3 SPORTS
5 ARTS
The ‘96-’97 NYU Women’s Basketball Team Was Impossibly Good
‘I’m Thinking of Ending Things’ Will Leave You Confounded
4 CULTURE
6 OPINION
How the NYU Welcome Team Went Virtual
Hotel Evictions Show NYC’s Disregard For Homeless People’s Needs
VOLUME LV | ISSUE 3
MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 14, 2020
Rubin Hall Placed Under Mandatory Quarantine After four Rubin residents tested positive for COVID-19, the rest of the residents have been confined to their rooms until at least Tuesday. By MATTHEW FISCHETTI and TRACE MILLER News Editors
ALEXANDRA CHAN | WSN
The Rubin Hall NYU student dormitory is on Fifth Avenue and 10th Street. University spokesperson John Beckman released a statement confirming four COVID-19 cases at Rubin and indicated the hall will be on lockdown for the next few days.
NYU’s Rubin Residence Hall has been placed under temporary quarantine after NYU’s testing program detected four asymptomatic cases of COVID-19. At around 5 p.m. residents of the freshman dorm were notified of both the positive cases and the mandatory quarantine via an email from NYU’s COVID-19 Prevention & Response Team. “Out of an abundance of caution and after consulting with the New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene, NYU is requiring all Rubin residents to quarantine until at least Tuesday,” the email from the Executive Lead of the COVID-19 Prevention & Response Team, Dr. Carlo Ciotoli, reads. “Students will also be notified by Tuesday on whether the quarantine will be extended or not.” Ciotioli’s email states that on Monday, all Rubin residents will be retested for COVID-19 with the self-administered saliva-sample tests, which all NYU students living in NYU dorms are required to do weekly. Meanwhile, the four Rubin residents who tested positive are isolating. It is unknown where they are isolating or when they tested positive, other than that their results were from last week’s regular testing. CONTINUED ON PAGE 2
Hundreds Gather at Washington Square Park — Again By TRACE MILLER and AARUSHI SHARMA News Editor and Deputy News Editor Washington Square Park was the sight of gatherings again, on both Friday and Saturday nights, Sept. 11 and 12. Shaman, an organizer with America’s Peaceful Resolution and Refuse Fascism, told WSN that these so-called “protest parties” were organized and hosted by APR in collaboration with Refuse Fascism, NYC Marchers and Black Advocacy Movement. They aim to implement the People’s Bill of Rights and to empower people to exercise and enforce
their f irst-amendment rights. “We don’t destroy the system,” Shaman told WSN. “We don’t abolish the system. We reform the system … What we’re doing is gonna end world poverty. We’re gonna have universal basic health care, universal basic income in the People’s Bill of Rights — per person, not just per household.” Flyers posted to Shaman’s, BAM’s and All Matters Matter’s Instagram accounts advertised live music, beats by DJ Pumpkin, a dance battle, an open mic and arts and crafts. The flyers instructed attendees to “bring a sign stating what
matters to you” and to wear a mask. However, as NBC New York and CBS New York reported, there was little mask-wearing, much less social distancing, on either Friday or Saturday night. Shaman told WSN that volunteers were handing out masks and gloves at the event, and that mask-wearing was encouraged, but not enforced — WSN was unable to independently verify this claim. He explained that people have free will and Washington Square Park is a public space, and therefore that people have the rights to speak freely and to wear — or not wear — a mask.
“Our message means more than worrying about our masks,” Shaman said. “We die every day on the streets and really get brutalized by police 10 times more than we ever could just by COVID. So we’re not worried about that. That’s not in the forefront of our minds at least.” The CDC has recommended that people wear masks in public spaces and when near people from other households — especially when social distancing is diff icult. Masks are most effective, according to the CDC, when widely employed in public places. CONTINUED ON PAGE 2
Washington Square News
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NEWS
NEWS@NYUNEWS.COM
MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 14, 2020
Edited by MATTHEW FISCHETTI and TRACE MILLER
Rubin Hall Placed Under Mandatory Quarantine CONTINUED FROM PAGE 1
WSN previously reported that Zion Glover, a Stern first-year who tested positive for COVID-19 while moving into Rubin, was isolated at NYU’s Second Street Residential Hall. WSN reported that Glover was moved to Second Street by the COVID-19 Prevention and Response team on the same day he tested positive. University Spokesperson John Beckman released a statement on Sept. 12 noting that NYU has conducted almost 26,000 tests, since Aug. 1, with a .12% positive rate not counting students from the School of Medicine. According to the University’s publicly available testing data, NYU has conducted nearly 11,000 tests since Aug. 28, with an .18% positive rate. At press time, NYU has 38 cases of COVID-19 across all New York campus locations. “All of NYU’s courses this fall 2020, regardless of whether they meet in person, are structured to have the capacity for students to attend remotely, so students will be able to keep up with their studies,” the statement reads. Beckman’s press release states that all Rubin residents “are being asked” to quarantine. Ciotoli’s email was a
strict warning to Rubin residents: “If you are out and about right now — whether in another NYU building or enjoying NYC, you must return to Rubin Hall immediately.” “While quarantining, you must stay in your room all the time,” Ciotoli’s email continues. “You may not go to class, or go to get take-out, or go for a walk or exercise. You may not visit other people’s rooms, common areas, or other spaces within Rubin Hall. You may leave your room only for a medical appointment — no other reason.” While a WSN reporter was at Rubin at around 9 p.m. on Saturday, Sept. 12, a white car dropped off an apparent student carrying a backpack and a duffel bag. Outside, an unmarked NYU Department of Public Safety vehicle was parked across the street. One of the hall’s doors was open. Inside, Rubin’s Residence Hall Assistant Director, Ashlee Ruiz, refused to answer questions and advised WSN to contact Beckman. WSN also saw a guard working at Rubin Hall after the quarantine was announced. Beckman responded neither to questions regarding NYU’s quarantine procedure or protocols
for staff who work in the building — nor to any requests for comments directed to University Relations and Public Affairs. Instead he responded to questions posed to Ciotoli, telling WSN that, “the whole point of taking the measures we have in Rubin at this early stage is to avoid an outbreak … The contact tracing protocols ask just the kind of questions you’ve posed, as well as others.” NYU kept Rubin’s air-conditioned lounge open even after Glover’s case of COVID-19 was identified, as WSN previously reported, but did not notify Rubin residents of Glover’s case. Several students told WSN that Rubin residents received $210 Grubhub gift cards, bottled waters and bags of snacks from NYU Eats. WSN previously reported on the inadequacy of food served to students quarantining for two weeks after moving in. The students with whom WSN spoke plan to study, catch up on homework, and binge shows; one said the quarantine is truly awful, a few said it’s not that bad. “NYU is treating us very very well and they prepared for this,” a Rubin resident told WSN via Instagram direct messages (the student didn’t feel
comfortable having their name in the news). “We couldn’t have asked for anything more. We are in uncertain times and we’re grateful for everything NYU has done for us from quarantining to now and in the future.” Evan Kos, a Steinhardt firstyear and Rubin resident, echoed this sentiment. “Given the circumstances, I think NYU is doing a very good job, especially with their focus on public safety,” Kos told WSN over the phone. “And I think they’re doing a great job in prioritizing public safety, despite the fact that we’re not really in as much of a bubble ... It’s difficult for them to really have enough power to really stop the spread here.” Kos, a music major, is taking a keyboard course and was using the practice-room pianos, but will have no access to a piano — much less to the practice room — for the entire quarantine. He emailed his professor on Saturday and hopes she understands — but, he said “there’s not much I can do regardless unless I can use my ASDF GarageBand keyboard, for whatever good that does me.” However, multiple students, including Kos, were frustrated by
NYU’s communication. He got the email with no idea of what to expect; reading through, he saw that four people had tested positive for COVID-19 — and that he, alongside every other Rubin resident, was expected to quarantine for at least three days. “I’ll say it’s been frustrating because we’ve had an astonishing number of unimportant emails,” he continued. “This one in particular seemed really non-threatening at the surface. But when you read into it, it’s asking a lot and telling a lot in depth. All of the information we need is probably there, but it requires an excessive amount of reading into it and actual effort to receive some basic levels of communication.” Sixx Orange, a Liberal Studies first-year, agreed. “At first it was not great communication, as in we never [really] heard about the cases except through other students,” Orange said. “Today we got the email about the positive cases and their course of action. It was pretty clear, not great, but clear.” Email Matthew Fischetti and Trace Miller at mfischetti@nyunews.com and tmiller@nyunews.com.
Hundreds Gather at Washington Square Park — Again CONTINUED FROM PAGE 1
“I get it, like, social distancing, OK,” Shaman said. “We don’t care about that. What we care about is the social inequality that we have right now. I’m not trying to take away capitalism. We’re not trying to bring in communism … We’re mad at the f-cking system. And that’s what we’re doing — fixing the system so that the people don’t have to suffer at the bottom anymore.” These protest parties come upon the heels of a rave at Washington Square Park on Saturday, Sept. 5. As WSN previously reported, that rave was joined by a protest organized by Refuse Fascism, All Matters Matter, Amend the Constitution and NYC Revolution Club. That night, Shaman told WSN that protesters had marched through Manhattan and found the rave after ending at Washington Square Park. Jamel Mims, an organizer with NYC Revolution Club and Refuse Fascism, told WSN that protesters are health conscious and wear masks. During a Sept. 8 press conference, Gov. Andrew Cuomo blamed NYU Public Safety and the NYPD for not being “New York tough” and dispersing the Sept. 5 gathering, as WSN previously reported. This time, the NYPD did end the party — but as CBS New York reported, they didn’t end the Friday night party until between 1:30 and 2 a.m., though Washington Square Park closes at 1 a.m. “Members of the Service will issue reminders and warning[s] when they observe people who do not live in the same household in close proximity to each other without wearing face coverings,” Detective Denise Moroney, a spokesperson for the Deputy Commissioner of Public Information, told
WSN in a statement. “The NYPD will not issue summonses or make arrests for infractions related to face coverings absent a crime or other violation being observed.” The NYPD does not enforce mask-wearing, Moroney wrote. Shaman told WSN that on Saturday night at around 9:30 p.m., an NYPD officer and he made an agreement to end the party at 1:30 a.m. The NYPD did not respond to requests for comment about their agreement with Shaman. Tisch sophomore Nina Costello expressed frustration after seeing videos of the crowd on social media. She didn’t know it was a protest party, although she says she heard rumors. Costello is from California and had to abide by the mandatory out-ofstate quarantine for two weeks. She fears having to return home due to the spread of COVID-19 caused by the actions of groups flouting mask-wearing and social distancing rules. “Most NYU people I know are really against things like what happened in WSP and are trying to be as safe as possible,” Costello wrote in an email to WSN. “We definitely don’t want to get sent home or, worse than that, be the source of another outbreak in NYC.” She also commended NYU for attempting to maintain decorum despite not having direct authority over the park and urged city authorities to take action. “As far as what NYU should do about it, WSP is a public park and isn’t technically part of NYU, so I don’t think NYU can do much more than what they did last night, which was to warn students the rave was happening and to avoid the park,” she said. “It’s the city’s jurisdiction and I think they should get involved, especially because
it’s likely not only NYU students.” It remains unclear how many NYU students attended the parties, if any attended at all. This time, at least part of the NYU Twitter community was hesitant to blame first-years for the crowds, unlike last time, when some older students initially believed the Sept. 5 rave to have been attended by first-years NYU Spokesperson John Beckman re-emphasized that while NYU does not have jurisdiction over Washington Square Park, the university has been closely monitoring the park for potential activities that may help the spread of COVID-19. “Our observations were that [Washington Square Park] was less crowded and there was less activity this weekend than last weekend, and that City agencies — which have jurisdiction over the park — were more in evidence and were taking steps to address the more unsafe activities,” Beckman told WSN in a statement. Beckman added that although it’s unclear what fraction of the partiers were students, NYU deployed Public Health Ambassadors to park entrances on Saturday night “to hand out masks and other PPE and to reinforce the messages of safe practices — mask wearing, physical distancing, and avoiding large crowds.” He told WSN of plans to do the same on Sunday night, and highlighted internal measures being taken by the university to enforce safety guidelines within the NYU community. More than 30 NYU students have been suspended for violating said guidelines, he wrote. “We have been directly messaging our students frequently and repeatedly about our own health rules, the strictness with which we are prepared to enforce them … and the fact that
JAKE CAPRIOTTI | WSN
Washington Square Park, the day after the second consecutive midnight rave. The continual partying, attended by an unknown mix of students and outside community members, raises questions about the long term chances of NYU staying open.
we will apply our rules whether a student is on campus or off campus,” he said. “We have been specifically messaging them about the risk of large crowds and about the unsafe activities that have been occurring on weekend nights in the Park.” Costello does not think that the NYPD should full-on police Washington Square Park — “especially because the last few months have shown us the NYPD can’t really be trusted to peacefully disperse a crowd,” she said. The flyers displayed on the Instagram accounts of the “protest party” organizers advertised another protest party on Sunday, Sept. 13. Shaman told WSN that he was not organizing a protest on Sunday, but Friday’s and Saturday’s parties probably won’t be the last. Shaman floated the possibility of “pop-up protest parties” every weekend — or every night, even —
where they take the streets. He wants small businesses to set up around Washington Square Park and hand out business cards; to raise awareness for mental health; to give back to the community; to rebuild the economy. “This is the first of many,” he said. “We’re gonna be bigger, we’re gonna be better, we’re gonna be more effective.” Meanwhile, Costello just wants the pandemic to be over. “Seeing people who aren’t taking it seriously and endangering others for the sake of just a party is really frustrating, whether they’re part of NYU or not,” she said. Nick Mead contributed reporting for this article. Email Trace Miller and Aarushi Sharma at tmiller@nyunews.com and asharma@nyunews.com.
Washington Square News
MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 14, 2020
SPORTS
SPORTS@NYUNEWS.COM
Is Creativity Dying in Sports? By KEVIN RYU Sports Editor Geographically, the NBA of today is completely different from what it was 20 years ago. Compare the graphics of top shot locations from the 2001-2002 season to the current season — there are very noticeable differences in the types of shots players are now taking. In the 01-02 season, the shots were dispersed throughout the court. Now, players are more judicious in their shot-selection, having excised most — if not all — mid-range shots from their repertoire. There is no clearer sign of the influence of analytics in the NBA than the decrease in mid-range shots. The mathematical justification behind this trend is simple — a three is worth more than two. Players shoot on average around 35% to 36% from the 3-point line every season. Since players will make a 3-point shot slightly more than one out of every three tries, a 3-point shot on average yields a little more than a point per shot. So, for a 2-point shot to be as mathematically effective, players would have to shoot a little better than 50% to justify taking the shot over a potential 3-pointer. However, the league average from the mid-range hovers around 40% to 45%. Every team now knows where the most efficient shots come from and strive to create those shots. There is a certain uniformity to every team’s style of play, at least in the results they try to achieve. While this trend might make the modern day offenses more efficient, some decry this push for maximum efficiency, arguing it sacrifices an element of creativity in the sport in favor of math. “These days there’s such an emphasis on the 3 because it’s proven to be analytically correct,” Gregg Popovich, the head coach of the San Antonio Spurs, said. “There’s no basketball anymore, there’s no beauty in it.” Similar concerns pervade across sports. In basketball, purists like Popovich lament how the game has been simplified to who takes and makes more threes. In baseball, analytics has ushered in an era of more home runs and strikeouts, prompting questions on whether the art of hitting is being lost. Another sport where people have seemingly forsaken creative play for optimal play is chess, but in chess, these strategies are not derived by math; they are instead derived from chess engines. There are currently two types of engines that players consult. Engines like Stockfish use “brute-force,” relying on its computation power to analyze far more possible positions than a human could. On the other hand, engines like Leela (Lc0) learned chess the way a human would. After being given the basic rules of the game, it played itself over and over until it learned what strategies work and what strategies do not. Either way, engines have now far surpassed even the best chess players. As there are more possibilities in chess than there are atoms in the universe, humans cannot always directly replicate the moves employed by these engines. However, engines have impacted the way people think about positional advantages, and especially about defense. “Human psychology is that if you’re being attacked, you feel defensive, you feel uneasy,” Stern sophomore and treasurer of the NYU Chess Club Manu Reddy said via phone. “Computers don’t care.” Without human emotions weighing it down, engines have shown that there are ways to maneuver out of defensive positions to punish overaggression by their opponents. “I think you’re going to see less games … with a lot of aggressive, sharp play because people will know far enough into the opening and neutralize that,” Reddy said. “They know that the computer will have said that their position is better.” The influence of engines in the sport has also prompted questions about whether this search for an optimal playstyle has drained the sport of its creativity. In basketball, math has restricted the
types of offense a team can run. In chess, engines have shown that aggressive styles of play can be exploited with sound defensive play, incentivizing players to collectively adopt more defensively-oriented strategies. With an increased focus on defensive solidity and ability to plan their moves ahead using engines, players are also drawing more games than before. But these concerns miss the mark. Analytics and computer processing might have produced these optimized principles of how to play basketball or chess, but human ingenuity is displayed in ways the teams or the chess player work to actualize those principles. In basketball, the creativity is in how teams leverage the unique talents of their players to get good looks from the 3-point line. The Houston Rockets and the Miami Heat both ranked among the top three teams in 3-point shots taken, but their offensive philosophy could not diverge more. In their star guard James Harden, the Rockets have one of the most potent isolation scorers in NBA history. Thus, their offense is built to generate 3-pointers off of his individual brilliance. Without an individual scoring star like Harden, the Heat needed to construct a different type of offense. In Houston, everyone fits around Harden. In Miami, players work more synergistically. They run more actions that involve two or more players that work together to elevate each other’s skill sets. Both the Rockets and the Heat shoot a ton of threes, but those shots are not created in the same way. Meanwhile, in chess, creativity comes not only in identifying the principles that engines employ but also in incorporating them into one’s own game. Engines do not provide a rationale for their moves. It is up to each player to analyze why the engines prefer a certain move, and, as engines like Lc0 that learned chess through self-learning do not rely on conventional theories of chess, properly analyzing engine-generated moves require a willingness and ability to look at chess in a different way. Moreover, there is nothing inherently more creative about an aggressive strategy than a sound defensive one. “I think humans will be trained to become better defenders, which means that you will still get creative play, just not as much sharp, aggressive styles of play,” Reddy said. Sports are games of one-upmanship, and teams and players will always try to find a new edge against their opponents. In basketball, both teams know that their opponent is prioritizing 3-point shots over mid-rangers. So, their offense needs to beat a defensive scheme specifically designed to force teams to take mid-range shots. In chess, a shift to a more solid playstyle means players will have to be even more unrelenting about taking any positional or material advantage they have. Many sports might be experiencing an unprecedented change in how people think about the game, but that does mean there is no longer beauty in them. Email Kevin Ryu at kryu@nyunews.com.
DEBORAH ALALADE | WSN
A sport where people have seemingly forsaken creative play for optimal play is chess, after Deep Blue chess engine first defeated the chess world champion Grandmaster Garry Kasparov in 1996. Similarly, NBA audience have raised concerns that sports are becoming increasingly homogenized as teams across sports push for an optimal style of play.
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Edited by KEVIN RYU
The ‘96-’97 NYU Women’s Basketball Team Was Impossibly Good By KEVIN RYU Sports Editor Days before the championship game, Jehan Clark was heading to class when she noticed something. “Back then, our student center was called Loeb,” Clark said via phone. “I remember seeing this huge poster of myself. I was a sophomore. You walk to class, and you look like a mini celebrity.” It was March 1997, and the NYU women’s basketball team was a mere four quarters away from winning the school’s first National Collegiate Athletic Association Division III championship. Coming off of a season in which they reached the Final Four, the team dominated their way to a 28-1 record, propelled by a suffocating defense that had held their opponents to 30.9% from the field and 23.4% from three. They had won all their games in the tournament by double digits, exuding the swagger of a championship-level team that embraced and enjoyed the high-stakes of pressurized games. “Frankly, we were just that good,” Clark said. “We had been to the Final Four before. We knew what it felt like being on that stage. So that wasn’t necessarily anything new or to feel pressure about.” They were a team headlined by the trio of Jen Krolikowski, Marsha Harris, and Jehan Clark. As co-captains, senior Krolikowski and junior Harris were the leaders of the team. Krowlikowski was a first team All-American that season. With Harris, the team had a player who was often the undisputed best player in the game. “She was one of the best athletes, if not the best athlete, every single time we stepped on the court,” Jenny Schinella, who was one of the four sophomores on the team, said. Meanwhile, Clark was an exceptional defender that always had the opposing player on edge. “Her hands are probably faster than anybody else’s hands I’ve ever seen,” Harris said. Led by the headlining trio, the team prepared for their championship game against University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire. Strategically, the players were as ready for UW-Eau Claire as they could be, a credit to the coaching staff that had diligently gone over every minute detail of their game plan with them. “Every play the other team ran, we had practiced defending that play over and over again,” Schinella said. “We prepared so well.” Emotionally, even for the returnees from the team that went to the Final Four, the atmosphere in the stadium was exhilarating. It was not just that this was a championship game, nor that they could become the first NYU team ever to win a Division III championship. Thanks to their near-perfect record, the team had home court advantage for the game, which was to be played at NYU’s Coles Sports and Recreation Center. “I’ve never seen the NYU gym that full before,” Clark said. “Even you asking me that question gives me goosebumps,” Schinella recalled. To this day, the players cannot pinpoint a singular explanation for why they found themselves trailing by double digits for large portions of the game. The team went into halftime down double digits. “The first half we didn’t play well. I didn’t play well,” Harris said. “It just happens sometimes in certain games. I don’t think that their defense was exceptional or anything like that.” At least for Harris, tearing her left thumb ligament while saving a loose ball certainly did not help. “It was the first half. There was a ball going out of bounds, and I tried to save it,” Harris said. “I knew [the thumb] was hurt then. I remember Jen (Krowlikowski) inbounded the ball to me, and I was like you might want to throw it a little softer because I can’t catch.” Whether it was due to nerves, the unpredictable variances of basketball, or Harris’ injury, NYU struggled to assert control as they continued to trail in the second half. With 6 minutes and 25 seconds remaining, NYU still trailed UWEau Claire 61-50. “It was not a game that we felt in control of from the beginning,” head coach Janice Quinn, who is now NYU’s Senior Associate Director of Athletics, said. “It was not a game that had a great flow to it for us.”
CHELSEA LI | WSN
The NYU women’s basketball team was a mere four quarters away from winning the school’s first National Collegiate Athletic Association Division III championship in 1997. Eventually, this was one of NYU”s three wins at teams Division III NCAA national championships.
For a team that had become accustomed to not just winning but winning convincingly, the frustration of trailing without being able to close the gap was a feeling they had not experienced for a long time. However, players do not recall feeling unsettled, even as the game seemingly reached a stasis with UW-Eau Claire refusing to concede their double digit lead. “I think the strangest thing to tell someone else about that game is there was never really a point where we were frenzied or overly concerned,” Schinella said. “When you have people on your team like Marsha Harris who is just a shining star...you have a sense of confidence when you have a teammate like that.” With less than a minute remaining, NYU had managed to close the deficit to two. Needing to score, Coach Quinn called a timeout and drew up a play. It was a play she dubbed “Indiana” as a nod to Bob Knight, the head coach of Indiana University team from whom she stole the play after he deployed it in their preseason National Invitation Tournament Championship game at Madison Square Garden. It was a play the team practiced all year but never ran. In fact, senior Christin Muller called for the play a couple possessions before, and the coaching staff had overruled her. If Coach Quinn was saving the play for a rainy day, she could not have found a more perfect time to deploy it. Out of the timeout, Christin Muller found Jen Krolikowski for a mid-range jumper that tied the game 70-70 with 26 seconds left. The ensuing 26 seconds might be the most iconic moment in the history of NYU sports. Defensively, they executed their game plan seamlessly, doubling Eau-Claire’s big man upon the entry pass to force a tough turnaround jump shot. Junior Aloysia Jaques gathered the rebound with seven seconds left and passed the ball to Marsha Harris, who jetted down the floor to give NYU their first lead of the game with two seconds left. Eau-Claire inbounded the ball, and the game was over. “I saw that they essentially only had one person back,” Harris said. “All I had to do was beat that one person. I thought that would be relatively easy to do because she was kind of short. So at that point it was just get to the rim.” After the final whistle, the adulations soon followed, both from the NYU community and the city at-large. The team received the opportunity to ring the bell at the New York Stock Exchange. Former Mayor Rudy Giuliani shared in the celebrations by inviting the team to his office. The Knicks invited the team to a game, and the players got to step onto the court during halftime and receive cheers from the fans at Madison Square Garden. Marsha Harris, a lifelong Mets fan, threw out a first pitch at Shea Stadium that summer. 23 years later, Coach Quinn and the players might not remember each minute detail of that season, but it is striking how much of that game still linger in their memory. Coach Quinn remembers the first time her players cut the lead to single digits and how that felt like a breath of fresh air. Jehan Clark can still recall Coach Quinn showing her belief in the team during timeouts, even when they were down 15 points. Marsha Harris can describe the play “Indiana” in almost perfect detail. And why shouldn’t they? It was a win that perfectly capped a dominant season with an ending that might be considered even too perfect for dramatic sports movies. The team only led for all of two seconds, but in a championship game where the results matter more than the process, they had completed the task they set out to achieve. Email Kevin Ryu at kryu@nyunews.com.
Washington Square News
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MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 14, 2020
CULTURE
CULTURE@NYUNEWS.COM
Edited by BELLA GIL
How the NYU Welcome Team Went Virtual By PAUL KIM Dining Editor When f irst-year Cassidy Kohler applied to be a fall Welcome Week leader in February of last semester, she did so to give incoming students the unique campus feel she had found during her own Welcome experience. “When you f irst come to the NYU campus, it’s a scary, big place, and it kind of feels disconnected when you don’t have that main campus,” the now CAS sophomore said. “NYU Welcome was what made me feel like, ‘Oh, this is a real school and not just a bunch of people scattered around New York City.’ That was really important to me, and I wanted to be a part of that as well.” Shortly after being accepted, Kohler, and the approximately 200 other Welcome leaders, realized that an in-person experience was out of the question. Determined to f ind some alternative for new and returning students, the Welcome team, headed by 13 captains and three chairs, set out to complete the daunting task of welcoming students to a school that, now more so than ever before, lacks a campus. “We’re basically trying to recreate Welcome from the ground up because we didn’t have any other choices, and we’re all virtual,” Welcome chair and Tisch junior Eric Carrera said. “Welcome Week does not exist. It’s now called NYU Welcome because we had to expand it over the course of two months.” Though the entirely virtual experience operated very differently than Welcomes in years past, NYU Welcome’s structures and purpose are similar to its predecessors. The staff
looked through their list of Welcome Week events to determine what could translate to a virtual Welcome and what they would need to cut. Some events, like aff inity group discussions or Bob Ross paint night were easier to adapt while the Welcome Week Ball proved too diff icult to pull off. “We were gonna market it as a living room dance party, and it was just like, this is not gonna go well for a multitude of reasons,” Carrera said. Some even found that, to their surprise, the virtual version of previously in-person events had an added layer of engagement. For Kohler, this is best exemplif ied in the student favorite, Drag Bingo. “It obviously is not the same as the in-person experience, but there was almost a greater level of interaction between individuals with the virtual walkway versus the in-person,” she said. “So there was more time to spend answering each individual question and being able to interact directly with the drag queens, which I thought, really interesting. I wasn’t expecting that.” Alongside those previous Welcome Week favorites, the team had to add new events to f ill the two-monthlong Welcome. These events had the added benef it of being designed explicitly to engage students wherever they may be. “We played a game where, for example, we would bring three objects if you were being attacked by aliens,” Welcome leader and Steinhardt sophomore Bella Park said. “So I literally ran to my kitchen and grabbed a knife, an umbrella, and a sanitizing spray, and explained and showed it to them.”
The process of redesigning old events and creating new ones was partly about which events would be the most worthwhile for the time commitment. More importantly, these events were the answer to a question the Welcome team had been asking themselves: what do students need right now? “So what we came up with is that students need to connect,” Carrera said. “Because a lot of incoming students, they had their senior years destroyed, like no prom or graduation, nothing. So we wanted to help them make as many connections as possible.” With no precedent for a virtual Welcome, and thus no metric against which the team could measure a good event, the team started determining what works and what doesn’t based on the connections they saw develop among event participants. “Instead of focusing so much on data, which we should never be doing anyways, it’s student oriented,” Carrera said. “We knew we were succeeding when we had students keep coming back to our events, they were having banter.” Though the Welcome team was able to forge those connections between new students, that doesn’t mean NYU Welcome wasn’t without its challenges. On top of the inevitable technical diff iculties that come with hosting hundreds of events over Zoom, some found that students were more hesitant to speak in a virtual setting. “It doesn’t feel like a group setting where you’re just sitting around in the circle and talking,” Kohler said. “So there’s a little bit about overcoming that fear of communicating in a
JAKE CAPRIOTTI | WSN
NYU Welcome 2020 signs deck the stairs at NYU’s Kimmel Center for University Life during Welcome Week. Although all Welcome Week events have been virtual, Welcome Week leaders found ways to modify the traditional in-person events into a virtual experience for students.
virtual space.” Furthermore, the NYU Welcome struggled to get all their leaders, located across the world and multiple time zones, trained. The three consecutive days of training, taking place from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. EST, was hard on students, such as Park, who are operating at different times. Currently living in South Korea, Park had to miss her summer classes to attend the seven-hour training that started at 11 p.m KST for her. Gabin Lee, a Liberal Studies sophomore also taking remote classes from South Korea, faced similar challenges with the time difference and summer classes. “I remember there were going to be recordings of morning sessions or afternoon sessions for people who didn’t make it,” Lee said. “That never came around. I’m not quite sure
why. I guess things were busy or like Zoom malfunctioned or something. But I think it would have been nice if there was a separate training at a different time.” Through many trials and several errors, NYU Welcome wrapped up its last few events earlier this week. For the most part, Lee, Park, Kohler and Carrera believe they were able to accomplish what they set out to do in creating a campus for the incoming students. “We’re proud of our work and we keep doing it no matter what,” Carrera said. When asked if they would do it again, all four Welcome staff members replied with a resounding yes. “Always,” Carrera said. Email Paul Kim at pkim@nyunews.com.
First-Years Face a New Social Scene By JULIANA GUARRACINO Contributing Writer
MANASA GUDAVALLI | WSN
NYU students sit distantly around Washington Square Park to complete classwork and to talk to friends. While physically distanced, students have found ways to socialize online.
Zoom screens, Netflix parties and numerous group chats may not be how many first year students at NYU envisioned their first few days of college, but they are making the best of it. New safety protocols and remote classes, while necessary, have inevitably made meeting new people and socializing, in general, a challenge for freshmen both on and off-campus. CAS first-year Brandon Sato did not expect to meet many people, nor have a number of social events this semester; within a couple days of his first semester, his expectations proved to be true. “So far, the only chance to socialize with people I’ve really had is in class, which, in a Zoom call with 50+ people, is not very easy,” Sato said. Despite living on-campus, Sato found that he still did not see a lot of people, except for in the laundry room or elevators. Students have been Zooming into class from across the country and world, and that distance, compared to six feet, is especially challenging to overcome as well. CAS first-year Zaskia Torres has been joining class from Florida, and
while she focuses on the positive, she admits her experience has been wearing. “[S]tarting my studies at NYU over a Zoom call is incredibly challenging, mentally draining and sometimes I feel alone knowing I’m 2000+ miles away from campus and even more so away from the student body abroad,” Torres said. The past couple of weeks, Torres has participated in various events found via NYU Engage, and found that Club Fest and group chats were most efficient at meeting new people. Despite socializing via Zoom being strange and unpredictable, she is grateful for being a part of the NYU community, even from a distance. Tisch first-year Gerry Orz found an online community of NYU students over the summer with whom he has since stayed connected, as well as friends within his dorm. Together, they hang out in outdoor spaces or go on walks in the city — his favorite so far being to Koreatown and Chelsea Piers. Still, he can relate to Sato in that forming new connections and making plans with friends has been difficult. “The much more difficult part is the social distance as six feet is substantially larger than it seems,” Orz said. “I still can have meals with my friends and classmates, we can still explore the
city and more; it’s just far more limiting and complex than it would’ve been normally.” Though the guidelines have caused many students to find both safe and innovative ways to meet and spend with one another, first-year students living off-campus have only had opportunities to meet their peers through a screen. Liberal Studies first-year Amanda Chacha is living on-campus this semester and even as she meets people and plans activities such as hanging out in the lounge or in the park, she prioritizes doing so safely, as do so many others. Most importantly, Chacha thinks that we all need to work together and follow these guidelines if we want any change of getting a normal college experience this year. As first year students try to adapt to this new social scene both on and off-campus, many agree that the safety of themselves and their peers is still one of their greatest concerns. “I would rather be safe and put in extra effort to make friends than put our health and other’s health at risk,” Chacha said. Email Juliana Guarracino at culture@nyunews.com.
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MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 14, 2020
ARTS
ARTS@NYUNEWS.COM
5
Edited by SASHA COHEN and KAYLEE DEFREITAS
‘I’m Thinking of Ending Things’ Will Leave You Confounded By ASHLEY WU Editor-at-Large In true Charlie Kaufman fashion, the director’s newest film, “I’m Thinking of Ending Things,” crafts a brilliant and rich narrative that makes very little sense. With a favorable Rotten Tomatoes score of 83% alongside a low 50% approval rating from audiences, it is evident that the reception to the film is divisive. It’s not hard to see why; the surreal, evocative im-
agery and the main plot of a woman meeting her boyfriend’s parents for the first time converge in disorienting ways that leave plenty of room for interpretation. The film starts with a young woman (Jessie Buckley) and her boyfriend Jake (Jesse Plemons) engaging in a series of tense discussions about their relationship as they drive to his parents’ house. Buckley’s character, whose name shifts throughout from Lucy to Lucia to other variations, repeats
a mantra in her head: “I’m thinking of ending things.” From an outsider’s perspective, it’s easy to see why. Jake undermines her intelligence more than a male Film & TV major. However, as they arrive at Jake’s childhood home, what seemed to be mere surface tension unravels into something profound and mysterious. Polish cinematographer Lukasz Zal maintains a strict 4:3 aspect ratio that builds increasing levels of anxiety as the film progresses. Viewers are
CHARLIE DODGE | WSN
Kaufman’s latest film “I’m Thinking of Ending Things” centers around a young woman visiting her boyfriend’s parents. While there, time seems to shift around her as the storyline becomes increasingly confusing and less linear.
tantalized by what may be going on outside of frame, as the objects and characters in view distort in frightening ways. At Jake’s house, his parents — played beautifully by horror veterans Toni Collette and David Thewlis — change ages and moods rapidly. The young woman finds a poem in Jake’s room that mirrors her own that she recited on the car ride over. Elongated marks are left on the door to the basement. Mysterious phone calls and cuts to images of a lonely janitor amplify the viewer’s mistrust in the events unfolding. Images and information change fluidly within the house. One second, the young woman is a professional painter, the next she’s a waitress, a poet or a quantum physicist. Some scenes cut from moments of passionate conversation to the young woman sitting in the room alone with a bewildered expression plastered on her face. A sense of wonderment is instilled: is this a real relationship? Do any of the characters even exist in the story’s world? Should I watch another movie that’s less confusing? After they leave the house, the narrative forays into Kafkaesque territory as the vignettes of a lonely janitor and the couple’s disintegrating relationship begin to intersect in fascinating ways. At this point in the film, reality is thrown out of the picture and Kaufman gives into the pulsating magnetic core of the film: a thick thematic brew filled with musings on death, love and failure.
Many critics say the project is too esoteric. I would have to agree. With a lengthy dialogue between the couple discussing the merits of John Cassavetes’ “A Woman Under the Influence,” Kaufman manifests their intellectual power struggle while also showing off his own knowledge. The young woman recites lines verbatim from Pauline Kael’s infamous review of the Cassavetes film, to which Jake reluctantly admits defeat by saying, “You are certainly the expert on things cinematic.” Although this segment of dialogue occurs between two characters, it feels like an argument someone would have with themselves in their head. More specifically, it sounds like an argument Kaufman would have with himself, bringing the viewers some of the director’s interiority, his taste, his misshapen thoughts. Where the film is surreal and airy, the book it was adapted from is grounded and violent. Having read the book before watching the film, I can attest that the movie makes way more sense if you check out Iain Reid’s novel before viewing. Each of the separate works have things they need to learn from one another. What the film lacks is a solid mainframe from which fantastical notions and themes can emerge. What the book lacks is a healthy dose of philosophy. Nevertheless, Kaufman’s adaptation is sure to breed analysis and discourse for years to come. Email Ashley Wu at awu@nyunews.com.
The Time To Support Independent Musicians Is Now By ANASTASIA D. S. JOHNSON Contributing Writer When COVID-19 first hit, people found themselves with substantially more time on their hands. As numerous people have turned to music as an escape, the percentage of streaming service subscribers and listeners has drastically increased. It is no secret that streaming revenue does not amount to musician support, as this industry keeps money from the artists and pays very little per stream. It is only now that the most integral parts of the music world — musicians and music venues — are just now receiving relief by the communities they create. On Sept. 4, 2020, the American online music-merchandise selling company, Bandcamp, announced that their new “Bandcamp Fridays” would remain in effect until 2021. The event entails the company waiving its streaming revenue shares from all sales on the first Friday of every month. This comes highly welcome at a time when the ongoing pandemic has left many musicians unable to afford food, shelter and medical expenses for themselves. Are a few extra royalties enough? Bandcamp has always been a pioneer for artists, specifically independent artists or labels, to be paid fairly for their music. The usual shares of digital (streams) and physical goods, such as merchandise, for an artist at Bandcamp is 80% to 85% and they are paid daily. It is no shock that this
platform was one of the first to aid artists during the pandemic. What has been an utter disappointment is other streaming services — Spotify, Apple Music, Amazon Music and others — refusing to change their payment rates. Streaming accounts for at least 80% of all music business revenue, but based on Soundcharts analytics, a musician whose song is streamed will make $0.0056 per play on Apple Music and only $0.0032 per play on Spotify. The average artist simply cannot pull in the level of streams necessary to secure a comfortable living at such unfavorable rates. Not surprisingly, performers in recent years have become heavily reliant on live touring as their main source of income. Live Nation Entertainment reports their concert revenue as having trended upward steadily since 2010, with earnings generated in 2019 having totalled $9.43 billion. Over the past few months, the world’s largest music festivals, such as Coachella and Ultra Music have been postponed or canceled. While concerts and festivals are postponed, venues do not have a source of income. Music venues were among the first to close as the crisis became worse and will become one of the last to open due to occupancy requirements. Music is part of culture, it also creates culture. Think of Greenwich Village without its historical jazz clubs, or Nashville without it’s country music scene. It wouldn’t be the same. Only Nashville has put in the effort to save
its live music. Early in September, another initiative came to the rescue: a resolution for the Coronavirus Aid, Relief and Economic Security (CARES) Act to provide $2 million in funding to independent live music venues in Nashville. It came only two months short of when 14 of the town’s most historic live spots would have otherwise been forced to close. If that were
to have happened, countless musicians would have lost their livelihoods. The unfortunate effects of the pandemic will not be disappearing any time soon, but perhaps COVID-19 was just the wake up call needed to capture onlookers’ attention. “Bandcamp Fridays” serves as an example of what musicians desire and deserve. Nashville’s emergency relief fund saved the jobs of many and
preserved the venues where music history has occurred. The music community has the rare opportunity to change the way it operates and the way it assists one another. It cannot be done alone and this week was a promising stride in the right direction. Email Anastasia D. S. Johnson at arts@nyunews.com.
ALEXANDRA CHAN | WSN
COVID-19 and quarantining provided time for many people to pick up new skills like learning to play an instrument or producing music. However, musicians who rely on touring and festivals to make their income are having a hard time making ends meet from streaming services alone.
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MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 14, 2020
OPINION
OPINION@NYUNEWS.COM
Edited by EMILY DAI and HELEN WAJDA
RACE
Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Are Not Enough
By ASHA RAMACHANDRAN Deputy Opinion Editor Diversity, equity and inclusion have long been represented in NYU’s policies when it comes to addressing racism at an institutional level. These ideas, however, do not do nearly enough to address systemic injustice. Instead, they provide the illusion of fairness — although more marginalized people are represented, NYU fails to make any substantive changes or reparations for policies that uphold forms of marginalization. The university’s “commitment to building and strengthening a university-wide culture of diversity, inclusion, and equity” reveals the limits of its policies concerning racism in the midst of nationwide uprisings against anti-Blackness and police terror. The administration’s vague, noncommittal statements have not demonstrated any serious change taking place across the university. Platitudes such as NYU President Andrew Hamilton’s recent statement proclaiming, “We stand in solidarity and support with those who oppose hate, ignorance and divisiveness” show a complete lack of substance. Who are these people that oppose hate, ignorance and divisiveness? Many like the New York City mayor’s office and the NYPD will claim to do so while still upholding racism at every fundamental level. The lack of material solidarity for specific anti-racist movements makes this vague statement practically useless. How is the university showing any material support for actual anti-racist organizers, and how can it do so meaningfully while still maintaining its relationships to racist institutions? From Chartwells (the dining provider that upholds the prison industrial complex) to the NYPD, to companies like Wayfair, Dell and Microsoft that have ties to Immigrations and Customs Enforcement, NYU’s relationships with companies that uphold institutional racism run deep. The concepts of diversity, equity and inclusion themselves are not enough to dismantle systemic racism. Beginning with diversity, its failure has been made increasingly evident, since the most diverse presidential administration yet presided over the suppression of uprisings against police terror in Ferguson, Mo. and Baltimore, more police killings of Black people, desecration of indigenous land, the Flint Michigan water crisis, a decline in Black wealth thanks to federal policies, complacency with surveillance of marginalized people and mass deportations. The scheme of diversity is also one closely linked to the nonprofit industrial complex and the successes of liberalism in masking racism behind Black and brown faces. The nonprofit industrial complex refers to the relationships between the state, the nonprofit sector of the economy which accounts for $1 trillion in economic
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activity annually in the US and the elite class who all work in tandem to disrupt and co-opt social movements. NYU itself is a not-for-profit organization, and, given its ties to racist institutions as it simultaneously proclaims its commitment to anti-racism, it perfectly adheres to the nonprofit industrial complex model of co-opting social movements while actively working against their interest. In addition, diversity ostensibly aims to bring more voices into the picture but does nothing to change our racist culture or dismantle our oppressive systems. Even though notions of inclusion and belonging have been mainstream in public discourse for years now, racism persists. For example, although there is increasing diversity in police departments, Black officers and other officers of color still brutalize marginalized communities. Inclusion and equity, which operate according to similar liberal logics, stress fairness and representation for marginalized people –– that is, equal opportunity, access and treatment. Equity, however, has long been inscribed into law in this country despite persistent inequality in material conditions. Despite prohibitions on discrimination in housing, health, education, employment and voting, injustices in those spheres have been maintained for centuries. Liberal notions of equality, on the surface, promote egalitarianism. Liberalism does not actively undo or dismantle systems of oppression, but rather obscures it behind a rhetoric of equality. This does nothing to address systemic problems. Equality may be written into the laws of our liberal institutions but material inequality still lives on. University administrators’ most pressing concern should be the university’s persistent relationship with a racist police department that has overseen continued brutality against anti-racist demonstrators in the last few months, not diversity, inclusion and equity initiatives. Real action NYU could take would be divestment from the NYPD and from the prison industrial complex, more comprehensive and mandatory anti-racist education that illuminates both the history and persistence of systemic racism and the actions individual students and organizations can take. NYU could also implement safe spaces on campus for BIPOC, address poverty and income insecurity among BIPOC students, invest in more justice programs and initiatives and end partnerships with racist companies and organizations. Action beyond merely raising awareness about racism is necessary. While the university has promoted the distribution of anti-racist literature and committed to increased awareness initiatives, there have to be active measures taken beyond book lists and educational programs to dismantle racism and other forms of oppression in every institution in the university. Raising awareness and dismantling structural racism are very different things. Racism persists in all major institutions in this country, including at universities. NYU needs to move beyond feeble platitudes about diversity and inclusion and towards concrete change. Email Asha Ramachandran at aramachandran@nyunews.com.
STAFF EDITORIAL
Hotel Evictions Show NYC’s Disregard For Homeless People’s Needs New York City announced on Tuesday that homeless people staying at The 2Lucerne Hotel, located in the Upper West Side, will be removed. This move occurred after a weeks-long campaign mounted by a small contingent of Upper West Side residents who blamed their new neighbors for an increase in quality-of-life problems. In response to the decision, attorney Randy Mastro stated “We appreciate that the city … will be taking concrete steps to address the chaos that reached a crisis point over the past several weeks when the city relocated hundreds of homeless individuals into the Lucerne Hotel, many of whom suffered from mental illness, addiction and other serious problems,” speaking on behalf of the West Side Community Organization, a group formed by neighborhood residents to get homeless residents out of the hotel. Although Mayor Bill de Blasio denied caving to political pressure, it is undeniable that the well-funded political backlash that occurred following the decision to move these homeless people into the hotel was at least partially to blame for the sudden reversal. When the virus began rapidly spreading throughout the city’s shelter system, the homeless New Yorkers were originally transferred out of congregate shelters into empty hotel rooms in order to slow the spread of COVID-19 in overcrowded communal living spaces. The recent reversal of this decision not only jeopardizes the health of New York City, but places vulnerable people in an even more dire situation. It is clear that this recent decision is rooted in long-term hostility toward the homeless. This open animosity against the homeless is deeply concerning. By deciding to evict the homeless and transfer them back to crowded shelters during a pandemic, New York City is capitulating to Upper West Side not-in-my-backyard-ism –– a phenomenon where residents oppose a development considered undesirable in their neighborhood based on assumptions about the groups that will live there. Upper West Siders for Safer Streets, the private Facebook group created one day after the homeless men moved to the Lucerne, shows shocking examples of anti-homeless hostility: residents accused the men of urinating on the street and selling drugs in the open, while others fantasized about an armed uprising against the homeless, counseled each other to use wasp spray and dog feces to make the homeless feel unwanted and referred to them as “trash,” “scum” and “thugs.” In one incident, a noose was found outside the Lucerne Hotel, a clear message
of intimidation aimed at the homeless residents. Experiencing homelessness or housing insecurity at any time is difficult, but in the midst of a pandemic, survival is even more fraught. One analysis found that between April 12 to June 14, the number of homeless shelters with one or more confirmed cases of coronavirus grew 60%. The COVID-19 mortality rate among the homeless is 67% higher than the overall population, with 1400 reported infections and 104 deaths. In these trying times, it is clear that those in power across the country must do all that they can to protect its most vulnerable citizens. However, the de Blasio administration has recklessly decided to deprioritize pandemic emergency relief out of political pressure. This is not the time to roll back protections. The United States remains in a state of emergency. Outside New York, new COVID-19 cases emerge across states that were the first to end their stay-at-home ordinances and reopened prematurely. While the city hasn’t experienced a second wave of infection yet, as schools and indoor dining reopen and residents exhibit reckless behavior in public spaces, a second wave is not unlikely. De Blasio’s original decision to relocate homeless people from shelters to hotel rooms played a part in the city’s current success in curbing the amount of coronavirus cases by allowing more populations to social distance. Reversing this decision too early could lead to an uptick in COVID-19 cases. Erin Drinkwater, an official at the Department of Homeless Services, warned about the possibility of a resurgence of coronavirus in the fall, stating, “It would be a terribly unfortunate circumstance to rush and move everyone back into congregate locations because of the current city infection rate, only to have a second wave come and hit us in the fall and have to relocate 10,000 clients back to commercial hotels to protect them.” The de Blasio administration’s eviction of the homeless men from the Lucerne not only jeopardizes the health of one of the most vulnerable populations, but the health of the city as a whole. There are no justifications for the city to upend the lives of homeless people in such a callous manner. By caving to local residents’ threats to sue, the de Blasio administration suggests that in the city, groups who can afford to hire lawyers to threaten governing officials will continue to get their way while the lives of vulnerable populations who don’t have the resources to hire lawyers and threaten the mayor will be disregarded and endangered.
Email the Editorial Board at editboard@nyunews.com. CHAIR Emily Dai, Helen Wajda CO-CHAIR Kevin Kurian, Asha Ramachandran, Bianca Sproul CHAIR EX OFFICIO Abby Hofstetter, Alexandria Johnson, Jun Sung, Ethan Zack
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.
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