Over at Third Avenue and Tenth Street, it appears that the TD Bank on the corner has taken it upon itself to offer a new facility for dorm parties this fall to us Violets.

That, or the School of Visual Arts, a school not connected to NYU, is playing a prank on its bigger (and better) NYC neighbor.

The building, seen in the picture below, and as observed on the School of Visual Arts’ website, is their newest dorm, which they describe on the site as “The 10th Street Residence.”  The banners along the building have no explanation, and the guards inside the bank had no answer for why our school’s colors adorned their building.

This will probably all be settled before any of us get back in the fall, but it’s nice to know that even without students around, the NYU-NYC relationship is still as exciting and controversial as ever.

Update: This may be part of the filming of Step-Up 3D that has been taking place in the village these past few weeks. Drop a comment if you have any conspiracy theories or you’re a Tischie working at Disney this summer.

Photos from the School of Visual Arts website and Mike Mullin.

The 10th Street Residence: 101 East 10th Street: New York, NY 10003

The 10th Street Residence is located at 101 East 10th Street, at the corner of 3rd Avenue. The historic East Village is at its doorstep, including shopping, restaurants, nightlife, and movie theaters. 10th Street residents live in one and two bedroom apartments where two residents share each bedroom. The spacious common areas in each apartment offer a couch, dining set, and media stand. Each apartment is furnished with a full kitchen including a microwave, dishwasher, stove, and refrigerator. 10th Street residents enjoy modern card access entry to the residence and rooms. Modern laundry facilities are located on the 3rd floor and provided at no additional cost. The 10th Street community room is a place where you can relax, meet with other residents, work on a project, or challenge a friend to a foosball or ping pong tournament! When the weather is nice, residents can relax on the 3rd floor outdoor terrace. Bring your laptop, because 10th Street is equipped with wireless internet throughout all apartments and common spaces! — As read on the School of Visual Arts website.

The Onion just ran this piece about a fire in an NYU dorm, and is able to exhibit how well they know our student body. Awesome coverage, guys!

Police Slog Through 40,000 Insipid Party Pics To Find Cause Of Dorm Fire

What am I saying? It’s absurd nonsense. Hopefully they work this out before any American students make it over. I can hardly differentiate Spring and Prince Street—how in the world am I supposed to figure this out?!

12:37 – Looks like the banner reads, “Fuck Tuition Hikes.” TBNYU hasn’t taken credit, so it remains to be seen what’s happening. The guard I talked to in Silver had no idea what had happened.

12:56 – Actually, this probably isn’t a TBNYU stunt. Given the beeper activity, this looks like more Eucleian Society stuff.

1:27pm – We received a comment from a purported Eucleian Society member, using a seemingly fake e-mail address, that their Society is not involved with the banner protest. The e-mail came from the 5th floor of the 7 W. 12th St. building an NYU IP address. We are looking to talk to a member of the Society for more info: please e-mail us at nyulocaleditor@gmail.com.

More pics after the jump.

No more NYU flag!

Photos via Henry Chan.

The last speaking event done by the The Master Speaker Series hosted by the Applied Psychology Department was with Charles Murray, the slightly racist psychologist who famously wrote the bell curve and doesn’t think you should be going to college.

Now, Gladwell took the stage and began explaining his approach to the book “Outliers” and the ways in which he feels we as human beings and Americans can begin to fully capitalize on the amazing skills and talents we have inside of us that are rarely is ever taken advantage of.

Now, I was about to write out a description of what Gladwell said during the lecture. He brought up interesting facts about football players, hockey, horoscopes, math questionnaires, and Ethiopians, and overall gave a truly wondrous look into the mind of a social and developmental psychologist.

But Gladwell is a great lecturer and writer not for the anecdotes he tells or the jokes he makes (of reading Charles Murray’s most recent book, he said, “There’s three hours I’ll never get back.”), but for the way in which he directs the headlights of society towards its most mundane laws and practices. This illuminating helps to point out issues with how we think and how we process the information presented to us.

The greatest moment in his lecture came when he pointed out that when an American fails at math, we as a collective say to that individual: you must not be good at math. In Singapore, however, the collective will say to an individual: you need to try harder and work longer, then you’ll get it. That simple rule, that in America we classify people as being good or bad at something, is a revolutionary idea that is not utilized enough in our classrooms, our workplaces, and in our homes.

So go out and buy one of his awesome books so you can share in the greatness of Gladwell.

What is more interesting is that the CAS Constitutional Amendments, the ones NYU Local featured for restricting who can run for President and Treasurer in the future, passed. Without the vote totals, we don’t know how narrowly or strongly the amendments passed, but hopefully these tallies will be available in the future.

The Election results after the break.

President: Ali Accarino

Vice President: Noveen Ausat

Senator: Albert Cotugno

Alternate Senator: Benjamin Little

Treasurer: Dipesh Mehta
Student Advocacy Chair: Mason Braswell

Secretary: Celia Garay

Alumni Relations Chair: Simon Liao

Club Liaison: Archit Vijoy

Sophomore Class President: Dariel Benjamin

Photo by Lauren Monaco

On the other side are students organized in protest of the Israeli occupation of Palestinian lands. While smaller, the Palestinian-supporters are quite vocal and chanting for a ceasing of all military action in Palestinian lands. These students call for an end to de facto racism in the form of U.S. and UN Middle Eastern policy.

So if you’re free, join whichever side you most recognize with—it’s a beautiful day for a protest. And if you were part of either group, state your case in the comments below.

Photos by David Alvarez

The Red Cat Republican we love to hate and hate to love out in Pennsylvania has now officially become a Blue Dog Democrat. With the help of the ability to count and a host of powerful primary challengers, as well as a Republican Party chairman who isn’t a fan, Senator Arlen Specter has declared himself a Democrat.

What does this mean, exactly?

Well, it means he’s probably safe for reelection in November of 2010. 200,000 Republicans changed their registration to Democratic in 2008, so the state is now solidly blue.  There isn’t too big of a Democrat lined up to take him on for the primary, so there’s little chance Democrats will buck such a huge gift in order to put up someone with little to no name recognition.

It also means that Democrats have 60 votes in the Senate, which means the Republican threat of filibuster now means nothing. While some conservative Democrats may limit the President’s agenda, with Specter on the side of the Dems and Franken’s election looking pretty inevitable out in Minnesota, it looks to be a golden age of Democratic power, especially since 2010 looks to be a good year for Democrats election-wise.

This also means that, despite what he says now, Specter really will have to be nice to Obama’s agenda. Now that he’s attached to a much more powerful party, he will rely on them to avoid fronting a primary challenger and to support him as he begins to reengineer his donor and supporter base for 2010.

Also, for NYU students, this means Specter’s currently defined list of interns, most of them Republicans, will probably head out the door for someone more reflective of their views. So if you don’t have an internship yet and want to work for the new golden boy of the Democratic Party, get on the phone today!

Photo courtesy of Flickr user Oscar Matatquin

Courtesy of the New York Times and a pissed off text from my Battery Park-residing mother, one of the several Air Force Ones the President uses from time to time, with the guidance of the F.A.A. and two intense F-16s, flew close to the top of skyscrapers in the Financial District and Jersey City.

They seem to have been taking part in either a photographing session with the city or the filming of some kind of scene. The details are still hazy.

What is known is that residents and workers in the area evacuated many buildings and shared their discontent with their fellow evacuees. Some of the photographs coming out now are pretty frightening (especially the doozy above, courtesy of NYTimes reader Jim Brown), and the fact that little was actually done to warn citizens is a sad state of affairs in today’s society, in an area still reeling from the attacks of almost eight years ago.