Meet America’s First University-Wide PAC: NYU Students For Political Action

April 18th, 2013 by Maegan Vazquez

After a month and a half of researching and clarifying potential legal issues, NYU has now established a PAC – or political action committee — set up to serve the political interests of university students. The group will be allowed to officially (we’ll get to that later) donate up to $1000 to local political candidates and up $5000 to federal election candidates.

The PAC, tentatively known as NYU Students for Political Action, met up last night in Bobst to discuss the future of the organization and to vote on key issues. There, the group voted on gay marriage and abortion. Important questions were raised by the group of undergraduates, like: “Do we pick ideal candidates or candidates who win?”, “Should we endorse local candidates?”, and “Have you guys seen that Romney video?”

It may not have been the most articulate debate, but all nine general members had a say.

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The Complete Guide To Your CAS Student Council Candidates

April 8th, 2013 by Cara Cifferelli

You’ve seen the Student-Faculty Banquet. You may have considered going to the Student-Alumni Banquet. After you pass the poster you might idly think about checking out the Formal on Thursday (it’s Gatsby themed!). Besides the table at Club Fest and the Facebook events for Bagel Fest, a lot of CAS students don’t have a very intimate relationship with their CAS Student Council. But did you know that this week, from Monday to Friday, you have a chance to participate in the CAS Student Council Elections?

These people represent the Student Council, which you may not be a part of, but they also represent you, the CAS student. From planning neat events that might even land you a job to talking directly to John Sexton about your burning questions and concerns, the positions being decided this week will only benefit you, if you choose to take part. You have nothing to lose.

The following students are candidates for the 2013-4 Student Council officers. We asked them what made them stand out, what they want to change, and what most people don’t know about them. Check out their surveys after the jump!

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NYU Professors Toast Bubbly To Vote Of No Confidence Against Sexton

March 25th, 2013 by Zoë Schlanger


From left: Christine Harrington, professor of politics; Marie Monaco, professor of neuroscience; Mary Nolan, professor of history.

Friday evening just before spring break was the quietest night on campus. Bobst library, packed with midterm throngs the whole week prior, stood nearly vacant. On the twelfth floor, the office of President John Sexton was ending a busy week as well. NYU had taken significant heat for a shady bonus doled out to Treasury Secretary Jack Lew when he was NYU’s VP of Operations. Then there were the multi-million dollar homes financed by the university. And now there was the vote of no confidence, which targeted Sexton personally.

A half-block away on MacDougal Street, around a dozen NYU professors sat in the basement of an Italian café awaiting the outcome of the vote they’d campaigned for for months. The professors were members of the Faculty of Arts and Science (FAS), joined by a few allies from other schools within NYU, but all in favor of the cause: they wanted Sexton out. Read more…


BREAKING: Professors Vote, Declare No Confidence In President Sexton

March 15th, 2013 by Zoë Schlanger

When the poll closed at 6:00pm today, professors from the College of Arts and Science were gathered in the basement of La Lanterna café on MacDougal Street, awaiting the outcome of a week-long vote of no confidence conducted by their colleagues. At 6:09pm, screams and clapping erupted from the cluster of tables they occupied: the vote had passed.

“It’s crumbling! It’s like Jenga!” shouted someone in the crowd.

Mark Crispin Miller, NYU professor and head of the group Faculty Against the Sexton Plan, announced the news: of the 682 eligible CAS professors, 569 cast their anonymous, electronic ballots, amounting to just over 83% participation. The majority of them–298 professors–voted ‘agree,’ indicating that they did did not have confidence in John Sexton in his capacity as president of the university. 224 voted in favor of the president, and 47 professors abstained from the vote. The motion of no confidence has been passed by the Faculty of Arts and Science.  Read more…


CAS Student Faculty Banquet Will Let You Get Cozy With Your Favorite Professors

February 27th, 2013 by Cara Cifferelli

Do you ever find yourself wanting to meet your professors out of class? Do you want to get their off-the-record opinions of NYU, or just tell them how much you loved their talk on “Food Photography?” (C’mon, you know you want to.)

Fear not, because you’ll have the perfect opportunity later tonight with the annual CAS Student Faculty Banquet. Put on by the CAS Student Council, it runs from 7-9 pm on the 10th Floor of Kimmel. Student Council President Yee Ting Wu says, “It’s a great time to bring students and faculty together to just chat. In the past it’s just been a dinner, but I think now is the time where we’re going to bridge the gap between the faculty and the students. I think once you have a good relationship with your professors it makes the academic experience so much better!”

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G. Gabrielle Starr Announced As New CAS Dean

February 6th, 2013 by Kelly Weill

Last night John Sexton announced the appointment G. Gabrielle Starr as Dean of the College of Arts and Sciences. If that second name sounds familiar, it’s because Starr has been CAS’s Acting Dean since Fall 2011, when her predecessor made the move to NYU Shanghai.

Prior to that, Starr chaired the English Department, taught literature at NYU and Harvard, and racked up an impressive RateMyProfessor score.

But, according to an email sent to CAS and LSP students:

“Impressive as her qualifications are, what struck us—and the Search Committee—more was the job she has done over the last year-and-a-half as Acting Dean. From the start, she was an activist, looking for ways to improve education and the student experience in the College.”

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Violets are Blue: Yale Kids Are Driven To Succeed In The Bedroom But What About Us?

February 4th, 2013 by Alexander Seedman

First Things recently published an article claiming that the Yale student body has an overachieving attitude so intense, it permeates into the bedroom. Yes, that’s right. Not only is Yale known for educating some of the most intelligent students in the world, it now touts a reputation of having a student populace so driven, they’re even better at sex than the rest of us.

So, in the spirit of pseudo-scientific logic and rigorous journalistic analysis, NYU Local has explored the sexual reputation of each school within New York University based on their finest stereotypes and cliches.

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Dubstep, Hermaphrodites, And Tap Water: DURFing It Up At The CAS Conference 2012

April 13th, 2012 by Cara Cifferelli

The Dean’s Undergraduate Research Fund Presentation is coming up, and students from all facets of CAS are in it to win it. Armed with clever titles and even more clever ideas, undergrads from the Biology department to Gender and Sexuality Studies will fight to win between $250-1,000 in research grant money to make their propositions reality.

Because there is only one of you and many, many presentations to see this year, we compiled a list of the most interesting-sounding projects, so that you can budget your time and go support your CAS friends in their journey to creating the Gallatin concentrations of their dreams.

 Writing and Speaking in the Disciplines I - Room 709, Silver Center 9:30 – 11:30 am

Highlights include:

“How Do Journalists Portray High School Dropouts?”

“WANTED: Dubstep, Dead or Alive”

“The Empire and Impact of Saturday Night Live”

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Better Know A Building: Silver

February 17th, 2012 by Cara Cifferelli

Silver, or The Silver Center for Arts and Sciences, is the academic building for most CAS classes. Connected by narrow hallways to the Waverly Building, and the Brown Building, the trio makes up the “Main Block” of NYU. Since most of us are on a strict “need to be there” basis with Silver, we decided to take the time to poke around the building famous for being “the building next to that building that caught on fire once” and find out what it’s all about- and what we found was good, bad, and just plain ugly.

Silver used to be the “Main Building” of the College of Arts and Science before being renamed in 2002 in honor of Julius Silver. Silver was a student in CAS who, according to NYU, “exhibited a passionate commitment to higher education and expressed his gratitude for his own education in abundance.” He gave money to the school to fund hiring professors to help “ensure the advancement of the sciences at NYU.” Born in 1900, Julius Silver was a “child prodigy” according to the newspaper clippings found on the second floor of Silver. His wife attended Barnard, and the two gave to both schools in an attempt to reconcile the bitter rivalry between Colombia students and rejects.

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New Acting Dean Introduces CAS Open Hour

October 3rd, 2011 by Olivia Loving

Gabrielle Starr is filling a gap this year on campus.

When former CAS Dean Matthew Santirocco jetted off to NYU Shanghai, Starr stepped in as Acting Dean. Though the position is temporary, she’s begun to make permanent changes in the College. One of these is resurrecting the CAS Dean’s Open Hour, the last of which was held in November 2007. Starr hosted the first of these sessions last week.

Per the college-wide e-mail Starr sent before the September 23 event, the event was created to let students ask “questions, concerns, or anything that may be on [their] mind.” Students gathered in a non-administrative-type room on Silver’s very-administrative-type ninth floor. A cozy alternative to the deluge outside, it offered couches and refreshments to those who did stop by. Read more…