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The Paper of Record for Greenwich Village, East Village, Lower East Side, Soho, Union Square, Chinatown and Noho, Since 1933
March 19, 2015 • $1.00 Volume 84 • Number 42
It’s chemistry: Hamilton is the perfect fit for new N.Y.U. prez, board says BY LINCOLN ANDERSON
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he N.Y.U. board of trustees on Tuesday announced the appointment of Andrew Hamilton, the current vice chancellor and senior officer of the University of Oxford, as the 16th president of New York University.
The British-born Hamilton is a noted chemist and was formerly the provost of Yale University. He will officially take up his duties at N.Y.U. in January 2016. Professor Hamilton’s selection follows an eight-month, international search process conducted by a search comN.Y.U. PREZ, continued on p. 4
BY DUSICA SUE MALESEVIC
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lected officials and community groups rallied in front of City Hall last Friday afternoon to push Mayor Bill de Blasio to fulfill his campaign pledge that the Lunar New Year would be a school holiday. The rally came on the heels of de Blasio announcing last
week that two Muslim holidays — Eid al-Adha and Eid al-Fitr — will be added to the school calendar. Schools will be closed on Sept. 24 in observance. State Senator Daniel Squadron started off the rally by stating that the mayor had more than enough time to add the Lunar New Year to HOLIDAYS, continued on p. 10
PHOTO BY MILO HESS
Asians feel eclipsed after mayor snubs Lunar holiday but taps two Muslim ones
Some paradegoers were really flipping out on St. Patrick’s Day!
Schools take to the streets to protest Cuomo’s reforms BY ZACH WILLIAMS
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eachers, students, parents and administrators across the city rallied on March 12 against Governor Cuomo’s education agenda. Particularly vexing for opponents are proposed reforms announced in January that would make standardized-testing scores 50 percent of teachers’ evaluations, as well as grant them tenure only after five consecutive years of “effective” ratings
under the plan. In response, union representatives, as well as teachers, students, and staff from dozens of city schools, participated in demonstrations throughout the day, mostly on a school-by-school basis. In Lower Manhattan, actions were scheduled at a half-dozen schools south of 14th St. These included the Neighborhood School and the Earth School in the East Village, Downtown’s Spruce St. School, P.S. 2 Meyer London School in the Lower East
Side, and P.S. 3 and City As School High School in the Village. For teachers and students at City As School, the governor’s proposed changes are at odds with the alternative high school’s effort to boost student achievement through internships and student projects rather than more traditional pedagogical approaches. About 100 people associated with the high school congregated SCHOOLS, continued on p. 8
Leonard Cecere, something special...............page 13 Woman killed by construction debris.............page 25 Red Bulls help kick off new mini-pitch..........page 27 Love and greed: Play it again.......page 21
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