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MEET THE editors

Sierra Jackson Sierra Jackson is currently a News Editor at WSN. She is also a Journalism and Latin American Studies major in CAS. You can find her obsessively eating avocados, watching cute cat videos and whistling her heart out. And she would heartily agree that whistling is akin to playing an instrument. If you really want to get on her good side, help her smuggle a kitten or puppy into her dorm room. But if that’s too difficult, a small delivery of Ferrero chocolates will do.

News Editor

Sayer Devlin Abigail Weinberg

EDITOR-IN-CHIEF

Abigail is a junior studying Journalism and Spanish in CAS. She thinks @dril should win the Nobel Prize in Literature and the Grammy Awards need a category for vaporwave. You can usually find her either riding her bike or writing in a journal that she’ll never let anyone read.

news editor

Natasha roy I’m Natasha, and I’m WSN’s assistant managing editor.

I live in Milton, Georgia (the most boring town in the country), and I’m a sophomore in CAS studying Journalism and Sociology — but that will probably have changed by the time you read this. When I’m not changing my major, I can usually be found drinking too much coffee, reading the New Yorker or asking to pet other people’s dogs. My favorite spot in New York is the Hudson River Pier, and I definitely recommend watching the sunset there one or thirty times during your freshman year.

Sayer Devlin is a News Editor for the Washington Square News. He thinks he’s studying economics in College of Arts and Science and finds writing about himself in the third person extremely weird. He was born in Tokyo, has lived in Paris, London and New York but doesn’t really have a hometown.

When he’s not pretending to work, Sayer is spending too much time paying attention to the Mets, the Knicks and other sad sports teams.

Jordan Reynolds

assistant managing editor

Jordan Reynolds has worked at WSN since her freshman year, and doesn’t really know how she ended up on senior staff. She enjoys seeing free movies, going to free concerts, and attending free art exhibitions. She decided to apply to NYU after hearing that the Sprouse twins were students, and was incredibly disappointed to find out that they’d graduated the year before she began.

Abbey Wilson

deputy managing editor

Abbey Wilson is Deputy Managing Editor for Washington Square News and a senior in CAS studying History. She chose to go to NYU because it’s far enough away from home that she has to do her own laundry but close enough to be able to sweet talk her mom into refilling her MetroCard.

LETTER FROM THE EDITOR

Andrew Heying Andrew Heying is the Opinion Editor for Washington Square News. He’s from St. Louis, much like no one ever. Currently, Andrew is an undeclared sophomore trying to figure out what he wants to do with the rest of his life (all suggestions for a potential major are welcome...seriously). On a daily basis, Andrew aspires to channel the energy of the one and only Leslie Knope, but usually gets tired and takes a nap instead.

Also, Andrew enjoys room-temperature coffee, long walks, and dramatic television. Follow him on Twitter @andrew_heying and Instagram @andrew.heying for more relatable content if you want. If not, oh well, he’ll be napping anyway.

Arts editor

Abigail Wein Editor-in-Chief

Opinion editor

NYUNEWS.COM | MONDAY, JULY 31, 2017 | WASHINGTON SQUARE NEWS

Kaitlyn Wang Kaitlyn is the Features Editor at WSN and a junior(ish) studying history and journalism in CAS. When she’s not at WSN, she’s probably standing by a printer waiting for her readings to print or dog watching in the park.

Originally from the Bay Area, Kaitlyn doesn’t do well in the NYC cold. In any given conversation she will probably talk about California or her dog, Tucker.

Features Editor

Managing editor Jemima McEvoy My name is Jemima and I am the Managing Editor at WSN. I’m originally from England, but moved to Chicago during my junior year of high school. It was then that I realized cheerleaders and pep rallies were not just fiction contrived for American sitcoms. I chose NYU because I’m a massive tourist and love the creativity that the inhabitants of New York City have to offer. I’m a rising sophomore in CAS, hoping to study International Relations on the pre-law track. When I’m not desperately trying to hold on to my British accent or explaining to people that I was not named after a brand of syrup, I enjoy exploring the city with friends, pretending to do exercise and writing book ideas that I will never finish. I look forward to getting to know you all in the fall.

Polina Buchak Polina Buchak is the Multimedia Editor at the Washington Square News. She is pursuing her two passions -- Fim & TV and Integrated Digital Media -- finding a way to intertwine new technologies with mixed realities into filmmaking. Born in Ukraine, raised in Nigeria and educated in the United Kingdom, she will never be able to answer exactly where she is from.

If you are lookiing for her, she is either running around NYC finding stories that she can turn into short movies or simply enjoying a coffee catching up with her fashion bible Vogue. Follow her projects at polinabuchak.com.

multimedia Editor

Laura Shkouratoff

creative director

Laura is half of WSN’s Creative Directors (a fancy title for the paper’s graphic designers). She’s from California and accidentally embodies every stereotype, from skating to surfing and saying ‘sick’ and ‘hella’ way more than she should. Over the course of the year, she’s slowly been draining the WSN office of its drinking water supply and putting every dollar she earns towards her tattoo fund.

Follow her on insta @shkouratoff for cheesy pictures of the adventures she takes with her girlfriend and chocolate lab.

multimedia Editor Anna Letson

Rachel Buigas-Lopez Rachel Buigas-Lopez is in her second semester as half of the Creative Directors for the Washington Square News. She is a sophomore studying “who knows probably something that has to do with design” at Gallatin. Outside of newspaper (and sometimes at newspaper) she spends her time fawning over photos of greyhounds that are bigger than any apartment she’ll be able to rent in Manhattan.

M R

nberg f

creative director

Anna Letson is the Multimedia Editor at the Washington Square News. She is a junior in Gallatin and finally ready for you to ask her about her concentration. She loves all sorts of photography, but has a soft spot for analog, and not because it’s hipster (though hailing from Seattle could have something to do with it). After being in Paris in the spring, she has become even more dependent on caffeine and the company of other people’s dogs. You can find her at a number of concerts and cafes around the city or convincing someone to go to brunch. If you can’t find her, she’s probably in the darkroom. Keep up with her at www.annaletson.com and on ig @annaletson.

WELCOME TO NYU. I won’t pretend that I’m able to impart any kind of special wisdom to you. I’m 20 years old and just as terrified of and excited about the years that loom before me as you are about your impending college career. I can, however, reflect on my last two years of existence in New York — a year and a half, technically, because of my semester abroad — and report my findings to you.

Lower Manhattan can offer you an abundance of just about every material product you can think of. There’s dollar pizza and there’s $2.75 pizza. There are dollar stores, record stores, paper stores, rubber stamp stores, thrift stores and sex stores. Before the year is out, you will have an encyclopedic knowledge of the locations of at least one of these subsets. You will realize that you can satiate any fleeting craving without having to travel more for more than 10 minutes.

After that initial excitement wears off, though, you’ll start craving other things. You’ll want to know how to get people to stop mistaking you for a tourist.

You’ll yearn for lasting friendships and stellar grades and maybe a fulfilling romance. But above all, you’ll want to fit in, to find a group of people who accept you and make you feel at home.

And you’ll find it. Everybody does eventually. I found it at the newspaper, as many coffee-addicted writers and artists with too few friends and too much spare time have done. We’re united in our effort to create something tangible out of the words we write and the photos we take — and in our stubborn insistence that print is not dead.

I’m not saying that laboring over prose for hours every night is your cup of tea. But I am saying that no matter your interests, there is a group of people at NYU who share them. And regardless of where college takes you, you’re in for a heck of a ride.

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Student Representation on NYU Targeted by Russian Hackers Board of Trustees Wins

By MACK DEGEURIN Staff Writer

By SAYER DEVLIN News Editor

Students are one step closer to having a seat at the boardroom table. In a 17-8 victory for NYU’s Student Labor Action Movement today — better known as SLAM — the Student Senators Council voted in favor of a resolution that would allow students on the Board of Trustees.

“Our campaign has continued to gain the support of students and organizations across campus,” SLAM said in a statement to WSN before today’s vote. “Just this past week the campaign has been endorsed by, among others, NYU Dream Team, the Muslim Students Association and Asian Heritage Month. It is clear that the student body demands change.”

The resolution entitled “Creation of Elected Student Board of Trustee Members Resolution of the Student Senators Council,” was written by CAS sophomore and Senator at-Large Husniye Cogur. SLAM helped draft the resolution as well, which outlined the allocation of two out of 49 seats to students: one undergraduate and one graduate student for one two-year term each.

“The current structure of New York University is insufficient in representing the needs and concerns of the student body as demonstrated from the past year of recentering the university on questions of equity among other principles,” the resolution said.

Now that it won over the SSC, it will face the University Senate next, which consists of 137 voting members: 37 Student Senators, 67 faculty members and 33 administrators, such as NYU President Andrew Hamilton who holds a position on the Senate Executive Committee.

Cogur said that she was elated that the students voted in favor of the resolution the first time it was presented to them.

“I just teared up inside, because this is a fight that has been going on for literally decades,” Cogur said. “There have been students who have tried to get this through, and it hasn’t even come to a vote in SSC.” Although she believes it is unlikely that the University Senate will ratify the resolution, the SSC vote was still effective in sending a strong message about students’ wishes to the University

Senate, administration and Board of Trustees. This contrasts with Hamilton, who spoke against allowing students on the Board of Trustees during an interview with WSN in November 2016.

While this is symbolic among the university, CAS senior Brandon Camacho said that he has reservations about the vote passing through the University Senate.

Camacho serves as a student senator in the SSC. “This isn’t the first time that the SSC has proposed this resolution, and in the past it hasn’t gone through,” Camacho said. “So I’m worried that the [University Senate] will vote to not ratify it.”

Camacho said that he supported the resolution because he felt that the resolution would increase student influence at NYU by making the Board of Trustees more transparent — but that it would only happen if the University Senate also votes in favor.

“As a whole, we need someone on there,” Camacho said. “The minutes aren’t published to the public — this is our way to make sure from the top to the bottom that there is student input and students acting as watchdogs to the administration.”

CAS senior Drew Weber, who is a leading organizer of SLAM, said the vote today proves that students are in favor of incorporating students in the Board of Trustees. Weber also said that he hopes the University Senate will take the students’ input seriously.

“The University Senate will be one more step on the way to a more transparent and accountable university,” Weber said. “We are confident in our ability to get it done and will be beginning this process promptly. The vote today proves that we have students on our side.”

Cogur said the result of the vote is especially gratifying considering the SSC’s history of trying to pass resolutions similar to this one.

“Mayor Bill de Blasio, when he was at NYU, was trying to fight for this, so it is something that has been going on,” Cogur said.

“To be the first senate to get this past the student government is an amazing feeling.”

Additional reporting by Adriana Tapia.

Email Sayer Devlin at sdevlin@nyunews.com.

STAFF PHOTO BY SAYER DEVLIN

SCC voted on whether or not to propose allowing students on the Board of Trustees to the University Senate.

A Russian-speaking hacker calling himself Rasputin threatened to sell NYU student and faculty bank routing numbers, social security numbers and other personally identifiable information on the darknet, according to a report from Recorded Future — a site claiming to search the darknet for potential threats.

According to the report, NYU was one of 60 universities and government agencies targeted in the attack. The Russian hacker gained infamy last year when The Hill reported that they hacked the Elections Assistance Committee and sold high-level credentials to the highest black market bidders. An NYU Information Technology administrator said that NYU handles the financial information, health records and other personal information of over 50,000 faculty and students.

NYU’s Chief Information Officer Len Peters started working at the university in October, and he is one of the key figures tasked with securing the university from cyber attacks.

Peters said that while Rasputin did not sell any personal information from NYU, the potential for a crippling attack is highly likely unless combated with military precision.

“My understanding of that particular incident was that it was published that we had vulnerabilities,” Peters said. “But we didn’t find any evidence that we had actually been hacked.”

Recorded Fortune first reported the vulnerabilities and said it attempted to warn institutions before releasing its report. A representative from Recorded Future told WSN in an email that its report focused on the sale of unauthorized access to university networks — and not the actual exfiltration of any private data — reaffirming what Peters said.

Peters said that there are three types of bad actors that are of significant concern for universities: extortionists, hacktivists and non-state actors. Jamyn Shanley, a security analyst at cPanel, a large web-hosting software company, said that the three roles are distinct.

“The extortionist may sell the data back to the victim, the hacktivist may publish it to damage the institution and the nonstate actor may use it in other ways to further their own goals,” Shanley said. “But they are all potentially a threat to sensitive information.”

Peters said that since he began working at NYU, there has only been one reportable successful hacking incident. He said that the direct deposit accounts of certain individuals were compromised and subsequently redirected.

“There are literally thousands

VIA JISC.AC.UK

According to a report from a website called Recorded Future, a Russian speaking hacker, Rasputin, threatened to sell NYU student and faculty bank routing numbers and social security numbers on the darknet. NYU was one of 60 reported universities and government agencies targeted in the attack. and thousands of attempts to break into machines on a regular basis,” Peters said. “Sometimes it is to get information that can be monetized on the darknet.”

Shanley said that although his views do not necessarily reflect those of cPanel, he believes larger institutions are susceptible to hackers because there are more potential targets, and that improves the likelihood of success.

Peters said the number of devices used by the NYU community exceeded 120 thousand at last count, and is increasing every day. Shanley said that given NYU’s size, extortionists, hacktivists and non-state actors would likely leverage sensitive personal information to achieve their goals.

Peters said that NYU’s size poses another risk in that a significant number of devices connecting to the network are insecure and are thus more susceptible to hacks. While he said that the university’s public desktop computers are centrally managed and constantly patched with the most recent security updates, this level of security does not apply to students’ personal devices.

“Our confidence level is much higher on public computers because we manage them,” Peters said. “With students, we do not manage [their] devices, so it is really on the student to ensure that those [updates] are occurring.”

He said that due to the high volume of attempts to undermine the network, NYU IT has adopted a risk-based security method. This method, Peters said, is similar to securing a home — fortification starts at the edge with a fence, while more valuable items are protected further inside a safe.

According to Peters, NYU IT created a risk register to determine what information is deemed a higher priority.

“The risk register does two primary things,” Peters said.

“It assesses the possibility or probability that that vulnerability could occur and then it accesses the impact if it were to occur and then from that we

derive a score. From that [score] we can then prioritize what is most important.”

Peters said during the March 30 University Senate meeting that there are currently 257 active IT risks — 6.4 percent high risk, 43.7 percent medium risk and 50 percent low risk.

Peters said that priorities of this effort shifted toward securing open ports and exploits after this assessment. He said IT security is working to ensure that controls are implemented at the network’s border to monitor its data intake. However, Peters also said exploits, or unpatched machines, are a more elusive threat. To combat this issue, the department is launching a public awareness campaign to educate students and faculty on the need to update their security software.

Shanley said one of the more common and fairly low-tech tactics deployed by hackers is called phishing. It is often implemented through fake links in mass emails, and successful phishing attempts can trick people into sharing their usernames, passwords and other sensitive information. While Peters could not quantify the number of successful scams at NYU, he considers phishing attempts a high risk.

Although electronic-based security is susceptible to cyber attacks, as reported by Business Insider, Assistant Vice President for Strategic Technical Operations at NYU Public Safety Carlos Garcia said the risks are worth the benefits of technology. Therefore, he said the university plans to expand the NYU ID swipe entry currently implemented in buildings such as Bobst Library and the Kimmel Center for University Life.

“If you look at the pros and cons, the pros continue to outweigh the cons,” Garcia said.

“What we are trying to do is be proactive and frankly be ahead of the curve in a [security] industry that can sometimes be behind when it comes to technology.”

Email Mack Degeurin at news@nyunews.com.

NYUNEWS.COM | MONDAY, JULY 31, 2017 | WASHINGTON SQUARE NEWS

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NYU Student Accepts Plea Deal in Albatross Killings Case

By JEMIMA MCEVOY Managing Editor

An NYU student has further endangered a number of already in danger albatrosses. In court on Thursday, Tisch sophomore Christian Gutierrez pleaded no contest to five charges — including animal cruelty and theft — after a dozen albatrosses were slaughtered in a Hawaii nature reserve.

Investigations at the Kaena Point Natural Area Reserve by the state’s Department of Land and Natural Resources began in December 2015, when Executive Director of Pacific Rim Conservation Lindsay Young said that the group received an email from a friend with pictures of the dead birds in positions that were not a result of natural mortality.

“It was clearly intentionally caused by humans and not caused by predators or other natural events,” Young said. “The photographs released of the severed feet show clean cut marks indicating some kind of knife was used to cut them off.”

According to a nest inventory of the reserve, trespassers had significantly damaged the species and habitat of the Laysan albatross — a federally protected species. The inventory reported that there were 12 missing adult albatrosses, a number of smashed, missing or dead eggs and 15 destroyed nests out of the 45 documented nests at Kaena Point.

Gutierrez is one of three classmates from a Honolulu prep school charged for this incident. His statement filed in court said that he was camping in Kaena Point with

others when they entered a prohibited area, and the trio participated in illegal activities that resulted in the death of numerous albatross birds and eggs and the destruction of equipment owned by the Pacific Rim Conservation Organization.

Gutierrez originally pleaded not guilty in December after being charged with 19 criminal counts but accepted a plea deal on Thursday, which — in exchange for the prosecution dismissing his 14 remaining counts — will require him to testify against others who may be involved. Gutierrez’s attorney said that pleading no contest protects his client from the threat of collateral civil action — simply put, the defendant must show liability to avoid being involved in a civil settlement.

Spokesman for the Honolulu prosecuting attorney’s office Chuck Parker told Washington Square News that this result affirms the defendant’s help in gathering evidence.

“Essentially the plea deal was agreed to to get Gutierrez’s cooperation for a testimony against others who may be involved in the case,” Parker said. “We agreed to him pleading no contest to fewer charges than he was originally charged with, but he has to cooperate with us and provide evidence against others who may be involved.”

During his hearing on Thursday, Gutierrez requested a deferral of his no contest plea from the court.

Gutierrez’s defense attorney Myles Breiner said that if the court accepts the deferral in June when he is sen-

tenced, Gutierrez will be free to seek an expungement of his record.

If deferral is awarded by the court, Breiner said that Gutierrez must adhere to numerous conditions outlined by the court in what he called a potentially arduous process similar to probation, but Breiner said there is no guarantee that the court will accept his request.

“For certain offenses you have a one-time opportunity to have it erased from your record, provided you do whatever needs to be done in terms of probation,” Breiner said.

“It is a type of sentencing and if the court grants the motion for deferral, effectively Mr. Gutierrez has no conviction.”

Breiner said that Gutierrez is a candidate for deferral of no contest, because he is a first-time offender with a clean record.

Parker said that because the other two involved in this case are juveniles, they will be tried in family court and their information cannot be released.

According to Breiner, the prosecution recognized that Gutierrez was not the ringleader of this incident. Yet, because he was the only offender to be tried as an adult, he has received the majority of the social media backlash.

“He has become the poster boy for this type of crime, which is considered by many people to be a heinous crime,” Breiner said. “[The public is] willing to place Mr. Gutierrez front and center as the image of violence toward protected species, and that is very troubling to me.”

Breiner said that Gutierrez at-

tached a written statement to the plea agreement accepting responsibility and apologizing for the death and destruction of the habitat. Breiner also said that Gutierrez has promised to repay and provide restitution to the Pacific Rim Conservation Group proportionate to the stolen and damaged equipment and the fines — he also said that Gutierrez is in the process of making a public safety announcement video supporting the efforts of this organization.

As far as disciplinary action, NYU spokesperson John Beckman said that the university is prohibited by federal law from discussing what action may be taken in reference to a certain student.

“I will say that the incident as described is shocking, disgraceful and senseless,” Beckman said.

Young said that although repairing the equipment damage has been relatively straightforward for Pacific Rim Conservation, she also said that assessing the damage done to 14 years of research and data has been complicated. And Young said that from a scientific standpoint, the damage done to this site has ruined one of the best long-term datasets on albatrosses anywhere in the world. As a result, she believes that the plea deal does not come close to approximating justice.

“If you approach an animal that is not going to try to escape because it is guarding its eggs, and you not only smash its egg, but rip it apart while alive and then save an ID band as a souvenir, one you had to get by dismembering a limb,

for entertainment, and you do it more than a dozen times, you have no conscience,” Young said. “Being charged with misdemeanor theft and only one count of animal cruelty — when dozens were killed and tortured — is just appalling.”

Email Jemima McEvoy at jmcevoy@nyunews.com.

VIA JOHN HARRISON

A dozen albatrosses were slaughtered and photographed dead in Kaena Point Natural Area Reserve in 2015. Tisch sophomore Christian Gutierrez has been charged with the crime along with two others, who are minors.

NYU Bookstore to Be Leased to Follett Higher Education

By NATASHA ROY Assistant Managing Editor

NYU is in talks with Follett Higher Education Group, a campus textbook retailer, to have the company take over the NYU Bookstore’s operations effective summer 2017, according to Assistant Vice President for Campus Services Owen Moore.

Moore said that the new partnership between the university and Follett Higher Education is part of NYU’s affordability initiative. Moore also said that this specific action would contribute to its goal of reducing the prices of course materials by 50 percent over the course of the next two years.

“NYU chose Follett because of the firm’s demonstrated ability to provide essential course materials and products at the best price for students,” Moore said in an email to WSN. “Follett also has at its disposal a robust technological platform with a wide variety of user-friendly online software and IT resources for faculty and instructors.”

Moore said that the partnership will allow the university bookstore to offer books for prices that are 15 percent lower than standard industry prices. It will also offer alternative options to textbooks, like rentals and ebooks, so that students can save an additional 25 to 70 percent off the price of a new textbook.

Additionally, the partnership with

STAFF PHOTO BY VERONICA LIOW

The NYU Bookstore may potentially be leased to Follett Higher Education as a part of NYU’s affordability efforts. However, the union, UCATS Local 3882, is concerned with the takeover.

Follett will provide a price match program that allows for more buyback opportunities.

Moore also said that under Follett, NYU’s pay rate for student employees and preference for student employment over outside employment will still be honored.

“Follett Higher Education Group’s commitment to continuity of employment for current NYU employees — honoring salary [and] years of service [is important],” Moore said.

“We are still in the early stages of this process, and terms have not yet been finalized.”

A bookstore employee who works in the general merchandise department of the bookstore and wished to remain anonymous said that bookstore employees received an email from Moore in early April informing them of Follett’s potential takeover and that their jobs would still remain intact.

However, even with this assurance of employment, some bookstore employees are concerned about Follet’s takeover of its operations. The anonymous source said that she and her union, UCATS Local 3882, don’t believe that Follett would actually provide better prices on textbooks.

“We would like to remain in our jobs, and we would actually like to remain in our union [as] employees of NYU,” the source said. “NYU, as far as I know, is claiming that Follett would be beneficial to the students in terms of student customers [in] getting them better prices on textbooks, but I’m not necessarily sure that’s true.”

The union researched Follett and found that the company runs primarily on part-time and temporary employees, has had massive layoffs and has overcharged students in the past, according to an email sent to union members by its organizer.

Additionally, the group found that some universities have taken their bookstores back after Follett promises did not hold true.

In a meeting on Friday between NYU personnel and members of UCATS Local 3882, the union presented its findings to the university. According to an email to union members, the university personnel said that there was no information to be shared and that no contract has been signed with Follett yet.

The university personnel did not answer questions regarding which options were being considered and the logistics of the decision-making process, but said that they would listen to the union’s concerns.

The anonymous source was especially concerned over a recent lawsuit involving Follett Higher Education. The group settled a $3.5 million class-action suit over its misuse of phone numbers that customers gave them. The group illegally started contacting these customers using automatic dialers.

“I think what’s important is that this whole move is based on what’s better for students, when again, these people settled the $3.5 million class action,” the source said.

“I don’t know that that’s better for students, that they would have had to admit to that — the fact that they’re settling for the whole lot — about misusing students’ information [and] customers’ information.”

It is unknown whether or not this issue was brought up during the meeting between NYU representatives and the union. How-

ever, the source is still concerned over the truth of the university’s claims about Follett, especially in terms of its promise of continued employment.

“That’s premature, as opposed to another email that would have said not much is known period — because we are in talks, not much is known,” the source said. “I think that to go ahead and say, well, employees generally get to keep their benefits and their salaries — I know that I wouldn’t say something like that if I didn’t know [if] that would hold true.”

The source believes that the school’s vagueness is not fair to its employees and that the university should keep in mind that the bookstore employees are essential to the school’s operations.

“This move [is] full of hubris because they’re doing this, and meanwhile we’re the same group of workers they’re going to be counting on to handle graduation,” the source said. “Along with the beginning of the year, the end of the year is the busiest time of the the year. So this same group of workers whose jobs they’re jeporadizing [by] keeping us in the dark are the same group of people they’re going to be counting on come graduation.”

Email Natasha Roy at nroy@nyunews.com

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WASHINGTON SQUARE NEWS | MONDAY, JULY 31, 2017 | NYUNEWS.COM

ARTS

EDITED BY HAILEY NUTHALS ARTS@NYUNEWS.COM

Healing with the Dead

By GILCHRIST GREEN Music Editor

As an NYU professor by day and keyboardist for a Grateful Dead cover band by night, Ken Aigen is living a life inspired by the Dead.

Aigen is an associate professor who teaches music therapy classes for masters and doctorate students at Steinhardt. Although he does little clinical work now, he spent a large part of his career working at NYU’s Nordoff-Robbins Center for Music Therapy. Working predominantly with children on the autism spectrum, Aigen practices the Nordoff-Robbins approach.

He helps them create their own music while playing along with them. His improvisational approach creates an impression of the child through sound.

“It’s like making a portrait of somebody,” Aigen said. “But instead of a visual portrait, it’s an auditory one.”

Aigen provides a communicative medium —particularly for those on the spectrum who are nonverbal. Through music, he helps them out of their isolated worlds. Practicing musical therapy has instilled his belief that, music can sometimes be the only way to help someone.

“Sometimes all you can offer

By ALEXANDRA PIERSON Theater and Books Editor

someone is music,” Aigen said.

“Sometimes music is the only thing that people can let in when they are in a difficult situation.”

But Aigen would not have connected so intensely with this field without the help of the Grateful Dead, who primed him for this profession and gave him his

“

Sometimes music is the only thing that people can let in when they are in a difficult situation.

KEN AIGEN

”

own music therapy.

Aigen’s love for the Dead began in 1972, when he was 16 years old.

“I soon realized that the experience that people had at their concerts was unlike anything I’d ever seen,” he said. “It was a completely transformative experience. There was a feeling of camaraderie and connection with everybody else in the audience.”

The Dead’s explorative winding

solos, spacey drums and steadfast focus on live performances drawing on the emotion of the moment invented a new genre of music during their rise to popularity in the 1970s. Their style opened Aigen up to the idea of musical improvisation as a metamorphic, transcendent force in people’s lives. It showed him how music can be not just a release but also a path towards personal transformation and growth.

After almost a decade of Deadhead devotion, Aigen discovered music therapy in 1981, and his professional career began. But his devotion to the Dead’s music never stopped.

In 2008, after his kids grew up and the Internet became a hub for jam-band musicians to connect, he found his current band on Craigslist and rock-and-roll resurfaced in his life. Under the name Stella Blue’s Band, the band started rehearsing in a garage, and everything clicked.

“You could just feel this electricity in the music,” Aigen said.

“And all of us could feel it — that we were really getting good as an ensemble.”

Now, with the love and support of Grateful Deadheads all around New York, their homebase is Garcia’s, a 250-capacity club connected to the Capitol Theatre in

COURTESY OF BARBARA ELMENDORF

NYU professor Ken Aigen plays the keyboard with his Grateful Dead cover band. Aigen teaches music therapy at the Steinhardt School of Culture, Education and Human Development.

Port Chester. Aigen believes his band captures the feeling, essence and energy of the Dead’s music.

“You feel it’s real, it’s happening, it’s not a canned product, ” Aigen said. “The music just gets inside you. There’s never too much.”

Stella Blue’s Band keeps the legacy, the intense light and energy of the Grateful Dead alive. As a

keyboardist, Aigen lives out his Deadhead dream, playing eccentric songs that don’t sound like anything else in the world. And as a professor, he is also helping others to unlock the healing powers of music.

Email Gilchrist Green at music@nyunews.com.

‘PhDeath:’ The NYU Murder Mystery

James P. Carse, professor emeritus of history and literature of religion at NYU, knows the university better than anyone. He was the director of Religious Studies for 30 years, and his time at NYU in what he calls “the most famous neighborhood in the world” is the inspiration behind his latest book, “PhDeath: The Puzzler Murders.”

The novel is a murder mystery set on the campus of a major research university, conveniently situated around a square that is both park and performance space.

Sound familiar?

When a series of word puzzles are emailed to the entire university and members of the faculty begin dying under suspicious circumstances, it is up to a committee of their surviving colleagues to solve these puzzles and expose issues of university corruption before it is too late. Following a reading at Tribeca’s Mysterious Bookshop, WSN had the privilege of meeting Carse to discuss his most recent publication.

Washington Square News: Is “PhDeath” based on NYU? James Carse: Yeah. It’s based on NYU, but not exactly NYU …

It could apply to a lot of universities. In fact, one of the reasons for choosing to use NYU in this way is that it does resemble a great

number of large, especially research institutions. You know, big, high-powered, word status, worldclass type universities.

WSN: Where did your idea for this story come from?

JC: I was at NYU for 30 years, and the NYU faculty is full of people who were all born smart. They were mostly nerdy in school, they were never really popular kids, you know, very few athletes and so on, and with a lot of peculiar characteristics — in other words, colorful. So I found myself living in this community of really unusual, intelligent and interesting people.

So you put it all together like that, it’s just like a huge pool of stories waiting to be told … I know a lot about their lives and the problems they have, and the problems they have with the university, so it kind of came from that. [Also,] I have a lifelong fascination with puzzles [and] working things out. And so I let those two factors merge, and I thought, “Okay, I’ll write a mystery about the university.”

WSN: Are any of the characters in the book based on actual people?

JC: Yes. One is very precise: John Buttner-Janusch. He was terribly brilliant. I tell the story fairly accurately in the novel. He was brought to NYU to run a laboratory. He was a genetic anthropologist. He was always a difficult human being, steamed up … He was so difficult that when I would go into a com-

mittee meeting for the first time and I would see him there, I’d resign from the committee and leave … Well, it turned out that he was on methamphetamine. It’s exactly like I told in the story: he had the lab, he was making that stuff in the lab and he had his students sell it … The others are mostly composites of people I know. Almost everyone in the book would fit in this university. The man I dedicated the book to — Frank Peters — [is] sort of the model for Alfie O’Malley, the friend [of the protagonist].

WSN: As someone who had worked at NYU for 30 years, you probably know this institution better than anybody. What would you say has been the biggest change that you’ve seen?

JC: Oh, there are lots of changes.

VIA AMAZON.COM

NYU students will find the setting of PHDeath especially relatable, it being the NYU campus.

Sometimes I have the feeling I’ve been at five universities. Think of it like this: when I came to NYU, most of the students were first or second-generation. That is, most of my students at that time were the sons and daughters of immigrants.

And, of those, most were Jewish …

I would say 70 or 80 percent of the student body was Jewish … Then there was a very large Catholic group right after that, and then it slowly turned Eastern, more and more Asian and so on. When I left there were a lot of students in my classes who were Indian [or] Chinese, [and there were] many more black students than I had in the beginning.

Then there was an abrupt shift … Suddenly, kids [were] coming to college to be doctors, lawyers and so on. They were very serious about their studies, whereas the previous group came to have a great time … The next group was very quiet.

They did everything you told them to … The classrooms weren’t as interesting, they wouldn’t fight with the professors. In the early, early period, I couldn’t give a lecture in which someone didn’t object.

WSN: Can you explain the role of the Puzzler and what [they] are trying to achieve?

JC: The Puzzler has a vision of the university that begins with Socrates in Athens. I think the way to describe Socrates is, there’s no such thing as Socratic thought,

there’s only Socratic method, and the method is questioning … This is the vision of the Puzzler — that it begins with Socrates and continues to the present in a fairly continuous history. And the university is probably Western civilization’s greatest achievement, [and he] wants to maintain the integrity of the university … He knows that he [can’t do it] in the way that Socrates did, wandering around asking people questions — he’s got to do something better than that. So he kills people.

WSN: Can you explain the concept of thievery in the book? How is it that people are being robbed?

JC: Well, I think people are being robbed because the university is selling itself as a way to wealth, success in something. It’s not the community of discourse, of active thinking, that I think it should be and it has been over the centuries. That’s one thing that worries me a lot, and that’s why I use the notion of thievery, because it’s very expensive to get educated …

When you charge someone a lot of money to teach them something useful, what you’ve done is stolen from them not just the money but the gift of being thoughtful. That’s the big thievery, not just stealing the money, but stealing your sense of wonder.

Email Alexandra Pierson at books@nyunews.com.

NYUNEWS.COM | MONDAY, JULY 31, 2017 | WASHINGTON SQUARE NEWS

ARTS

EDITED BY HAILEY NUTHALS ARTS@NYUNEWS.COM

Aliens Land at NYU in New Musical Comedy

By SRYAN MIKEL Staff Writer

SThis past week, extraterrestrials landed at NYU in “Aliens Coming,” a musical comedy exploring stereotypes and themes of today’s youth through song and dance. “Aliens” was created and performed by NYU alumni and students, including creator and Tisch senior Joe Kelly and executive producer and Stern senior James Young. These American Apparel-wearing, Tumblr-fluent extraterrestrials came, saw and came in this overtly sexual theatrical work.

The story begins at an avant-garde art party hosted by the evening’s ingenue Clementine Tweedy. Played by Tisch alum Alice Kors, the protagonist desperately seeks approval from the cool art kids who aesthetically smoke American Spirits, wear the latest Urban Outfitters staples and discuss vaginally-shaped feminist fruit art.

Their unbearable coolness is interrupted when the evening’s most comedic character, soon-to-be antagonist Brandi (Tisch alum Maia Scalia), enters the room in an unfortunate romper/jean ensemble, discussing uncouth topics like her favorite film “Schindler’s List” and her affinity for YouTube makeup tutorials. To further dampen the vibe, Clementine reveals she won’t be attending state school with Brandi. Instead, she plans to enroll as a film student at Emerson University, which sets up the musical’s main conflict.

Outraged by Clementine’s betrayal of darties — day parties — and sorority sisterhood, Brandi leaves the party in a drunken rage, and runs into extraterrestrial Zooby. This alien wants to use Brandi’s “Kylie Jenner career” aspirations to destroy Clementine and eventually the human race. Meanwhile, Smib, another extraterrestrial who Zooby thinks is missing, happens upon the cool-art-kid party and his first earthly

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crush, Clementine.

While Clementine and Smib test their sea legs — in art and on Earth respectively — Brandi takes control of the Earth’s millennials through viral YouTube videos, a play on technology’s heavy influence. Without giving too much away, Smib and Clementine use sex to save the day, foiling Brandi and Zooby’s plan of totalitarianism.

“Aliens Coming” is an unconventional examination of today’s youth that comically explores themes of identity, sex and technology through memorable punch lines like “I’m not a father.

Why’d she call me daddy?” and raunchy musical numbers about losing one’s virginity and the Dirty Sanchez.

Leads Kors and Scalia, who were no aliens to the stage, fed off of the audience’s uncontrollable laughter with every punch line and nuance. The extraterrestrials, Tisch senior Andrew Ricci and NYU master’s alum Martavius Parrish, were adorned in bedazzled white jumpsuits and LED sneakers. Their standout performances and brilliantly written dialogue evoked a large percentage of the evening’s laughter.

Aside from individual performances, the production as a whole was a critical and commercial success — every performance was sold out. This is largely due to the ingenious creative team behind “Aliens,” in particular director and Tisch alum Rachel Deutsch. “‘Aliens’ has been a crazy exploration of important life themes we seem to be thinking about all the time,” Deutsch said. “The surprise of suddenly finding distance between you and your best friend, becoming a ‘cool art kid,’ discovering what sex is and how genitals work and of course, taking over the world one makeup tutorial at a time.”

Email Ryan Mikel at entertainment@nyunews.com.

COURTESY OF JMA PHOTOGRAPHY

Attacking stereotypes about modern youth through a barrage of musical-comedy, “Aliens Coming” is a lighthearted critical success from Tisch senior Joe Kelly.

Nominated for an Oscar, Banned from Ceremony

By BRADLEY ALSOP Staff Writer

The revenge tale is one of the film industry’s favorite tropes. It is the key plot device in films such as “Oldboy” and “Kill Bill.” Both films follow a similar format, yet differ in the trope’s structure and execution. A revenge story remains essentially the same in each iteration: someone violently enters the protagonist’s life, leads them to take drastic steps to find the culprit and exacts revenge upon them, while also trying to intellectually comprehend what led to the traumatic action in the first place.

These films usually begin and end with gratuitous acts of violence, almost as a form of catharsis stemming from the realization of the main character’s mission. But Asghar Farhadi’s “The Salesman” veers quite dramatically from the traditional structure of the revenge film. Farhadi’s brutally muted, almost casually devastating portrait of a marriage fractured by a violent home intrusion is a frighteningly suspenseful and surprisingly unhinged portrayal of revenge.

The shocking contrast stems from the restraint expressed by the characters, complemented masterfully by Farhadi’s direction.

“The Salesman” centers around the relationship between Emad (Shahab Hosseini) and Rana Etesami (Taraneh Alidoosti), a married couple who recently lost their apartment due to structural damage. Emad and Rana both work as actors, starring as Willy and Linda Loman in a revival of Arthur Miller’s classic play “Death of a Salesman.”

A fellow actor, Babak (Babak Karimi), introduces them to an apartment up for rent because the tenant could no longer afford to live there. Emad and Rana eagerly move in, creating a pragmatic realism for the first 45 minutes of the film that provides a perfect foundation for the near-surrealism of the second half.

One day, Emad remains at the theater while Rana returns home. A man breaks in and assaults her, mistaking her for the sex worker that used to live there. The directing in this moment is spare and unrelenting. Hosseini and Alidoosti wear their corporeal grief on their faces like a weight, more affecting than any scene of violence could possibly be.

The ensuing events center on the suffocating strain that trauma can cause in a relationship. The assailant leaves a few of his belongings behind, leaving Emad desperate to do anything he can to track the attacker down. When he is unable to, Rana asks him to stop looking and instead to help her recover from her trauma. He responds with frustration and anger.

Emad, subconsciously co-opting his wife’s trauma as his own, is painfully human. He believes he is looking for justice for Rana, but finding the identity of the attacker can really only satisfy him.

The film ends in a nauseatingly uncomfortable fashion — a near hour-long exchange that, if revealed here in more detail, would be greatly cheapened. What can be said is that what Farhadi does with the moment would usually be dismissed as impossible: he makes each party’s actions taken and words absolutely vital to the scene. Not only that, he vitalizes those things that remain unsaid. The expression and the repression are equal, essentially leaving the viewer

COURTESY OF COHEN MEDIA GROUP

The Salesman opened in New York on Friday the 27th of January. at a moral and ethical crossroads.

“The Salesman” is nominated for Best Foreign Language film at the Oscars this year.

Unfortunately, due to the noxious geopolitical climate ushered in by Donald Trump’s rise to the U.S. presidency, Farhadi himself — an Iranian citizen — will be missing from the awards show. Originally, he would not have been allowed to attend under Trump’s executive order banning U.S. entry for nationals from seven different Middle Eastern countries. Now that the ban has been blocked (at least temporarily), Farhadi himself has announced that he has canceled his plans to attend the ceremony, in condemnation of the executive order and the unjust, prejudicial environment it has created.

Since the film is a strong contender to win its category, Farhadi’s absence will be glaring. But it won’t just be obvious from an administrative standpoint; it is symbolically significant as well. Farhadi’s protest represents the stark, unforgiving worldview and vision that Trump has for the United States. Trump envisions a country where people like Farhadi have no place and are categorically excluded due to their ethnicity, religious denomination or skin color.

Trump has villainized an entire group of people in reaction to the threat of terrorism abroad — a threat that the vast majority of Muslims and refugees from impoverished, war-torn countries don’t pose to the United States. These people, who Trump seeks to alienate and antagonize, seek refuge from the turbulent circumstances surrounding their own countries. For example, many Syrian citizens cannot justify remaining under the autocratic, brutally violent governance of Bashar al-Assad.

And yet Donald Trump does not care about the trials and tribulations of these people.

This is because these struggles, portrayed by visionary artists like Farhadi with “The Salesman,” do not exist within Trump’s vision for the United States. Through the ostensibly dire circumstances surrounding the ascendance of Trump, Farhadi’s mission to elucidate a new cultural connection is even nobler than it would have been before.

Now more than ever, international storytelling must be at the forefront of popular culture. Bowing to threats of silence by a fledgling autocratic ruler would insult the painstaking work of individuals like Farhadi — individuals who risk being accused of insurrection within their own countries and now also in the United States. Farhadi will be absent from the Academy Awards this year. The American movie-going public should be conscious of his absence and its symbolism in a broader context.

Email Bradley Alsop at film@nyunews.com.

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FEATURES

EDITED BY TAYLOR NICOLE ROGERS FEATURES@NYUNEWS.COM

Poverty Prison

Record-breaking Gallatin Alum Plans to Visit Every Country

By LAURA RUBIO Contributing Writer

Imagine sitting in a cell, while awaiting trial for a misdemeanor: you are unable to return to your family, because you cannot afford the bail that was set at arraignment.

At this point, you are no longer innocent until proven guilty — you are jailed until proven wealthy.

According to the Criminal Justice Agency of New York City, this is the reality for 84 percent of non-felony defendants. Bronx Freedom Project Director Ezra Ritchin works to solve that problem.

Now NYU can make a difference through the Dollar Bail Brigade, a partnership between Broome Residential College and the Bronx Freedom Fund.

Ritchin heads the first charitable bail organization in New York and spends his days bailing people out of jail while also helping them keep their jobs or placements at homeless and family shelters. By bailing residents out, Richin also keeps them from admitting to crimes they did not commit.

“What happens is you go to jail, and the only way to get out of jail is to plead guilty,” Ritchin said.

Regardless of whether residents choose to plead guilty, he said the first few days spent in jail are unbelievably damaging.

According to the Justice Policy Institute, a national nonprofit organization that wants reduce the use of incarceration and advance alternative fair policies, people in pretrial detention can lose their jobs because of workplace absence; others may lose their housing; and for some, their children must face the subsequent challenges of having a parent facing incarceration.

Launched last year in December, the Dollar Bail Brigade allows NYU students to be “on call” whatever day they choose, so when a judge orders someone to be held on a one-dollar bail on their day, the student can pay the fee to get them released.

“It seems like a really easy way to give back,” Tisch freshman Hannah Ford said. “It seems ridiculous that there are people who have bail that’s just one-dollar, and they can’t pay it.”

According to the Bronx Freedom Fund, the bail exists to ensure that defendants attend all their court dates to get their money back — a refundable down payment of sorts. The problem, of course, is that not everybody can afford the bail. By bailing people out with donations, the Bronx Freedom Fund is putting their money on the line, not the defendant’s, to make sure they attend their court dates.

“Over 95 percent of the people we bail out come to all of their court dates,” Ritchin said. “They come back anyway, and then we get the money back from their cases and are able to use it again.”

This revolving fund helps sustain the Bronx Freedom Fund’s charita-

By TAYLOR NICOLE ROGERS Features Editor

PHOTO BY JULIA MOSES

The Dollar Bail Brigade program, a partnership between Broome and the Bronx Freedom Fund, is helping to bail misdemeanors out of jail. ble bail system.

Ritchin also works to bust many of the myths surrounding our criminal court system. Unlike the sensationalized accounts on television shows like “CSI: Crime Scene Investigation” and “Law & Order,” the real court system is less just.

“We do not have a system that is administering justice based on citizens weighing the evidence presented to them and then coming to a verdict,” Ritchin said. “We have a system that is based exclusively on manufacturing and extracting and extorting guilty pleas.”

CAS sophomore Amanda Lawson heads the Dollar Bail Brigade, and she interns at the Bronx Freedom Fund. Lawson also expressed that the criminal justice system should eradicate these financial traps set up for people with less money, so she is grateful for the opportunity to work for the Freedom Fund under the leadership of Ritchin.

“Ezra is an amazing role model,” Lawson said. “He’s working in a non-profit helping local residents, helping people of color so he’s just inspirational in that way.”

Ritchin, as modest as Lawson makes him out to be, is grateful for the way that the Bronx Freedom Fund has affected him.

“It’s definitely opened my eyes to all these different lives that are being destroyed at the same time and in the same place,” he said. “When you’re sitting in a jail cell with a 16 or 17-year-old kid, that’s gonna stick with you.”

As for the future, Ritchin doesn’t see himself leaving the Bronx Freedom Fund anytime soon — not as long as there is work that has yet to be done, he said. Ritchin also said that his future plans depend all depends on how the bail and pretrial justice system in New York change in the upcoming years.

“I can imagine a world in which bail reform goes the right way and the work of the Freedom Fund is left pending because we don’t have thousands of people having bail set on them every day,” he said. “And I can also see a world in which reform doesn’t happen or it goes in the wrong direction or is misguided and, in that case, I don’t see us leaving.”

Email Laura Rubio at features@nyunews.com.

When Gallatin Class of 2012 graduate Sal Lavallo left the United States for the first time at 12 years old, he could not have imagined that just over a decade later he would be racing the clock across the globe to earn the title of “Youngest American to Visit Every Country.” With only 18 of 195 nations officially recognized by the U.S. State Department left to visit, Lavallo has returned to New York City to prepare for an epic trip that will include stops on every continent to break the record before his 27th birthday in September.

Washington Square News: Have you always been interested in learning about different cultures?

Sal Lavallo: Yes, I got that from my dad. My mother is Italian and my father is German, but I grew up in Indiana, where is it pretty homogeneous. We would always sit with my grandparents and they would tell us stories of coming over [to the United States]. They grew up in Germany during World War II, and obviously with that history there is a long story of people being treated differently for reasons that are silly. I never had to address that in my own life. There was no one who was really different so I craved that. I was interested in studying that academically and seeing how I could make that into a profession.

WSN: At what point did travel become a part of that curiosity?

SL: We traveled a lot when I was a kid, but only roadtrips within the States. We would just get in the car and drive.

One time we looked at the states that we hadn’t been to yet and tried to go to all of them, so the counting sort of started then. We hadn’t been to Louisiana, so we basically took a three-day weekend trip to Louisiana just to go. But before high school, I had only been on two international trips.

My parents said that everyone could pick one international trip to go on, so I went with my father to Japan and China.

Then I went to Germany with my grandmother to see all of the family. And then when I got to boarding school all of my friends were from so many different places, so I started to realize that if I just paid for the flight, then I would have a place to stay and food to eat.

WSN: Tell me more about that first trip that you took with your father to Japan.

SL: I saw the opening ceremony of the Nagano Olympics and decided that I wanted to go there and learn. It was a three week trip, and it was probably the easiest one because I didn’t have to figure out logistics. I was [12 or 13 years old], so it was perfect timing to see all that and to get time with my father. [Japan is] also just an amazing place. It’s different from anything that we really know as Americans.

WSN: As you get closer to having visited every country in the world, there have got to have been places you were a bit scared to go to. How did you handle that?

VIA INSTAGRAM.COM

Gallatin alum Sal Lavallo hopes to earn the title of “Youngest American to Visit Every Country.” He only has 18 out of 195 nations left to visit.

SL: I’m not an adventurer and I wouldn’t go somewhere that is unsafe. If that means that I don’t get the record, then that will be fine. But there are safe ways to go to most places. One situation that I will talk about where I did feel unsafe was while I was traveling by bus. There was one route that was known to be unsafe. There was a terrorist organization that hadn’t done anything yet, but was still there.

It just ended up that everything went wrong and I had to hire an individual bus and pay for all of the seats. And then at one point, they said that they weren’t going to do this route unless I hired a militia of a least five armed men to come because they thought it was dangerous, too. I was stressed and scared the whole time, but I got there. I realized that if my mindset would have been different and if I had realized that the chance of something happening was low, then I would have been fine. There are two lessons from that. One, don’t do things that aren’t safe.

Second, if you are in a situation where something could happen, be safe, but don’t let yourself get worried and turn it into a negative experience.

WSN: When you officially get the title of “Youngest American to Visit to Every Country,” how do you expect it to change your life?

SL: When people meet me, they often don’t know about the record until they look at my Instagram. I don’t care to measure up with anybody.

When you’re doing hostel traveling, oftentimes people will sit around and talk about how they’ve been travelling for three months and have been to 10 countries. I don’t say anything, but maybe they’ll see the record on my Instagram and be embarrassed later. I think going to 10 countries is insane. I think the fact that so many students get to live abroad for multiple semesters is insane. I’m still amazed by that. I would never think that having been to only 10 countries is an only statement. That’s amazing.

WSN: Why do you think traveling is amazing?

SL: I think traveling is the best education you can have.

I was once asked by a man at my job what I learned from all of my traveling. I think he was expecting some business lesson about the economy, but I said ‘everybody dances.’ To me, that is the most essential beauty of humanity.

Email Taylor Nicole Rogers at features@nyunews.com.

NYUNEWS.COM | MONDAY, JULY 31, 2017 | WASHINGTON SQUARE NEWS

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FEATURES

EDITED BY TAYLOR NICOLE ROGERS FEATURES@NYUNEWS.COM

Tisch Professor Teaches Female Inmates

By KAITLYN WANG Managing Editor

The 70 aspiring actors in Tisch’s Stella Adler studio aren’t professor Joanne Edelmann’s only students.

Each week for the past two years, Edelmann has been trav-

eling uptown to teach her movement techniques class at Rikers Island, the holding jail on the East River between Queens and the Bronx. For Edelmann, seeing how art changes the women she works with is the best part of teaching her class.

Over a hundred women have

VIA FACEBOOK.COM

Although her teaching is not limited to Tisch students, Joanne Edelmann primarily acts as a professor in the Stella Adler Studio.

By KATE HOLLAND Contributing Writer April 24 will mark the fourth anniversary of the Rana Plaza collapse. Christened Fashion Revolution Day in remembrance of the 1,100 Bangladeshi workers killed in the collapse, the upcoming anniversary is a stark reminder of our responsibility as consumers to support ethical consumerism and fair trade practices.

The mindset of a conscious consumer begins with finding sustainably and ethically-minded businesses. The designation “sustainable” refers both to workers’ rights and environmental sustainability in fashion.

Fast fashion, or low-budget fashion retailers such as Forever 21 and H&M, is rarely sustainable.

These companies often outsource their labor while paying little attention to workers’ quality of life. In many developing countries, minimum wage requirements for textile workers are either nonexistent or largely ignored by companies, which means that the American minimum wage cannot be enforced for Bangladeshi employees under American employers. These outsourced production sites also produce some of the worst chemical and textile pollution in the world without facing scrutiny from American organizations like the Environmental Protec-

come and gone. Edelmann teaches twice a week, helping the women at Rikers develop a movement project much like her students’ at Stella Adler.

The culmination of the class is a performance on Wednesday, Nov. 16. Nine women will perform a movement project for an audience of students, teachers, officials and other incarcerated women based on a quote from novelist Eudora Welty, poets Sonia Sanchez and Yusef Komunyakaa as well as their own poetry.

Edelmann, who is a professor in the Stella Adler Studio of Acting, one of the undergraduate Tisch drama studios, was previously a modern dancer. Drawing from her own background as well as acting, voice and speech techniques, Edelmann created a class for students at Stella Adler. It focuses on helping actors find characters through movement and the vehicle of poetry.

“Many, many years ago Tom Oppenheim, who is the artistic director [of Stella Adler], said to me, ‘You should be reading poetry,’” Edelmann said. “And so I got hooked and started curating the Harold Clurman poetry reading series here. Then,

I discovered I couldn’t teach my movement class without first starting with a poem.”

These movement technique classes create movement projects, which combine dance and poetry in a way that Edelmann explained as “getting your inner life to the outside.” With a backdrop of music and poetry

“

Words lie, but the body doesn’t.

JOANNE EDELMANN

”

as dialogue, students convey emotions and better understand their characters with movement, which ranges from dance to body language to simple gestures. Edelmann believes movement is essential to understanding a character.

“Stella Adler, who founded the studio, said that the body is the first communicator,” Edelmann said. “Words lie, but the body doesn’t.”

Edelmann, although truly ded-

icated to her work, describes parts of her experience working at the prison as a tragedy.

“These are women who have been steeped in poverty their whole lives. They’ve been abused. They have committed heinous crimes or have been accused of it. I see them only as who they are right here today,” Edelmann said. “Just going into the jail is very difficult, but once the class begins and it’s just the relationship between teacher and student, then it’s as if I were teaching here [at Stella Adler]. And then of course, I leave, and they remain, so that’s difficult.”

Still, she continues, because she believes in the power of art to change people and to brighten the outlook of an uncertain future.

“They’ll say things like, ‘When I get out I’m going to make sure to bring my son to museums.’ It changes the culture,” Edelmann said. “I’ve always believed that art changes people and changes the world, but then actually seeing these women and how the work has changed them confirms it.”

Email Kaitlyn Wang at features@nyunews.com.

Shop With a Clean Conscience

tion Agency or Greenpeace.

Supporting stores that employ sustainable manufacturing tactics can ameliorate the fashion industry’s long-held struggle with ethical production. Here are some places you can shop at this spring to support the movement toward sustainability.

Eileen Fisher, SoHo Boasting sustainable fibers and certified dyeing, Eileen Fisher dedicates an entire platform to the sustainable fashion revolution, including segments for fair trade and human rights. Eileen Fisher sells high-end women’s clothing — much of it made in the United States — reminiscent of Ann Taylor and Chico’s, with pieces like the Organic Cotton Boyfriend Jean ($178) and the Organic Linen Windowpane Box-Top ($178).

Reformation, SoHo Reformation claims to have saved 178 million gallons of water, 2.1 million pounds of carbon dioxide emissions and 141,000 pounds of textile waste in 2016 alone. They also have a guide for recycling old clothes on their website. A cross between Anthropologie’s bohemian housewife and American Apparel’s moody schoolgirl, Reformation’s pieces — like the Prestin Top ($78) and the Fifi Skirt ($98) — are perfect for NYU students.

STAFF PHOTO BY EUAN PRENTIS

Alternative Apparel, on Lafayette Street, SoHo. The fabric-first clothing brand produces 70% of its high quality garments through sustainable processes and materials.

Alternative Apparel, SoHo Branding themselves “soft, simple, sustainable,” Alternative Apparel is an affordable, cotton-based clothing line that features a simple style with a lot of stripes, like the Fifth Label Deep Valley Top ($44), and comfy lounge tops like the Maniac Eco-Fleece Sweatshirt ($58). With style endorsed by Blair Waldorf of “Gossip Girl,” Alternative Apparel offers a fresh take on the sustainability movement.

Kaight, Brooklyn A boutique free from the bourgeois pretension typical of

Manhattan boutiques, Kaight has an entire line using purely organic fabrics and pesticides.

The boutique also has a notable line of apothecaries, featuring products like rose + juniper aromatic hair mist ($18) and 100% soy candles ($24).

Cloth, Brooklyn Capitalizing on the ultra-chic runway look, Cloth is a Brooklyn boutique with an edgier spin on the loose-fitting runway fashion with the Cotelac Paisley Dress ($182) and the Nico Stripe top ($124). Cloth’s website is usually sold out of most pieces, not only in-

dicating that they’re on the up-and-up, but also that their clothing line is less accessible to people who don’t have time to go to a physical store.

Check out these stores for an environmentally responsible option during your next shopping trip. It may be intimidating walking the high-fashion streets of Manhattan, waiting for Style Watch or Humans of New York to catch you in your sweatpants, but remember, nothing will look better this season than a clear conscience.

Email Kate Holland at bstyle@nyunews.com.

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OPINION

EDITED BY THOMAS PRICE OPINION@NYUNEWS.COM

POLITICS

Campaign Gear as Abysmal as Actual Election

By THOMAS PRICE Opinion Editor

After a tumultuous and emotionally taxing election cycle, one often overlooked, yet nearly as abhorrent feature of this ordeal was the absolutely subpar and unacceptable campaign gear that supporters of each candidate supported. College students have always been the driving force behind the shirt and hat sales of elections in the past, however, this year, we were left with a less than ideal selection to choose from. Gone are the days of the simple, yet iconic look of the Reagan-Bush campaign shirts.

No more are the slick designs of the Clinton-Gore ticket from ’92.

It is our job as politically active NYU students to be more selective about the campaign gear we choose to wear until our strong message is spoken loud and clear to the candidate we support: make a better shirt for us to wear.

It was a bitter election; especially when the two most popular items from our top candidates were nothing more than what looked to be a new age Fedex logo and perhaps the most poorly constructed hat ever to grace the head of a president.

There is no head shape that could ever make such a hat look

as if it were well-designed for anything more than cheap production. However, the greatest offenders of campaign gear this cycle were the failed candidates.

And by looking at the ideas their marketing offices came up with, it is no wonder that they lost.

First off, let’s dispel the fiction that the Marco Rubio campaign

didn’t know what they were doing when making the Marco Polo, they knew exactly what they were doing. Yet despite the dad joke humor, the shirt could possibly be the blandest look of the entire election. However, before we hand off the title for the worst idea for a campaign shirt, we must turn our attention to Jeb Bush. While he was a bit of a milquetoast politician coming out of the gates, could his 200 million dollar war chest invest in no better way to spice him up than this cringe inducing tank top? Bernie Sanders, the obvious winner in terms of campaign gear, still produced noth-

ing more than an average logo for his fervent base to buy. It is time that we can proudly wear the shirt of the politician we support without quietly wishing for designs of elections since passed.

It is time that we stand united.

It is time that we say no more to such injustices. It is time that, regardless of your political party, we hold hands and come together to deliver a message.

We should not and will not buy any campaign gear unless it is up to the standards we have come to expect.

Email Thomas Price at opinion@nyunews.com.

UNIVERSITY LIFE

NYU Affordability Is Hurting Educational Opportunity

By CARA ZAMBRANO Staff Writer Last week, The Upshot section of The New York Times released infographics of a recent study that analyzed the economic backgrounds of undergraduate students based on anonymous tax filings and tuition records.

The individual analysis of NYU revealed that not only threefifths of its student body come from the top 20 percent of the income bracket, but also that nearly half of the students — an astounding 48 percent — come from the top 10 percent.

What is worrisome is not just that the highest shares of students come from the top income brackets in the state of

New York, but also the subsequently low economic mobility rate — which represents the number of students who came from poor backgrounds but ended up as rich adults — of 11 percent.

The study emphasize the pivotal role that colleges play in economic mobility — the power to move higher within socioeconomic levels — however, with the rising tuition costs of NYU, our university could be repelling those efforts to challenge the financial status quo. While NYU has one of the highest percentages of enrollment of students from low- and middle- income families, its percentage of students from the bottom 40 percent of

the income bracket is still low — around 14 percent — and five points below the highest percentage of said enrollment.

This small percentage reflects the very little effort NYU puts into making the university accessible.

The highest mobility rates belong to less selective public universities, which unfortunately suffer from severe budget cuts and usually fall short

in providing their students with a pleasant college experience. Those public universities are a common choice for students from the bottom 20 percent of the income bracket.

While the students usually perform better financially than their parents once out of school, lower-income students who attend more selective schools do even better than the average low income student.

NYU must attract low-income applicants with practical ways for affording tuition costs by expanding its financial aid and access to scholarships, igniting the ideals of opportunity and breakthrough.

Education is the gateway to opportunity, and having access

to it guarantees more agency for the future. But it is presently a luxury instead of a right, therefore NYU must address its affordability issues by presenting more solutions. All universities must decrease tuition costs to diminish the financial gap between students. Social class should not be a factor in who can attend higher education institutions. It is essential that colleges — including NYU — encourage the pursuit of an academic career for all students by nurturing a higher economic mobility rate and an environment where financial differences are indistinct.

Email Cara Zambrano at opinion@nyunews.com.

CULTURE

United Airlines Dress Code Targets Women

By EMMA RUDD Deputy Opinion Editor

Two teenage girls were barred from boarding a United Airlines flight on Sunday after a gate agent decided that their leggings did not meet the required dress code. Despite the ensuing backlash, United Airlines has defended its actions by citing a specific dress code that applied only to “pass riders” – passengers flying with discounted tickets on behalf of family and friends who work for the airline company. The company’s refusal to acknowledge the wider implications of regulating the dress of two young girls, in spite of their status as pass riders, highlights a recurring passivity for dress codes

that generally target women and the burdensome self-awareness that these actions impose.

United’s explicit pass rider dress code bans clothing items such as “form-fitting lycra/spandex tops, pants and dresses,” “any attire that reveals a midriff,” “mini skirts,” “bare feet” and several others.

While the dress code is not overtly sexist, the clothing items listed are typically marketed in the fashion industry — an industry that has generally remained within the gender binary — as women-specific clothing. The girls’ father, on the other hand, was able to board the plane in shorts, which some could argue are equally unprofessional garments. By banning more objects typically worn by women

than those typically worn by men, the airline has enforced a gendered policy that inhibits women’s freedom of dress, regardless if it was inadvertent.

The airline has claimed there is a need for this dress code because pass riders represent the company and must dress accordingly.

But it is clear from the confusion amongst fellow passengers and witnesses following the incident

that the girls’ status as pass riders was initially not public information. This begs the question of how these riders represent the airline when no one even knows that they’re flying as representatives.

Further, how can two teenage girls be expected to uphold the public professionalism of an airline company that they don’t even work for? Airlines like American and Delta have maintained their professional images despite having much more lenient and openended dress codes for pass riders — they leave the decision on what is appropriate attire to the passengers and gate-keepers.

Most female college students can attest to adhering to a high school dress code that primar-

ily targeted women. Policies like these and the United Airlines are often grounded in faulty reasoning — like it may distract the male students or that pass riders represent the company — and inevitably pressure women to patrol their own dress under the gaze of a larger authority figure.

As many of us are to work within the professional world in the near future — if we don’t already — it becomes extremely important to recognize and counter these policies that impose an unnecessary amount of vigilance centered on a woman’s body and only further the burdens of gender norms.

Email Emma Rudd at opinion@nyunews.com.

NYUNEWS.COM | MONDAY, JULY 31, 2017 | WASHINGTON SQUARE NEWS

OPINION

EDITED BY THOMAS PRICE OPINION@NYUNEWS.COM

CULTURE

STAFF EDITORIAL

Everyone Should Find Time to Play Chess

By HENRY COHEN Staff Writer

At any given time, every NYU student has over a dozen different diversions competing for their time and attention. Video games, social media, movies and books are all useful ways to unwind and relax between classes, but there is one activity that goes relatively underappreciated given its benefits: chess. Chess is a centuries-old piece of cultural heritage, the ultimate game of strategy and an easy way to pass time. It is an exercise routine for the mind and should be valued as much as any crossfit regimen when it comes to improving the mental faculties that we rely on every day to survive.

Chess is hands-down one of the greatest games ever invented. It teaches long-term strategizing, short-term damage control, pattern recognition, risk evaluation and a thousand other essential skills we rarely take the time to consciously hone. And, while

these skills are all useful in their own right, they are particularly useful to students who need to balance short-term assignments with long-term studying, think about problems carefully or approach them from various angles. There is a reason that wickedly clever leaders from Napoleon to Fidel Castro were all avid chess nerds.

In addition, daily life at NYU can often be hectic and taxing, and students unwind in equally exhilarating ways. Chess, however, provides a slow-paced, thoughtful and risk-free environment in which to solve high-level problems. It is both a great way to relax and a mental workout that prepares one’s mind for the chal-

lenges of excelling as a student.

There are many opportunities to play chess at NYU. For those on the go, apps such as Chess Time provide a convenient — though often slow-paced — means of playing, and the NYU Chess Club holds regular meetings. One option that becomes more attractive as the weather improves is playing at Union Square and Washington Square Park, where infamously skilled players often charge $5 a game. Playing chess outdoors is a distinctive way to engage with the culture of the city, and everyone should try it at least once. Engaging with the city’s chess players fosters an appreciation for New York City culture at the fraction of the cost of a Broadway show or an art gallery opening. No matter how or where you play, chess is a uniquely productive activity that everyone should make time to enjoy.

Email Henry Cohen at opinion@nyunews.com.

CULTURE

Podcasts Are the Future of Journalism

By ANDREW HEYING Deputy Opinion Editor

In the wake of the shocking 2016 election results, the traditional media has been criticized for being inaccurate, biased and even fake.

While a significant portion of this criticism is just a result of President Donald Trump’s habit of attacking everyone who disagrees with him, there is some truth to these claims.

Mainstream media did in fact convince the country that Hillary Clinton had essentially no chance of losing, which turned out to be incredibly misleading. This shocking turn of events revealed why it is so important that Americans do not allow one, two or even three media outlets to control the national conversation — diversity of thought is critical. To achieve this, reporting must come from numerous independent individuals who are not controlled or influenced by elite media outlets, and the best way to achieve this is through a relatively new medium: podcasts.

In 2014, Serial — a podcast tyat focused on re-examining the murder of Hae Min Lee during its breakout season — became an international

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phenomenon, and it introduced the beauty of podcasts to millions. The program was led by Sarah Koenig, who thoroughly looked at various questionable components of Adnan Syed’s conviction. The podcast ultimately created so much public outcry surrounding the case that Syed was granted a new trial, which is still ongoing. Similar situations have occurred with other podcasts, such as Up and Vanished. The series followed an independent documentary filmmaker who looked at a twelve year old cold case in Georgia.

Within months, the podcast created enough attention that new leads were reported, leading to the arrest of two individuals. Similarly, the podcast titled In the Dark uncovered years of police corruption in Stearns County, Minn., while also looking at various ethical and legal flaws in the sex offender registry — two

topics almost entirely ignored by mainstream media.

To consider these developments is quite astounding. People often think that in order to create change as a journalist, they need a large platform such as CNN or MSNBC. However, podcasts continually prove that effective journalism simply requires perseverance and a microphone. None of the voices behind these aforementioned podcasts were household names like Megyn Kelly or Anderson Cooper. They nevertheless brought attention to and even enacted change in immensely important cases.

There is no denying that the dawn of technology created immense challenges for the journalism field.

These include everything from the fake news epidemic to the echo chamber phenomenon. However, technology also opens endless doors for journalists. Young people interested in enacting change through investigative work should stop obsessing over eventually working for The New York Times or The Wall Street Journal and instead grab a microphone and get to work.

Email Andrew Heying at opinion@nyunews.com.

Protests Show a More Accurate NYU

During NYU’s Weekend on the Square — the university’s event for admitted students — multiple student-led protests by SLAM, IEC and NYU Divest disrupted some of the events planned for the incoming Class of 2021. While these protests may have led to some discomfort and awkwardness for future students and the university, they helped to show a more accurate representation of what attending NYU is like.

Weekend on the Square gives incoming freshmen a look into what they can expect of their next four years at NYU. While admitted students days are traditionally informational, giving incoming classes a look at what attending the university will be like, NYU has made sure that the picture it paints of itself is a glowing one. WOTS is filled with endless balloons, photo opportunities and free food.

In addition, guests often use the weekend to tour residence halls and other school facilities. At times, this weekend can create an overly idealized portrayal of life at NYU. WOTS makes it easy to think that an NYU student’s typical day consists of a carefree life in the middle of beautiful Greenwich Village. However, the protesters at this year’s event gave some insight into the more realistic aspects of life at NYU including its lack of sanctuary campus status and student representation on the board of trustees.

Protests and social activism are a well-known part of both New York City and NYU’s reputations. In the past academic year, NYU has been the site of numerous protests covering a range of topics from university life to national news. The university is home to many protest groups and activist organizations, including Student Labor Action Movement, NYU Sanctuary Campus and NYU Divest. These groups have organized dozens of protests, including the recent efforts to make NYU an official sanctuary campus and nationwide protests like the pro-Planned Parenthood rallies. In contrast to the sanitized, conflict-free image that WOTS propagates, the protests this weekend provided an accurate representation of an important piece of NYU life.

These protests are essential to making sure that NYU is held accountable for its entire reputation — not just the shining one of state-of-the-art facilities and an exclusive downtown campus.

The protests from groups such as SLAM and NYU Divest are a part of the large activist community so present at NYU, and their appearance at Weekend on the Square gave every prospective student a look at the passion of the students and the reality of being at this university. While it may not line up with the picture-perfect image that is presented to them during the weekend, their place at NYU should be celebrated and not condemned.

Email the WSN Editorial Board at opinion@nyunews.com.

EDITORIAL BOARD: Thomas Price (Chair), Emma Rudd (Co-chair), Andrew Heying (Co-chair) STAFF PHOTO BY POLINA BUCHAK

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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SPORTS

EDITED BY RACHEL RUECKER SPORTS@NYUNEWS.COM

Joe Timmes: From NYU to NBA

By JAKE STEEL Contributing Writer

NYU senior Joe Timmes recently wrapped up his tremendous collegiate career as captain of the men’s basketball team and, with a job with the Brooklyn Nets on the horizon, shows no signs of stopping his association with the sport post-graduation.

Timmes, who grew up in Morristown, NJ and attended Chatham High School, committed to NYU because of its basketball program’s reputation among DIII schools as well as

terms of a bigger macro-level view. We were trying to build for the future. I was trying to develop this winning culture with these ten young freshmen and trying to lead by example so that they could further improve off of that, that they could further grow and become more successful than the year we had.”

Ross Udine, junior guard for the Violets, is grateful to have played alongside Timmes.

“I loved having Joe by my side these past three seasons and [I’m] extremely thankful to have had him to push me everyday

“

I was trying to develop this winning culture with these ten young freshmen and trying to lead by example so that they could further improve off of that, that they could further grow and become more successful than the year we had.

JOE STEEL

”

its quality players. He also saw living in the city as a challenge in finding balance, returning to his home in the New Jersey suburbs yet remaining in New York City enough to keep his personal independence.

Timmes’ basketball talent transformed into a stellar fouryear career at NYU. During his senior season, he averaged 30.8 minutes per game with 14.0 points per game and 6.8 rebounds per game as the team’s starting shooting guard. He also shot a superb 39.2 percent from beyond the arc and led the team in steals.

More impressively, he capped off his collegiate career by becoming the second NYU men’s basketball player to be named to the Men’s Division III College Sports Information Directors of America All-America Third Team.

“It’s quite an award to win,” Timmes said, confessing that he was unaware of his candidacy for the award due to its secretive selection process. “I felt very honored and proud of the accomplishment. In DIII, you [have the ability to] improve in the class and on the field. It is a huge time commitment that acclimates you to get adjusted for time management. It’s challenging, yet rewarding.”

Timmes reflected on his final season at NYU, during which the team finished 7-18 after losing seven seniors to graduation and adding ten freshmen to the roster.

“Our year with the NYU basketball team was a process,” Timmes said. “I looked at it in

and make me a better player,” Udine said. “I am looking forward to see what he accomplishes in the future.”

Coach Joe Nesci, who coached Timmes for the whole of his collegiate career, spoke to his leadership abilities.

“Joe has been a great leader and role model for our team,” Nesci said. “With a roster that included 10 freshmen this year, Joe set a great example through how hard he worked each and

every day in practice and games.

He was a pleasure to coach for the last four years.”

Timmes admires NBA players such as Russell Westbrook for “his motor always [being] at 100 percent,” LeBron James for his mentality and “mesmerizing” pure talent, and Klay Thompson for his shot. “If I’m ever in a slump, I’ll watch him shoot,” Timmes acknowledged. Timmes also demonstrates his affinity for basketball as a writer for STATCAT, an analytics sports blog.

Graduating in May with a degree in Sports Management from the School of Professional Studies, Timmes recently accepted a job to work with the Brooklyn Nets as their Basketball Operations Seasonal Assistant, for which he will work in their front office to assist with the Nets’ upcoming offseason and regular season.

“My passion is in basketball,” Timmes said. “The ultimate goal would be to end up working as a [general manager].”

Timmes aims to translate his leadership on the court to his new job with the Nets, and hopefully make that dream come true.

“It’s going to take a lot of work,” Timmes said. “It’s going to take a lot of persistence that you have to slowly churn out day by day, month by month, year by year, and that’s something that I’m looking forward to doing with them.”

Based on Timmes’ track record, there should be no doubt as to whether the captain can guide his career to greater heights.

Email Jake Steel at sports@nyunews.com.

COURTESY OF JOE TIMMES

Joe Timmes, School of Professional Studies Sports Management senior and captain of the NYU men’s basketball team, will be joining the Brooklyn Nets as their Basketball Operations Seasonal Assistant after graduation.

VIA FLICKR.COM

Basketball in New York, both professional and in college, continues to see a decrease in quality playing.

The Sorry State of New York Basketball

By SAYER DEVLIN Deputy News Editor

Being a basketball fan in New York is tough right now. The Knicks are 25-37 and are unlikely to make the playoffs. Since the new millennium, the Knicks have made the playoffs five times. Four of those playoff appearances ended in first round exits, the other one ended in a second round loss. The high point of Knicks fandom for the past 15 or so seasons has been a second round playoff loss to the Indiana Pacers in 2012 — and maybe the Knicks’ failures on the court wouldn’t hurt so much if they had an even half competent front office.

Management has cycled through 11 head coaches since 2000, and owner James Dolan has hired three people to lead the front office since 2011. The latest of these new hires, President Phil Jackson, had no prior management experience — exemplifying how the Knicks favor style over substance. After Jackson made some sound basketball decisions two off-seasons ago, drafting Jerian Grant and rising Latvian unicorn Kristaps Porzingis and signing Robin Lopez, he traded for the inefficient Derrick Rose and then signed the oft-injured Joakim Noah to a four-year, $72 million contract.

Rose even compared the Knicks to the Golden State Warriors before the start of the season.

The Knicks are unlikely to see greener pastures in the near future.

Noah will have three years left on his contract at the end of the season, and Carmelo Anthony will be paid nearly $55 million over the next two seasons — he has a player option he is likely to exercise on the second year. And because Anthony’s defense is essentially nonexistent, he requires a very specific skill-set surrounding him — namely efficient shooting, rebounding and defense — for his team to succeed The Knicks are also paying Lance Thomas for the next three seasons.

They have little young talent outside of Porzingis and the Spaniard Willy Hernangomez after trading away a bevy of draft picks over the last several years.

The most excruciating part of being a Knicks fan is the organization’s inability to think long-term.

By refusing to rebuild while also

branding New York’s Madison Square Garden as “The Mecca of Basketball,” despite the fact that the Knicks haven’t been relevant since Patrick Ewing’s heyday, the Knicks have brought their misery upon themselves.

And then there’s the Brooklyn Nets. The Nets are 10-51 and hold the worst record in basketball.

Even though the Nets are the worst team in the league, they still won’t be able to capitalize on their putridity. The trouble started in 2013 when the Nets acquired aging stars Paul Pierce and Kevin Garnett and two role players for the rights to four first-round draft picks and bench warmers.

At the time, the Nets’ principal owner Mikhail Prkhorov lotted the team’s additions, “Today, the basketball gods smiled on the Nets,” Prkhourov said. “With the arrival of Kevin Garnett and Paul Pierce, we have achieved a great balance on our roster between veteran stars and young talents. This team will be dazzling to watch and tough to compete against.”

The Nets’ best season came in 2013, when they lost in the second round to the Miami Heat. The Nets had mortgaged their future in exchange for aging stars that couldn’t get them out of the second round.

NYU’s basketball program hasn’t fared much better. The Violets men’s basketball team sloughed through a dismal 7-18 season going 2-12 against UAA opponents. The Violets women’s basketball team posted a mediocre 14-13 record but went just 3-11 against UAA opponents.

The nearest solace for New York basketball fans lies 140 miles north of New York in Storr, CT, where the University of Connecticut’s women’s basketball team has won 106 straight games and counting.

During the streak, the team’s average margin of victory has been 38.4 points. They are head and shoulders — and then some — above their competition.

With little hope for success in the future, New York basketball fans will likely just have to suffer through a few more years of really bad basketball.

Email Sayer Devlin at sdevlin@nyunews.com.

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SPORTS

EDITED BY RACHEL RUECKER SPORTS@NYUNEWS.COM

Hockey Ends Time in Division-II on Top

By RACHEL RUECKER Senior Editor

With Columbus Blue Jackets’ Coach John Tortorella’s “Safe is Death” mantra guiding the way, the NYU men’s hockey team is your 2017 American Collegiate Hockey Association Division II champion.

The team opened the tournament on Wednesday, March 15 in round-robin play against Aurora University in a game that ended unresolved after 70 minutes, earning both teams a point in a 2-2 game. NYU goals were earned by sophomore forward John Kowalewski and junior forward Michael Conslato, whose goal was a nail-biter in the last minute of play.

Game two came the following day against Utah State University. The Violets routed the Aggies 6-2, gaining confidence

in their offensive push, which included goals from freshman forward Scott Mulligan and sophomore forward Mason Gallegos in the first. Senior forward David Morgan opened the second period by scoring an unassisted ripper, followed by Conslato earning his second goal of the tournament later on. Utah State added their first late in the frame to bring the total to 4-1.

NYU wasn’t having it though, and Gallegos tossed one in within the first minute of the third. Utah State notched a second before the game was done, but an empty-netter from Mulligan served as the exclamation point to NYU’s first win of the tournament.

The final preliminary game was on St. Patrick’s Day against Florida Gulf Coast University, and the luck of the Irish would be needed if the Violets were to head to the playoff round, in a do-or-die game for both

VIA TWITTER.COM

The NYU men’s hockey team played their last Division-II game on Sunday night. They ended the season with a victory as the American Collegiate Hockey Association national champions.

teams. FGCU got ahead by two early on, but NYU answered thanks to another goal from Gallegos and Conslato. The electric game went to overtime, but the Violets were able to steal the win thanks to a goal from sophomore forward Keaton Baum, who earned the winning 3-2 goal. The luck proved to be with the Violets as they headed into the following day’s semi-finals.

Saturday’s semi-final against Miami University of Ohio was a high-scoring , backand-forth affair with enormous stakes.

Miami drew first blood, but it didn’t take long for the Violets to answer back to tie it, thanks to another from Morgan. Senior forward David Shaby got the go-ahead to put the Violets up going into the first intermission. Freshman defenseman Giancarlo Pochintesta scored his first of the tournament early in the second. The tension was rising for a desperate Miami team and NYU wasn’t helping when Conslato and Baum each scored about a minute apart to move the Violets ahead to 5-1.

It was a scary end when the Violets got dealt a handful of misconducts and majors, leaving space for the Red Hawks to catch up. They scored a second before the second period was over and scored again in the third on a 5-3, then earned a fourth on even-strength. But hope was not lost when Gallegos scored the 6-4 goal for the Violets.

Despite a scrummy end, the Violets were headed back to the championship game.

Sunday night’s championship game against Liberty University was quite the game, replete with tension, penalties and traded one-goal leads, essential ingredients of a historical game, and for NYU, it truly was.

Baum scored first for the Violets, but Liberty tied the game at one before the intermission. In the second, NYU got its

groove back at 6:32 with Mulligan’s help — but not permanently -— as Liberty tied the game and then some, going ahead 3-2 at 15:46. In a beautiful display, NYU tied the game with under a minute left in the frame thanks again to Baum.

In the third, it only took one goal. With under 10 minutes left in the game, Baum put NYU ahead of Liberty and the follow-

“

This is a group of leaders who will go on to do great things and bring a lot of good in this world.

CHRIS COSENTINO

”

ing final minutes sure were tension filled.

But as it turned out, the last game the Violets played in Division 2 was a happy one.

The Violets earned their second National Championship in three year, and ACHA Division 1 awaits them in the fall. What a win. What a season. What a team. There’s no one better to sum it all up than Head Coach Chris Cosentino.

“I am so proud of every player, manager and coach on this team,” Cosentino said.

“It is such a young group of players, and we came together to get the job done.

This is a group of leaders who will go on to do great things and bring a lot of good in this world.”

Email Rachel Ruecker at rruecker@nyunews.com.

Rivalries Run Deep for NYU Athletics

By LORENZO GAZZOLA Contributing Writer

Rivalries and sports are interdependent: one cannot exist without the other. For NYU Athletics, this is no different. Whether it was historic football matches against the University of Missouri or intense basketball games at Madison Square Garden against UCLA, NYU Athletics has always had a rival. As a former national championship holder in the NCAA’s Division I program, NYU’s dominance created bitter rivalries between the Violets and some of America’s top college programs. But this quickly changed when the Violets began de-emphasizing their athletic program in 1953. As NYU eventually removed all varsity sports — besides fencing — from Division I in 1981, the Violets gained new rivals as the competition changed to Division III. Columbia University has historically rivaled NYU in both academics and prestige, so the schools have always shared bitter feelings for each other. Columbia and NYU have long competed for the privilege of representing Manhattan. However, Columbia competes in Division I, while NYU competes in Division III. Therefore, the two schools rarely face each other in athletic competitions, so students don’t always feel like each other’s rivals on a sports level.

However, this sentiment does not apply to members of NYU’s men’s club water polo team. Team member and CAS freshman Edward Sheu declared Columbia as his team’s top rival. Sheu said that the two teams often

compete against one another in tournaments and other competitions.

“The rivalry with Columbia stems from two conflicting senses of local pride as New York City based schools, and our drive to beat them and prove our ability is the stem of [that],” Sheu said.

NYU varsity rivalries differ from team to team. CAS junior and women’s volleyball captain Rayne Ellis made this clear when she discussed her team’s top rival.

“Rivalry is interesting because your team could choose a rival and hate them for years — without the other team even knowing that you’re rivals,” Ellis said. “Baruch considers us rivals, we consider them an easy win. It goes like that.”

Ellis did, however, mention a few teams as particular rivals.

“I’d say the closest thing to having a mutual rivalry is with Stevens Tech in Hoboken,” Ellis said. “Sometimes we beat them, sometimes we lose to them. It really just depends on the year. Also everyone in the UAA hates Emory University because of their personas on the court.”

SPS sophomore Max Parks of the Violets’ men’s basketball team says the team experiences much of the same sense of competition against UAA schools.

“I would consider the team’s current biggest rival to be any team in the UAA, but especially teams like Emory University, Rochester and Washington [University],” Parks said.

“The UAA is one of the hardest leagues in

[Division III], so any and every game between us is a rivalry.”

Parks said that this UAA rivalry is significant with the team’s recent success in its bids for the UAA title, making the stakes high for the Violets when playing top teams in the division.

“The enrollment number is higher than other schools that we play,” Parks said, citing the university’s city locationas. “The pride for all of the schools is unmatched compared to non-UAA teams. Most years, more than one UAA team makes it to the NCAA national tournament as well, so it is always great competition.”

Even NYU men’s soccer team captain and senior Bryan Walsh, whose team has gone through some mediocre periods in recent seasons — going 9-8-2 this past season and 6-12 the one before — is no stranger to the spirit and motivation that comes with a rivalry. Walsh called Brandeis University his team’s top rival.

“It’s usually our last game, definitely a bitter cold game in November, especially if it’s up north at their place,” Walsh said. “Since it’s the last game, there’s usually something to play for concerning UAA positioning. They’ve been a solid team that retains their players well in the past four years.”

The Violets, who finished their season with a 9-8-2 record, defeated Brandeis 1-0 on the last day of the past season, a victory especially important to seniors like Walsh.

“The last win of my college career was our

VIA GONYUATHLETICS.COM

The NYU Men’s Soccer Team 2015 season final against Brandeis University. The current team captain, Bryan Walsh, claims Brandeis is their main rival. first win against Brandeis in about a decade, so that was pretty sweet,” Walsh said.

While much of the student body under-appreciates NYU’s Athletic programs, for the student athletes, college competition is certainly no joke.

Disclaimer: Rayne Ellis has written for the WSN sports desk before.

Email Lorenzo Gazzola at sports@nyunews.com.

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