Meet the Staff... we’re so excited to meet you!
EDITOR-IN-CHIEF
SAKSHI VENKATRAMAN Sakshi Venkatraman is a CAS junior studying Politics, Journalism and Spanish. She’s currently applying for an apartment and is too stressed to write this bio. Follow her on Twitter @sakshi_saroja.
MANAGING EDITOR
SAM KLEIN Sam Klein is a junior majoring in journalism and environmental science. He is interested in sustainable, large-scale farming and fishing as well as global economic development in the agricultural sector; he also supports eating insects. Outside of WSN he runs on NYU’s cross-country and track teams. During his free time he enjoys photography, traveling, coffe and being outdoors. You can check out his work at samklein.myportfolio.com or on instagram @samkleinphotography.
DEPUTY MANAGING EDITOR
KATE LOWE Kate Lowe is a sophomore in LS hoping to major in Economics and Metropolitan Studies. You can find her reading children’s books at the Strand or gazing at some large body of water. Born and raised in Hong Kong, Kate feels that New Yorkers are not mean. Tell her about your favorite example of peaceful protest.
CREATIVE DIRECTOR
SOPHIA DI IORIO Sophia Di Iorio is a sophomore in Liberal Studies. Don’t ask her what her major is. When she’s not watching scary documentaries and horror movies, she can be found in one of NYC’s many museums. Look for her with the black wardrobe and fun earrings. Are you addicted to iced coffe, too? Let’s talk about it! Contact her via carrier pigeon or follow her on instagram @sophia.m.diiorio.
CREATIVE DIRECTOR
DEBORAH ALALADE Deborah is a sophomore studying Integrated Digital Media at Tandon. She’s aspiring to be a graphic designer of some kind. If you don’t see her running between Manhattan and Brooklyn, she’s most likely sleeping, watching Netflix, or figuring out her life.
MULTIMEDIA EDITOR
UNDER THE ARCH MANAGING EDITOR
JULIA McNEIL
GURU RAMANATHAN
Julia McNeill is a senior studying Art History, Computing and Data Science, and Web Development. When she was a child, she used to study the pages of National Geographic and dream of becoming a photographer. You can usually find her eating mac ’n’ cheese, drinking seltzer, doing crossword puzzles, and reading Wikipedia plot summaries before watching films. When she wants to relax, she resorts to meticulously organizing her Spotify playlists. She adores hiking and camping, and would like to escape the city sometime soon. You can find her on her instagram @julia.mcneill.
Guru Ramanathan is a sophomore in Tisch majoring in Dramatic Writing with a minor in Producing. Born in India, but living in Boston for most of his life, he was initially very confused by the lack of Dunkin’ Donuts in New York City but grew to love Starbucks hot chocolate. Guru lives and breathes film to the point where every other thing he says is probably a movie quote, and he was also a tennis and piano player for ten years each. If you ever need to find him he will probably be writing something on the seventh floor of Bobst or the Dramatic Writing department’s half of the seventh floor in Tisch. Follow him on Instagram @i.am.gru and listen to his podcast, “The Passion Project.”
Interested in joining the team?
LOOK OUT FOR UPDATES ONLINE! Our staff application is on the Class of 2023 Facebook, and we will be having Open Houses in the beginning of the school year.
UNDER THE ARCH EDITOR
ARIN GARLAND Arin is a sophomore in Liberal Studies studying International Relations and Business Studies. She loves to review New York’s finest, and not so fine, eats and is a firm believer in exercising solely for the sake of eating more food. As a recent boxing and Muay Thai enthusiast, she is ready to destroy any and all carbs that attempt to threaten her lifestyle.
UNDER THE ARCH EDITOR
MANSEE KHURANA Mansee Khurana is a sophomore studying Psychology and Philosophy in the College of Arts and Sciences. You can usually find her in the newsroom trying to convince you to help her with a crossword or ranting about Jeopardy. If not, she probably got lost on the subway. Help her out by following her on Twitter @mansee_writes.
UNDER THE ARCH EDITOR
ANNA DE LA ROSA Anna de la Rosa is a Liberal Studies sophomore studying Media, Culture, and Communication. A former dancer, she found writing to be a better opportunity for her to continue on with higher education and to possibly make more money in her future career (she’s false). It’s obvious she’s a California native by the way she gawks at snow during the winter while her East Coast friends scorn at her. In her free time, she likes to drink coffee until she’s quite literally buzzing and go to ballet class to prove to herself she can still do the splits.
CULTURE EDITOR
CAROL LEE Carol is a sophomore in Liberal Studies studying Journalism, Art History, Psychology and Studio Art. She’s known for her love of beige clothing and red lipstick and is wildly delighted whenever someone asks her for skincare advice or lets her do their makeup.
ARTS EDITOR
CLAIRE FISHMAN NEWS EDITOR
VICTOR PORCELLI Victor Porcelli is a junior studying Public Policy. He’s from Central Jersey, the existence of which he will vehemently defend. Outside of journalism, he likes romcoms and ... he can’t think of anything else. He aspires to becoming verified on twitter so follow him @victor_porcelli.
Claire is a junior studying English Literature in CAS. After a ten-year stint as a concert cellist, she now spends most of her time writing funny little stories and very notfunny, very serious poetry. She has roots in San Diego, Dallas, and Stockholm, but please do not ask her where she’s from. (It’s a very boring story; you wouldn’t enjoy it.) If you happen to see her ugly mug on the street, be sure to tap her on the shoulder and run away. If she doesn’t catch you, it’s good luck for the rest of the semester. Bon chance.
SPORTS EDITOR
BELA KIRPALANI Bela is a senior in CAS studying history. Born and raised on Long Island, her love for bagels knows no bounds (the same goes for blueberries, but that really doesn’t have anything to with Long Island). She also loves all things sports — how fitting — and finds way too many unfunny things funny. When not in the newsroom, she is probably off playing FIFA or wishing she were playing FIFA.
OPINION EDITORS
COLE STALLONE Cole is a CAS junior studying History. Born and raised in New York City, Cole loves opinions; if you’ve got one, he’d love to hear it! You can find him on just about everything @cmjstallone
OPINION EDITORS
ABBY HOFSTETTER Abby is a Liberal Studies sophomore studying History, Philosophy and Creative Writing. She’s from Long Island, but don’t worry: she’ll only call herself a New Yorker if you ask her to. Her interests include Honey Nut Cheerios, being pretentious, and oxford commas. Hit her up on ask.fm.
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Washington Square News
THURSDAY, AUGUST 1, 2019
NEWS
NEWS@NYUNEWS.COM
Edited by VICTOR PORCELLI and MEGHNA MAHARISHI
Current Wellness Resources Fall Short of Expectations By MANSEE KHURANA Deputy News Editor *Some of those who spoke to WSN asked to only be identified by their first name for privacy reasons.
Jaelynn Ortiz’s first semester at her dream school did not always feel like a dream. Feelings of depression that the CAS firstyear had previously sought counseling for had resurfaced. She decided to seek help through NYU’s Counseling and Wellness Services due to her inability to afford outside therapy. A survivor of sexual assault, Ortiz sought advice from a professional hoping to learn coping strategies to deal with her depression. Her first appointment was a month after she spoke to a counselor over the phone. Throughout the session, Ortiz says her counselor gave her own opinion on Ortiz’s situation but did not offer strategies to help. Uncomfortable, Ortiz said she canceled her second appointment and has not been back to the center since. Now, instead of speaking to a counselor, she talks to her academic advisor when seeking advice. “I was looking for someone to listen [to me] and provide me with feedback with what I should be doing,” Ortiz said. “In the end of my meeting, my therapist made me feel like I didn’t have any problems.” With 54 counselors on the New York City campus and less than 3% of NYU’s $3.378 billion endowment distributed among 12 departments in Student Affairs — which also includes Athletics and Residential Life and Housing Services — NYU’s Counseling and Wellness Services has fallen short for 14 students who spoke to WSN about their experiences. Students said that they often experienced three week to month long wait times for their first appointments, and sometimes in between appointments, too. They said the wait times were discouraging, with some giving up on using NYU’s services because of them. Others withstood the wait, but found that when they gained access to counselors, they experienced unprofessional attitudes — such as grinning while asking about suicidal tendencies, advising students to “go smoke” as a solution to their problems or providing no solutions at all. Multiple requests for phone or in-person interviews with a representative of the Counseling and Wellness Center were denied. All statements from Zoe Ragouzeos, the director of Counseling and Wellness Services, were given to WSN via email. Student Health Center counselors are not always licensed — some are graduate students gaining field work experience or training. Trainees present the cases they are working on to supervisors and must get approval from them before continuing to work with a student, according to Ragouzeos. Grant* decided to go to the SHC for walk-in counseling after experiencing anxiety during his first year of school. He said he never spoke to a licensed professional when he visited the SHC, and his counselor was an individual who was in the process of earning their master’s degree in social work. Grant decided to seek therapy outside the center where he could find treatment from a licensed counselor instead.. In the last 20 years, an increasing number of college students have sought help for mental health issues at their respective university’s counseling center. Being away from home for the first time and the stresses of classes and work can make college a difficult time for many: approximately 60% of college students said they had experienced “overwhelming anxiety” in the past year according to the American College Health Association. Another 40% of students reported feeling so depressed they felt like they couldn’t function. Between 2009 and 2015, the amount of students visiting college counseling centers increased by 30% according to Penn State’s 2015 annual report from its Center for
Collegiate Mental Health. In an effort to provide resources for students who are struggling during stressful times, NYU provides various services through the Counseling and Wellness Center mainly accessed via the SHC. The Manhattan and Brooklyn centers currently offer 10 free weekly group counseling sessions — on topics such as substance use, emotion regulation and academic issues — at various times during the week for the current semester that typically consist of six to eight students. Main features of the center also include 10 free individual counseling sessions per semester and the Wellness Exchange, a 24/7 text and phone hotline. Peer institutions like Columbia University, Boston University, the University of Southern California and Cornell University operate on similar short-term counseling models for students, offering drop-in counseling and limited individual counseling sessions, referring students to outside therapists. This is why the Counseling and Wellness Center works with therapists in private practices who accept various insurance policies and have a wider range of speciality training. Despite struggling with anxiety since his junior year of high school, CAS first-year Jonathan Schatzberg’s first and only experience with counseling was last October, when in the midst of his biology homework he decided to text the number he had heard echoed throughout the Presidential Welcome’s Reality Show. Schatzberg downloaded the Wellness Exchange app and waited 20 minutes before a virtual counselor began to speak to him. Once Schatzberg confirmed that he was not considering harming himself or others, he was told that he wouldn’t be able to see a counselor until three weeks later. Nationally, the average wait time to see a college counselor is seven days. Feeling like he needed to see a therapist as soon as possible, Jonathan tried to use the NYU SHC’s walk-in counseling services. He was told that no one would be available and he should try again the next day. Frustrated, Schatzberg never returned and decided to reach out to his family instead, who he now relies on for the support he was hoping to receive from a therapist. “When I was in that terrible, dark cloudy state last semester, I felt like nobody cared,” Schatzberg said. “That was because the university that was supposed care for me just didn’t.” While the Wellness Exchange does outsource therapists from Morneau Shepell, a human resources company that provides online counseling for over 200 schools in the United States, the services are considered a part of NYU’s Counseling and Wellness Center. Aastha* has used the SHC for primary care but felt that when it came to her mental health, she was experiencing symptoms that she could not identify. Not wanting to self diagnose, she tried to book an appointment with the SHC. Frustrated with not being able to see a counselor for three weeks, she reached out through the Wellness Exchange app. Aastha said the counselor she spoke to thanked her for reaching out but did not provide any support to help her with her issues surrounding mental health. “It made me feel like seeking help was pointless altogether,” Aastha said. Aron* waited a month between his appointments. He said he would spend an hour thinking of things to talk about because his counselor would often only respond with one phrase and not offer advice. “I ended up not wanting to go to my appointments because I felt that I was making my own counselor upset and dragging down his mood,” Aron wrote in an email to WSN. His first counselor ended up leaving NYU. Aron called the SHC, hoping to set up another appointment with a different counselor. “[When I called] the line went silent after the receptionist’s greeting so I had to hang up,”
Aron wrote. “I didn’t call until more than a month after that, but I wasn’t very optimistic about meeting my new counselor/therapist.” Aron’s first counselor left NYU, and he told WSN that his new one is much more attentive and professional. Caleb* was perceived as at risk for harming himself or others after discussing his suicidal ideations with a counselor using the Wellness Exchange app. When a counselor from the app spoke to Caleb, she told him to “go smoke,” misunderstanding when Caleb mentioned he smoked marijuana. “I wasn’t exactly thrilled with the idea, so I went for a walk instead,” Caleb wrote. The next day, Caleb received a call from the SHC asking him to come in so they could help him work through his issues. He says he visited with a counselor and a psychiatrist at the center who started to ask him questions about how he would take his own life. “Some of the questions felt like they were designed to push me further and further down, as I hadn’t thought of a plan, or considered why I wanted to die before being asked,” Caleb wrote. While it is common for mental health professionals to ask these kinds of questions to assess risk level, Caleb said the demeanor of the psychiatrist made him feel uneasy — he said that the questions that she asked, combined with the constant grin on her face, made him feel uncomfortable. Based on the answers he gave, Caleb was perceived to be at risk of harming himself and was placed in a hospital, which cost him $2,000. Afterward, he had to go to mandatory follow-up appointments at the SHC. Caleb said he felt the need to answer in a certain way to avoid being placed back into a hospital. “I gave answers conducive to what they wanted to hear, and got away from those people as fast as I could,” Caleb said. After his visit, Caleb did not feel like the SHC helped him and still has nightmares about the grinning psychiatrist he saw. Based on this experience, Caleb said he doesn’t feel safe going back to the SHC. Ragouzeos mentioned that all Counseling and Wellness Center staff members go through extensive training for at least two weeks before they can see students. Additionally, in order for counselors to maintain their licenses, they must participate in professional development training individually and together every year. One student, Olivia*, was told that she would have to wait three weeks to see a therapist and decided to cancel her initial appointment after finding an outside therapist she could see on a weekly basis. Another student, Danielle*, said she felt the SHC didn’t care about her well-being — they were more concerned about if she was a liability. After waiting 15 minutes to speak to a counselor, once Danielle confirmed that she wasn’t a risk, she waited another 30 minutes to speak to another counselor. The second counselor asked her to confirm that she was not a risk. When she explained that she had been losing sleep, struggling with depression and anxiety and felt trapped, the counselor only responded with one word phrases such as “true” or “right.” “I needed someone to ask me more about my mental health, about my depression, about what my anxiety felt like at that time,” Danielle wrote.“I needed her to ask more questions. I felt like I wasn’t being cared about.” Ava* initially went to the SHC for help with frequent panic attacks. Unable to afford private therapy, Ava began to see a counselor every three weeks. Ava said that in addition to constantly having to repeat crucial details of her trauma, Ava would be told at every session that she wouldn’t be able to access these resources once her 10 free sessions were up. “Each session, instead of talking about how I was feeling or suffering from, turned into a game planning session of what I was going to do when I ran out of sessions, even though
JORENE HE | WSN
Students read Anonymous Affirmations, an initiative in Lipton Residence Hall that sends messages of positivity to NYU students.
I stressed that I had no money to pay for help outside of NYU,“ Ava wrote. Jason*, who was looking into receiving medication for his mental health issues, debated whether or not to go to the center for months; when he did, he had to wait a month after his initial walk-in appointment to see a psychiatrist. After waiting, Jason did not feel like it was worth going back because they were overbooked. The SHC does prioritize students who are the most at risk for harming themselves or others, which is why Ragouzeos believes that some students experience longer wait times and have less frequent visits. “Our system for serving students is designed to prioritize students who are most at risk, resulting in some students being placed ahead of others when scheduling appointments based on the severity of their need,” Ragouzeos wrote. Ragouzeos also noted that in line with what is common in the healthcare field, students’ need for assistance is evaluated based on a process called the triage. Students who show safety issues at the time of triage are scheduled to meet with a counselor within one week. Students who don’t present safety issues may wait two to three weeks during busy times of the year, as many of the students who spoke to WSN have. Alli, whose name has been changed for privacy reasons, was referred to an outside counselor after her first walk-in session on the New York City campuses because she wouldn’t be able to see a counselor at the SHC for three weeks. The counselor she saw at her walk-in session believed that she would need to see someone sooner because of the way Alli described her fears of harming herself. Ragouzeos considers counseling sessions on the New York City campuses a short-term option, especially for students who require specialist expertise. Less than one-fifth of NYU’s total student population use these health services. Ragouzeos said she believes most students tend to neglect their mental health until problems begin to feel insurmountable. “I’ve repeatedly observed that many people — particularly high achieving ones like our students — can tend to neglect their mental health until their problems swell into something that can feel insurmountable,” Rogouzes wrote. In mid-March, Counseling and Wellness Services sent out a voluntary and anonymous Patient Satisfaction Survey to the 9,000 students across the Washington Square and Tandon campuses who have used the Counseling and Wellness Services. The survey received about 500 responses and feedback was generally positive. According to Ragouzeos, 78% of students said that they believe their original appointment was scheduled promptly and 93% agreed with the statement, “I feel that my clinician respects me as a person.” Counseling and Wellness Services recom-
mends students speak directly with their counselor about concerns they might have regarding their treatment. If this proves challenging, the Counseling and Wellness Services recommends emailing the SHC. Maria Zambos, the SHC Patient Advocate, responds to all feedback, according to Ragouzeos. The Patient Satisfaction Survey, which is administered once a semester, is one of the only ways for a student to anonymously provide feedback on a specific counselor, unless the email address used when emailing the center is non-identifiable. When Anton* reached out to the Wellness Exchange, he had to wait 30 minutes before being paired up with a counselor. Anton told the counselor that he had been diagnosed with anxiety in the past, but the counselor attested that he didn’t believe Anton had anxiety. Anton filed a complaint with Counseling and Wellness Center, but it was never followed-up on. Nadia* was required to go to the SHC after being on medical leave for severe anxiety. Both her and her therapist felt she was ready to return this spring and her advisor allowed her to register for classes. However, she did not have a Certificate for Readiness Return, which is required for students returning from a voluntary leave due to psychological reasons. However, Nadia could no longer afford to see her therapist, so she could not obtain a certificate to bring to her mandatory assessment interview with the SHC. According to Nadia, her assessment lasted five minutes; her counselor refused to talk to her after realizing she didn’t have the certificate. Nadia says she left the building and immediately started crying. She felt that her work towards anxiety management was going unnoticed and her counselor only wanted to check boxes off for her return. While Counseling and Wellness Services meets standards set by the International Association of Counseling Services — an organization that reviews university counseling centers — and provides similar services to those offered by peer institutions, the students mentioned in this article and four others WSN spoke to feel like the care they have been provided is inadequate. “I left feeling completely unseen and unheard in a place that is supposed to be about my wellbeing,” Nadia said. If you or someone you know is experiencing thoughts of suicide, please contact the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline at 1-800-273-TALK (8255) or the Suicide Crisis Line at 1-800-783-2433. The number for the Wellness Exchange is 212-443-9999. Email Mansee Khurana at mkhurana@nyunews.com.
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Washington Square News | News
THURSDAY, AUGUST 1, 2019
CAS Valedictorian Hopes the Honor Encourages POC Students By MEGHNA MAHARISHI News Editor Right before spring break, CAS senior Kelsey Moore received an email from the dean’s office. It instructed her to go to the office to accept a graduation award, but she was unsure of what she had won. At the office, one of the administrators told Moore that she had been recognized as CAS’s 2019 valedictorian. “At first, I was shocked,” Moore said. “This isn’t something that I’ve worked towards. I didn’t come in thinking I would be valedictorian.” A first-generation college student hailing from a single-parent home in South Carolina, Moore was overwhelmed with emotion after hearing she would be valedictorian of NYU’s largest college. “I actually started crying,” Moore said. “I don’t really cry, but that really took me out to say the least because just thinking of where I come from, someone like me becoming valedictorian at a school like NYU was a lot.” Moore also said her background as a black woman in a predominantly white town made her realize how hard she would have to work in order to be taken seriously. Moore is the recipient of the Roland
P. Beattie Memorial Award, which is awarded annually to the CAS valedictorian. Moore will be giving her speech at the CAS commencement ceremony on May 21. An Africana Studies and Public Policy major, Moore will pursue a doctorate in history at Johns Hopkins University next year. She plans to focus her studies on 20th-century African American women. Ultimately, Moore hopes to become a professor and author. Upon entering NYU, Moore wanted to be an International Relations major, as she saw it as the best way to become a lawyer. Moore ended up dropping the major and found her passion in the Social and Cultural Analysis department’s Africana studies major. The subject also influenced her decision to pursue a doctorate instead of a law degree. “The Africana studies classes have really transformed me into the person I am today,” Moore said. “I’ve been aware of my history, but being in classes where you’re having critical conversations on what it means to be black, and what it means to be part of a diaspora, [has] really shaped how I move on campus and my personality. The classes taught me to own who I am.” Moore has also been involved as an advocacy intern at Domestic Workers
United, an organization that advocates for fair labor standards for Caribbean, African and Latina domestic workers and was also a research fellow at NYU’s Leadership Alliance, a program that seeks to help undergraduate students planning to pursue a doctorate and to increase the presence of underrepresented minorities in academia. While Moore was surprised to be recognized as valedictorian, the professors who have worked with her were not. Assistant Social and Cultural Analysis Professor Sharon Lee commented on Moore’s sincerity as a student and social justice advocate. “Kelsey is an undeniably special student — of course she’s whip smart, most valedictorians would be,” Lee wrote in a statement to WSN. “But what that title doesn’t automatically convey is that she uses her intellectualism with an eye toward social justice, which means using her studies to better her community or communities. I saw this equally in the way she committed herself to her internship at Domestic Workers United and in the way she researched, theorized, and wrote her senior honors thesis.” Assistant Social and Cultural Analysis Professor Cecilia Márquez also commented on Moore’s work as a researcher. “[Kelsey’s] work is destined to reshape
ALANA BEYER | WSN
CAS senior Kelsey Moore, a Public Policy and Africana studies major, was selected to be the 2019 CAS valedictorian.
the way we think about American history,” Marquez said. “She is a thorough and dedicated researcher and represents everything we could hope for out of an NYU graduate.” Moore hopes that her achievement as valedictorian sends an encouraging message to students of color at NYU.
“This isn’t just about me,” Moore said. “I just hope that this is for people everywhere and that if they see my face, they’ll hope that they can do the same.” Email Meghna Maharishi at mmaharishi@nyunews.com.
Hamilton, in WSN Interview, Says NYU Should Not Be Democratic By SAKSHI VENKATRAMAN, VICTOR PORCELLI and SAYER DEVLIN
Editor-in-Chief, News Editor, and Editor-at-Large For the first time in three years, President Andrew Hamilton sat down with student journalists from WSN and answered questions about NYU’s relationship with the United Arab Emirates, university governance, diversity and his relationship with students. The first 10 minutes of the interview covered Hamilton’s science update as a condition for the interview. Democracy at NYU When asked if NYU should be a fundamentally democratic institution, Hamilton said no. “No,” he said. “I think NYU is an institution that has a number of different ways in which the views of the community are expressed and taken into account.” In response to questions about how much he values student input, Hamilton began by listing his formal meetings with students. He routinely meets with the Student Senators Council, the Executive Committee of the University Senate
— which includes the Chairperson of the SSC — and hosts town halls each semester. “Since I’ve been here, the students’ voice has been incredibly important,” Hamilton said. “Why do you think one of our six key priorities is affordability? It’s because in my first two months here, I connected with students, interacted with them and heard their real concerns about the cost of NYU education.” Since Hamilton has been at NYU, tuition has increased each year — albeit by a decreasing amount. Hamilton cited three resolutions presented in University Senate this semester as evidence of student voices being heard by the university. One, entitled “Human Rights at NYU” and colloquially referred to as the BDS resolution due to its prior association with the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement, did not pass. Another, which if put in place would entail major changes to NYU’s current sustainability efforts such as going carbon-free by 2040, has been called “aspirational” since passing in the University Senate. When it was presented, Hamilton warned of the major financial implications the resolution may have on NYU. In his interview with WSN, his
NYU President Andrew Hamilton at his desk in his Bobst office.
tone was different. “What was it called — ‘aspirational decarbonization’ and that will, I think, be a valuable set of aspirations for the sustainability task force as it interacts with the critical issues, like the construction of buildings,” Hamilton said. Based on his answer and a statement from Assistant Vice President of Sustainability Cecil Scheib, the resolution will not require the university to make any concrete changes. The third resolution, which passed in the University Senate, called for an ad-hoc committee within the Senate to ensure NYU offers sufficient resources to students who are the victims of sexual misconduct. Prior to this semester, four resolutions passed by the University Senate — three on increasing the Board of Trustees’ transparency and one on divesting from fossil fuels — were vetoed by the Board. “So, you know, the answer to your question is: the student voice is heard, the student voice is listened to,” Hamilton said. “In many cases, the student voice is acted upon — but not all.” NYU and the UAE Hamilton said NYU would not release the memorandum of understanding,
SAM KLEIN | WSN
a document outlining the nature of NYUAD’s relationship with the UAE government, before lauding the university’s academic excellence. “As someone who came late to NYUAD, I view it as a huge success,” he said. “In 10 short years, an academic institution has been created that is now providing a spectacular education to a very large number of students.” When asked why he is outspoken against the Trump administration but not on the poor human rights record of the UAE — including the nation’s involvement in the Yemeni Civil War — Hamilton was evasive, saying that NYU has been a force for positive change, specifically for laborers in the nation. “You talk about criticism — in the case of Abu Dhabi, certainly with the building of the campus — the reforms and the progress that has been made in labor relations, in changes to labor practices, have all been a positive consequence of NYU’s presence,” Hamilton said. Hamilton did not mention that in constructing NYUAD’s campus on Saadiyat Island 10,000 workers were victims of wage theft and many had their passports confiscated in direct violation of NYU’s statement of labor values. NYU has since remunerated two-thirds of the workers but has been unable to track down the remaining 3,400 laborers. The construction of NYUAD’s campus was led by Mubadala, the UAE’s sovereign wealth fund, which is helmed by NYU Trustee and Chairman of the Abu Dhabi Executive Affairs Authority Khaldoon Khalifa Al Mubarak. WSN also pressed Hamilton on the state of academic freedom in the UAE and at NYUAD. The UAE has strict laws against speaking critically of the government, and the Human Rights Watch 2019 World Report noted the government’s arbitrary detainment or disappearance of citizens who speak ill of authorities. Hamilton said he wasn’t aware of restrictions on conversation at NYUAD. “I’m not aware of any constraint on discussions that take place on the Abu Dhabi campus or discussions that take place in the classroom at Abu Dhabi,” he said.
He dodged the question of whether NYU has policies in place to protect students should they be detained in the UAE. “The answer to your question is we provide strong support to our students and indeed to our faculty at NYUAD and we provide the kind of access to guidance, to advice — whatever they need when they are working in Abu Dhabi, when they are carrying out research,” he said. Hamilton refused to answer questions about Mubarak. “I’m not going to talk in any specifics about any individuals,” he said. Mubarak is the chairman of the English soccer team Manchester City (Hamilton has a framed Manchester City jersey signed by the team hanging in his office, a gift from Mubarak) which European soccer regulators will seek to ban from the UEFA Champions League, Europe’s most prestigious and lucrative soccer tournament, for violating financial fair play rules. Michael Steinhardt Billionaire philanthropist Michael Steinhardt, who sits on the Board of Trustees, was accused of sexual assault by seven women in March. The women, whom he worked with at various Jewish organizations, accused him of repeatedly asking them to have sex with him and making comments about their fertility. Steinhardt has donated $20 million to NYU and is the namesake of the Steinhardt School of Culture, Education, and Human Development. WSN asked Hamilton if he, personally, would change the name of the Steinhardt school if he could do so unilaterally — if he could “push a button.” He avoided talking about his own thoughts, instead stressing the importance of following procedures in cases such as this. “The way I would answer that is there is no button,” Hamilton said. “And in fact, in a large organization like NYU, it’s very important we follow proper process, and that’s exactly what’s happening in the case of Mr. Steinhardt.” Email the News Desk at news@nyunews.com.
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Washington Square News
THURSDAY, AUGUST 1, 2019
CULTURE
CULTURE@NYUNEWS.COM
Edited by FAITH MARNECHECK
The Stern Student Who Chose Maui Over Wall Street By ELIF KESIKBAS Staff Writer Bored of the traditional mindset that surrounds the Stern School of Business, Rachel Lee wanted to explore what lay outside the bubble of future finance workers. She took a semester off before her senior year, walked into Mischief Tattoo on West Fourth Street and asked for a piercing apprenticeship — while her peers were running after Wall Street’s biggest names. Lee, originally in the Stern class of 2018, graduated this past fall with a B.S. in business with a concentration in marketing. She is currently working remotely as Marketing Project Manager for the Hawaii-based cannabis dispensary PONO Life Maui. She is island hopping in March, leaving Manhattan for new adventures. Her journey began with a familiar story — finance and accounting. But as her school career unfolded, Lee realized that she did not want to follow the tradition track. “I kind of figured out my path later on,” Lee said. “There should be some sort of thing freshman year that’s like the options are not just finance. No one ever said that, starting off. That’s why you just feel pressured.” Lee took off the second semester of her first year to work as a full-time project manager at a digital marketing startup. She returned to NYU in the fall, still focused on finance, and stayed on her original path by working at a financial services company the summer after her sophomore year. During the January term of her junior year, Lee studied abroad at NYU Shanghai and worked on a protocol app that was designed to improve quality of life for the elderly.
She decided to take another semester off in favor of a piercing apprenticeship before returning to complete her degree. “Honestly, as parents each time when she took the gap year and semester, we had questions, doubts and worries and our own plan held within our heart because we know Rachel as an individual
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If people are constantly following the traditional path, if the industry swings wide and things change, they may not be ready for it. RACHEL LEE Former Stern Student
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has to explore her own blueprint of her life,” said Lee’s mother, Melissa Lee. However, Lee was confident that her tattoo shop experience would benefit her. “We spend all our lives kind of sheltered,” Lee said. “Work at a tattoo shop and have this scary looking dude coming in and pierce his nose. What are you gonna do? You have to grow some balls, basically. You have to be really confident and sure of yourself.” A semester later, Lee resumed studies,
and even though she had decided that corporate life was not for her, she forced herself to complete her whole junior year recruiting for consulting. “At one point, I convinced myself that it was my dream job,” Lee said. Yet when she got an offer from a consulting firm, she was not at all excited. She could not see the next phase of her life in a corporate organization and craved a creative environment where she could combine the thrill of startups and the structure of corporate firms. The thrill of the tattoo shop gave her the courage to chase a job that could give her the best of both worlds. Lee created her second shot by reaching out to companies. “Go for it, reach out,” Lee said. “It doesn’t hurt. Or else you are gonna regret it.” While some of her classmates questioned her method, she was determined not to stop until she found a job to suit her creative personality. Her friend Joanna Li, a current Stern junior, was supportive of her motivation. “A lot of Stern kids have the misconception about finance; it’s not a get rich quick [job],” Li said. “You want to be able to be that person who is clean cut, professional, and get any job you want here, but also know who you really are and where your passions lie. Rachel is really cool in the sense that she can do both.” When Lee heard back from PONO, her quest was finally over. “I think it’s important for students at NYU and Stern to realize that there are opportunities outside traditional recruitment in which you can make a difference,“ Lee said. Lee ultimately chose to pursue the offer at PONO because of the chance to
ALINA PATRICK | WSN
Recent Stern graduate Rachel Lee.
benefit others in a nontraditional medical setting, combining Lee’s interests — which extended back to childhood. Melissa emphasized that her daughter always had a passion for helping others, and PONO lets her do that. “It might not be the typical, traditional path in other people’s eyes, but it’s the unique mission in her heart that fits the company’s mission too,” Melissa Lee said. The daughter of a neurologist father specializing in Chinese medicine and a yoga-loving mother, Lee comes from a background of holistic and naturopathic practices, and the goal of working in this field always persisted in the back of her mind. The app to help the elderly that Lee helped develop in Shanghai reignited this passion. Lee aims to continue making a social impact on the lives of the elderly in the medical cannabis industry. The elderly are the biggest user group of medical cannabis,
allowing Lee to continue making an impact in their lives While Lee also acknowledges the benefits a Stern education brought to her through group projects, real-world experience with the Social Impact Core and networking, she does not agree with the focus on only one type of career. She advises undergraduates to be open to diversity and take advantage of emerging industries, as the world undergoes radical change in the 21st century. “If people are constantly following the traditional path, if the industry swings wide and things change, they might not be ready for it,” Lee said. “It’s better to be young, be versatile, be adaptable and try these different industries. Then that way you can adapt in case anything drastic happens in the future.” Email Elif Kesikbas at culture@nyunews.com.
Puppy With a Purpose: NYU’s New Therapy Dog By KYLIE KIRSCHNER Contributing Writer He’s hardly more than five pounds, but he’s training to serve a big purpose. Archie, the 6-month-old puppy now working with the NYU Department of Public Safety, is in training to
become a certified therapy dog. “He will be in my office when I meet with victims, or anybody in the NYU community who needs help,” Assistant Vice President of Field Operations in the NYU Department of Public Safety Karen Ortman said. “That will be his purpose. He’s here
KYLIE KIRSCHNER | WSN
Archie, NYU Public Safety’s dog-in-training, tags along with Karen Ortman to work at her office.
to provide comfort to people.” Named after the Washington Square Arch, the Maltese-Yorkie mix has just completed American Kennel Club’s S.T.A.R. Puppy training program. This course prepares puppies for Canine Good Citizen, the final AKC program that will enable Archie to be certified as a therapy animal once he turns 1 this upcoming October. NYU Senior Vice President of Campus Services and Safety Marlon Lynch brought Archie in to fill NYU’s need for animal-assisted therapy. Unsurprisingly, everyone was for it. “Being a dog lover, I jumped on it,” Ortman said. Not only did she jump on the idea, but as Archie’s handler, Ortman brought him in to live at home with her along with three other dog brothers and sisters. During the week, the pup tags along with Ortman to work. Now, as NYU students experience ups and downs, they’ll have a furry friend to help them through it. Email Kylie Kirschner at culture@nyunews.com.
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Crazed on Caffeine: Drinking Red Bull Every Day for a Week By RIA MITTAL Staff Writer I could physically feel my whole body buzzing with energy. My hands were trembling as I struggled to take notes in class. I looked down at my paper and saw illegible writing. After drinking two cans of Red Bull over the course of six hours, my challenge to drink the energy drink for a week was not off to a good start. Almost every teenager or adult I know has some varying degree of dependence on caffeine. As someone who consumes virtually no caffeine, I always wondered whether or not caffeine actually did wonders for students’ productivity and focus. I already knew I wasn’t physically prepared for the challenge, no matter how mentally or emotionally ready I was. I am extremely sensitive to stimulants like sugar and caffeine, and Red Bull is the ultimate dangerous mix of the two. I started off the week with only two cans on Monday, one at 11 a.m. and one at 5 p.m. Trying to sleep the f irst night proved impossible — I was restless and f idgety, f inally managing to put my body to rest at 5 a.m. The next day, I upped my dosage to three cans. I f igured it would help keep me awake after tossing and turning all night, but the Red Bull proved an ineffective replacement for the sleep I missed. I consumed two cans by the afternoon and I felt cranky, groggy and gross. It was snowing hard outside, too, which made me wish I had the warmth of coffee or tea instead of downing an icy can of Red Bull. I decided to f inish all three before 5 p.m. so my sleep wasn’t impacted again. By late afternoon, I felt much more active and focused. Even after 5 p.m., I was still wide-awake and extremely productive. I managed to f inish homework for all of
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my classes and go to bed by 1:30 a.m., which was surprisingly not bad. On Wednesday, I decided to slow down on the caffeine intake, just to see if I would crave it after having flooded my body with Red Bull the last two days. Even after seven hours of sleep, I woke up exhausted Wednesday morning and really felt the need for a pick-me-up. I had one Red Bull with breakfast and cut my intake there for the day. Going without more hits during the day didn’t actually make much difference to my mood or productivity, and I was ready for bed by midnight, which worked out pretty well. I wanted to end the last two days of the week strong and had four cans a day. It drove me crazy — I felt like I was bouncing off the walls, constantly restless and f idgety, unable to focus and even a little anxious. Though the energy drink had improved my productivity on Tuesday, too much left me unable to get any work done the last few days. It made me irritable — I was constantly distracted while studying and no information would sink in. As a non-caffeine drinker, drinking Red Bull for a week was a real eye-opener — f iguratively and literally. I determined that the two main factors in optimizing caffeine intake are quantity and timing. Caffeine addicts seem to have the perfect combination of the two. Drinking too much caffeine and not spacing it out well sent me off the charts, and drinking too late in the day kept me up all night, thus making me crave more the next day. Consuming caffeine, while benef icial in proper and thought-out doses, can become a dangerous cycle. Though it was an interesting week, I don’t see myself jumping on the caffeine train anytime soon. Email Ria Mittal at dining@nyunews.com.
RIA MATTAL | WSN
CAS Sophomore Ria Mittal drinks red bull for a week.
A Learning Moment in the Midst of a Chinese Restaurant’s Controversy
JORENE HE | WSN
Lucky Lee’s Chinese food restaurant.
By PAUL KIM Deputy Copy Chief The history and perception of Chinese food in the United States is long, complex and deeply rooted in racism. Narratives of “Chinese restaurant syndrome,” a term coined in the 1960s based on a fear of MSG, have followed Chinese cuisine for decades, along with the idea that Chinese food is dirty. Such narratives perpetuate negative stereotypes that Chinese American communities have been fighting against. Though they started decades ago, these narratives still linger around, as seen in the controversy surrounding recently opened Union Square restaurant Lucky Lee’s, marketed as a healthy and “clean” alternative to American-Chinese food. Jennifer Berg, associate clinical professor of Nutrition and Food Studies at NYU, dates these narratives around Chinese food all the way back to Chinese immigration into New York as a result of the working conditions on the West Coast at the time. Berg says that Chinese immigrants — leaving the high-fatality railroad jobs behind in California — moved east to New York, where they were relegated to Lower East Side laundromats and restaurants. “Because the food was so different than what people were eating and because the general living conditions on the Lower East Side were so overcrowded with inadequate plumbing and hygiene, it started these early stereotypical [questions],” she said. “‘Chinese food is suspect, what’s in it? Is there dog in it? What types of animals go into it?’ The palette of what New York was eating was very homogenous and this was something completely different.” This isn’t to undercut the role that racism played in these negative stereotypes. “Society always tries to push down people at the bottom, and so recent Chinese migrants were lower on the totem pole than recent immigrants who were also low, but were white.” Berg said. “Race played a huge role in this. Race and racism.” Decades later, the food landscape in America has changed drastically. Yet Chinese restaurants seem to be fighting an outgrowth of the battles they’ve been fighting for years: cultural appropriation. For the
third time in less than a year, a non-Chineseowned Chinese restaurant is under fire for cultural appropriation. Following Andrew Zimmern’s controversial statements on his new restaurant Lucky Cricket last year and Gordon Ramsey’s London-based “authentic” Chinese restaurant Lucky Cat — that has no Chinese chefs — openings earlier this year, Lucky Lee’s, which opened on April 8, has come under criticism for cultural appropriation and racist language in its marketing campaign. A since-deleted post from the restaurant’s Instagram account described the feeling after eating lo mein as “icky” and “bloated,” and offered an alternative in its “HIGH lo mein. Not too oily. Or salty.” In an interview with WSN, restaurant owner Arielle Haspel said that she was naive in the marketing of her restaurant. “I never meant for the word ‘clean’ to mean anything other than in the ‘clean-eating’ philosophy, which caters towards a specific nutrition and wellness lifestyle,” she said. Berg says that when looking at the incident in a vacuum, the language can come off as incredibly racist but thinks that “it comes down to whether that was their intention or whether it was just a lack of awareness,” she said. “It seems to have not even crossed their minds.” For Berg, the intended meaning behind “clean food” was more toward the idea of lighter foods, but the connotation, given the historical context, gives it a different meaning entirely. “You know language played a big role here as well,” she said. “The word ‘clean’ when you’re talking about an immigrant, is symbolically laden, and I’m sure she totally regrets saying that.” A nutritionist and health coach by trade, the first-time restaurateur turned to the restaurant’s Instagram page to apologize. A post from April 15, written by Haspel, reads “I am genuinely sorry to have disappointed and hurt so many of you. We learned that our marketing perpetuated negative stereotypes that the Chinese American community has been trying to fight for decades.” Haspel says that her intention with Lucky Lee’s was “to make people feel great when they walked in and even better when they walk out. My intention is to serve great
food, great hospitality, and a great experience.” While Berg said the apology is a good step forward and might ease the pain that people feel, “the reality was it was a decision that was made that wasn’t thought through.” She suggested that Haspel reach out to the Chinese American community, something that Haspel says she is doing. “We started engaging the Chinese American community to understand how to make positive changes, and we started to make positive changes,” Haspel said. “Food is always something that unites people and we’re excited to move forward in that way.” Despite the controversy, diners at Lucky Lee’s seemed unaware or unaffected by the backlash. Chris, who only gave his first name, said he’s a repeat customer, ordering the kung pao shrimp on this particular visit. Chris said he was vaguely aware of controversy surrounding the restaurant, but he thinks that everyone was over-sensitive and overreacting. “I don’t know what the intention of the owner was, but what I do know is there’s a general trend towards healthy eating for all cuisines,” he said. “I’m Korean. There’s a trend for that in Korean food. There’s a trend for that in American food and everything so I don’t see why there’s anything wrong with that for Chinese food.” He also says he doesn’t conflate Lucky Lee’s with authentic Chinese food. “I grew up eating Americanized Chinese food like Panda Express,” he said. “I know they’re not great and I know they’re not great for you, but I grew up having that taste and so I like it. If there’s a healthy way of eating it, I’ll do it.” However, other people aren’t sold on Lucky Lee’s. CAS sophomore Daryl Tan doesn’t think there’s anything wrong with the concept of “clean eating.” Instead, he has a problem with the name. “What I don’t like is Lucky Lee’s as the name,” he said. “I know it’s named after her husband, but I feel like it’s a bit disingenuous.” Berg agrees, saying that while Haspel’s husband’s name is Lee, it is also a Chinese last name. “It was an appropriation of the name itself,” Berg said. The appropriation of “Lee” and the other controversial statements such as “HIGH lo mein,” to Berg, might not have struck a nerve on their own, but the combination of multiple issues “comes out as icky.” The professor offered some advice in the form of a tagline suggestion: “Lucky Lee’s: A Love Affair With Chinese Food Culture.” Berg believes that the owners’ love of Chinese food is genuine. “At the heart of it, that’s why they opened it,” she said. “It was the cuisine that they love.” This is a point of contention for Haspel as the cuisine she serves at Lucky Lee’s was inspired by her husband. “We were proud that Lee’s name was on it because he inspired the idea to open up the restaurant,” she said. Yet as an entrepreneur, Haspel acknowledged how far the company still has to go. “We’re still learning,” Haspel said. “We’re still listening. I hope that we can move forward positively so we can eat well, live well and be well together.” For Berg, this controversy can be a teachable moment. “It doesn’t have to end with an entire population feeling really slighted and a business folding,” Berg said. “It can end with groups of people growing.” Email Paul Kim at pkim@nyunews.com
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ARTS
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Edited by GURU RAMANATHAN
Funding Your Cinematic Dream By GURU RAMANATHAN Arts Editor “The very fact that a movie gets made is a miracle,” the Chief Operating Officer of FilmNation Entertainment said to Tisch Film & TV senior Bronson Aznavorian during his internship. Many Film & TV seniors are realizing the full weight of that statement this semester as they attempt to fund their advanced-seniorlevel short films with budgets that balloon up to tens of thousands of dollars. After spending the first semester of the Advanced Production Workshop class writing their scripts and delivering 20-minute pitches to their professors and peers, roughly two-thirds of the students from each section were given the opportunity to make their films. Other students were able to join crews or enter the Advanced Narrative or Experimental workshops the next semester to try again for an allotment. Then, with only a $1325 grant and an equipment package provided by the school, it is entirely up to the selected students to gather the resources to bring their dreams to the big screen. “We reach out to a lot of our professors for advice and tips but I think for the most part the core work is being done by the students,” said Aznavorian, whose current proposed budget is around $20,000. “It’s amazing what people are capable of doing.” In order to get funding, some students pursue grants — some are awarded through the Undergraduate Film and Television Department such as the Russell Hexter Filmmaker Grant — and meet with investors. They also aggressively advertise their crowdfunding campaigns. If these
measures fail to raise their desired budgets, students have to adapt in many ways: from changing locations, to shortening shooting schedules to delaying post-production. For many students, food and transportation tend to be the next most expensive things in their budget since they don’t have to worry about equipment. Aznavorian faces the daunting challenge of raising $10,000 on Kickstarter. If he doesn’t reach his goal by Feb. 9, he will lose all the money raised up to that point. Aznavorian, who will also produce and compose on the project, has raised $3,284 as of Jan. 27. “The way that they do it with an all or nothing campaign is that it actually reduces risk on the filmmakers and the contributors because, whenever you have a flexible campaign, if you don’t raise all of the money, then people might wonder how are they gonna do it then if their goal was to hit this. If they can do with less, then why not just ask for less?” Aznavorian said. His film “Cow-Boy” is about a fraternity pledge who is pressured by an older member to commit a horrific act during a night of hazing. “My goal with this is not to say anything bad about fraternities,” Aznavorian said. “But merely the hazing itself has such implications on the way it affects your mind and the way that it makes men think and feel.” While he believes the film’s timely themes of toxic masculinity and peer pressure will attract contributors, the financial risk itself acts as a valuable marketing tool. Tisch senior Peter Mancuso’s coming-of-age musical “Suburban Fantasy” also has a budget closer to $20,000, but he opted to raise half of it on Indiegogo primarily because it allows for flexible goals. On Indiegogo
PHOTO COURTESY OF HARVEY KINGSLEY-ELTON
Tisch Film & TV senior Harvey Kingsley-Elton who is trying to raise a little over half of his $8,100 budget on Indiegogo for his drama “A Good Home.”
PHOTO COURTESY OF BRONSON AZNAVORIAN
Concept Art by Lee Milby from the advanced short film “Cow-Boy,” a drama about fraternity hazing
flexible campaigns allow the money raised to still be recouped even if it is not the total goal. But platforms with that option also take a percentage of the filmmakers’ funds so they aren’t entirely risk free. Mancuso plans to film this project, about a teen who reconsiders his relationship the day before moving to New York for college, on location in Rhode Island in June. Most of his scenes take place outside, which require a bigger lighting setup and generators for equipment. He has until March 20 to raise $10,000. “The lesson I learned from my grandfather is that the worst that [people] could do is say no,” Mancuso said. “It’s all about the spin, it’s about the phrasing, it’s about the language.” Tisch senior Harvey Kingsley-Elton has learned a lot about the marketing process and making his campaign look impressive to contributors. “In order to make your crowdfunding look impressive you want to reduce the amount of money you can raise on it so every dollar is a larger percentage,” Kingsley-Elton added, who is raising $4,500 of his $8,100 budget on Indiegogo. “I did lower it to a point I’m happy with and in the first weekend I had raised 25% and it looks amazing.” Kingsley-Elton has since raised $1,605 as of Jan. 27 and his campaign ends on Feb. 20. His drama “A Good Home” focuses on a runaway teen who returns home to save her younger brother from their oppressive mother, an idea he has worked on for four years. Aside from directing, Mancuso is producing three other films, one of which is Kingsley-Elton’s. KingsleyElton is also Mancuso’s director of photography. The two have collaborated since their first year at NYU and became roommates last year. Tisch senior Ashley Chan’s “The Year of the Ox,” one of the other films Mancuso’s producing, has a smaller target of $7,000. She is using only Indiegogo for finances and has raised $4,935 as of Jan. 27. Her deadline is Jan. 31. Her film focuses on an Asian-American woman who comes to terms with her mental health and her relationship with her mother during a Lunar New Year dinner. “A lot of what’s really pushing me right now is people not investing in your film but investing in you,” Chan
said. Every dollar counts in crowdfunding, but not merely as a donation. The filmmakers are getting people emotionally invested early and are building an audience even before completion. “There are people who will follow you through to the end of the line,” Kingsley-Elton said. “You open so many windows of mutual support whereas if you just invested in yourself you’re cutting off all those lifelines of people.” On top of financing, students have other factors to consider with filming right around the corner, such as location scouting and transportation. Especially Mancuso, who has to balance overlapping filming schedules in late February and early March. Students also work with a Production Advisor to submit a packet of information about their film called the production book. Approval of the production book by NYU Insurance and Enterprise Risk Management is required for students to use equipment. Most students submit their production book at least two weeks before filming, but Aznavorian has to get his in at least three weeks early since his production involves stunts and could take longer to process. He plans on hiring an intimacy director and stunt coordinator for his film, too. The casting process also happens concurrently. This is a bundle of work that can be made more challenging if
hiring SAG-AFTRA actors — which is what both Aznavorian and Chan plan on doing — because a student film agreement with the union must be approved at least month before filming begins. Despite all the hurdles, students have the support of their professors and peers throughout the semester since the class still meets. Students use the second semester to do a final polish on scripts before filming, resolve production issues, get notes on various cuts of the films and think about their careers post-graduation. “The first semester is kind of like friendly competition where now it’s really like we’re all going to be helping each other,” Mancuso said. “And really more like the Sundance Lab almost where we’re all coming in and working to help each other.” Advanced productions are not required to graduate, but they do present the opportunity to make films on a professional level and challenge students from a business and logistical perspective, something they may not have been exposed to in the past. Especially since these films are used as stepping stones in students’ careers. “It’s very easy to take for granted the amazing opportunity we have at NYU,” Mancuso said. “This is a privilege, and I’m going to make the most of it.” Email Guru Ramanathan at gramanathan@nyunews.com.
PHOTO BY DAYLE CHEN
On-set photo of Tisch Film & TV senior Bronson Aznavorian from a previous film he worked on.
How a Tisch Junior Ended up Shooting for Chanel By CLAIRE FISHMAN Film & TV Editor Jason S. Lee likes to say that he’s lucky. After only a year of handling a camera, he won a Connecticut Regional Scholastic Art Award at 16. Only a few months later, Lee’s award-winning photography series was accepted into two galleries: 2448 MOON Fine Arts in Seoul and The Silpe Gallery in Hartford, Connecticut. Now a 22-year-old Tisch senior, he’s shot editorial work for L’Officiel Indonesia and Chanel Taiwan. The latter commercial is currently featured on RED’s website as an example of exquisite cinematography. Last semester, Lee served as the Director of Photography for seven different student films. “A lot of things happened very quickly,” Lee said. Lee didn’t become interested in photography until he was 16 years old and well into high school. Before then, he didn’t think much about photography and film — he says he was too busy with schoolwork and college prep to do much else. But something changed for Lee after he saw “Inception,” a movie that he says transported him into a different world through cinematography. He wanted to create the same experience for other people. Without a second thought, he bought a Canon EOS 5D Mark II. “I guess I’m just really lucky, because I didn’t shoot a lot actually,” Lee said. “That’s what people don’t know about me. I probably went out to shoot photos maybe ten times a year. But when I did, I would go out for a full day.” In high school, Lee’s grades always came first. As an international student at an elite boarding school in Connecticut, Lee had a lot of pressure from his parents to do well. He didn’t want to throw away all he had accomplished academically for a halffledged hobby. “My parents live in Korea and are purely Korean, so they’re like the typical Asian parents who wanted me to do well in school and get a good SAT score,” Lee said. “I was always busy going to SAT academies; I didn’t have a lot of time to pursue photography.” Lee’s parents, however, quickly came around once he won the Connecticut Regional Scholastic Art Award for his photography. After that, they were nothing but supportive. So supportive in fact, that they bought him a RED DSMC2 Gemini camera — which retails for $19,500 — after he switched his major to Film & TV. “It’s not necessary to own a RED camera,” Lee said. But, considering his work is being featured on RED’s website, it’s clear that it certainly helped. In this sense, Lee is very lucky. Not only are his parents supportive of his artistic career aspirations, but they’re also willing to help him financially as he realizes his dreams. This, support, Lee says, was an essential factor in embracing his artistic identity. Without having to worry about making money right after college, Lee feels he has the freedom to be himself. After
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a short stint as a double major in Economics and Photography, he decided to transfer to the Tisch School of the Arts as a Film & TV major. “When I was first on set, I felt like I was alive for the first time. I don’t know how else to describe it,” Lee said, referring to his first time on set at Tisch in an Intro to Video Art class he took in his first year. Once he transferred, Lee devoted every waking hour to improving his photography and cinematography. He freelanced for anyone that would hire him and refused to accept pay. He said the experience and expertise he learned on these sets was more than enough compensation. “I was willing to do it for free because I’m not doing this for money anyways,” Lee said. “I’m doing this because I’m passionate; it’s what I love. This is what makes me happy.” Eventually though, Lee’s free labor paid off tenfold. After he served as a Director of Photography for a School of Visual Arts graduate student’s thesis film, she recommended him and his work to an editorial fashion director, Yuti Chang. Since meeting, they’ve shot three different fashion editorials together for Blanc Magazine, Chanel Taiwan and L’Officiel Indonesia respectively. “In terms of filmmaking, it’s about knowing the right people, so a lot of it is about luck. You don’t know who you’re going to meet or how that person might help you,” Lee said. While luck has certainly played a large role in Lee’s artistic career, he’s made sacrifices to get to this point. He was initially supposed to intern at CJ E&M in Korea last summer, but he gave up the internship to shoot the Chanel Taiwan commercial. It was only a singular day of shooting, Lee tells me, but having that work in his reel was invaluable. Now, with his commercial experience, Lee hardly ever works for free. The only exception to this rule is when he shoots a thesis film that he truly believes in and would rather allocate the money they’d use to pay him to other costly aspects of production like equipment rental. “I would rather have that they don’t pay me and that they use that money to improve the quality of the film,” Lee said. “It’s not about earning a quick $2000 […] If the film does really well and goes to a big festival or something, that’s how I could become really successful as a cinematographer.” Clearly, Lee’s brief education in economics taught him a thing or two about opportunity cost. What he’s sacrificing now in gig fees, he has the chance to recuperate tenfold if he does his job well. Lee has found his passion and he plans to stick with it. For him, there isn’t much appeal to doing anything else, even if that means he has to sacrifice some things in the process. “To be very honest, I don’t think I could be myself, and be as confident as I am today, if I’m not who I am right now, doing what I’m passionate about and what I love.” Email Claire Fishman at cfishman@nyunews.com.
Anupam Kher on Tragedy and Compassion in ‘Hotel Mumbai’ By GURU RAMANATHAN Arts Editor Eleven years ago, the Indian metropolis of Mumbai was brought under siege by Pakistani terrorists in a deadly attack. A popular restaurant, two hospitals and the Taj Mahal Palace Hotel were attacked, and 164 people were killed. For three days, the terrorists held up camp in the Taj, while the surviving guests and staff banded together to save one another from more bloodshed. At the time, legendary Bollywood actor, teacher, author and motivational speaker Anupam Kher was shooting a film six or seven miles away. His heart and mind were elsewhere, stirred by the chaos taking place in a city he loved and the hotel where his friends resided. “It was a horrifying, nightmarish, reality TV but that was what was going on,” Kher said in an interview with WSN. “A few of my friends died in that attack. A very dear friend of mine who was the general manager of [the Taj], he lost his wife and two children there. There are certain things that get imprinted on your mind.” Now Kher acts in “Hotel Mumbai,” a film that recounts the events of those three days. It opens this week and co-stars Dev Patel, Nazanin Boniadi and Armie Hammer. Kher plays Chef Hemant Oberoi, the head chef of the Taj and one of the real people depicted in the movie. Kher, who was able to meet Oberoi, admired the man whose leadership came across in the moment of crisis. As he did in real life, Oberoi immediately springs into action in the film when the attacks are underway, inspiring his staff and helping the guests to safety with his own intricate knowledge of the hotel. The city of Mumbai has always occupied a special place in Kher’s life. He was brought up in a small north Indian town called Shimla with no easy gateway into acting. No one else in his family pursued the arts. After graduating high school, he went to Chandigarh and later Delhi to study drama in college, before becoming a teacher in Lucknow at age 23. On June 3, 1981, he ventured to Mumbai to try his luck in Bollywood, but struggled for two to three years, even experiencing homelessness for a short period of time.
“In the early ‘80s, if you didn’t have long hair you were not considered to be an actor,” Kher said. “I was balding, I was thin, and I had a diploma and gold medal from drama school, but that didn’t mean anything. I finally got my first break when I was 28 to play a 65-year-old man [in ‘Saaransh’] which was a sensational debut.” Thirty-five years later, Kher has appeared in over 500 films, including successes in Hollywood like “Silver Linings Playbook” and “The Big Sick.” Despite his emotional connection to the attack itself, he had no hesitation in taking the role because of his confidence in the script and the preparedness of director Anthony Maras. Kher especially felt his own responsibility to tell a story that is a tribute to the survivors and families of those who died. “It’s a story of compassion, it’s a story of ordinary heroism, apart from great, unbelievable tragedy,” Kher said. “It’s important to tell people what happened and how other people came out of nowhere and became unlikely heroes.” Kher commands the screen, often with silence, playing a leader who desperately suppresses his fear, anger and dread for the sake of his guests. But the film is still very much an explosive thriller and that tone was carried through to the set itself. Most of the interior scenes of the Taj were shot in Adelaide, Australia, and were completed first in the shooting schedule. To simulate the attack for the cast, Maras would play recorded gunshots with giant amps on set, recreating the tension from scratch. The crew only filmed a few exterior scenes at the attack sites in India and near the Taj. Despite how serious and intense their on-set experiences were, the cast and crew still bonded thoroughly, often getting dinners after twelve or thirteen hour days. “We will get into a cab, me, [Armie Hammer], everybody, and the cab driver will always be an Indian. And he will never charge me,” Kher said. “That happens in New York, also. We are not actors for our countrymen, we are a part of their life.” After filming was done, Kher said he felt as if he had gained new family members. Most of his scenes were with Patel, who plays a Sikh waiter named Arjun. One of the attack sites was Chhatrapati
Shivaji Terminus railway station, the same place where Patel had shot the song “Jai Ho” from his breakout film “Slumdog Millionaire” only a few months prior. His character Arjun is actually a composite character representing different staff members that Maras and co-writer John Collee interviewed. In the film, Oberoi acts like a father figure to him. “I think it’s easy to like Dev Patel. He does not hold back his affection,” Kher said. “Also I think Dev must have seen me in my movies, and if not then his parents must have seen hundreds of my movies. So I was not meeting Dev Patel the star, I was meeting Dev Patel the fan. So, it was important for me to be good to him without wanting to sound arrogant.” The film is being released at a critical time as the world still reckons with the devastating attack at the Christchurch mosque in New Zealand. But there is a constant air of truth, on the part of the actors, script and director, that prevents “Hotel Mumbai” from ever feeling exploitative. Kher believes the film will resonate with audiences because it shows how normal people from all walks of life demonstrate solidarity and band together in a time of crisis. “Togetherness sometimes comes out of tragedy,” Kher said. Kher also thinks the film can provide a necessary catharsis for those who have gone through trauma or know people who have just as it did for him. When “Hotel Mumbai” premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival, Kher had an extremely emotional response, recalling that he was crying and howling in the audience and on stage. “Hotel Mumbai” is one of the few films in recent memory that works as both a thriller and a realistic drama, working to both entertain the audience and honor the survivors of tragedy. Perhaps one of the most remarkable things about the aftermath of the Mumbai attacks was that Oberoi and his staff reopened one of the restaurants bombed in the hotel just three weeks later. As Kher puts it, tragedy is inevitable but it is critical to remember that life will go on and morale cannot, and should not, be defeated. Email Guru Ramanathan at gramanathan@nyunews.com.
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OPINION@NYUNEWS.COM
THURSDAY, AUGUST 1, 2019
OPINION
Edited by HANNA KHOSRAVI and MELANIE PINEDA
CULTURE
Stop Sharing Traumatizing Images of Migrant Kids
By MELANIE PINEDA Opinion Editor It’s no secret that migrants entering the United States from Mexico are being treated inhumanely. We’ve seen shoeless children crying at the border. Kids greeting their parents after being separated for months, only to barely recognize them and shove them away. Although migrants must travel a dangerous journey to get to the U.S. with no guarantee of water or food, grown men have told news outlets that if they had known about the suffering U.S. immigration officials would put them through, they would’ve never made the journey. Adults and children alike are dying in Immigration and Customs Enforcement custody without any clear indication as to how responsible the agency is for these deaths. The situation only gets worse. A story recently broke with advocates claiming there were visible bruises on children being held in an unofficial holding center for migrants under a bridge in El Paso, Texas. Images of the children laying on space blankets on the ground were shared by media outlets such as CNN. Accounts from the migrants forced to stay under the bridge said they were afraid they were going to die there. Many of these images, however, come at a cost. Most reliable news outlets share these images with the intention of providing much-needed
attention to the issues currently going on at the border. And although journalists and news outlets hold a certain responsibility to inform the public, these images of children are often overshared and turned into what is known as trauma porn, or media which exploits people living in poor conditions for personal gain. Rather than focus on the issues at hand, people fixate on the trauma itself, indirectly belittling the actual human subjects behind the photos. Time and time again we’ve seen the argument of where the line between exploitation and education lies, such as the 1993 Pulitzer Prize-winning photo of a vulture creeping on a Sudanese child, or when videos of black people being killed by police go viral. And while it is important to note that photojournalists bring stories alive and hold an important role in informing the public, images of kids — specifically those who are crossing the border — should not be the next demographic that photographers and social media users capitalize on. The bigger problem starts when audiences romanticize these images by sharing them. During the family separations migrants endured last summer — and are still enduring — countless videos of children being reunited with parents were shared, filling my timeline. But there are also unexpected consequences with sharing these images. By not taking into account the effect these videos may have on others, people become inured to these occurrences. In fact, a photo of a child symbolically being held in a cage went viral last summer and was automatically thought to be a part of the family separations as well. What these users and videographers also don’t realize is how truly haunting
some of these videos were for Latino communities. Seeing men and women who look like my own parents cry over children who look like my nephews and nieces was an emotionally exhausting and triggering experience for me. It brought on the same sense of fear and despair I feel when these same people share videos of immigration officials arresting people and dragging them away from their homes. The same fear ingrained into my family members who aren’t U.S. citizens. The same anxiety felt at every checkpoint,
every court check-up, every interview with an ICE agent. Awareness of the issues may have increased, but at an emotional cost felt by others in similar situations, such as sexual assault survivors forced to share their stories and the black community when discussing police brutality. As a journalism major, I understand the importance of spreading awareness of the crimes occurring at the U.S.-Mexico border. But as the daughter of immigrants, I also know that we should be caring about these
children regardless of whether or not photos of their heart-wrenching experiences are being taken. Their narratives should be controlled by those directly affected by the issues at hand. If we continue to allow outlets with inauthentic intentions to profit off vital issues affecting migrant youth, we are only further creating room for harmful, false narratives surrounding immigrant communities. Email Melanie Pineda at mpineda@nyunews.com.
SOPHIA DI IORIO | WSN
CITY
The Measles Outbreak Is a Failure on Multiple Fronts
By ABBY HOFSTETTER Opinion Editor There’s a concept in the Jewish tradition known as a Chillul Hashem — an embarrassment to God’s name. When a Jew acts in a way that gives a bad reputation to the Jewish people as a whole, they have committed a Chillul Hashem. I’ve been thinking a lot about Chillul Hashems in the wake of the measles outbreaks in Williamsburg and Rockland County and the ways in which the public has chosen to respond to them. I am an Orthodox Jew, as is the majority of my extended family. My immediate family and I identify as Modern Orthodox, while some of my cousins, who
live in Brooklyn, lean more toward the ultra-Orthodox. While my family members are vaccinated — I find it strange that I have to say that — some of my cousins’ neighbors are not. Something else that I find strange is how often I’ve been finding the need to tell people that the Torah requires one to vaccinate their children. Though the Torah’s commandments are myriad, one surpasses almost all others: “Live by them.” The commandments of the Torah only matter insofar as one is alive to observe them. Rabbis overwhelmingly rule that parents should vaccinate their children, and anti-vaxxer rabbis, like anti-vaxxers in general, are outliers. One who chooses not to vaccinate their children violates the commandments of the Torah. Hasidic Jews are staunch observers of the Torah’s commandments; they would not intentionally violate its laws. However, I’ve barely been seeing these facts in the articles I’ve read about the measles outbreak. I’ve heard about a supposed financial influence that
the Jews hold on Mayor Bill de Blasio, which allegedly caused him to delay his condemnation of anti-vaxxers, but I’ve heard almost nothing about the specific process that led to an overwhelming amount of people from these two distinct communities choosing to not vaccinate their children. I have heard that the Jews “did it to themselves” by living in such a tightly-packed neighborhood, but I have not heard about the reasons why they live so close together. Using an anti-Semitic trope and blaming the victims instead of sparking intellectual debate about the true reasons behind these outbreaks is harmful — not only to the Jewish people, who are directly impacted by this rhetoric, but also to those looking to prevent another outbreak. Tight-knit communities like Williamsburg and Rockland County often fall victim to misinformation, and as a result, outbreaks. The Somali American community in Minnesota, the Amish community in Ohio and the Russian-speaking community in
Washington state have all faced measles outbreaks due to this pattern. When a community is as closely packed as these ones are, information spreads quickly whether or not it’s correct. The Hasidic community of Williamsburg lives so close together because their lives revolve around their religion. Their children attend the yeshiva for school, they pray at the local synagogue three times a day and they buy their food from the kosher supermarket. The commandments of the Torah pose so many restrictions that they almost force an Orthodox Jew to live in a Jewish community so as to not make their life any more complicated. The Jewish community in Williamsburg mainly speaks Yiddish; Hebrew and English are known but less familiar. When a Yiddish anti-vaccination pamphlet was distributed throughout the neighborhood, the Jews of Williamsburg did not have an understandable counterargument that could be distributed as easily as its predecessor — the Center for Disease Control and
Prevention’s website is easily accessible to the majority of the American people, but it’s in English, not Yiddish, and many Williamsburg residents avoid the internet for religious reasons. Parents stopped vaccinating their children not due to any Jewish law, but because they didn’t know any other way. Many of my Orthodox friends, peers and mentors have been describing the measles outbreak as a Chillul Hashem. Many of my non-Orthodox friends, peers and mentors have been using the outbreak as a reason to decry organized religion and its cult-like characteristics. I cannot in good conscience agree with either of them. The Jewish communities of Williamsburg and Rockland County fell victim to something much larger than themselves; they were on the receiving end of a hoax that has so far claimed 359 victims. To treat them with anything but sympathy is disgraceful — a true Chillul Hashem. Email Abby Hofstetter at ahofstetter@nyunews.com.
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Washington Square News | Opinion
THURSDAY, AUGUST 1, 2019 INTERNATIONAL
Reflecting on Notre Dame and the Rightful Return of Africa’s Soul
By SARAH JOHN Deputy Opinion Editor One quote in particular in the New York Times article “What the Notre-Dame Fire Reveals About the Soul of France,” stood out to me. A Parisian stated, “it’s our roots, our history, our civilization. I think of the generations of artists who spent all their lives working on this monument to God, to belief.” When Notre Dame caught fire, Parisians stood together and commented on how this building and its artifacts were more than just wood and stone. These relics were an enduring reminder of the Parisian people and their communities — or as the article’s headline so beautifully put it, their soul. The idea that a people’s very essence can be found by studying their art made me reflect on my own home country, Nigeria. Today, in 2019, generations after colonization, there are still several thousand precious stolen African artifacts in France and the rest of Europe. The years of colonial looting have made it so that much of our art is not even in our country, and that our soul is fractured in pieces throughout Europe. What does that say about how we should try to understand our roots, our history, our civilization? How do we mourn our monuments when they’ve been gone for generations? Maybe you’ve heard about these lost artifacts. They made the news last year when French president Emmanuel Macron agreed to return thousands of artifacts back to the continent — a decision met with much controversy, as some French citizens lashed out against what they saw as an emptying of their museums. Or maybe you noticed it during Killmonger’s entrance in “Black Panther,” pre-museum heist, when he criticized a worker in a British museum for her lack of knowledge on a stolen artifact from Benin. The lack of respect and mistreatment of African artifacts has been on my radar for much longer. It is present in the way that I always internally wince when my friends skip over the African art section at the Met, and the way that I grew up in an educational system that told me my culture had never created anything worth remembering. For example, the popular historian Hugh Trevor-Roper said in 1963 that “Africans have no history,” since Africans had never created anything of “significance,” and were peoples still “in darkness.” Why has Britain been able to keep bronze statues of the ancient Benin Kingdom, and why has France been able to keep looted textiles from the shores of West Africa? Why is it that 180,000 looted African pieces are kept in Belgium’s Royal Museum for Central Africa? African artifacts are spread throughout Europe in private collections and museums, as African people grow up constantly told they are from a continent with no history. That is
why the gesture of returning these artifacts back to their rightful countries is so urgently needed — it would be a remarkably rare recognition of African dignity from Europe. This kind of bold step would be an acknowledgement that African countries also have art, and have souls as valuable as their European counterparts — something many people still don’t believe. A few months ago, I started crying at the African Art section in the Met. My friends had asked me something about a piece, and my answer winded down different roads until it became a discussion about Nigeria as a whole, and the stories of hope and loss and resilience that I know about my country, as well as those of the injustices it has faced. These were stories of how millions of would-be artists, poets and painters spent their lives picking cotton instead of creating cultural items that I would one day get to pick up and experience, before handing them down to my kids and they to theirs. These were stories of the thousands of artifacts that had been lost or destroyed during colonization. Often, I think about how the scale of these injustices is indescribable. I wonder how we should even begin to try and fix the losses, when the losses can’t even be put into words. I hope France will take this time post-Notre Dame fire to reflect on the importance of heritage, and follow through on its promise to return African artifacts. I want people to take the sense of loss they felt at Notre Dame’s destruction as a reminder that culture and heritage are important. That perhaps one of the most overlooked, but still deeply crushing, aspects of colonization was how it spread the belief that certain types of art and culture were more valuable than others. I want France, Britain and the rest of Europe to return my continent’s artifacts. I want them to put the souls of African countries back where they belong. I have been mourning the fracture of their souls — they, too, should mourn the fragmentation of mine. Email Sarah John at sjohn@nyunews.com.
STAFF EDITORIAL
NYU Must Do More About Food Insecurity More than a fifth of students reported financial hardship affording food, according to the Being@ NYU survey in October 2018. This gives us a glimpse into the problem of food insecurity at NYU — but the problem doesn’t end with our university. A recent study shows that nearly half of two-year and fouryear undergraduate students face food insecurity — being without reliable access to affordable, nutritious food — from a sample of 30,000. In response, large universities like Rutgers and CUNY have conducted large studies to better understand the problem. NYU has yet to follow suit. Despite taking recent steps to increase measures against it, one thing remains clear: NYU could do much more to fight food insecurity. At a minimum, conducting a university-wide survey gives NYU the information it needs to start adequately addressing food insecurity. The university’s response to food insecurity has been lackluster at best. In the 2015-2016 school year, NYU created the Food Insecurity Workgroup, which created the Courtesy Meals Program, offering 75 Dining Dollars to students who find themselves unable to afford their next meal, no questions asked. However, the university did not publicize the program until recently. In a statement to WSN last September, Senior Vice President for Student Affairs Marc Wais, who convened and chaired the Food Insecurity Work Group in spring 2016, said the decision was made because the university feared students would “view this as an entitlement or exploit the program.” Just over 30 students had used the program in each semester since its creation, except for last fall, when 1,165 unique students did so — after the university publicized the program. This cohort more than likely overlaps with the over 3,000 students who reported being unable to afford food on the Being@NYU Survey. In November, the Student Government Assembly hosted a town hall discussing food insecurity at NYU, following results from the Being@NYU survey. The presentations featured Steinhardt graduate student Jon Chin, who founded Share Meals, an organization which allows students to share leftover meal swipes with those who might need them. There were also conversations about students — particularly international and undocumented students — who might not have access to the funding necessary to alleviate food insecurity. In light of the growing awareness about food
insecurity, both here at NYU and across the nation, the need for more comprehensive solutions is becoming clear. This problem has become more apparent amidst the recent announcement of a change in food service provider, which raises more questions about food accessibility on campus. NYU says it required Chartwells, the new food service provider, to specifically address food insecurity and food waste in their programs, although the details remain unknown. As mentioned above, NYU can look to the examples of other universities breaking ground in this territory. Universities like CUNY, Rutgers and Harvard have published studies analyzing food insecurity at their respective universities in order to bring the issue to light and brainstorm potential solutions going forward. In their study, a group of professors and university administrators at Rutgers determined how their findings will allow them to consider additional programs, like expanding the Rutgers Student Food Pantry — an initiative created specifically for students, faculty and staff. The study advocates for training sessions to raise awareness of the issue and services available for everyone on campus, training students, in particular, to help one another in seeking out resources. As the increase in students using NYU’s Courtesy Meals Program last semester shows, the awareness of resources is integral for progress. The study also notes the crucial institutional changes necessary to combat the epidemic of food insecurity, including raising minimum wage on campus and increasing state and federal investments in combating food insecurity. CUNY, on the other hand, aims to partner with food companies to provide discounts on healthy foods for students, give students on CUNY campuses more access to New York City food assistance programs and create on-site food pantries. These are models that NYU can pursue. It is crucial that our campus open up the forum for more discussion in order to analyze, explore and interpret potential solutions with contributions from a variety of directions. As these studies point out, progress will require a monetary investment, whether it comes from the university administration or government funding. This is undoubtedly a worthy allocation of funds. For a school as prestigious as NYU to neglect the issue of hungry students on campus, while charging such exorbitant prices for tuition and meal plans, is an extreme oversight. The NYU administration should take the steps necessary to address this crisis, which has been relegated to the background for far too long.
Email the Editorial Board at editboard@nyunews.com. HANNA KHOSRAVI Chair MELANIE PINEDA Chair COLE STALLONE Co-chair SARAH JOHN Co-chair SOPHIA DI IORIO | WSN
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We are telling big stories — the Bling Ring, Venmo fraud, drug donkeys — ones that expanded past our print-standard 500 words, ones that paint pictures with words. This magazine aims to be a platform where undergraduate and graduate students alike can mutter on about their love of the blue-seated MTA trains or put into words the flavor of their love of grandma’s dumplings.
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