Washington Square News | March 2, 2020

4 CULTURE

9 OPINION

New York Is Banning Plastic Bags, NYU Students and Alumni React

The Slow Progress of the Plastic Bag Ban

7 ARTS

10 SPORTS

Gallatin Celebrates Black Artistry with ‘Say It Loud!’

NYU Men’s Basketball’s Disappointing End

VOLUME LIV | ISSUE 6

MONDAY, MARCH 2, 2020

Black Muslim Initiative Hosts Milestone Conference The Second Annual NYU Black Muslim Initiative Symposium highlighted the erasure of Black Muslims in Islamic history.

By MINA MOHAMMADI Deputy News Editor

PHOTO COURTESY OF AROOSHA AAMIR

Students gather at Kimmel Rosenthal Pavilion for the 2nd Annual Black Muslim Symposium.

As a soulful Quranic recitation rang across the stage at Kimmel’s Rosenthal Pavilion with views of the New York City skyline in the background, Sheika Ieasha Prime, Scholar-in-Residence and Associate Champlain at NYU, took the stage to speak to an eager crowd of around 200.

“Being an ally calls for you to know who I am,” Prime told WSN. “If you are going to be an ally to me, do you know my history?

Do you know my story? Do you know my narrative? Before you can show up and say, ‘No Muslim ban,’ do you know why I have the right to be here?”

CONTINUED ON PAGE 1

Bar Denies NYU Student for Her Puerto Rican ID

By CECILIA HUA Contributing Writer What was supposed to be a fun night out with friends took a turn when CAS senior Rebecca Gelpí was denied entry at a bar. The reason? Her Puerto Rican ID. Gelpí was out with friends last Saturday night when the group decided to go to Los Feliz — a Mexican bar and restaurant on the Lower East Side frequented by NYU students.

While waiting in line, two of Gelpí’s friends, who had a U.S. passport card and a Washington State ID, were let in without a hitch. When it came to her and her friend Lola Palerm, a New York Film Academy student — also holding a Puerto Rican driver’s license — she said the bouncer became skeptical.

“He told us that he was uncomfortable with our form of ID, that it was invalid and we should leave immediately,” Gelpí said.

CONTINUED ON PAGE 2

CECILIA HUA | WSN

Rebecca Gelpí, an NYU senior majoring in Journalism and Cinema Studies holds up her Puerto Rican ID. Gelpí and her friend Lola Palerm were denied entry from Los Feliz, a Mexican bar/restaurant on the Lower East Side, apparently due to their Puerto Rican IDs.

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NEWS

NEWS@NYUNEWS.COM

Black Muslim Initiative Hosts Milestone Conference CONTINUED FROM PAGE 1

Prime was a keynote speaker at the Second Annual Black Muslim Symposium titled “Out of the Darkness & Into the Light” hosted by the Black Muslim Initiative on Saturday, Feb. 28. The initiative was founded in 2017 by Black Muslim students at NYU to create a safe space for those with intersecting identities. The event is an attempt to reclaim the narrative about the role played by Black Muslims in the development of Islam and America.

The event aimed to illuminate the Black Muslim experience through Quranic recitations, lectures, panels and poetry readings. Organizers hoped the symposium would provide an opportunity to highlight the Black Islamic community that has been traditionally downplayed in the historical teachings of Islam. Prime discussed this historical erasure and its reversion to issues of racism. “[Racism] says you do not have a place or history here,” Prime said. ”Your presence is something new or borrowed. Africans have been integral to the history of Islam. In fact, much of the Quran takes place in Africa. Because of this erasure, we are now calling upon young women and men to rediscover this history and invite others on this journey.”

Misconceptions about the Black Islamic community often include notions that most Black Muslims are black nationalists, immigrants or came as a result of Malcolm X’s popularity. The voice of indigenous African American Muslims, Prime states, are almost completely erased.

CAS senior Aesteou Hydara, who is the Pres-

MONDAY, MARCH 2, 2020

ident of the Black Muslim Initiative, also voiced frustrations with these simplif ications.

“We often imagine someone Arab or Middle Eastern when we talk about Muslims, but Black Muslims like myself have existed for centuries,” Hydara said. “The large majority of Muslims come from the continent of Africa. The f irst Muslims here in America were the Africans.”

This lack of representation and mischaracterizations of Africans within the discussion of Islam has been damaging for the identities of many Muslims, including Gallatin sophomore Mariama Stevenson.

“Not only have I experienced discrimination from non-Muslims, but also from the Muslim community too,” Stevenson said. “The original founders of the club were hesitant to come to Islamic spaces and felt as though their Islam was invalidated and had to prove their Islam. BMI gives us a space of our own to recognize that Black culture and Black history is Islam too.”

Hydara said that non-Black and non-Muslim students must take it upon themselves to be better allies.

“There are a lot of people who claim that they are allies to the Muslim community, but many don’t go beyond being a ‘fashionable ally,’” she said. “You have to educate yourself about the people you support. Be uncomfortable. This event is open to all. Come through and educate yourself about people who are different from you, it is the best thing we can do.”

Email Mina Mohammadi at mmohammadi@nyunews.com.

Edited by LISA COCHRAN and EMILY MASON

Bar Denies NYU Student for Her Puerto Rican ID CONTINUED FROM PAGE 1

Taken aback and confused, Gelpí tried to explain to the bouncer that Puerto Rican IDs are valid American identification cards, but he dismissed her and told them to go somewhere else, even calling over another bouncer.

“They asked us why we did not have our passports with us,” Gelpí said. “So I said, ‘Because we’re American citizens, we don’t need to carry [them] around.’”

Puerto Rico became a commonwealth of the U.S. in 1952, but Puerto Ricans have been granted birthright citizenship since the Jones Act of 1917. For Gelpí and Palerm, who were both born in Puerto Rico and are therefore automatic U.S. citizens, this incident was an unwelcome surprise.

“This is a place where Hispanics and Latinos go as a safe haven, to meet people just like us, and now we can’t be in here?” Palerm asked.

Gelpí and Palerm were not the only ones who have experienced this. Other customers have been denied entry for the same reason, according to the establishment’s Yelp reviews.

“Absolute terrible service,” wrote a user named ‘Kayla M’ on Oct. 26, 2019. “They would not take a legal US ID because it was from Puerto Rico which is part of the US and issues legal IDs.” Another user had a similar complaint.

“Terrible and racist towards Puerto Ricans, we went to have a fun night out and couldn’t get in because they wouldn’t accept

our ID even though we’re US citizens,” a user by the name of ‘Daniella S’ posted on August 23, 2019.

Los Feliz bar manager Jeremy Hansen said the bar does not have any protocol regarding Puerto Rican IDs. “It is not our policy to deny Puerto Rican IDs,” Hansen told WSN. “If any ID may appear to be fake and we cannot verify its authenticity, we may deny it. This has happened from everything to Pennsylvania IDs to Oregon IDs to, yes, even Puerto Rican IDs.” Gelpí and Palerm are both over 21 and the authenticity of their IDs could have been verified by a scanner, which the bouncers had. Defeated and disappointed, they left the venue.

“I just feel there is still a lot to learn from this situation, people should know we’re American citizens,” Gelpí said.

Last November, 20-year-old Puerto Rican student José A. Guzmán-Payano, who studies at Purdue University, was denied cold medicine at a CVS Pharmacy in Indiana because the employees did not perceive his driver’s license as a valid form of ID, the New York Times reported.

Palerm attributed the incident to baseless stigma against Puerto Ricans.

“It could be a mix of both ignorance and discrimination,” Palerm said. “[Puerto Ricans] can have a bad rap of being rowdy, but I want to think it’s mostly ignorance.”

Email Cecilia Hua at news@nyunews.com.

We are telling big stories — the Bling Ring, Venmo fraud, drug donkeys — ones that expanded past our print-standard 500 words, ones that paint pictures with words. This magazine aims to be a platform where undergraduate and graduate students alike can mutter on about their love of the blue-seated MTA trains or put into words the flavor of their love of grandma’s dumplings.

nyunews.com/underthearch underthearch@nyunews.com

Washington Square News | News

MONDAY, MARCH 2, 2020

Report Reveals Discriminatory Practices on Students’ Loans

By EMILY MASON News Editor Black and Latinx university students may receive worse rates on their loans due to the use of educational data by private companies to establish credit worthiness, according to a recent report from the Student Borrower Protection Center, a nonprofit focused on alleviating student debt.

Institutional practices that result in negative economic results for people from marginalized communities are referred to as educational redlining. The February report showed that the use of educational data in establishing credit rates is hitting Black and Latinx students with extra fees.

Students from community colleges, historically Black colleges or universities, or HCBUs, and Hispanic-serving institutions, or HSIs, are paying more for the same loans, the report indicated. The report compared the cost of loans for a hypothetical student from NYU, a non-minority serving institution, against the cost of loans for hypothetical students from an HCBU or HSI. Katherine Welbeck — a civil rights counsel for the Student Borrower Protection Center — explained the importance of fair credit practices for allowing loan opportunities.

“Credit really determines so much of people’s economic outcomes and their mobility in our society, credit affects everything from your ability to own a home to your ability to buy a car,” Welbeck told WSN in an interview. “So it seems like when people are outside of mainstream credit markets they’re more prone to using predatory products.”

Credit is established to signal to a loaner the likelihood of the loan being paid back. Educational data is thought of by some private companies as a means to provide a broader pool of people — like non-homeowners or people who don’t have credit cards — more options for loans, but the practice has back-

fired, Welbeck said.

“A lot of companies are thinking about ways to expand access to credit because we have millions of people in our country who don’t really have a credit profile or may not have the best of credit, so they’re not interacting in a mainstream credit market,” Welbeck said.

In a case study on Upstart — a private company that advertises themselves using non-traditional data to establish credit-worthiness — the report analyzed the costs of identical hypothetical borrowers seeking to refinance student loans who attended three different universities: NYU, Howard University (an HBCU) and New Mexico State University-Las Cruces (an HSI).

The report found that a hypothetical borrower seeking a $30,000 loan refinancing product with the same major, job and annual income would pay $3,499 more having attended Howard University and $1,724 more having attended New Mexico State University, compared to a borrower who had attended NYU. The President of Howard University, Wayne A.I. Frederick, said these practices could cause students to enter the job market sooner to start paying off their loan debts rather than pursuing graduate or professional degrees.

“If you look at the comparisons, the endowment of Howard University is less than a billion dollars so our ability to provide institutional need to students is less robust than these other institutions,” Frederick told WSN in an interview. “So to then double down on that and leave them with greater debt is really not fair.”

In the wake of the report, U.S. Senate Democrats, including 2020 presidential candidate Elizabeth Warren, wrote an open letter to Upstart denouncing the use of non-individualized data to establish a person’s creditworthiness.

In response, Upstart outlined the study’s weaknesses in a blog post on their website, claiming the applications submitted were not iden-

tical and that out of 26 fabricated applications submitted by report conductors, only three who proved the center’s points were included in the report.

The company maintains that the use of alternative data, such as educational data, expands access to credit across all groups. In 2017, Upstart received a no-action letter from the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, stating that the Bureau had no intentions of recommending an investigation into the company regarding violations of the Equal Credit Opportunity Act. The company’s independent testing found its credit appraisal process expands access to credit across race, ethnicity and genders by 23%-29%.

“Upstart has responded to the letter from Senator Brown, Senator Warren, Senator Menendez, Senator Booker and Senator Harris,” an Upstart spokesperson told WSN in an email. “We’re committed to demonstrating that Upstart’s use of alternative data, including education, improves credit outcomes for all disadvantaged groups.”

The practice of educational redlining fell into the public eye most notably in 2007, after New York Attorney General Andrew Cuomo spoke out against determining an individual’s credit rate based on their university’s loan default rate, the rate at which students from that university fail to pay back their loans.

Welbeck said that when looking for means to expand credit access, it has to be equitable.

“The user education data is really concerning in our minds because we worry that in trying to expand access to credit, they’re also potentially running a risk of discriminating against borrowers of color, exacerbating income inequality for marginalized communities,” Welbeck said. “Because we know educational access in our country has a history of being exclusionary and limited to people who are able to access education.”

Email Emily Mason at emason@nyunews.com.

3 CRIME LOG

Two Laptops Reported Missing Within Two Days

CHARLIE DODGE | WSN

By CRIME BOT Robot Reporter From Feb. 20 to 26, the NYU Department of Public Safety received three reports of Criminal Trespass, one report of Domestic Violence, five reports of Drug Law Violation, four reports of Harassment, three reports of Larceny and one report of Liquor Law Violation.

Criminal Trespass On Feb. 21 at 5:03 p.m., a staff member reported a criminal trespass in Forbes Building. The person left without further incident and the case is open and under investigation.

On Feb. 23 at 12:05 a.m., an RA reported witnessing a criminal trespass in Second Street Residence Hall. The people left without further incident and the case is closed and was referred to the Office of Community Standards.

On Feb. 24 at 6:45 p.m., a Public Safety Officer reported a criminal trespass in the Education Building. The person was escorted out without further incident. A police report was filed and the case is open and under investigation.

Domestic Violence On Feb. 26 at 9:02 p.m., a student reported domestic violence in University Hall. The case is open and under investigation.

Drug Law Violation

JAKE CAPRIOTTI | WSN

Student loan applications are a common experience faced by many university students worrying about tuition costs. A recent report comparing NYU, Howard University, and New Mexico State has shown that students attending predominantly black or hispanic-serving institutions face higher costs from private companies determining creditworthiness.

On Feb. 20 at 8:15 p.m., a student reported illegal drug possession in Third Avenue North Residence Hall. The case is closed and referred to the Office of Community Standards.

On Feb. 24 at 5 p.m., a student reported illegal drug law possession in Gramercy Green Residence Hall. The case is open and under investigation.

On Feb. 25 at 9:52 p.m., an RA reported illegal drug law possession in Lipton Hall. Public Safety confiscated a small amount of marijuana and the case is open and under investigation.

On Feb. 26 at 8:22 a.m., a student reported illegal drug possession in Gramercy Green. The case is open and under investigation.

On Feb. 26 at 9:51 a.m., a staff member reported illegal drug law possession in Broome Street Residential College. Public Safety confiscated a small amount of marijuana. The case is closed and referred to the Office of Community Standards.

Harassment On Feb. 21 at 3:39 p.m., a student reported being harassed on West 4th Street and MacDougal Place. Police notification was declined and the case is open and under investigation On Feb. 23 at 3:50 a.m., a student reported being harassed in Gramercy Green. Police notification was declined and the case is open and under investigation.

On Feb. 25 at 7:05 p.m., a staff member reported harassment at Weinstein Hall. Police notification was declined and the case is open and under investigation.

On Feb. 26 at 11:39 a.m., a faculty member reported harassment at 15 Metrotech Center. The case is open and under investigation.

Larceny On Feb. 24 at 5:10 p.m., a student reported missing headphones in Silver Center. Police notification was declined and the case is open and under investigation.

On Feb. 26 at 12 p.m., a student reported a missing laptop in Silver Center. Police notification was declined and the case is open and under investigation.

On Feb. 28 at 12:32 a.m., a student reported her laptop was missing in Bobst Library. Police notification was declined and the case is open and under investigation.

Liquor Law Violation On Feb. 22 at 12:49 a.m., an RA reported underage alcohol possession in Palladium Hall. The case is closed and was referred to the Office of Community Standards.

Email Crime Bot at news@nyunews.com.

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MONDAY, MARCH 2, 2020

CULTURE

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Edited by BELLA GIL

New York Is Banning Plastic Bags, NYU Students and Alumni React

By MIA KARLE Contributing Writer Out of an estimated 100 billion plastic bags used by Americans each year, 23 billion are from New York State alone. Beginning March 1, 2020, the Bag Waste Reduction Act will go into effect in New York State. The law was passed in hopes of reducing New York’s plastic and single-use waste and consequently its environmental impacts thereof.

“All plastic carryout bags (other than an exempt bag) are banned from distribution by anyone required to collect New York sales tax,” New York State’s Department of Environmental Conservation states. “Cities and counties are authorized to adopt a five-cent paper carry-out bag reduction fee.”

The law exempts some plastic bags, such as bags that separate foods like meats or produce to avoid contamination, package bulk items, restaurant carry-out bags and bags for prescription drugs.

Courant alumna Merel Huisman believes the ban is the push consumers need to bring awareness to plastic usage and begin reducing plastic waste.

“I think part of the problem comes from going to supermarkets where you are barely even given the opportunity to say no to plastic bags, because the

groceries are packed for you,” Huisman said. “The shopper can’t even stop to think, or take out their own reusable bag because by the time they do, their groceries have already been scanned and packed in plastic bags.”

However, even though the law will ban plastic bags, paper bags still negatively impact the environment and will continue to be distributed. The question is, will a five-cent fee be enough to reduce paper bag usage as well? The fee only applies to taxed sales, excluding tax-exempt stores like NYU’s Market at Sidestein, where paper bags will be given out with no fee.

The Bag Waste Reduction Act is not New York State’s first attempt at addressing its plastic bag problem.

In 2009, New York’s Plastic Bag Reduction, Reuse and Recycling Act set measures in place to offer plastic bag recycling collection in select stores.

However, the act only relied on the will of consumers to remember to recycle their bags.

Tisch junior Sarah Nelson recognizes that the ban is only a step towards reducing the abundance of plastic waste New York creates.

“Plastic is so terrible for the environment, I only wish this ban covered all plastic bags across the board, not just those from places with sales tax,” Nelson said. ”Though a lot of change

comes through education, and this will be a small but powerful way to educate people.”

Nelson also believes that the ban will be a wake-up call for the NYU community who have become accustomed to single-use bags.

“I hope that this will influence students to be more mindful of the waste we create,” Nelson said. “We are a huge part of determining what our planet will look like in the future. I think that a lot of us just aren’t aware of how everything we do affects the planet.

That’s part of the reason why I think this ban will be so good, because it’s taking away the opportunity to use single-use plastic that so many of us wouldn’t even think about otherwise.”

New York State’s Department of Environmental Conservation is encouraging shoppers to #BYOBagNY so shoppers do not give in to paper bag usage after the law goes into effect.

“Ideally, a bag should be washable and designed for multiple uses, such as one made from cloth,” the Department of Environmental Conservation advised. “If you forget to bring a bag with you, many retailers will have reusable bags for sale.”

Starting this month, do not forget your reusable bags!

Email Mia Karle at culture@nyunews.com.

MIA KARLE | WSN

Since March 1, grocery stores such as Trader Joe’s began charging a small fee for each bag used. The plastic bag ban is the latest policy in the city’s efforts to reduce single-use waste.

This Instagram Account Wants You to Open the F-ck Up!

By SABRINA CHOUDHARY Staff Writer

VIA INSTAGRAM @OPENTHEFUP

A flyer bearing the statement, “White Privilege is Real” is tacked on a pole in the subway. These flyers have been put up all over the city by Open the F-ck Up, a new social experiment encouraging people to open up about taboo issues.

If you’ve been around the city lately, you may have spotted a few flyers proclaiming to the world, “White Privilege Is Real” and “Insecure as F-ck.” From Washington Square to Times Square, the flyers were posted where they would get a reaction. And they did. The posters originally had slips attached to the bottom for people to tear off if they agreed with the statement. Some of the flyers are missing all of these slips.

“By you going up to a poster and ripping off a thing that means you’re part of our movement,” Steinhardt first-year and Open the F-ck Up co-creator Tori Husain said. “And then when people walk by and they see like five things ripped off they’re like, ‘Okay, other people agree with me.’”

This was the first social experiment by the month-old social media platform Open the F-ck Up. You can find them on Instagram @openthefuckup, welcoming you with the cryptic bio, “Nobody talks about their insecurities.” At first glance, their account may look bare with only four posts, but as you delve deeper, you’ll discover an open invitation to converse candidly about America’s deepest social issues.

Their goal is exactly what the name implies: convincing viewers to share their genuine feelings and opinions by suspending labels, insults and judgments.

“I think what I personally wanted to change is how we have conversations now,” Husain said. “Every single human being is nuanced in every single way. And if we just cancel people, in my perspective, I think it’s lazy. We’re not actually having

a conversation.”

“For me, it was a lot about like, ignorance and stuff, because I moved [to America] two or three years ago from Pakistan,” co-creator and Liberal Studies first-year Zoya Hasan said. “And I just see how ignorant people are here.”

It all began when Husain watched Chelsea Handler’s 2019 documentary, “Hello Privilege. It’s Me, Chelsea.”

“It really made me think like, ‘I wonder how other people would react to talking about white privilege,’” she said. “And then I put something on my Instagram story. And I was so interested in … how this would be if it was a public project.”

After grabbing attention with the white privilege project, the pair tackled insecurity. One of their Instagram posts challenged followers to “step out of your comfort zone, [and] put your insecurities in your bio.”

The result was staggering.

“So many people posted their insecurities on Instagram, and I think that’s a really big deal because a social media platform is where you show your most artificial, perfect selves,” Hasan said. “You don’t want people to see your flaws. And people posting their insecurities on there, like people we don’t even know? I thought that was so amazing. I knew maybe a few young people here and there were gonna see it and put it on their story, but I didn’t think it was gonna blow up.”

“In three weeks, we have 1300 followers,” Husain added.

Perhaps the most impressive part is Open the F-ck Up’s nationwide, and even international, support.

“We have people posting in Amsterdam, Toronto, the UK,” Husain said. “Not

to mention Paris, North Carolina, New Hampshire, Philadelphia and Rutgers.”

However, the project still has a presence on campus.

“I actually found out about it through a friend of mine,” CAS sophomore Ma’Laja Patton said. “I saw that she posted it on her story, like her insecurities tagged in her bio. And I was like, ‘Oh, wow, that’s really cool.’ So I followed them.”

Patton thinks the project has the potential to gain more attention at NYU. “Everyone lowkey wants to be able to express that stuff, but no one’s ever really given, like, a very clear opportunity,” she said. “It’s kind of easier to say your insecurities with this because you can just fall back on like, ‘Oh, well they said to do it.’ I really like the idea of people being vulnerable with each other.”

But despite its many fans, the movement has also received plenty of backlash.

Though must people approach these posters to take a tab, others took the entire poster. “A guy ripped it down and was like, ‘This is America!’” Husain said.

But it’s full steam ahead for the platform. The creators are planning two events in Brooklyn this spring, and they’re producing a video on masculinity. The pair hopes to explore a wide variety of themes.

“Basically anything that’s considered taboo, we just want to get on there and talk about,” Hasan said.

For now, though, the best thing you can do is follow the group’s Instagram account, DM the pair to get involved and most importantly, open up a conversation with those around you.

Email Sabrina Choudhary at culture@nyunews.com.

Washington Square News | Culture

MONDAY, MARCH 2, 2020

5

Student Tarot Card Readers Unveil Their Supernatural Beliefs

By ADDISON ALOIAN Contributing Writer As NYU students, we are lucky to be immersed in a diverse student body with many beliefs. Among us are those who feel a deeper connection to the universe, who practice the art of reading tarot cards.

These are not your average deck of cards.

With the help of spiritual energy, they can reveal your past, present and future, while providing guidance and self-reflection.

Readers can gather this information by drawing several cards from the deck and arranging them in a particular pattern. Although tarot cards have been around for centuries, Tisch sophomores Christian Corpening and Grace Sessinghaus still use them today.

Corpening spoke about his first experience with tarot cards last year.

“I got a reading done from Kyler, the guy who does it in [Washington Square Park],” Corperning said. “The rest of how I learned came from my research­— lots of Googling, reading a book or two.”

Sessinghaus had her first card reading a few years ago in Salem, Massachusetts, the town notorious for the Salem witch trials in the late 17th century. When she came to NYU, she was reintroduced to tarots through a friend, then decided to learn through her tarot card book and website tutorials.

“I thought it was a really cool way to kinda see possibilities in your future and give you an interesting perspective,” she said.

Corpening also explained why he loves giving tarot card readings.

“Other than giving advice and being helpful to people, I feel like it’s a really cool way to feel connected to everything, especially to feel connected to strangers,” Corpening said. “I see the deck as a tool for exploring the many different angles to a problem.”

Sessinghaus interprets the cards as a guide from energies telling her how to spend her time.

“They just help me reframe how I look at the world,” she said. “I don’t necessarily think that they’re telling me my future, or telling me a certain way to live my life, but if I have a question of like, ‘What should I put my energy towards today?’ and then I get a card that is talking about friendship and relationships, then I’ll put my energy more toward relationships that day.”

As there is much speculation about whether tarot cards and psychics are real or just fun and games, the psychics — as well as some students they have read cards for — explain the validity of the readings.

“I don’t approach it from the view of like, ‘This is the one finite solution to your problem,’” he explained. “Rather like, ‘This is one very possible outcome out of all of them.’”

Taylor Redmond, a CAS sophomore,

had Corpening read her cards last fall.

“I feel like the cards can always be relevant because they’re relatively nebulous meanings that are open to interpretation,” she said.

Sessinghaus is uncertain about how the cards work but recalled her many mystical experiences with them.

“I have had multiple times, more often than not, when the cards are so accurate to either my situation or another person’s situation and it’s absolutely freaky,” she said.

“So I’m not necessarily stuck on the idea that they’re 100% accurate or that there is a science behind it, but I would not be surprised if there was some sort of energy pulling you to pick a card out.”

LS sophomore Madi Torem spoke about her experience when Sessinghaus read her tarot cards last spring.

“It was so crazy spiritual,” she said. “Everything she was saying was so on the nose.”

Torem recently went through a breakup, which Sessinghaus had no prior knowledge of. But during the reading, she foresaw the event had occurred.

“It was insanely accurate,” she said. “The energy in the room was different.”

Corpening and Sessinghaus also discussed whether or not they believed in other supernatural occurrences, such as a sixth sense (a sense that can see beyond the physical realm) or mediums (those who can channel the energy of spirits who

Doesn’t Get Finer Than Thai Diner

By RIA MITTAL Staff Writer I am the biggest fan of Thai food. Any Thai takeout place, restaurant and lunch special worth talking about has been tried and tested by yours truly. So when I heard that the team behind Uncle Boons, a Michelin-starred Thai restaurant, opened up their new Thai-American fusion diner, I knew I had to try it. Nestled between Nolita and Little Italy, Thai Diner opened up shop in the exact spot my old pasta favorite, Sosta, used to operate. The anticipation was real.

Thai Diner immediately stood out from its surroundings with its bamboo-like wooden exteriors, which set the vibe right off the bat. The line to enter was long yet fast-moving, which was to be expected considering my friends and I arrived at around noon on a weekday —

RIA MITTAL | WSN

The Fried Chicken Sandwich and Phat See Eiw are both served by Uncle Boons. This new Asian-fusion restaurant is located in Little Italy.

prime lunch rush hour. The decor inside truly embodied what I imagined Thai-American diner fusion would look like. The bamboo woven walls and large, potted, leafy green plants, paired with the diner staples of homely booths and long-running counters by the bar, really captured the essence of both cultures.

The menus were exactly like those you’d find at a typical American diner — huge and laminated with cute fonts. Amongst the three of us, we ordered Phat See Eiw, a typical Thai dish, the Fried Chicken Sandwich, a typical American diner dish, and the Thai Tea Babka French Toast, a seemingly perfect fusion of the two. I was a little surprised at the pricing, $13-15 — it was a little higher than I expected, especially considering they had no lunch specials either.

The food itself was of incredibly high quality. You’d think by attempting the fusion of two vastly different cuisines, it would be easy to lose their individual essences. Not only did Thai Diner keep those individual culinary spirits alive, but it also created a new one that I think would appeal to everyone. The Phat See Eiw and Chicken Sandwich were both expertly seasoned and prepared, and the Phat See Eiw was modified to fit my allergies really well. They also threw in some crispy tofu which added a whole new textural layer to it.

The Thai Tea Babka French Toast was truly a dish of dreams. Who would have thought that adding some sliced papaya and condensed milk would elevate a dish already so beloved? We also noted that the toast had a raisin flavor to it, which is unusual for both American and Thai food, but we weren’t opposed to it. We saw a couple of vibrant and colorful tall drinks being served (potentially Thai Iced Tea milkshakes) that we regretted not ordering ourselves.

All in all, with the fast and friendly service and incredibly yummy food, I would highly recommend giving Thai Diner a shot, especially considering its proximity to several of NYU’s downtown dorms as it’s located at 186 Mott St. Email Ria Mittal at dining@nyunews.com.

JAKE CAPRIOTTI | WSN

Tisch sophomore Christian Corpening gives tarot card readings for other students. He was introduced to the practice last year in Washington Square Park.

have passed on).

“I don’t,” Corpening said. “I do believe there is a sort of sixth sense related to one’s emotional intelligence and how one utilizes their life experience combined with their emotional and social intelligence to relate to and assist the client in any way they can.”

Sessinghaus has a contrary view about the supernatural.

“With my personal experience of interacting with spirits and energies and with the

paranormal stuff that’s happened to me, I definitely do believe in mediums and psychics,” she said.

No one can say for sure if there is some mystical force behind tarot card readings and paranormal connections in the world, but these students definitely feel a deep pull to our universe.

Email Addison Aloian at culture@nyunews.com.

Model Behavior: From Photo Shoots to First-Year

COURTESY OF SAMI STOKES @SAMISTOKED

First-year Sami Stokes poses for the camera. Stokes has modeled for luxury department store Bergdorf, and is currently studying Applied Psychology at NYU.

By DANIELA ORTIZ Staff Writer Dallas to New York City, Bergdorf Goodman to Instagram shoots, Wilhelmina to Wallflower: Steinhardt first-year Sami Stokes has done it all. No stranger to moving around, having lived in California, Chicago and Dallas, Stokes was finally able to call NYU her home this spring.

Modeling since the age of 14, Stokes has not explicitly planned her future around a modeling career, but hasn’t ruled it out either after moving to New York City.

After signing with the No Ties modeling agency in California, Stokes moved to Chicago and then signed with the esteemed modeling agency Wilhelmina. Once again moving to Dallas, Texas, Stokes signed with the modeling agency Wildflower, but has yet to sign with an agency in New York. Stokes has met some of her best friends through her modeling jobs.

While living and working in Chicago,

she took on a lot of Instagram jobs with photographers that catered specifically to that medium. Though, like Stokes, both the photographers and models she worked with at the time have moved on, she still considers them to be some of her favorite people.

“I did one of my favorite test shoots of the past few years just a couple weeks ago and we were all wearing bikinis in the NYC nighttime weather in an alley with our knees in cold water in a kiddie pool,” Stokes said. “It sounds insane, but the photos turned out so bomb. I love doing crazy stuff like that and just totally letting a photographer act out their creative vision.”

One of Stokes’ career highlights was modeling for Bergdorf, the luxury department store. The shoot landed her on the retailer’s website, modeling a dress that “costs more than [her] school housing.” Because she moved so often, Stokes has not had the chance to develop in any specific fashion market — whether it be

couture, luxury, street style or fast fashion — for more than a few years at a time.

Stokes has not focused on one individual market, opening herself up to shooting with both big brands as well as local photographers. More recently, Stokes has worked with student photographers, a medium where creativity is almost always key. According to Stokes, it is in these shoots with student photographers where models are able to be a part of the process. It’s a process that can give models a unique insight that is more often than not limited in the premeditated structure of big brands.

“My mindset is to just sort of take whatever comes to me,” said Stokes. “I don’t want to set myself up for disappointment. Modeling here is super competitive and honestly scares me a little bit. I definitely don’t know if I’m cut out for it.

But if the opportunity were ever to come, I would happily take it! I do really enjoy doing it but I’m not currently signed in NYC. So right now, it’s definitely not a priority.”

Currently an Applied Psychology major, Stokes did not let her modeling aspirations influence her decision to attend NYU. She has always admired the opportunities that come with living in New York, and NYU has always been her “dream school.”

Stokes plans to fully embrace the opportunities and connections surrounding her, considering other paths if she doesn’t decide to pursue modeling. Taking each opportunity that comes her way with grace and appreciation, Stokes is quite mindful of being open to wherever her life takes her, joking about her future: “I could end up doing journalism or film studies and have an equally big community there. And you also get to be broke no matter what you do.”

Email Daniela Ortiz at bstyle@nyunews.com.

Washington Square News

6

ARTS

ARTS@NYUNEWS.COM

MONDAY, MARCH 2, 2020

Edited by KAYLEE DEFREITAS and ETHAN ZACK

The End of the World Beckons Pop’s Death

NICOLAS PEDRERO-SETZER | WSN

Alternative band Model/Actriz performs at Elsewhere in Brooklyn. Rising pop artists like Charli XCX and Rico Nasty raise an interesting question as to whether they represent a new manifestation of pop and punk, or a new melding of the two.

By NICOLAS PEDRERO-SETZER Music Editor Recent releases by artists rising in popularity who might’ve been considered fringe artists a mere three years ago — like Billie Eilish, Tame Impala, Rico Nasty, King Krule, Grimes and Charli XCX — ­ point to a radical shift that’s beginning to warp how pop music sounds. The world’s air of distress calls for a change in the sounds

of the zeitgeist. There’s something to be said about the rise of rage, anarchy and experimentation that seems to be catching more people’s attention than the repetitiveness of traditional pop.

Surveying a myriad of contemporary artists who are all manifesto-ing new musical movements despite displaying evident similarities in their sound points to a whole new generation of artists who are trying to capture what pop should sound like

in our age. California art-punk duo The Garden calls for the expression of “Vada Vada,” “a term that represents total freedom of expression without boundaries or guidelines of any sort.”

Meanwhile, Grimes’ urges Spotify to make “ethereal nu metal,” a combination of noisy electronic metal and super harmonic dream-pop, an official genre. Alice Longyu Gao, an NYU alumna, has also declared she has come up with a new sound she’s christened

“violent pop.” The list goes on. Every rising artist is calling for a new, punk-driven musical aesthetic; a new wave of pop that obliterates our current understanding of it by replacing it with an ethos that reflects the mania of the times.

There’s an interesting comparison to be made between the parallels of musical shift that are currently going on and the transition that took place from the standard ’50s pop, to the experimentalism of the ’60s, to the radicalization at the hands of the punk movement in the ’70s and early ’80s.

Looking at recent releases by Billie Eilish, who disrupts conventionality by using unconventional beats to highlight previously taboo subject matters, or SOPHIE and Arca, who’ve cultivated a beautifully anarchic style that reflects their experience as trans-artists, you can begin to see the primordially-important-countercultural manifesting itself in the music scene as an evolution of the punk movement.

The simultaneous releases of King Krule’s “Man Alive!” and Grimes’ “Miss Anthropocene” last week stands as the perfect sounds of pop in an age of contemporary madness. When the world seems to be coming to an end, gentrification doesn’t let you pay your rent anymore, social media alienates you from society further and you begin to feel more insignificant in the grand schemes of things, King Krule’s crooning is bound to feel more relatable than Selena Gomez’s unsubstantiated bubblegum melodies.

The marketability of off-kilter talents

like Tame Impala has become all the more pronounced as of late when you compare his act to that of previous Coachella headliners like Drake and the Red Hot Chili Peppers. This is a notion that similarly applies to Roddy Ricch’s “F-ck 12” anthem, “The Box,” overcoming all of Justin Bieber’s classically-produced pop love songs. Rising pop artists like Charli XCX and Rico Nasty, who according to Spotify garner millions of listeners per month, raise an interesting question as to whether they represent a new manifestation of pop and punk, or a new melding of the two.

We’ve reached a point where mere love songs and celebration of blissfulness ignorance just don’t do it anymore. Talking to a small selection representing a wide array of the NYU student body including the likes of students in the graduate program, Gallatin first-years, Clive students and aspiring journalists, a single sentiment seemed to be shared by all: people want to be possessed by music. Mindless muzak doesn’t cut it anymore — it holds no weight in a day and age where everything’s at stake, and that’s exactly why music that holds the power to overwhelm via its assertive lyrics, beats and message becomes so enticing. The age of vada vada, ethereal nu metal and violent pop is upon us, forgetting lackluster pop in favor of a new brand of exciting pop that’s heavily entrenched in the punk philosophy.

Email Nicolas Pedrero-Setzer at npedrerosetzer@nyunews.com.

King Krule Falls Into Space on the Subway

By ALEXANDRA BENTZIEN Staff Writer Why is King Krule screaming? That is, if he is screaming, what, when or for whom is he crying out?

King Krule’s third studio album, “Man Alive!,” is the artist’s latest exhibition of turmoil and introspection. It unfolds in a sonic meditation on a future that has already arrived, bearing distorted sounds of machinery, heartbeats of digitalization and the reverberations of a distant galaxy.

It’s an inventive soundscape already familiar to fans. It is a mix of experimental elements that delve into a deep-rooted state of misery and disaffection that seem to have molded themselves to King Krule’s persona. The title itself is a desperate, final cry of someone on the verge of being swallowed by death or discontent or the TV set. But, there’s hope in that assertive exclamation point, perhaps a defiant proof of survival in a world of coldness and fear.

The album is an ode to the alienated marauder, a midnight travelogue for an excursion deep into the metropole, a favorite destination or rest stop for a wanderer crisscrossing a city in the absence of light. But, where does the night come from, and where does it live? King Krule answers this question by recycling the well-worn imagery featured on his first two albums: in the subway, underground, perpetually bright despite a lack of day; in space, a landscape shimmering with the unknown; under the light of the

moon, keeping watch over the wayward rambling on below.

He paints portraits seen before, though the poetry is pared down to describe only the essential emotions. At 41 minutes, “Man Alive!” is considerably shorter than King Krule’s previous two albums and favors repetitions of short phrases instead of lyrical narrative vignettes.

His music resides in many genres, just as he’s performed under a collection of eclectic names. King Krule, aka. Archy Marshall, began his music career as Zoo Kid and DJ JD Sports, later became Edgar the Beatmaker, then the Breathtaker (his current Instagram handle), before finally settling on King Krule, an abstract for the recurring themes of mistrust and disillusionment, which he summarized in a 2013 interview as “aristocracy at the very bottom.” Similarly, his music is imprinted by a patchwork of clashing styles. Remnants of the Zoo Kid pop up in references to animals (more so on 2017’s The Ooz) and childish rhymes.

DJ JD Sports and Edgar the Beatmaker sneak in on opener “Cellular” with electric beeps in tune with commentary on a world overrun by technology. King Krule remains a breathtaker on songs including “Slinky” and “Theme for the Cross,” packed with longing for an end to loneliness.

Jazz mingles with the 80s era of pop that King Krule has turned anti with heavy-handed bass patterns. Defiant, warbling guitar reverb conjures a warped image of an underground room. The first

four songs on the album vibrate with aggression, void of the tender-is-the-night atmosphere colored on his most popular songs “Easy Easy” and “Baby Blue” from debut “6 Feet Beneath the Moon.” It’s hard to get through this introduction, run wild with cynicism that’s maximized by “Stoned Again,” a temper tantrum with lines mashed by rhyming “yuppie” with “puppy” and “lucky” with “yucky.”

The latter half of the album is far more tranquil, a calm arriving with the stripped-down oasis of “The Dream” emphasizing the quiet side of loneliness.

With each passing song, King Krule floats farther away from the realities of television broadcasts and commercialized supermarches and drifts into a sleepy, ethereal universe. “Perfecto Miserable” beautifully captures a feeling of gentleness as a futuristic lullaby whose main refrain is “You’re my everything.”

Energy fleets like the title of the penultimate song — “Where are you going? / The day’s about to end,” he croons, getting ready to disappear in an outro built by vocoder, percussion and saxophone.

So, why does King Krule scream, and sometimes whisper, and sometimes sing like his voice is the last lifeline to earth?

The answer is bound to vary with every listen, though its an album best used as an accompaniment for soul-searching six feet beneath the moon. The album evokes an old soul feeling lost arranged by the voice of a young rascal.

Email Alexanda Bentzien at arts@nyunews.com.

ALEX TRAN | WSN

The lyrical styles of King Krule mix machinery with acoustic lyrics. King Krule’s third studio album, “Man Alive!” is an encapsulation of the range of his musical inspirations and talents.

Washington Square News | Arts

MONDAY, MARCH 2, 2020

A Seven-Year Journey to Neverland

7

Gallatin Celebrates Black Artistry with ‘Say It Loud!’

By DESTINE MANSON Staff Writer

IMAGE COURTESY OF SEARCHLIGHT PICTURES AND SAMANTHA FETNER

The lost boys race up a slope behind Peter Pan, played by Yashua Mack. Benh Zeitlin’s “Wendy” gives a unique new look at the classic Peter Pan story.

By KAYLEE DEFREITAS Arts Editor From a young age, director/writer Benh Zeitlin and his sister Eliza were captivated by the tale of Peter Pan, a boy who would never grow up.

“We were for some reason terrified of growing up our entire lives and Peter was the hero of defying this inevitability that we all face,” Zeitlin said.

When beginning his seven-year journey in reimagining this story for a new audience, Zeitlin was drawn to a line in the original novel: “the only ones who can fly are the gay, the innocent and the heartless.” This quote haunted him when he was younger and he found this idea to be the perfect jumping-off point for “Wendy.”

“The heartless always stuck to me like this is the only way to be truly free and be forever young is to be this person who is alone and doesn’t care about anybody,” Zeitlin said. “We wanted to dig into this question like: is there a way through being heartful that is just as free and just as wild as blazing off on your own with nobody?”

“Wendy” thus became a story focused from the perspective of the titular character instead of Peter. This reframing was a way for the Zeitlins to shape the story and to reimagine the character of Wendy altogether.

This was something that Eliza Zeitlin was passionate about since the way the character was portrayed in the past was always a point of contention for her.

“I think that particularly for my sister, who I wrote the film with, this was always a very painful character to be sitting in her favorite story,” Zeitlin said. “To have in this great myth that says so much about freedom and wildness that girls are excluded from that.”

So they took the character of Wendy and gave her a chance to play and be a child rather than be forced into the homemaker role that the original puts her in. The maternal character is a fish-like creature that inhabits the island and has magical, glowing powers

and is literally called “mother” by the children. By transferring the role of mother from Wendy to this new creature, Zeitlin aimed to portray motherhood in a way that is not as weak as the original.

“Wendy” includes many themes of the original and takes a much closer look at them. One such theme is the idea of one person growing up while another stays young. In the original story, this is seen at the very end with Wendy as an adult and Peter staying a boy. However, in the film, the theme is given more time to be explored when Wendy’s twin brothers are separated and one is forced to grow older while the other stays youthful.

Zeitlin developed this idea of loss and how it coincides with growing up during interviews he conducted in the casting sessions, which, according to him, were vital to the formation of the film.

“One thing we would ask everyone was ‘is there a moment in your life where you can track where your life changed forever and where you feel like you grew up,’” Zeitlin said. “A lot of it [the answers] was around a loss. Someone who lost a brother or lost a mother young or something like that where they never felt like they could quite reconnect to the same sort of joy.”

When casting the film, Zeitlin looked for raw talent in children who had never acted or even considered acting before. When auditioning kids for the film, he took an unconventional approach. Instead of having them come in and just read a scene from the script, he incorporated improvisation to see if they liked acting and to observe how they play naturally.

Wendy and Peter are vital roles to the film, so when casting those parts it was important that he found the perfect pair. When Devin France came in, her pure excitement let him know that he had found Wendy.

“Some kids smile because they are nervous but she smiled just out of sheer joy of getting to do this,” Zeitlin said.

When it came to Peter Pan, Zeitlin

wanted to cast a child from the area where they were filming as he wanted the character to be from this island of Neverland he was creating. He found the perfect Pan in Yashua Mack of Antigua. Originally, he wasn’t going to audition Mack due to him being too young. But eventually, after seeing him sneaking around the audition site over and over, he decided to give Mack a try. Zeitlin realized he was the perfect Pan during an acting game where Mack had to protect his favorite tree from the director.

“When he dropped into character it was like, I just knew in an instant. It was mind blowing,” Zeitlin said. “Just incredibly gifted and naturally talented. I’ll never forget that moment when he became the protector of this tree. It was incredible.”

Once all the pieces came together, the film started shooting and Zeitlin’s creation came to life. Over the course of shooting, the kids formed their own kind of pack which brought fantastic wild energy to the set. Zeitlin stated that the most joyful times were the opportunities he had to bond with the kids when they weren’t shooting.

“We really became a family,” Zeitlin said. “I just remember days after set playing in the ocean, playing in the pool and just getting to be a kid with them was probably the most joyful stuff.”

Benh Zeitlin’s seven-year voyage to create “Wendy” is now at an end as the film premiered in January at Sundance and has now been released in theaters.

With this film, Zeitlin brought his own fantastical style to a classic tale to shape it into the Neverland both he and his sister pictured as children.

The result is a visually stunning film that asks its audience to “sneak away” and tries to stir the fire of adventure in hearts both old and young.

At the tail end of Black History Month, artists in Gallatin’s “Say It Loud!” showcase shared their art about the complexities of Black skin in a white world. Sponsored by the Gallatin Offices of Student Affairs and Student Life, eight gifted poets and artists brought the Jerry H. Labowitz Theatre to life with a crowd of local supporters in and outside of the NYU community.

The evening felt intimate in the dim lighting of the small theatre. Gallatin Senior DJ Ryan Waller provided the audience with smooth beats and soulful tracks to match the ambiance of the night. The MC of the night, Jayshawn Lee, encouraged love and support from the audience for those who took the stage by chanting “say it loud!” The energy spread throughout the room on the cold, bitter Thursday evening. Lee has been very active in voicing the power of words through his work as a student at NYU and beyond. Throughout the night, audiences were able to get a taste of the award-winning poet’s skills in-between the announcements.

The first poet to hit the stage was Gallatin Master’s first-year Mekleit Dix. Her poems silenced the crowd with the assertiveness of her calming tone. The piece recalled the grief and heartache produced from the reckless disposal of Black bodies across this country. “If only for a moment here is our victory, moonshine dripping off your skin,” Dix said.

She used her poetry to tell a story of love and loss. Her poem was multi-faceted, like the war going on in the minds of Black men across this country who have to live in fear of constantly being seen before they are heard. She spoke of Black men who are often too busy fighting the world’s perception of them to relish in the love that is present in their lives.

Liberal Studies student Eleni Retta was next to take the stage, giving us a glimpse into the future of Black artistry

at NYU with her poem “Home.” At the end of her poem, she reconciles which community failed to embrace her and her culture. “Home is not where I was raised, it is who I am despite.”

Unlike her fellow poets, Gallatin first-year Ava Marshall preferred to sit on stage. This did not detract from her stage presence. Marshall delivered a heart-breaking tale about being mistaken as a male all of her life despite identifying as a woman. Gentle Ramirez told a similar tale of mistaken identity, drawing from their own experience as a trans non-binary poet.

“The most unprotected woman in America is the trans Black woman,” Ramirez said in their first poem, igniting snaps and reassuring “mmhmms” from the audience.

The room was warm with raw emotion and support for the artists on stage. Notable moments throughout the night included two short films produced by Gallatin students that focused on the plight of Black women when it comes to their outward appearance. One film made use of clips from the Oscar-winning short film “Hair Love” by Director Matthew A. Cherry. Further noteworthy performances included the effortless flow of Jordan Dorsey, who approached the mic under the stage name Not Shakespeare, giving us a taste of her rap bars over an instrumental beat.

The night ended with Robert Gibbons, the spotlight artist of the night.

Gibbons has been active in New York City’s poetry scene since arriving from Florida over 10 years ago. He is currently a Literature Professor at the City College of New York. Accompanying him on stage was Tomas Gargano, a talented musician who has shared the stage with legendary artists like Aretha Franklin and Billie Holiday. Their dynamic performance closed out a night of laughs, quiet reflection and appreciation for Black artists.

Email Destine Manson at theater@nyunews.com.

“Wendy” opened on February 28, 2020, and is currently playing in theaters.

DESTINE MANSON | WSN

Email Kaylee DeFreitas at kdefreitas@nyunews.com.

Mekleit Dix, a first-year Master’s student in Gallatin, was one of many artists who performed during the school’s “Say It Loud!” showcase. Concluding Black History Month, artists shared messages of unity and pride.

Washington Square News

8

OPINION@NYUNEWS.COM

MONDAY, MARCH 2, 2020

OPINION

Edited by JUN SUNG

EDUCATION

The Rural Public School Crisis

By HELEN WAJDA Deputy Opinion Editor In 2018, Keshia Speight, a thirdgrade teacher at a public school in rural North Carolina, reported that most years, she spends approximately $1,000 of her $37,000 annual salary on classroom supplies — including a printer and ink cartridges, pencils and educational games. Her school no longer offers any after-school activities due to a lack of funding. The school also reported being unable to afford to hire a school psychologist and update their security system in 2018.

While this sounds like an extreme example, thousands of public schools across the country could (and have) shared similar stories of severe under-resourcing. A 2018 survey by the Department of Federal Education found that 94% of teachers reported using their own money to pay for classroom supplies, and in 2017, a rural Tennessee school district reported that three different counties were sharing one physics teacher.

And yet, instead of increasing funding for public schools in America, last week, the Department of Federal Education quietly implemented a bookkeeping change that could take thousands of dollars in federal funding away from more than 800 rural schools — some of which are already among the most under-resourced in the country.

The Rural and Low-Income School Program is a non-competitive federal assistance program that provides funding to schools in geographically

isolated areas where 20% of students fall below the poverty line. For the past 17 years, schools have reported the percentage of students who qualify for free and reduced lunch to the department in order to determine their eligibility, rather than reporting census data. This is largely due to reports that census data often undercounts residents.

In letters to state education leaders last week, though, the USDOE announced that census data would now have to be used to determine school eligibility — a sudden change in enforcement that could cause many cashstrapped schools to lose funding that they have already budgeted for.

The RLIS is the only federally-funded program available for rural schools, and many struggling schools rely on the program to afford mental health and guidance counselors, literacy specialists, updated technology and full-day kindergarten programs. These programs and resources are not frivolous extras, but essential programs that every public school should provide.

In approximately 46% of U.S. households with two parents and school-age children, both parents work full-time.

Full-day kindergarten not only eases financial burdens by saving guardians from having to arrange childcare, but it has been linked to improved literacy.

Using technology in the classroom has not only been linked to improved performance across subjects, but teaching students to use technology helps to level the playing field by ensuring that all students develop computer proficiency. The Institute of Medicine has found that in-school counseling and mental health services are essential for many students to excel academically. Cutting funds that keep these resources available in rural schools only places more barriers in the way of students who already have limited access to advanced coursework, falling reading scores and are less likely to attend college than ur-

ban and suburban students.

While a spokeswoman from the Education Department stated that the Department has drafted plans to implement the change that would allow schools to continue reporting free-and-reduced-lunch data, restoring these funds is just the first step in tackling the rural public school crisis.

Approximately 15 million students were enrolled in rural schools in 2018 — constituting nearly 1 in 5 public school students in the United States — but on average, rural schools receive only 17% of state education funding.

Moreover, much of the research in education focuses on urban schools.

While there is some overlap between

the problems that urban and rural schools face, rural schools also face many unique problems: higher transportation costs, more difficulty accessing the internet, teacher shortages and high turnover rates.

Rural schools desperately need increased funding overall and policies that address their unique problems.

Many organizations are taking action to raise awareness about the plight of rural public schools like The Rural School and Community Trust, a nonprofit that focuses on advocating for appropriate state educational policies and researching rural schools.

However, rural schools still struggle to provide students with basic necessities

like internet access and mental health resources, which demonstrates that there is still a lot of work to be done.

Every day that students at rural public schools have to go without adequate resources and teachers have to spend their already-below-average salaries on basic classroom necessities, is another day of injustice in the American public school system. It’s time for the U.S. Department of Education to truly take steps towards providing rural schools with the funding they need — a change that starts with restoring funds that they’ve already been promised.

Email Helen Wajda at hwajda@nyunews.com.

CHARLIE DODGE | WSN

CITY

New York Is No “Sanctuary City”

By ASHA RAMACHANDRAN Deputy Opinion Editor Last month, Erick Díaz-Cruz was shot in the face by an on-duty Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent in Brooklyn, New York, outside his own home. The 26 year old was trying to protect his mother’s boyfriend, who was confronted

by ICE agents after they refused to identify themselves. The agents immediately became violent when

Díaz-Cruz questioned them for it, pulling out a weapon as he stood just steps away from them. ICE stated they confronted the family this way because the New York City Police Department released him from custody three days earlier without contacting ICE. The lack of communication between the NYPD and ICE was the result of New York City’s sanctuary policy, which prohibits city agencies like the NYPD from aiding federal deportation efforts.

While the policy is well-intentioned, it has led to ICE deploying more aggressive tactics, confronting suspected undocumented immigrants on the streets or in their own homes without any oversight or accountability. The city’s sanctuary status does not do nearly enough to protect immigrant communities,

and may in fact put immigrants in even greater danger.

In response to sanctuary policies, the Trump administration is now planning to deploy Border Patrol SWAT teams to sanctuary cities and escalate arrest operations in order to retaliate against city governments for not cooperating. Trump has effectively waged war on sanctuary cities and the greatest casualties will be immigrants themselves. These Border Control Tactical Units, known as BORTAC, will be armed with gear such as stun grenades and enhanced special forces-type training, including sniper certif ication.

Trained snipers who were formerly involved in military operations in Iraq and Afghanistan are going to be deployed on the streets of New York to target immigrants.

ICE has signif icantly stepped up deportation operations since cities like New York have passed sanctuary policies. The agency has turned to working around the NYPD by targeting suspected undocumented immigrants on the streets, in courthouses, in hospitals and in their own homes. Arrests for deportation have actually increased across the country and New York City has the highest arrest rates as well as the largest ICE presence in the entire state.

ICE is using increasingly unlawful tactics to terrorize immigrant communities with zero accountability. Every year, Congress gives the Department of Homeland Security and ICE itself a blank check of taxpayer money for immigration enforcement without any oversight, even as they use disproportionate

violence and scare tactics as part of their agenda. Now, the Trump administration is planning to send immigration SWAT teams to New York, increasing the likelihood of violent arrests and deportation.

Soon enough, “sanctuary cities” will be overrun by SWAT-like immigration agents and deportations and detentions will only continue to increase. Though Mayor de Blasio loves to boast that New York is a “proud city of immigrants” and “the safest big city in America,” New York is not keeping immigrant communities safe at all and they will only be put in more danger with the federal government’s newest escalations.

Email Asha Ramachandran at aramachandran@nyunews.com.

Washington Square News | Opinion

MONDAY, MARCH 2, 2020

9

CRIME

Don’t Try Children as Adults

By EMILY DAI Deputy Opinion Editor On Dec. 11 of last year, 18-year old Tessa Majors was fatally stabbed while on an early evening walk through a park near campus. Majors had recently moved to New York from Charlottesville, Virginia to start her first year at Barnard College. Days later, a 13-year-old boy was arrested on charges including felony murder. On Feb. 15, a 14-year-old boy was arrested and charged with two counts of second-degree murder, one account of first-degree robbery and three counts of second degree robbery. Two months after the high-profile murder, the third suspect turned himself in to police on Feb. 19, and was charged with felony murder and robbery in the first and second degree. On the same day, the first two suspects were arraigned as adults in Manhattan Criminal Court. Both pleaded not guilty to a minimum sentence of five years to life in prison.

Under New York State law, prosecutors have the discretion to try defendants as young as 14 as adults in certain cases of violent crimes. In this case, trying the young suspects in adult court not only undermines the rehabilitative mission of the juvenile system, but it will deprive them of the protections usually offered in family court — these children usually receive longer sentences and harsher penalties.

In 2001, 13-year-old Lionel Tate was tried as an adult after murdering a sixyear-old girl while allegedly imitating professional wrestling moves. Tate was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole, making him the youngest person in American history to receive the punishment. Similar to the media frenzy around Majors’s killing, this story highlights a massive shortcoming in our criminal justice — the legal construction of juvenile crime.

Allowing juveniles to be tried in adult courts is damaging to those children and undermines the mission of our criminal justice system.

In 2005, the Supreme Court ruled in Roper v. Simmons that children under the age of 18 are not eligible for the death penalty. In Simmons, the justices crucially pointed out that “[a juvenile’s] irresponsible conduct is not as morally reprehensible as that of an adult.” As juveniles struggle to define their identity, there exists a greater possibility that a minor’s character can be reformed through the justice system. The Court recognized the lessened culpability juveniles have as a result of their developing brains five years later in Graham v.

Florida, which banned life-without-pa-

Submitting to

role sentences for juveniles convicted of non-homicide offenses. As the Court slowly chips away at the unduly harsh punishments onto juveniles, it is crucial for legislators to expedite the process.

In tandem with this ruling, nearly 200,000 juveniles enter the adult criminal justice system each year. On any given day, some 4,500 children are housed in adult jails. Of those 4,500 children, they are 36 times more likely to commit suicide than those in juvenile facilites.

They are at the highest risk of being sexually assaulted while incarcerated.

Incarcerating youth has been shown to slow the natural process of aging out of delinquency, exacerbate any existing mental illness and diminish their future success in the labor market. Additionally, by being deprived of a primary education — a factor shown to deter crime — youth placed in adult prisons had 34% more rearrests.

The federal government has attempted to improve some of these factors by recommending juveniles get educational, psychological and vocational services that only juvenile detention centers can provide. However, rather than providing these essential services, some states have instead opted to ship their child detainee to other states. This rips these children away from their friends and families, and may cause them to lose access to their lawyers, leaving them even more powerless.

We maintain a separate set of courtrooms and laws for juveniles and adults because we recognize, time and time again, the mental capabilities of these two groups are fundamentally different. Our wavering commitment to these principles by trying children as adults when we deem the crime heinous enough undermines the legitimacy of our criminal justice system.

We should be striving for a society that builds bridges of opportunities for children, not burn them. It’s disturbing to witness our legal system — one that doesn’t trust children to vote, serve on a jury, get married or drive and shield youth from getting sued and participating in the stock market — condemn those same children to be locked away for life.

The untimely death of Tessa Majors is clearly a tragedy, and our community suffered an immeasurable loss of the extinguishment of a soul too young.

But trying the young perpetrators for her murder as adults is not justice. It’s crucial to keep the words given by the Neighborhood Defender Service in mind when we evaluate the best course of action to punish the perpetrators: “[He is] a 14-year-old child with no criminal record or family court history.

He should not be charged as an adult.

In our shared history, we have seen too often the impact of hasty condemnations of children. Let us take these past experiences as a warning and allow due process to play out in our young client’s case, so that justice can prevail.”

STAFF EDITORIAL

The Slow Progress of the Plastic Bag Ban Yesterday, New York State’s ban on single-use plastic bags off icially went into effect.

It was implemented after the state legislature voted to include the ban in this year’s state budget. New York is currently only the second state to have a state-wide ban, as California implemented one in 2016.

According to the Center for International Environmental Law, the constant use of plastics “leach toxic additives, such as through domestic dust and from food packaging into food.” The CIEL also wrote that two-thirds of plastics that have been produced remain in the environment in the form of nanoparticles and microf ibers. Removing even a small amount of these toxins from the everyday lives of New York residents is crucial to cultivating a safer and healthier environment.

Currently, plastic bags constitute approximately 12% of plastic waste in America. It is estimated that Americans use 100 billion plastic bags a year, most of which are never recycled. Banning plastic bags can help to decrease this number. One study found that after California banned single-use plastic bags in 2016, the state experienced a 71.5% decrease in plastic bag consumption. This sharp decrease in plastic bag use shows that banning plastic bags can have a signif icant impact on plastic consumption.

Small efforts like the plastic bag ban are important steps in dealing with environmental issues like climate change, especially considering the fact that New York State residents use 23 billion plastic bags annually — the U.S. collectively uses 500 billion single-use bags.

Decreasing plastic consumption through these kinds of efforts is crucial to bettering the everyday lives of residents.

However, New York’s version of the plastic bag ban is not substantive environmental stewardship. While it seeks to tackle one of the most important issues affecting residents,

it fails to do so because it doesn’t take into account the most basic problems related to the topic.

The various loopholes in New York’s plastic bag ban show this. Plastic packaging used to wrap meat or wrap prepared food and for restaurant takeout are still allowed. Plastic bags that are meant for garments, newspapers and garbage are allowed as well.

The law also permits the use of single-use paper bags but these have also been linked to signif icant environmental harm. Although paper bags are basically made from trees, research from the Northern Ireland Assembly has found that creating a paper bag takes four times the amount of energy it takes to create a plastic bag from oil. A recent study found that a paper bag would have to be reused at least three times in order for its environmental impact to equal that of a plastic bag used once.

The fact that the ban doesn’t prohibit thicker plastic bags is problematic as well.

While it includes bags that are less than ten mils thick (a mil is one-thousandth of an inch), the ban considers bags that are ten mils or thicker to be reusable, and allows retailers to hand these thicker plastic bags out for free. However, organizations like Big Reuse, Green Park Gardeners NYC and Food & Water Action have voiced concern over these thicker bags, arguing that they are still plastic and as such, contribute to plastic consumption and are likely to worsen the problem, rather than help.

It is important that New York is paying attention to the environmental crisis. But passing legislation that allows consumers to simply change what kind of disposable bags they use — rather than banning disposable bags entirely — shows New York wants to look like they care about the environment without actually tackling the underlying problem of reducing waste and environmental impact.

Email the Editorial Board at editboard@nyunews.com.

CHAIR Jun Sung CO-CHAIR Emily Dai, Gabby Lozano, Asha Ramachandran, Helen Wajda CHAIR EX OFFICIO Cole Stallone, Abby Hofstetter,

Ronni Husmann, Paul Kim, Anna-Dmitry Muratova

Email Emily Dai at edai@nyunews.com.

SEND MAIL TO: 75 THIRD AVE. #SB07, NEW YORK, N.Y. 10003 OR EMAIL: OPINION@NYUNEWS.COM WSN welcomes letters to the editor, opinion pieces and articles relevant to the NYU community, or in response to articles. Letters should be less than 450 words. All submissions must be typed or emailed and must include the author’s name, address and phone number. Members of the NYU community must include a year and school or job title. WSN does not print unsigned letters or editorials. WSN reserves the right to reject any submission and edit accepted submissions in any and all ways. With the exception of the staff editorial, opinions expressed on the editorial pages are not necessarily those of WSN, and our publication of opinions is not an endorsement of them.

Washington Square News

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MONDAY, MARCH 2, 2020

SPORTS

SPORTS@NYUNEWS.COM

Edited by ARVIND SRIRAM

NYU Men’s Basketball’s Disappointing End

By KEVIN RYU Staff Writer On Feb. 29, the loss against Brandeis University concluded a disappointing 8-17 season for the men’s basketball team.

The team’s struggles were similar to last season, as their 1-13 record in the University Athletic Association outshined their 7-4 record against non-conference opponents. In the UAA, NYU ranked last in points scored and assists, second to last in points allowed and steals and their opponents outscored NYU by 6.3 points per game.

“I think everybody’s upset,” SPS senior and co-captain Jimmy Martinelli said.

“Nobody’s quit, nobody’s shown a lack of effort. We have been in most of these games. It’s just we haven’t been able to pull it out in the end.”

Martinelli came in as a part of a 10-men recruiting class during his first-year. Four years later, he leaves as the only player left from the class.

“There were a lot of moving pieces, but the core group that came to every workout was always working their hardest in practice, trying their best in the games,” Martinelli said. “That core group that we have, we have an unbreakable bond. I haven’t felt that in years past.”

Martinelli and the team believe their 8-17 record is not representative of their talent; according to him, there certainly were games that could have ended in wins if a couple of possessions did not go awry. Their first loss against Brandeis was a one-point game with two minutes to go.

They outplayed Washington University in St. Louis, who is one of the best teams in their conference, 36-26 in the first half only to lose by three.

The team has also suffered from injuries to key players which have depleted their backcourt and forced players to play out of position. The team’s two point guards, SPS first-year Ephraim Reed and CAS junior Seny Andreev, both suffered season-ending injuries in the second and the sixth games of the season respectively.

These injuries exhausted the Violets’ capabilities — which led to a physical disadvantage against their opponents.

“We haven’t had an opportunity, over the last three to four weeks, to even have 10 healthy bodies in practice,” Head Coach Dagan Nelson. “[That] makes it very difficult, from a competitive standpoint and from a physicality standpoint, to get guys used to getting hit and getting grabbed and getting slapped like they do in a game.”

For the healthy players, hearing of yet

another teammate’s injury almost became normal as the team’s roster dwindled from 18 players to nine.

“It was tough to be in that scenario where you’ve lost so many guys that it doesn’t feel strange to lose another one,” Stern sophomore Cade Hoppe said.

Even though their record might not suggest so, the team is optimistic about their potential for next season. Coach Nelson expects CAS junior and co-captain Bobby Hawkinson, who was recovering from mono as the season went underway, to continue on his improved performance from the second half of the season into the next season. Others assigned to unfamiliar roles and positions because of injuries have shown they can step up when needed.

For example, SPS junior Jaden Narwal, who had missed the 2018-19 season from an ACL tear, stepped in as point guard upon injuries to Andreev and Reed, assuming more offensive and defensive duties.

“I think that [Narwal] has done a really good job being the guy who every game has the toughest matchup,” Hawkinson said. “I don’t think coming into the season anyone would have thought he would have been the guy matched up on the other team’s best players.”

While the returning players can look forward to improving upon the team’s record next season, Martinelli, who ended his career with the loss against Brandies, admits he would have liked to end his NYU career on a higher note. However, their record does not dictate how he will look back upon this season.

“I wish that we could have won a couple more games,” Martinelli said. “But even though we didn’t, I still think that the most important thing is the relationships that I’ve established.”

Email Kevin Ryu at sports@nyunews.com.

JAKE CAPRIOTTI | WSN

Tandon senior Riley Demps dribbles the ball, looking for a chance to pass during practice. The men’s basketball team ended a tough but rewarding season.

Men’s Volleyball Climbs to Division III Number One

By ARVIND SRIRAM Sports Editor Men’s Volleyball The men’s volleyball team was ranked first in Division III on Tuesday, Feb. 25.

However, NYU finished the week with a 1-1 record. On Wednesday, Feb. 26, the Violets swept Stevens Institute of Technology, winning 25-22, 25-18 and 25-23.

Tied at 16, NYU went on a 3-0 run, ultimately winning the first set. In the second set, the Violets jumped to an 11-3 lead, winning by a comfortable margin. The third set, down 23-22, the Violets went on a 3-0 run to complete the sweep. Violet leaders included CAS seniors Evan Lindley with 13 kills, Matin Bikdeli with 42 assists and Connor Keowen with eight digs.

On Saturday, Feb. 29, the Violets suffered their first loss against St. John Fisher College. NYU won the first two sets (25-22, 27-25), but lost the final three sets (27-25, 26-24, 19-17). In the third set, tied at 25, the Cardinals scored two straight points, winning their first set. In the fourth set, tied 24-24, the Cardinals scored on two straight plays, securing the victory. In the final set, the Violets and the Cardinals were tied at 17, but the Cardinals scored on two straight plays, completing the 3-2 victory. Violet leaders included Lindley with 19 kills, Bikdeli with 50 assists and Keowen with 16 digs.

The Violets return to action on March 2 against North Central College.

Women’s Basketball The women’s basketball team defeated Brandeis University (91-73) on Saturday, Feb. 29. The Violets dominated on offense, shooting 45.7% from the field.

Steinhardt junior Janean Cuffee led the Violets with 31 points, Steinhardt firstyear Jenny Walker led with 10 rebounds and CAS senior Annie Barrett led with 10 assists.

The Violets finish the regular season with a 20-5 record.

Women’s Fencing On Saturday, Feb. 29, the women’s fencing team competed at the National Intercollegiate Women’s Fencing Association Championships at Drew University, finishing in second place overall. Stern first-year Chiara Codazzi stood out, finishing in second place in foil.

The Violets compete on March 8, at the NCAA Regional Championships at Cornell University.

Men’s Tennis The men’s tennis team opened their season with a loss to Swarthmore College (6-3) on Saturday, Feb. 29. The Violets stood out in doubles, winning two out of the three matches.

On Sunday, March 1, NYU lost to North Carolina Wesleyan College 7-2.

In singles, Yang (4-6, 6-1, 6-4) and CAS senior Zeb Zheng (6-4, 6-4, 9-7) were the only players on the team to win their matchups.

NYU faces Southern Virginia University on March 7.

Women’s Tennis On Sunday, March 1, the women’s tennis team defeated North Carolina Wesleyan College 9-0. Standouts on the Violets team were the doubles pairing of Gallatin junior Kate Shaffer and Liberal Studies first-year Anastasiia Balyk, who won their match 8-1.

NYU faces Southern Virginia University on March 7 Baseball The baseball team opened their season on Sunday, March 1 with a 6-2 victory against Roger Williams University. Violet leaders included Tait and Stern senior Ford Ladd led the team with two hits apiece and SPS junior and starting pitcher Gabe Golob received the victory, throwing seven innings, allowing only one run.

NYU faces William Paterson University on March 5.

Men’s Wrestling On Saturday, Feb. 29 and Sunday, March 1, the men’s wrestling team competed in the NCAA Northeast Regional Qualifier at Rhode Island College. On day one, Liberal Studies first-years Tyler Crew and Trent Furman, CAS seniors Evan Drill and Jack La Corte, Stern senior Sean Lyons, CAS sophomore Izaake Zuckerman and CAS junior Will Ortman qualified for the semifinals for the NCAA Northeast Regional Qualifier.

On day two, Drill, Zuckerman and LaCorte medaled in bronze in the 165-pound, 174-pound and the 197-pound bracket and Lyons medaled in gold in the 157-pound bracket. They all qualified for the NCAA National Championship. Overall, the Violets finished in third place.

The Violets compete on March 13 for the NCAA Division III National Championship in Cedar Rapids, IA. Women’s Track and Field On Saturday, Feb. 29 and Sunday, March 1, the women’s track and field team competed in the UAA Championship. On day one, CAS junior Evelyn Nkanga and CAS first-year Isre’al Conerly finished in first and second place in the 200-meter preliminaries. Both Nkanga and Conerly qualified for the finals, and Conerly’s performance in the 400-meter preliminaries (third place) resulted in her qualifying for the 400-meter finals.

Tandon graduate student Rebecca MacLeod (fifth place) also qualified for the 800-meter finals.

On day two, Nkanga medaled in gold in the 200-meter finals. Conerly medaled in gold in the 400-meter finals. Steinhardt first-year Siena Moran medaled in bronze in the mile run. Overall, NYU finished in sixth place in the meet.

Select members of the Violets will compete on March 6 and March 7 at the All-Atlantic Region Indoor Championships at Nazareth College.

Men’s Track and Field On Saturday, Feb. 29 and Sunday, March 1, the men’s team competed in the UAA Championship. On day one, Liberal Studies first-year Kamden Martin finished in fifth place in the 60-meter preliminaries and finished in sixth place in the 200-meter preliminaries, SPS senior Julian Montilus and CAS first-year David Obwaya finished in fifth and eighth place in 60-meter hurdles preliminaries, CAS first-year Daniel Akande finished in eighth place in the 400-meter preliminaries and CAS first-year Jon Diaz finished in third place in the 800-meter preliminaries.

Martin, Montilus, Obwaya, Akande and Diaz all qualified for the finals.

On day two, CAS senior Benjamin Karam medaled in bronze in the onemile run and CAS sophomore Owen Mountford received a bronze medal in the shot put. Overall, NYU finished in fifth place in the meet.

Select members of the Violets compete on March 6 and March 7 at the All-Atlantic Region Indoor Championships at Nazareth College.

Swimming and Diving The men’s and women’s swimming and diving team competed in the NCAA Division III Northeast Regional Diving Championships hosted by Springfield College on Friday, Feb. 28 and Saturday, Feb. 29. On the men’s team, Rory Meyers sophomore Cole Vertin and CAS firstyear Hunter Whitbeck, who finished in fifth and sixth place on the three-meter board, qualified for the National Championship. On the women’s team, CAS senior Carmen White qualified for the National Championship, finishing in fourth place on the one-meter board.

The Violets return to action on March 18, competing in the NCAA Championship in Greensboro, North Carolina.

Email Arvind Sriram at asriram@nyunews.com.

Is This the End of Smart Sports Commentary?

By BELA KIRPALANI Editor-at-Large Last week, ESPN announced that it was canceling “High Noon,” a studio talk show featuring two of ESPN’s smartest commentators, after less than two years.

The company cited low viewership for the decision — the show averaged 330,000 viewers in the first quarter of this year, down 3% from last year’s numbers, according to Sports Business Journal. The show’s final episode will air at the end of the month.

Hosted by sports journalists Bomani Jones and Pablo S. Torre, “High Noon” tackled social issues and sports in a way that was nuanced and unapologetic. Amid the NBA vs. China debacle, Torre suggested that the NBA imported authoritarianism into the U.S. rather than exporting democracy to China. When it came to the rise of analytics in the NBA, Jones sharply noted how the racist stereotypes in the STEM and business fields have breached teams and their front offices.

ESPN has a litany of shows like “Get Up!,” “First Take” and “The Jump” that all discuss the same news to death and regurgitate the same hot takes. At a certain point, they’re just not hot anymore.

Sports television has always thrived using a debate-like format, but it’s often the kind of debate that involves grown men yelling over each other about the greatest basketball player of all time. Jones, who has two masters in economics, and Torre, a Harvard graduate, attempted to break that mold with more thoughtful commentary and longer discussions that allow for more than just a viral sound byte. The show wasn’t perfect — sometimes it, too, fell into the trap of entertaining the Michael Jordan vs. LeBron James debate.

“High Noon” has also put two young men of color front and center and gave them a platform that they very much deserve. It is so rare that we are able to watch a Black man and a Filipino man on national television talk about the intersection of sports and culture, and it is why losing “High Noon” is another blemish on ESPN’s record.

In recent months, we’ve seen ESPN’s priorities on full display. The network just gave “First Take” personality and supreme talking head Stephen A. Smith a new deal worth $8 million and splashed more cash to give House of Highlights founder Omar Raja the keys to its digital and social platforms. SportsCenter, ESPN’s flagship show which focuses on highlight-worthy plays, has been expanded, while the network’s hard news program, “Outside the Lines,” was demoted from a daily 30-minute program to a one-hour weekly show.

“High Noon” was originally one hour long, and shown at noon Eastern time. The show was then moved down to 4 p.m. and cut to 30 minutes. On Mondays, it airs on ESPN2 instead of ESPN to make room for more SportsCenter content. According to data from showbuzzdaily.com, an average of 136,000 people watched “High Noon” (4 p.m.) in February compared to 160,000 for “Highly Questionable” (4:30 p.m.), 225,000 for “Around the Horn” (5 p.m.), 347,000 for “First Take” (10 a.m.) and 262,000 for “SportsCenter” (noon).

Before “High Noon” ever hit the air in 2018, Jones was quoted in a piece by The Ringer saying, “If the first thing they say about our TV show is how smart it is, we’re all going to get fired.”

I hope that someday, being a “smart” TV show doesn’t mean that you won’t be around for long.

At the end of the day, “High Noon” brought value to the network. I’m afraid some people wish that sports existed in a vacuum free of the social and political issues that are pervasive in society. That’s simply not true and Jones and Torre know it. It remains to be seen where Jones and Torre’s talents will take them next, but I hope that they are given more opportunities to push boundaries and continue the important conversations they started at ESPN. The Sports Girl is a weekly column that features a girl’s take on sports. Yes, a girl. Yes, on sports.

Email Bela Kirpalani at bkirpalani@nyunews.com.

MONDAY, MARCH 2, 2020

UNDERTHEARCH@NYUNEWS.COM

Washington Square News

11

UNDER THE ARCH

Edited by GURU RAMANATHAN

Letters to the Graduate, From the Graduating An attempt to wrap your head around what the f-ck has just happened to you

By MAXINE FLASHER-DUZGUNES Voices Editor Graduating... _is like breaking up with the person you lit candles for, bought roses for, made mixtapes for, like blacking out the best parts of a love letter _is like skydiving off a cliff face you carved with your own hands, but at the moment of surrender searching your bag for that one last spurt of Albuterol _is like purchasing a one-way plane flight but then chickening out at the last minute and selecting “round-trip” _is like applying makeup in front of a mirror you cracked, foundation still swirled in unblended brushstroke circles upon leaving _is like finally learning how to tie your shoes without the bunny ears JULIA HOPE RIGUERRA | WSN

_is like revamping your seven-year-old bedroom stationary store with a trendy new social media account _is like overcounting the stars and then realizing there really are that many stars, because it’s New York City _is like finally learning how to transfer calls on banana phones _is like watching rain drip down the rims of your glasses _is like tasting bittersweetness on the eraser head of your pencil, even the cuff of the cashmere sweater you occasionally bite _is like spending three years telling someone how to put on a pair of headphones, only to be dumbfounded when they decide to use a bluetooth speaker instead _is like having someone hack your Spotify playlist, but not caring because you still listen anyway _is like ending a conversation after giving someone directions, telling them to chill out, whispering a secret in their ear _is like knowing you would be stood up, but going to the restaurant anyway to chat with your waitress over a glass of sherry and a plate of dungeness crab cakes _is like calling out sick, and instead becoming an ever-so-sweet couch potato _is like a cliché — your last performance, your last shared dormitory, your last extra credit, your last free gym membership, your last free trip to the Rubin Museum, your last free print, your last coffee at Peet’s, your last chat with the security desk, your last shop on Albert, your last excuse not to explain yourself to other people Email Maxine Flasher-Duzgunes at mduzgunes@nyunews.com.

JULIA HOPE RIGUERRA | WSN

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CHARLIE DODGE | WSN

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