that we have shown at our time here at NYU, and the commencement speakers serve as examples of how hard work can take you to the top.

Sonia Sotomayor worked her through the legal system to become the first Hispanic justice of the Supreme Court and its third-ever woman. College of Dentistry student Alexis Cohen has also been dedicated to her work, both in dentistry and public health,  which has earned her the honor of being the student speaker at the 2012 commencement. Read more…


Celebrate The End Of Four Years With Senior Formal

In case you’ve been ignoring your emails from Samantha Shapses and don’t know, it’s currently Senior Week. This week of celebrations (read: justifiable debauchery) kicked off with the Harbor Cruise, where we set out to sea from 23rd street, cruised down to the Statue of Liberty, and drank some overly-priced drinks. However, Senior Week culminates in the Senior Formal this Saturday. Tickets are still available on NYUHome and at Ticket Central for a hefty $70.

What perks come with the high price tag? Well, most importantly, there will be an open bar. This means that all of NYU’s most irresponsible students will be fighting for space around the bar like they are tributes in The Hunger Games. When it comes to food, things are a little more ambiguous. Most of the information says that there will be a four-course meal, however in emails there has been talk of a “a ridiculously extensive buffet.” The former option sounds a little fancier, so we’re rooting for four courses, starting with beef carpaccio and ending with flourless chocolate torte. However, we’re expecting more halved personal pizzas and baked ziti. Alas.

Read more…


Fine Arts Students Present Their Theses In “Switzerland” Show

This Wednesday, students in the BFA program at Steinhardt will host the third and final showing of senior honors theses. From 5-7 pm, there will be an opening reception to commemorate all of the hard work that students have done. Entitled “Switzerland,” the show is comprised of a group of students who banded together simply because they did not have a group. Essentially, they were the leftovers. According to their Facebook event, there “were those who did not choose a side.” And to emphasize this neutrality, they referred to themselves as Switzerland.

The show promises to showcase performance art, design and constructed environments. Some images of the works produced by the students can be found on their Tumblr. One of particular interest is by Sarah Faitell. Entitled “Swayback,” it is a large rocking sculpture topped with a saddle (pictured). The stirrups are connected to the floor by bungee cords, and we can only imagine how much fun you could have riding it. Equine themes run throughout Faitell’s work, popping up in exquisite drawings of horses.

Read more…


TEDxNYU

Most NYU students are no strangers to TED Talks, but TEDx, an independently organized TED talk, landed at NYU this weekend.  Showcasing both student and faculty brilliance, the event fostered ideas of all sorts. Speakers gave enlightening talks about issues such as the efficiency of the millennial generation, student debt and special effects. Punctuated with catered breaks, the event was a day of forward-thinking problem solving essential in promoting innovation. With the theme being “NYU in Motion,” the event featured those with ideas to propel discourse into action.

Master of Ceremonies Lucas Green introduced speakers, beginning with Peter Rajsingh, who revealed a few nuances of the current economic climate in the US. He pointed out that the imbalance between agency and exogeneity in the economic system that had a large impact on the economic decline. Bankers, wanting to claim that their financial tactics were successful, claimed causation for the economic heights preceding the downturn in 2008. However, Professor Rajsingh claimed that these claims were unfounded and truly a result of luck, promoting the overzealous support of those in control of America’s finances. A few common themes arose, such as the influence of technology and innovation to improve the quality of life for future generations.

Read more…


Interdisciplinary Symposium Addresses Problems and Solutions For An Increasingly Urban Planet

Tuesday night, scholars from various institutions gathered at Cooper Union to discuss the problems confronting an increasingly urbanized planet in a symposium entitled “Urban Planet: Emerging Ecologies.” The panel was nearly unanimous in its belief the days of the utopian, urban ideal were over, but the speakers also offered possible solutions to various social, environmental and infrastructural problems that have emerged in the urban environments currently ill-equipped to serve their populations.

Three lecturers spoke about the social, technological, and environmental facets of urban design, and were followed by a panel of brief presenters who provided a more nuanced and widespread picture of the issues that plague the world’s cities. Common themes emerged as the event progressed, such as the social and economic inequalities plaguing countries of the developing world, a focus on the midsize city, and innovations in environmental design.

Read more…


Celebrate Graduation Beforehand With Senior Week

For all of you seniors out there itching to drop your books and live it up for your last few weeks of school, head on down to Senior Week. From Monday, April 23rd to Saturday, April 28th, the class activities board has lined up an event every day to help you celebrate your academic achievements and rest your tired brain. The festivities are organized by seniors for seniors. Sorry, but if you’re not a senior, you gotta wait for your turn. We’ve got the breakdown of what’s happening, when, and where.

Monday April 23, New York City Boat Cruise, 6:30 pm

To kick off the week, take a boat cruise around Manhattan as you sip a nice cocktail. You earned it. Tickets are $25 and ya gotta pay for your drinks but, hey, you’ll be on a boat. Be sure to show up with your ticket, valid NYU ID,  government proof of age, and your sea legs.

Read more…


NYU According To Urban Dictionary

As the largest private university in the country, there’s no doubt that the varied students who attend NYU have varied views of the institution. Each student defines their experience at NYU in a wholly different way, but none as eloquently as those published in the scholarly journal, Urban Dictionary. We’ve scavenged the website and compiled some of the best opinions of NYU, viewed through the lens of humor, vulgarity, and disdain.

1. One of the top (and most expensive) schools in the country, where gay men are bountiful and straight girls enter a celibate and depressing period of their lives.
Sarah: You’re so pretty! You must have had so many guys after you in college!
Emily: I went to NYU, the only attention I got from guys was when I wore my Prada bag.
OMG girl is that F/W 2012?! JK y’all, but honestly, where better to start than here? Short, sweet, and to the point, they pointed out that we’re smart, in debt, and very gay. Sorry ladies but we’re here, we’re queer, and we’re jealous that you look better than us.

Explaining NYU Poly

In case you were unaware, on July 1, 2008, Polytechnic University merged with our very own NYU, creating NYU-Poly, an institute for technology in downtown Brooklyn. Areas of study include civil engineering, computer science, cybersecurity, and many other disciplines, many of which we’d never even heard of.  The campus consists of four buildings. The main building, painted intermittently in a bright shade of green, houses  various types of classrooms, a student lounge, a cafeteria, athletic facilities, and a whole lot of computers monitors and other devices. To the north lies a residence hall that houses over 400 students, with others living nearby or commuting. On MetroTech Commons, a sort of plaza in the middle of the tech complex of which NYU-Poly is only a part, sits the library, complete with built in iPads. Throughout the campus are monitors displaying various awards given to the University and upcoming events.

However, for many NYU students in Washington Square, NYU-Poly is shrouded in mystery. So we took a trip to downtown Brooklyn to check out the campus and see what the students there are up to. Arriving not knowing whether to expect a hoard of uber-nerdy engineering students or a campus full of the most hipster tech kids in New York, we were pleasantly surprised to find that, just like at the Washington Square campus, there was a full spectrum. However, one difference was immediately palpable: NYU-Poly had much more of an international feel.

Read more…


Seniors: Graduation Is Coming; Here Are The Things You Need To Do To Prepare

As graduation approaches, tickets need to be reserved, graduation gowns ordered, and celebratory dinner reservations made. Here, we’ve tried to streamline this process for you seniors so that you have time to enjoy the rapidly improving weather and your last few weeks as an NYU student.

Firstly, you should reserve tickets for NYU’s 180th Commencement guest speaker Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor. Each student can reserve up to four guest tickets and one candidate ticket, but be sure to do it before May 4th. You can reserve them online. And to all of y’all partiers who were going to try to sneak in some funky juice, be warned that they do not permit liquids other than factory-sealed water bottles of a size of 1 liter or smaller. They also don’t allow iPads, video cameras, and other various items. Tickets will be available for pick-up from May 8th to May 15th at Coles.

Read more…