Yesterday, NYU President John Sexton held a town hall meeting to address the most pressing issues facing NYU students today, like why tuition is so high and financial aid is so low, why we suck at sports, and whether he’ll ever get on Twitter.

Why is tuition so damn high?

Recently, someone informed Sexton that NYU tuition is two-and-a-half times the cost of a Chevrolet. He turned this into a metaphor on why it should be that high. “If you want a Chevrolet education, don’t come to NYU,” said Sexton. “NYU is a Mercedes education. Don’t expect to get a Mercedes for the cost of a Chevy.” Sexton said he expects NYU to be a top 5 university in the near future, thanks to its ability to attract faculty through its networked abroad sites. He quoted a Yale spokesman who expects good universities to have a campus in different continents in the future, and thanked him for “dipping [his] feet in the water we’ve been swimming in.”

He said that students who don’t plan to use the services that make tuition so expensive– the abroad sites, the Wellness Center, among others– shouldn’t come study at NYU, since these programs hike up the tuition price.

Why is financial aid so low?

Sexton said that NYU’s per capita endowment is in the bottom fifth within its group among U.S. universities.  “I’ve wanted to send a letter to every student that’s applied to NYU that said, ‘Please understand that we can’t give the financial aid that we want to,’” he said. He also said that money given to the university for specific projects (i.e. its non-stop expansion) cannot be rerouted toward financial aid for its students, since the scholars that make the donations do so with these specific interests in mind; a few examples are the emirate representatives who fund the Abu Dhabi campus and a D.C.-based grad who is largely funding the Washington campus.

What’s with the lack of community at NYU?

Sexton has always said that our community is the city of New York, specifically the East Village (whether they like it or not). “If you want a place where you can lie in the grass without smelling pot, go to Columbia,” he said. “Here, you’ve got a postage stamp to lie on [in Washington Square Park], but you smell pot and someone might pee on you,” he said.

It’s also tied to the fact that NYU doesn’t have any big name sports teams to rally behind, like other colleges such as Duke and Notre Dame. The last time that NYU appeared in an NCAA Final Four was 50 years ago, and Sexton’s fine with that as long as NYU athletes keep doing better academically than athletes at other colleges.

How’s the study abroad site in Washington D.C. coming along?

NYU shovels broke ground in D.C. about five weeks ago. Sexton said the site will be 10 blocks from the White House and the Capitol Building, and close to the Associated Press building. He expects it to be ready to host its first batch of students by September 2012. Sexton also said NYU plans to expand to Australia and maybe even a portal site in China.

Other issues addressed:

• Sexton wants to change the name of Founders’ Hall— the 12^th Street dorm with the St. Ann façade in front— to Annie Hall. “We could have Woody Allen there every year to greet the students as they move in,” he said.
• The Liberal Studies Program and the Global Liberal Studies program won’t be getting their own school in the upcoming years.
• And you won’t be able to reach him @JSex anytime soon: he’s vehemently opposed to getting a Twitter or a Facebook account. “It’s not for me,” he said. But don’t worry; you’ll still be able to get your JSex fix every few months through those too-long-didn’t-read emails.