Washington Square News, September 17, 2018

4 CULTURE

9 OPINION

Sex, Sorrow and Substances: The Pillars of Roommate Horror

Hurricane Florence Got the Support Maria Deserved 10 SPORTS

7 ARTS

Race Seen Through Three Lenses

Sports Analytics Seeps Into NYU Locker Rooms

VOLUME LI | ISSUE 4

MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 17, 2018

NYU Bets You Would Text a Therapist The Wellness Center rolled out text-based therapy, but its efficacy is still unproven.

By ALEX DOMB News Editor American college students are at the forefront of a national crisis; in the past two decades, the prevalence of mental health issues has skyrocketed among young people. Students born in the 1990s and 2000s are lonelier, sadder and more anxious than their older counterparts. NYU is by no means immune — at least 18 students have committed suicide since 1990, including two medical school students within the span of five days last spring.

The NYU Wellness Exchange hotline was established in 2004 to provide a 24/7 resource to students in need of immediate mental health support. As of this year, the Wellness Exchange offers a new service: an app allowing NYU students to chat with a therapist at any time of day or night.

According to Zoe Ragouzeos, director of NYU’s Counseling and Wellness Services, the service is intended to cater to a demographic that prefers to communicate over text.

CONTINUED ON PAGE 3

TONY WU | WSN

CULTURE

Trans Women Find Their Pitch

By KRISTINA HAYHURST News Editor

VIA NYUAD.NYU.EDU

Plant Parenthood: Starting a Green Family ON PAGE 4

As a child, Micah Prussack used to sing all the time. Her passion died after she transitioned.

“I went out for karaoke night once with my friends and I realized for the first time, I can’t sing anymore. It’s really the moment when my voice no longer matches my body. Hormones didn’t change that.”

Prussack, a 2018 Gallatin alumna, values her voice as an essential part of her

identity. Not being comfortable with her voice during her transition was a main source of anxiety.

“In the beginning and middle of my transition, I never wanted to speak,” Prussack said. “I was a very talkative person before, and I kept asking myself, do I really have to sacrifice the essential nature of my being to also be myself?”

This sort of disembodiment was one of the motivations for Deanna Kawitzky, alumna of Steinhardt’s Ph.D. program in Communication Sciences and Disorders and lead

author of a study that explored how trans women could reach a more authentic voice.

Kawitzky collaborated with NYU Linguistics Professor Tara McAllister during her master’s program in Steinhardt’s Department of Communicative Sciences and Disorders. The study began in fall 2013 and finished in summer 2016. The research, published in the latest issue of the Journal of Voice, aimed to find a viable technique to help trans women get their vocal resonant quality to be perceived as more feminine.

CONTINUED ON PAGE 2

Washington Square News

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MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 17, 2018

NEWS

NEWS@NYUNEWS.COM

Edited by ALEX DOMB, KRISTINA HAYHURST and SARAH JACKSON

How Freedom of Information Could Look at NYU

By VICTOR PROCELLI Deputy News Editor On Thursday, the Student Senate Council proposed a resolution that could change the hierarchy of who has access to information at NYU. If the resolution were passed, students would be able to access information previously unavailable to them and could answer long-held questions like “where does my money go?” However, NYU would still have the ability to exclude certain informationand the question of how this system would be applied to NYU’s global campuses is still up in the air.

Just as the national Freedom of Information Act or local Freedom of Information Law allows citizens to request information — such as financial records — concerning government agencies, this proposal by Senators-at-Large Rose Asaf and Bayan Abubakr, and Alternate Senators-at-Large Leen Dweik and Ben Zinevich, would create a website allowing NYU students and staff to do the same in regards to NYU schools, campuses and departments.

GLS sophomore and member of the Student Labor Action Movement Emma Mahler believes this proposal could empower student activists when trying to hold

NYU accountable.

“We know that there are conflicts of interest on the Board of Trustees,” Mahler said. “We know that NYU is actively working toward expanding across New York and the world. However, what we don’t know are the specifics of NYU’s revenue and expenditures beyond the general statistics listed on the NYU website. Having the actual numbers and names to back up what is already public would provide further ‘ammo’ so to say about why NYU needs to change how it addresses transparency and affordability and potentially how the goal of affordability can be achieved.”

SLAM and NYU Divest have been active in fighting for greater transparency on the part of the university, student representation on the board and divestment from fossil fuels. However, in the past they have been caught by surprise when confronted with information they did not know previously — like with their Elmer Holmes Bobst Library elevator occupation, which ended after they were told NYU had already met one of their demands.

“It’s easy for NYU to discredit any activist group on campus if we’re critiquing them with flawed information,” Mahler said. “It’s kind of a catch-22 in that it’s impossible or

near impossible to get accurate info in the first place, yet all NYU needs to say is ‘well, actually…’ and suddenly our valid critiques are discredited because the information was purposely kept inaccessible.”

If this resolution were passed, financial information would be accessible to students — such as NYU’s annual operating budget, departmental breakdowns of spending per student and money received through contracts or gifts attributable to a particular country, among others.

Currently, it is possible to access some of this through an IRS 990 form, which requires tax-exempt organizations to provide detailed information about their finances. However, many of the senators believe that despite providing important information, accessing this form is difficult for an everyday student, as it requires knowledge of specific legal processes.

It also requires knowledge of its existence — something many students may lack.

“I think it’s a question of who knows what these legal processes are,” Dweik said.

“If you’re an average student you probably don’t know the exact legal code necessary and what channels to go through to access this information.”

Like FOIA and FOIL, the proposal allows for the redaction of information by the body it is requested from if it falls under

VICTOR PORCELLI | WSN

(From left to right) Ben Zinevich, Rose Asaf, Leen Dweik and Bayan Abubakr.

certain exemptions. Basically, if NYU believes the information being released would cause threaten financial or personal security, it can not include that information in its response.

“We do lay out in what situations a redaction would be appropriate. They’re basically around protecting the institution in financial and security matters,” said Abubakr. “If a student or administrator requests information and there’s a lot of redactions and a lot of questionable ones they can raise the appeal with the organization and governance committee.”

Theoretical disputes aside, the logistics of applying this process to a university with over 50,000 students also poses a problem. Still

in the early stages, right now the resolution vaguely outlines a process of appointing one “records-keeper” at each school who would process requests made by all of the students. The records-keeper would most likely be a current staff member who already works with the university’s records.

Despite potential setbacks, Asaf believes that if the resolution is passed, it will still be a success.

“As long as we get something, I think the resolution will accomplish what it needs to,” Asaf said.

Email Victor Procelli at vporcelli@nyunews.com.

Baby Boomer Weed Use Booms

SOPHIA DI IORIO | WSN

By DEETS SHARMA Contributing Writer Mom and dad are coming home. You shoot into fight or flight mode, frantically lighting candles and incense to drown out the stench of the smoke sesh you’ve just completed. Little do you know, your parents are airing out the car at the same time, disposing of their finished blunt as they cruise through the cul-de-sac. Who knew you and your parents had the same recreational drug habits?

That’s not exactly what researchers from NYU’s School of Medicine would tell you about the study they recently completed; however, Dr. Joseph Palamar and Dr. Benjamin Han did conclude that baby boomers — people between the ages of 50 and 64 — smoked double the amount of weed that people of the same age group smoked in 2006.

Palamar, an associate professor in the department of Population Health, and Dr. Benjamin Han, an assistant professor in the departments of Medicine and Population Health, of NYU’s School of Medicine poured over more than 17,000 responses to the 2015-2016 National Survey on Drug Use and Health. They found that approximately nine percent of baby boomers reported using marijuana in the last year.

But, the findings may not be entirely due to an actual increase in use. Palamar, an epidemiologist, said many of the users that contributed to the increase were not new to weed, just to the baby boomer demographic.

“A pretty large majority had at least initiated when they were teenagers or in their 20s,” Palamar said. “These are not new users. Given that there aren’t that many new initiates, I think that there are just a lot of people in their 40s who are now aging into their 50s who happen to use weed.”

Palamar indicated that even so, it is still possible more people are smoking weed simply due to how prevalent and permissible the drug’s use has become in America today.

“Weed is so prevalent in society and now policies are becoming more liberal, it’s more socially accepted,” Palamar said. “It’s becoming legalized; it’s not really taboo anymore.”

Especially for this older generation, Palamar worries about the impacts marijuana use may have on users.

“Weed has changed a lot over the decades, at least according to [Drug Enforcement Administration] statistics,” he said. “We see a lot of weed has gotten stronger over the years. When you’re young, you can probably handle a drug more; you have less to lose in regards to a job [and] you probably don’t have a family of your own yet. But when you’re older, you could have a lot more to lose if something goes wrong legally.”

Perhaps equally troubling is one of the study’s other conclusions — that adults who used marijuana were more likely to report use of other harmful substances.

“We anticipated that the prevalence rate of marijuana use by older adults would continue to increase,” Han said in an email. “But what surprised me the most was the high levels of unhealthy substance use — alcohol, tobacco, cocaine, prescription drug misuse — by older adults who used marijuana compared to those that didn’t.”

Regardless of other drug use, Dr. Han suggested older users should be especially careful when smoking marijuana.

“All medications have risks, and since marijuana has psychoactive properties, it could potentially cause adverse reactions in older people who are more susceptible to them,” Han said.

Email Deets Sharma at news@nyunews.com.

Finding Their Pitch SAM KLEIN | WSN

CONTINUED FROM PAGE 1

Kawitzky worked at the NYU Speech-Language-Hearing clinic, where she spent time with trans students seeking voice modification therapy. While trans individuals have some options to change the way they present their gender, such as hormone therapy or surgery, there is little they can do to change how they sound.

“I remember one of my clients I had worked with, she was devastated, answering the phone and having someone call her sir,” Kawitzky said. “I think that when we’re thinking about our identity, our voices come so much into play — just talking on the phone, disembodied from how you look — your voice is standing alone.”

Changing a person’s voice is an internal process — and it can be hard to visualize. So the researchers first created a visual representation of the subjects’ speech patterns through a computer process called biofeedback. Hooked up to a monitor, their normal speech was displayed as a blue wave. Their goal frequency was displayed as a red wave. The experiment asked the subjects to match the two lines, training their voices to reach a higher frequency.

NYU community members, including trans women and cis men, constituted a majority of participants.

The decision to research trans women over trans men stems not only from the anatomical differences between female and male voices, but also from the fact that it’s much harder to transition from male to female vocal resonance than the reverse. If an individual chooses to use hormone therapy, they can expect their voices to deepen in pitch, whereas achieving the opposite effect for trans women is more difficult. The results of the study, however, were optimistic for the use of biofeedback in both trans men and women. But the research did not look into treatment options for trans and gender non-conforming people who might seek

out help with a vocal change that utilizes the method of biofeedback. Kawitzky said that with the positive results they achieved, it seems like a viable option in the future if others decide to build on their research.

“The study that we did wasn’t looking at treatment advocacy, we didn’t test for treatment at all,” Kawitzky said. “It was really more of a preliminary study to see if biofeedback could be used as a tool for treatment.

We’re hoping that our study, at some point, gets used to develop a protocol.”

Steinhardt senior Blair Perry, a trans woman who is the leader of T-party, a club for trans, nonbinary and gender-nonconforming students and their allies at NYU, thinks the research is important for the trans community as a whole.

“I still have that holdover from quieting myself to avoid getting clocked,” Perry said in an interview with WSN. “It makes me more introverted than I normally would be.”

Perry, however, can see how the research could reinforce common stereotypes and believes that voice therapy shouldn’t be necessary for a trans person to exist and feel comfortable in society.

“I think a lot of cases for the girls who’ve gone through speech therapy, they’re asked to speak in a stereotypical [feminine] voice, which can be really straining,” Perry said. “Trans people shouldn’t have to go through speech therapy in addition to everything else they do … I wish there could be more stuff to normalize trans voices and accept our community as a whole.”

Prussack corroborated Perry’s statement.

“From a queer theory perspective, I think it’s bullsh-t that we would invest money and technology to make trans people more [cisnormative],” Prussack said.

Email Kristina Hayhurst at khayhurst@nyunews.com.

Washington Square News | News

MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 17, 2018

NYU Bets You Would Text a Therapist CONTINUED FROM PAGE 1

“Students have increasingly preferred texting and online chat to connect with each other on a daily basis,” Ragouzeos said.

“This app was developed to extend accessibility to this demographic and continue to reduce the stigma around seeking mental health resources.”

But scientists have yet to reach a verdict on chat-based therapy programs — a new, somewhat controversial method of providing mental health support. Writing for The Outline earlier this year, journalist Paris Martineau spoke with several individuals who had used such programs.

The users described receiving unhelpful advice from under-qualif ied therapists, all the while being charged exorbitant fees for the service.

When opening the Wellness Exchange app, the user is prompted to either call the Wellness Exchange off ice or chat with a therapist. After the user selects the chat option, they are prompted to read three short documents on informed consent, data privacy and personal details. The user is also asked if they are at immediate risk of self-harm or harming others.

To more accurately report on this topic for WSN, I downloaded the app and conversed with a text therapist about a legitimate issue affecting my life — trying to juggle numerous time-consuming responsibilities in addition to school.

After going through these prompts, I started a chat conversation with “Rep. Marina K.,” who asked how she could be of aid. After I described various stressors in my life, she told me I would be transferred to a counselor; after waiting 23 minutes, “Counselor Sharon L.” picked up where Marina left off. Sharon asked me several questions about

my struggles, described an analogy in which I was a water kettle — and my mounting responsibilities constituted excess water being poured into the kettle — and asked me to think of responsibilities I may be able to cut down on or delegate to others.

About half an hour later, in the midst of our back-and-forth, Sharon abruptly told me the consultation was ending and asked if I had any parting thoughts. I asked if the conversation was ending because of some time limit; she said not necessarily, but felt we had discussed some tools and strategies I could try to apply. Before signing off, she encouraged me to reach out to the Wellness Center if I felt overwhelmed again.

Sharon L. is not an NYU employee; she and other chat therapists on the Wellness Center app work for a Toronto-based human resources f irm Morneau Shepell. Matthew McEvoy, the f irm’s senior director for Student Support, told WSN that its chat therapists work from designated call centers, and must have at a minimum a master’s degree in a “counseling related f ield” such as social work and receive additional internal training from Morneau Shepell. The f irm provides services to over 200 schools in the United States and employs over 4,000 people.

One NYU student, a Liberal Studies sophomore who spoke to WSN on the condition of anonymity due to stigmas surrounding mental health issues, recently used the Wellness Exchange chat service for the f irst time.

“When I f irst tried it, I exited out almost immediately because it freaked me out,” she said. “I don’t like talking about my feelings to people I don’t know.”

However, she returned to the app later that day and described a generally positive experience.

The ‘About’ page of the Wellness Exchange app.

Some advice was helpful, she said, while some wasn’t. Although she feels the service could help students less comfortable with face-to-face conversations, she strongly feels the service would be inadequate for those who are suffering severely.

Lawrence Reed, who teaches Psychology and specializes in mood and personality disorders, brought up a different concern about chat therapy programs.

Because patients are most likely to use these services at their most diff icult moments, users could become dependent on their text therapists. “[Text-based therapy programs] reinforce the idea that when you’re in a crisis, you text someone,” Reed said. “It’s much better to learn those skills so you can deal with crises on your own.”

According to Martineau’s article in The Outline, the effectiveness — or lack thereof — of chat therapy programs has not yet been thoroughly researched, largely because the services are so new to the f ield of psychology. In recent years, companies like Talkspace and BetterHelp have built successful business models off of this eff icient — but not necessarily effective — medium of therapy.

Regardless of long-term impacts, the Wellness Exchange app’s chat therapy service offers NYU students a new means of seeking out help. Whether the app increases the accessibility of therapy or drives students away from more helpful methods of treatment may remain unclear for years to come.

Editor’s note: Paris Martineau, a freelance journalist mentioned in this article, was a WSN editor during the 2016-2017 academic year.

Email Alex Domb at adomb@nyunews.com.

TONY WU | WSN

3 CRIME LOG

Staffer Reports Missing Envelope

By CRIME BOT Robot Reporter From Sept. 4 to 14, the NYU Department of Public Safety received one report of stalking, one report of robbery, 15 reports of controlled substance violations, nine reports of larceny, two reports of harassment, one report of criminal mischief, one report of attempted larceny and one report of aggravated assault.

Controlled Substance Violation On Sept. 6 at 9:10 p.m., a resident assistant reported witnessing underage alcohol possession in Weinstein Residence Hall. Police notification was declined, and the case was closed and referred to the Office of Student Conduct and Community Standards.

On Sept. 6 at 9:45 p.m., a resident assistant reported witnessing underage alcohol possession in Alumni Residence Hall. Police notification was declined, and the case was closed and referred to the Office of Student Conduct and Community Standards.

On Sept. 6 at 10:20 p.m., a resident assistant reported witnessing underage alcohol possession in Brittany Residence Hall. Police notification was declined, and the case was closed and referred to the Office of Student Conduct and Community Standards.

On Sept. 7 at 12:15 a.m., a resident assistant reported witnessing underage alcohol possession in Third North Residence Hall. Police notification was declined, and the case was closed and referred to the Office of Student Conduct and Community Standards.

On Sept. 7 at 12:15 a.m., an NYU Public Safety Officer responded to an alleged drug law violation in Gramercy Green Residence Hall. A small amount of marijuana was discovered and confiscated. Police notification was declined, and the case was closed and referred to the Office of Student Conduct and Community Standards.

On Sept. 8 at 2:08 a.m., a resident assistant reported witnessing underage alcohol possession in Lafayette Residence Hall. Police notification was declined, and the case was closed and referred to the Office of Student Conduct and Community Standards.

On Sept. 10 at 10:05 p.m., a resident assistant reported witnessing underage alcohol possession in Palladium Residence Hall. Police notification was declined, and the case was closed and referred to the Office of Student Conduct and Community Standards.

On Sept. 10 at 11:58 p.m., a resident assistant reported witnessing underage alcohol possession in Palladium Hall. Police notification was declined, and the case was closed and referred to the Office of Student Conduct and Community Standards.

On Sept. 11 at 6:10 p.m., an NYU Public Safety Officer responded to an alleged drug law violation in Lafayette Hall. A small amount of marijuana was discovered and confiscated. Police notification was declined, and the case was closed and referred to the Office of Student Conduct and Community Standards.

On Sept. 11 at 6:15 p.m., an NYU Public Safety Officer responded to an alleged drug law violation in Lafayette Hall. A small amount of marijuana was discovered and confiscated. Police notification was declined, and the case was closed and referred to the Office of Student Conduct and Community Standards.

On Sept. 12 at 12:10 a.m., a resident assistant reported witnessing underage alcohol possession in Alumni Hall. Police notification was declined, and the case was closed and referred to the Office of Student Conduct and Community Standards.

On Sept. 13 at 12:30 a.m., an NYU Public Safety Officer responded to an alleged drug law violation in Lafayette Hall. A small amount of marijuana was discovered and confiscated. Police notification was declined, and the case was closed and referred to the Office of Student Conduct

and Community Standards.

On Sept. 13 at 11:50 p.m., a resident assistant reported witnessing underage alcohol possession in Greenwich Residence Hall. Police notification was declined, and the case was closed and referred to the Office of Student Conduct and Community Standards.

On Sept. 14 at 12:18 a.m., a resident assistant reported witnessing underage alcohol possession in Third North Hall. Police notification was declined, and the case was closed and referred to the Office of Student Conduct and Community Standards.

Harassment On Sept. 4 at 11:13 p.m., an NYU student reported being the victim of harassment in Third North Hall. Police notification was declined, and the case was closed and referred to the Office of Student Conduct and Community Standards.

On Sept. 11, an NYU student reported that she and her roommate were victims of harassment in Clark Street Residence Hall.

Police notification was declined, and the case was closed and referred to the Title IX office.

Larceny On Sept. 8 at 3:17 p.m., an NYU student reported her handbag missing from a classroom in Midtown Center. Police notification was declined, and the case is open and under investigation.

On Sept. 9 at 3:55 p.m., an NYU student reported money missing from a pouch in Weinstein Hall. Police notification was declined, and the case is open and under investigation.

On Sept. 10, an NYU student reported her wallet missing from a lounge in 25 W. 4th St. Police notification was declined, and the case is open and under investigation.

On Sept. 10 at 6:40 p.m., an NYU student reported her umbrella missing from outside her dorm room in Lafayette Hall. Police notification was declined, and the case was closed and referred to the Office of Student Conduct and Community Standards.

On Sept. 11, an NYU staff member reported a laptop missing from a room in the Basic Science building. Police notification was declined, and the case is open and under investigation.

On Sept. 11 at 11:05 p.m., an NYU student reported that some of his laundry was missing in Othmer Hall. Police notification was declined, and the case is open and under investigation.

On Sept. 13 at 10:05 a.m., an NYU staff member reported that an envelope was missing from her office in 25 W. 4th St. Police notification was declined, and the case is open and under investigation.

On Sept. 13 at 11:40 a.m., an NYU student reported money missing from her dormitory in Weinstein Hall. A police report was filed, and the case is open and under investigation.

Robbery On Sept. 8 at 3:40 a.m., an NYU affiliate reported that he witnessed a robbery outside 18 Washington Pl. A police report was filed, and the case is open and under investigation.

Stalking On Sept. 6, an NYU student reported that she was a victim of stalking in Stuyvesant Town.

A police report was filed, and the case is open and under investigation.

Criminal Mischief On Sept. 5 at 11:53 p.m., a resident assistant reported that she saw graffiti in a stairwell in Third North Hall. Police notification was declined, and the case is open and under investigation.

Larceny On Sept. 6 at 1:30 a.m., an NYU Public Safety Officer witnessed a bike larceny attempt at Othmer Hall. The suspect left without the bike. New York Police Department was at the scene. The case is open and under investigation.

Email Crime Bot at news@nyunews.com.

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MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 17, 2018

CULTURE

Edited by NATALIE CHINN

Plant Parenthood: Starting a Green Family

By KAITLYN WANG Editor-at-Large A pop of color in the concrete jungle, plants are the new pets, aesthetic dorm decorations and semi-sentient additions to our college families. Following a recent rise in popularity, cat ladies have made way for the new and improved plant ladies, a trend budding at NYU and beyond, according to the Wall Street Journal and Refinery29.

A step below committing to pets or children, plants have found a place in the homes of aesthetic-obsessed young adults.

Sure, NYU students might not live on their own just yet, but dorm living isn’t going to stop them from collecting a family of

KAITLYN WANG | WSN

CAS sophomore Michelle Xu poses with her prayer plant, one of the six plants she houses in her dorm room in Palladium Residence Hall.

KAITLYN WANG | WSN

Soto names all of her plants. This particular neon plant is named Leon, because it rhymes. One of her others, a zz plant, is called Jay-zz, after the rapper. Soto’s two succulents are named Coco and Mario.

KAITLYN WANG | WSN

LS sophomore Lila Jacobs, who is Xu’s roommate, holds her rubber tree named Rita.

Jacobs has had houseplants since she was little, but moving to New York has made them especially important to her.

green children.

Gallatin junior Mercer Malakoff has always been a little obsessed with plants. Her great grandmother was a florist, and in Dallas, her family had always kept a healthy crop of potted plants. Malakoff decided to dot her dorm with plants to bring some greenery to her city life after starting at NYU. “The first thing I did, even before I moved into my [first-year] dorm, was I got two plants and moved them on my windowsill,”

Malakoff said. “I cannot go into a store and not be like, I have to get a plant.”

By her estimation, Malakoff has about 25 plants in her dorm room. The large number is a result of Malakoff repotting them after getting too big. Though she sometimes gives the plants away, she usually keeps them.

These plants have been more than just companions, however. They have helped Malakoff nurture a community online. Malakoff started an Instagram account called @ stuckbehindaplant, where she posts pictures of her own plants and plant inspiration. Malakoff is also part of a community on Instagram called Plant Mamas of NYC, made up of about 20 people. The women in the group swap tips and answer each other’s questions about plant care.

“I’ll go to these plant swaps with these women and we’ll swap plants or we’ll talk about rare plants,” Malakoff said. “It’s really weird but it’s totally cool.”

The plant community in New York and online has inspired people like Steinhardt sophomore Maria-Jose Soto to start their own plant families. The plant bug bit Soto during her first year at NYU. “My grandpa was really big into plants, the family usually had a garden and it was super cute,” Soto said. “But I couldn’t take care of a plant to save my life.”

In her first year, Soto lived near the Union Square Greenmarket, where she bought two succulents, figuring she couldn’t possibly kill a succulent. From there, the addiction snowballed. Her first-year roommate, CAS sophomore Michelle Xu, also picked up a couple of succulents, and the duo were quickly hooked. Soto now has four plants she calls her children but is saving up for a larger one she wants.

Soto said she’s gotten more and more attached to the plants as they’ve grown. All four of her plants have names: Coco and Mario are her succulents, and she has a neon plant named Leon and a ZZ plant named Jay-zz.

After being recently introduced to them, Xu has found herself equally invested in raising succulent babies. For her, plants are alluring because they are easy to take care of, especially as a busy student.

“I never thought I would be good at maintaining them because I always killed them in high school,” Xu said. “I kept eventually getting more plants and I was surprised at how

they’re all alive and growing.”

LS sophomore Lila Jacobs has had houseplants since she was little, but moving to New York heightened her love for cultivating and caring for plants.

“I live in New Hampshire, where I’m constantly surrounded by nature,” Jacobs said. “And then I moved here and I was like, there’s no nature anywhere, I need to make my own.”

“

When you see life prospering inside your residence hall, it makes you feel happy.

MARIA-JOSE SOTO Steinhardt Sophomore

”

Jacobs likes having plants, like her rubber tree named Rita, because she enjoys watching them grow. “It’s nice to have something to take care of, to have something depending on you,” she said.

However, not all people buy plants for the same reasons as Jacobs — for many, plants are purchased for the clean, fresh aesthetic. Unfortunately, Malakoff notes, most plant buyers — especially those just shopping for interior decor — don’t know how to properly tend to their plants, which results in quick deaths.

“I think it’s good that people are getting plants and having them in their homes, I just think it’s important to remember that they’re alive,” Malakoff said.

Like Malakoff, Soto wants people to take care of their plant children. After all, plants can help parents and their homes feel light and beautiful.

“When you see life prospering inside your residence hall, it makes you feel happy,” Soto said.

Email Kaitlyn Wang at kwang@nyunews.com.

Sex, Sorrow and Substances: The Pillars of Roommate Horror Stories

By NATASHA JOKIC Contributing Writer Halloween may still be a month away, but plenty of NYU students are living their own horror stories everyday. Roommates, whether in a shared room or within an apartment, can be the grounds of a great friendship or a necessary evil. Even if you weren’t a victim yourself, almost every first-year knows of a scary story to share, worthy of a spooky night around the campfire.

If your roommate doesn’t seem too ghoulish to begin with, exposure to the various vices made available in college can bring out the worst in people. Tisch sophomore Shayla Bowen learned this firsthand, thanks to her first-year roommate’s bothersome drinking habits.

“She stumbled across the room to my side, stood against my bookshelf and pile of shoes, and peed on the floor,” Bowen said.

Unfortunately, this was not a one-off incident: Shayla had to deal with her roommate’s bathroom misfires on several occasions. This, in tandem with a whole host of other nega-

tive incidents, led her to unofficially move to a friend’s dorm in Lipton Residence Hall.

But a roommate who can’t handle their alcohol is just the tip of the iceberg. When a bad roommate is mixed with even shadier activities, the results can be downright harrowing. Another NYU student, who preferred to remain anonymous after experiencing harassment from her former roommate, had a more than odd experience to share.

“She sold weed by the pound and had a scale in the room,” she said. “Regularly lots of her clients would come to the room and buy drugs from her. Once they were on acid and began screaming when I turned the light on to do my homework.”

Another key source of awkwardness in the first-year living experience is probably the biggest destroyer of college friendships: hookups. One student, who asked to remain anonymous for privacy, recalled fruitless attempts to break her roommate out of a bad spell after a difficult breakup.

“My drunk roommate and her man of choice were whispering and kissing,” she said.

“She begins boo-hoo crying on the guy. He

thought he was going to get some, but at that point, I really woke up. The guy taps me and tells me to calm her down, and before I could fully get out of my bed, the guy runs away.”

Sometimes, it’s less complicated than substances or sex. At times, fights will break out about personal space — or the lack thereof — in first-year residence halls. One Steinhardt sophomore, who also asked to remain anonymous for privacy, found the lack of separation between roommates to be a problem one time specifically.

“I woke up at 5:30 a.m. to his sheets moving furiously,” the student said. “Other than his obsession with jerkin’ it, he was an OK dude.”

Though it may seem like the end of the world at the time, a bad roommate experience is a fundamental part of being in college. Reflecting on her time in school and her troubles after a former roommate decided to rent out her room as an Airbnb without her permission, NYU alumna Emma Cillekens has some advice for those living out a real-life roommate horror story today.

“I think everyone in New York has a crazy roommate story — it’s a little bit like a rite of passage,” she said. “On the flip side, I have also had some incredible experiences with my roommates too. I have met some of

my best friends through living together and they have become my New York family.”

Email Natasha Jokic at culture@nyunews.com.

SOPHIA DI IORIO | WSN

Washington Square News | Culture

MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 17, 2018

5

What’s All the Noise About AirPods?

By JORENE HE Contributing Writer AirPods have been giving wearers the excuse to discreetly listen to music for two years now. They’ve been the audible version of an eye-roll — disrespectful and clearly not listening. Fashion elites consider them to be the next level of streetwear, and techies praise them for freeing them of wires.

They have been the one of the most controversial innovations to hit the market since their 2016 release.

The evolutionary Bluetooth earpiece claims to be “Wireless. Effortless. Magical.”

However, many beg to differ. “Lost. F-cking. Immediately.” someone tweeted. The two-inch plastic bits can easily be dropped down a sidewalk grate, and the subway gaps spare no mercy to them either. Your precious $160 ear speakers could be fallen soldiers in a matter of seconds, or worse, you could be left with just one.

AirPods have become the most popular earpiece around the world, with twice as many expected to ship in 2018 than last year.

The earphones are being spotted on

celebrities everywhere — from street style looks at New York Fashion Week to courtside at basketball games. AirPods have quietly infiltrated the world of the rich and famous, simultaneously making waves in the fashion industry. They have even been deemed stylish and described in Vogue as “the new earrings.”

Countless NYU students have hopped on the trend despite the steep price-point of $160, but not everyone sees AirPods as fashionable.

“I was reluctant to buy them before simply because of the design,” Tandon first-year Justin Hwang admitted. “I don’t like wearing them in public because they just look weird.”

Though dissenting from the warmth of fashion’s trend-makers, Hwang confesses his apprehensions about style were trumped by their high-tech functions.

CAS first-year Anna Park is a new owner of AirPods. After much internal debate, she dropped the $160 and isn’t looking back.

“In New York City, I find myself walking literally everywhere and I was getting so

annoyed with having to deal with tangled wires,” Park said, “So I invested in AirPods, and I must say there’s no going back.”

Park said the ease that AirPods could bring to her life was the main draw for her purchase; she can now step away from her laptop and continue watching a show, not constricted by any wires. But the argument stands: Beats by Dre and other wireless headphones existed long before AirPods; what’s the difference?

To that, Park only has one thing to say: “Because the AirPods are the only truly wireless earbuds on the market.”

Whether you would rock them or not, NYU professors agree the style is not suited for class. Unsurprisingly, they aren’t on board with you listening to the new Ariana Grande album instead of their carefully planned lecture on the Silk Road.

“They are a great invention, of course.

I use them myself. But if a student wears them in my class, I’ll have to ask him to take them off,” Language Professor Joe Vallese said. “It’s distracting both for me and other students because we’ll be wondering what are you playing in those AirPods, even

TONY WU | WSN

A student wears AirPods.

if you are not.”

Professor Judith Miller voices similar sentiments.

“It sounds pretty cool for you kids, but just don’t have them on in my classes,” she said.

Miller feels a lack of respect from students wearing them in class.

“I couldn’t know if you are listening to

me or the music or anything else,” she said.

So, let’s not get too stylish in class. Think twice before you decide to listen to Drake instead of your professors. But if you are investing in them for fashion, you might have the green light from Vogue and friends.

Email Jorene He at bstyle@nyunews.com.

OBITUARY

Something’s Fishy About Black Seed’s Special

By CELINA KHORMA Staff Writer Many New Yorkers grew up devoted to the bagel with lox and cream cheese, but are our palates ready for a change? Famed bagel eatery Black Seed thinks outside of the box by collaborating with different local restaurants to create outlandish and bizarre monthly specials. This month, it teamed up with New York City restaurant Huertas to create “The Huertas Matrimonio.” The result? Unique, to say the least.

The special features a garlic bagel loaded with olive cream cheese, piquillo peppers as well as boquerones and anchoas — two different types of anchovies. It’s certainly not for those who are squeamish about the saltwater delicacy.

I chose to not look up the special prior to trying it in order to avoid any second thoughts I might’ve had, and instead made my way to their NoLita branch to form my opinion firsthand. Now, I’m not put off by anchovies — I occasionally enjoy them on pizza or mixed in a Caesar salad — but I’ve certainly never seen fish as my sandwich stuffing of choice.

They were out of garlic bagels that day, which — as a garlic fanatic — upset me just a little. They instead offered me an everything bagel, which they told me was the next best thing. I accepted it after a moment of agitation and waited as I contemplated what I was getting myself into. The bagel finally

came out wrapped in white parchment paper, absolutely soaked in grease.

Anchovies and piquillo peppers are typically packed in oil, which, combined with olive cream cheese, left the three layers of napkins and a paper bag drowning. I bit into it anyway, thinking it was all part of the experience and was pleasantly surprised by the flavor.

Black Seed certainly got the formula right: cream cheese, fish and a plant-based garnish.

It’s a new take on a classic combination that tasted fresh and even Mediterranean. The flavor reminded me somewhat of Napoletana pizza and Penne Puttanesca, but on a bagel. The toppings melted well together.

Greasiness, though, was its fatal flaw.

When I eat a bagel, I prefer it to have that crunchy bite from being freshly toasted, and The Huertas Matrimonio packed none of that. I could also barely taste the cream cheese because the sheer volume of the other toppings dominated any other flavor.

If you can’t stand the taste of anchovies, absolutely do not try this bagel. If your palate is a little more adventurous, though, you should go for it. It’s not the absolute best thing your mouth will ever taste, and I probably won’t order it again, but it’s worth the short walk from campus to find out for yourself. After all, New Yorkers can all do with a little divergence from their routines.

Email Celina Khorma at dining@nyunews.com.

RACHEL BUIGAS-LOPEZ | WSN

Nike Just Did It to My Favorite Restaurant

TONY WU | WSN

Cafe Bari’s old location on Spring Street and Broadway is now occupied by a Nike Store.

By PAMELA JEW Under the Arch Managing Editor Hypebeasts have destroyed my life.

Sneaker culture has torn my family apart.

It’s ruined the sanctity of what it means to dress up — and worse — the “clout chasers” have killed my favorite restaurant.

What’s next? Will teenage white boys shut down brick-and-mortar grocery stores and make us resort to online grocery shopping?

I shudder at the thought.

Cafe Bari was a Mediterranean-Italian restaurant in the heart of SoHo at 526 Broadway, overlooking Broadway and Spring Street. On the first floor, you could sit ground level as passersby watched you work on your latest zombie historical fiction book and sip on your fourth cup of coffee. Or you could make your way up the spiral staircase to the second floor where you’d be eye level with all the scaffolding and everyone looks like an ant frantically trying to not get hit by a cab.

On a rainy summer day, my dad and I stumbled across this monstrous restaurant.

I was 12, and pasta was my favorite food.

It still is. Just the two of us and our empty stomachs; it felt like we ordered the whole menu. The table was filled to the edge with pastas, breads, salads, chicken parmesans and appetizers galore. But the best item on our table: the crisp, thin-cut fries. My food dreams came true as fries and pasta sat like two happy clams on my plate. Every time we returned to New York, Cafe Bari was a staple. My grandparents who never stray from Chinese food and anything bland came with us; we schmoozed my dad’s former high school friends. Cafe Bari was our

place to impress.

When I went to New York solo, I knew it would become my go-to place, or so I thought.

The summer leading up to my first year at NYU, my dad let me take a trip to New York with two of my best friends, given we stayed at my grandma’s house in Queens.

We weren’t permitted out past 12 a.m., but between 9 a.m. and midnight, New York was my buffet and playground.

“

My food dreams came true as fries and pasta sat like two happy clams on my plate.

”

As the child of two native New Yorkers, I carried the responsibility to show my friends the city. We made the trek from Queens to Lower Manhattan, and stepped off the R train. My body was ready to be resurrected by the flavors of Cafe Bari. I was ready to take my friends to this swanky — for 18-year-old me — SoHo dig. I proudly

led the way to Cafe Bari, only to be met by the skeleton of what used to be. Plastered over its floor-to-ceiling windows were ads and signs informing the city that Nike would be moving in soon.

I should have known — the news was everywhere. But it seemed that I wasn’t the only one upset about the new Nike headquarters — its SoHo neighbors were just as disappointed by the construction and thus further intrusion of corporate America. To be fair, no one was concerned for the death of poor Cafe Bari, only the birth of Nike. Later on, I checked the Cafe Bari Yelp page to be welcomed by two star reviews laden with complaints of bad service and cold food, so I shouldn’t have been surprised by its sudden death.

For a year, I refused to step into that damned Nike store. It was a symbol of death, gloating over its kill. Sure, it has a mini basketball court, but how dare they dribble on my heart for such a marketing scheme. The five-story waste of space supplies the masses with athleisure and me with a sense of betrayal.

Now, Cafe Bari has turned into a dinky cafe down at 276 Canal St., serving solely pastries and drinks and the occasional salad or sandwich. In other words, my beloved pasta in the Cafe Bari world is gone; it’s not making a yearly McRib comeback but a McDonald’s Super Size menu goodbye. My Cafe Bari and I never got our proper farewell with a side of french fries.

Email Pamela Jew at pjew@nyunews.com.

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MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 17, 2018

ARTS

ARTS@NYUNEWS.COM

Edited by RYAN MIKEL and DANIELLA NICHINSON

VIA YOUTUBE.COM

Ariana Grande on the cover of her fourth studio album.

VIA ITUNES.COM

Sounds of ‘Sweetener’

By JULIA FIELDS Contributing Writer In what was undoubtedly her most anticipated album to date, Ariana Grande reminded both fans and haters of her genuine talent. Released exactly a month ago, “Sweetener” immediately broke the U.S. Spotify record for biggest opening day by a female artist, racking up 15.1 million streams within 24 hours.

In case anyone questioned Grande’s ability to sing, the first track off “Sweetener,” “raindrops (an angel cried)” highlights the singer’s sweeping range perhaps more than any of her prior work. The interlude is a heavenly start to a gorgeous album.

On lead single “no tears left to cry,” released April 20, Grande referred back to her age-old combination of infectious beats and gossamer vocals — peppering the radio hit with stellar high notes with bouts of witty lyricism.

Expectations for the album were set incredibly high once the chart-topping “God is a woman” hit airwaves and streaming platforms. The single’s music video — focusing on the female body and featuring a Madonna monologue — set the tone for the rest of the album.

Despite the high standard set by the two singles, Grande faced the challenge of writing songs to live up to such a powerful anthem, and honestly, not many other tracks off “Sweetener” do. “God is a woman” proves to be the most epic and influential song off of the album, earning its single status.

While challenging herself musically, Grande also opened up herself to tackling more adult themes on the record as she moves further away from her Nickelodeon past.

Not only is she more upfront about her sexuality — “put them topics to bed, let’s go f-ck on the roof” — but Grande also ushers more attention to worldly problems.

Take the track “breathin,” which is rumored to be about Grande’s history of panic attacks. The repetition of the

line “just keep breathin’” in the chorus gives the song a calming quality, as if Grande wrote this reminder for herself as well as her fans. “get well soon” ends with silence to make the track exactly five minutes and 22 seconds, honoring the date of the bombing at the Manchester Arena in England after her live performance. In “successful,” she addresses the illusory fantasies and harsh realities of becoming famous at such a young age.

Throughout the chorus, Grande writes that “it feels so good to be so young and have this fun” and “you are so young and beautiful and so successful.” This could be Grande’s way of criticizing those who admonish her for her age or her gender in relation to her successful career, while also acknowledging her luck.

“Sweetener” challenges pop music structures and norms. While certain songs do not clearly distinguish between chorus and verses, the tracks instead blend together into a single wall of saccharine sound.

A perfect example of this is the titular track, “sweetener,” which is catchy, rhythmic and embodies the sweet imagery Grande creates with the album.

Grande alludes to her ex-boyfriend, Mac Miller, who recently passed, in singles like “better off” but would not dare forget her new fiance with his own interlude “pete davidson.”

Listening to the album now after the news of Miller’s passing adds a grim tone to certain tracks, but overall, “Sweetener” exudes a subdued, sophisticated and empowering tone.

No one is surprised about the success of “Sweetner” considering the reception of past projects, yet this addition to her acclaimed discography is wholly deserving of all of its praise.

Grande steps outside of her comfort zone and produces tracks that are equally meaningful and wholeheartedly fun. It is an album of reminders: of her incredible talent and her unflinching ability to make unique and timely music.

Email Julia Fields at music@nyunews.com.

‘White Boy Rick’ Misfires

By GURU RAMANATHAN Film & TV Editor While attaching a silencer to an AK-47 in his basement, Richard Wershe Sr. (Matthew McConaughey) advises his son, Rick Jr. (Richie Merritt), to think of weapons as hamburgers and fries when selling them to gangsters — you always want something on the side to make the deal more appetizing.

Though brought to life in this scene, the fast food analogy can be extended to Yann Demange’s new film “White Boy Rick” as a whole.

He attempts to serve up a slick gangster movie on top of a heartbreaking family drama while providing social commentary on drugs and the government. It all seems delicious from afar, but, unfortunately, no number of garnishes can distract from the fact that the food isn’t good.

Based on a true story, the film is set in the ’80s and follows the Wershes as gun dealers in Detroit, constantly riding the line between legal and illegal professions. FBI agents convince a naive Wershe Jr. to become an informant in exchange for keeping his father out of prison. Eventually, Wershe Jr. becomes corrupted by the gangster lifestyle and gambles his way

into becoming a drug kingpin before the age of 17.

The ever charismatic McConaughey is the saving grace of this unbalanced drama. He plays a man who tries to flip every negative situation into a positive one. He is not a good businessman or a great father, but these flaws are what makes his character so interesting. Wershe Sr’s consistent pushes toward a better life are engaging even if it is tragically futile, and McConaughey brings satisfying nuance and heart to the character that elevates every scene he is in.

Yet, the film places most of its focus on the bland Wershe Jr. Debutant Merritt passively moves from scene to scene with fake machismo and a prepubescent mustache. When Wershe Jr. veers away from the FBI and starts to build his drug empire, Demange depicts these decisions in the most uninteresting way possible. Even then, Demange depicts them in the most uninteresting way possible. After years of following Walter White, who would have thought being a drug kingpin could be painstakingly boring? In an attempt to cover many years of the Wershes’ lives, Demange skims over critical, and at times basic, details, and the audience is expected to just be enamored by Wershe Jr.’s

gangster paradise.

The film succeeds when it is a family drama and it flops at half-hearted attempts to be a discount “Goodfellas.” Wershe Jr.’s story is truly interesting, but the film treats him like any other Hollywood gangster.

Demange fails to explore the full gravity of his character’s situation or how significant of a role he plays in his own fate, and instead, at the last minute the film tries to garner sympathy toward Wershe Jr. by revealing how federal agents turned against him. However, at that point it is too late to reverse the muddled perception of Wershe Jr. that the story has already solidified.

“White Boy Rick” is not an egregiously bad film but quite disappointing considering the talent involved.

While the scene-stealing McConaughey may be the only legitimate Oscar prospect, it is likely Demange’s film will be lost in the shuffle of awards season. The mouth-watering potential of a gripping coming-of-age gangster drama is let down by mediocre execution and a weak lead performance, leaving “White Boy Rick” as takeout you wish you could take back.

Email Guru Ramanathan at gramanathan@nyunews.com.

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Richie Merritt and Matthew McConaughey in “White Boy Rick.”

Washington Square News | Arts

MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 17, 2018

7

Race Seen Through Three Lenses

By ELIZABETH CRAWFORD Contributing Writer Movies of the summer like “Blindspotting,” “Sorry to Bother You” and “BlacKkKlansman” are making waves in more ways than one. These rule-breaking, genre-warping feats of imagination brought refreshing variety, demonstrating on a minute-yet-notable scale how f ilm is branching out from typical iterations of stories that focus on race.

These f ilms are complex, each having so much to offer purely in terms of style and vision that they are slowly and steadily altering our perceptions of what a movie that deals with race can be. “Blindspotting,” “Sorry to Bother You” and “BlacKkKlansman” show us that a movie about race doesn’t have to be conf ined to the Civil Rights Era to be relevant. These inventive f ilms, like their equally impactful period-piece counterparts, are becoming catalysts for conversations that have so long thirsted to be had.

“Blindspotting,” the magnum opus of Tony and Grammy award-winning Daveed Diggs and acclaimed poet Rafael Casal, follows Collin Hoskins (Diggs) as he tries to navigate a minef ield of bureaucratic traps during his last three days of probation. This task is not made any easier by his best friend Miles (Rafael Casal), who, being white in a rapidly gentrifying Oakland, feels a constant pressure to prove his street cred. Miles’ desire for legitimacy, as we later f ind out, contributed to Collin’s f irst stint in jail.

In this f ilm, Diggs and Casal strike a unique and affecting balance between dramatization and that which is true to life. We see a stark contrast between the very intimate trauma Collin begins to experience after witnessing a police shooting and the relatively detached reaction from the outward Oakland community, a kind of desensitization that feels all too familiar in our society.

“Blindspotting” is punctuated with jabs at green juices and Vespas,

providing well-timed relief without negating the f ilm’s own thematic weight. Additionally, the syntactical choice to have the climactic scenes of the f ilm in verse promotes deeper analysis.

It is a f ilm that doesn’t claim to have all the answers but instead encourages viewers to look within themselves and acknowledge their own ignorances — their own blind spots. Plus, it’s really funny.

“

These inventive films, like their equally impactful period-piece counterparts, are becoming catalysts for conversations that have so long thirsted to be had.

”

Boots Riley’s “Sorry to Bother You ” — set in an absurdist, present-day Oakland — tells the story of Cassius “Cash” Green (Lakeith Stanf ield), a young black man trying to make the come up in the world of telemarketing. Initially floundering and unsuccessful, Cash receives the advice from a veteran telemarketer to use his “white voice” when trying to make sales.

No surprise it works, and that’s when the madness ensues.

From peeling lamps to picket line-crossing to bacchanalian parties at the home of a sarong-wearing, coke-snorting CEO psychopath (Armie Hammer), who made his fortune peddling slavery under a different name, “Sorry to Bother You” doesn’t just bring to light — it showcases, in what feels like a massive supernova — the consequences of unchecked capitalism as well as the reality that for so many African

Americans, their success in professional spheres directly depends on their ability — or inability — to disguise their blackness. The f ilm’s elements of magical realism don’t distract the viewer from its moral implications, but rather highlight them through stunning juxtaposition. “Sorry to Bother You” is poignant social commentary wrapped in a neat little acid trip package.

Lastly, in iconic Spike Lee fashion, recent release “BlacKkKlansman” brings it all to the table, and lets the viewer know that it brings it all to the table. The f ilm, based on a true story, is the epic of Ron Stallworth (John David Washington), the f irst black detective hired at the Colorado Springs Police Department, and his crusade to inf iltrate the city’s local chapter of the Ku Klux Klan over the phone.

Stallworth recruits a white off icer (Adam Driver) to assume his place at the in-person Klan meetings.

With intense cross-cuts and a score that raises hairs, as well as the tracking shot emblematic of Blaxploitation films from the early 1970s, Spike Lee keeps his newest film visceral, raw and almost too relevant for its own good.

“BlacKkKlansman” forces us to confront a truth we may have forgotten — that a quiet, virulent hate stirs deep within America’s underbelly.

The events of the film may have taken place in the 1970’s, but the final sequences of footage from the 2017 Unite the Right rally jolt us back into an eerily similar present, reminding viewers how highly adaptable, and therefore unrelenting, racism truly is.

At a very basic level, it is easy to draw comparisons between these f ilms, like how “Blindspotting” and “Sorry to Bother You” are set in Oakland or how the latter and “BlacKkKlansman” hinge on the main character’s ability to convincingly sound white. On a larger level, all three f ilms include versions of the black male experience and yet, they each create distinctively different entry points for audiences.

Email Elizabeth Crawford at film@nyunews.com.

A panel discussion at the annual Fusion Film Festival.

NYU Film Fest Uplifts Women in Cinema

By HANKINS FLETCHER Contributing Writer Women of all ages who enter a movie theater hoping to see stories and lessons they can relate to often leave disappointed. Women make up half of all moviegoers but just eight percent of directors, 10 percent of writers and two percent of cinematographers while just 24 percent of protagonists in films are women. Female voices are generally neither behind nor in front of the camera.

The lack of women creates a lack of nuance in expressing artistically crucial perspectives.

“

[The festival aims to] show what women are capable of making, and giving them a distinct outlet to prove to the industry and world around them that they are storytellers and their perspective is valid.

ALLISON CAVANAUGH Tisch Junior and Festival Director

”

Tessa Thompson and Lakeith Stanfield in “Sorry To Bother You.”

COURTESY OF ANNAPURNA PICTURES

COURTESY OF FUSION FILM FESTIVAL

The barriers between women and the film industry have remained since the days of a nascent and overtly sexist Hollywood. As a result, at recent major film festivals there has been a growing outcry from the lack of female filmmakers. At the 2018 Venice Film Festival, only 21 films in competition were directed by women and at the 2018 Cannes Film Festival, three out of 17 films in competition were directed by women.

But industry professionals and advocates alike are doing what they can to

help aspiring filmmakers overcome these hurdles. Nonprofits including Women Make Movies and Women in Film and Television International advocate in the name of gender equality in cinema.

At NYU, an institution heavily involved in the film industry, many of these endeavors are crystallizing. The school’s own Fusion Film Festival, established in 2003, encourages and promotes the representation of women in film. It culminates in a three-day event in the spring showcasing women in film.

The festival’s mission of bolstering women’s voices as creators and producers motivates its selection of a diverse group of films by women of all identities. “[The festival aims to] show what women are capable of making, and giving them a distinct outlet to prove to the industry and world around them that they are storytellers and their perspective is valid,” festival director Allison Cavanaugh told WSN. Of course, the onus of bettering the film landscape for women cannot fall solely on creators and the industry — there is much the filmgoer can do. To Cavanaugh, the best thing a concerned onlooker can do is simply support women filmmakers by seeing — and paying — for their films.

“I think that the concept of Fusion is extremely important because we need to celebrate female filmmakers, both ones that have been in the business and ones that are trying to break into it,” explained Tisch sophomore Jordan Mailes.

“I think that NYU can be overwhelming, and being in Fusion and meeting people who have similar goals to you is great.”

Tisch sophomore Mia Dixler agreed, “[It’s]a great platform for women in this industry to demonstrate their talent and what they’re capable of.”

Through the efforts of Cavanaugh, the Fusion Film Festival’s staff and advocates in the industry at large, the prospects of women in film are looking better.

In a conservative industry, the grassroots work for such groups and individuals as Fusion has done much to help women who choose to pursue this art form.

Email Hankins Fletcher at film@nyunews.com.

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8

OPINION@NYUNEWS.COM

MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 17, 2018

OPINION

Edited by JANICE LEE

CULTURE

In Defense of a Sheltered Upbringing

By NOSHEEN HOSSAIN Contributing Writer “Privileged” isn’t necessarily the f irst word that would come to mind if you saw me — I am female, culturally Muslim, an ethnic and racial minority. Nevertheless, I was raised in an immigrant-heavy suburban bubble where I was rarely in compromised situations due to my identity.

I never felt as if my potential was discouraged, and I was given access to every resource imaginable. This sheltered upbringing has certainly contributed to my worldview — everything from my innocence to my persistent teenage idealism, from my stubborn trust in my closest friends to my elemental faith in humanity, is drawn from my uncomplicated childhood, where I never felt as if

anyone had wronged me. I am aware that this comfortable upbringing is an immense privilege. As a result of it, I am unguarded, and I am not afraid to get hurt. While it might come across as naivete, I believe that this ability to trust in others, and myself, is a valuable asset.

The word “privileged” has a bitter, accusatory connotation, as it’s broadly used to describe anyone who has been born into situations that predispose them to a more comfortable life. Astonishingly, I have seen it breed a sense of guilt among the student population, but I don’t think guilt is a very benef icial feeling — it simply stunts honest self-reflection, and it blocks access to understanding positive ways that the privilege has socialized them in.

Privileges are a critical component of people’s childhoods, and they largely shape them into who they are in both good ways and bad. When conversations surrounding privilege only involve accusing straight white men of their predisposition to being racist, the other side of viewing privilege is neglected.

To reflect on my own sheltered

upbringing, I think the most important thing it gave me is my naivete. After I f irst realized that this had been my way of life, I started to pointedly embrace these traits. I quickly saw my trusting nature and vulnerability strengthen my relationships with people. It has made me a better friend, allowed me to wholeheartedly give emotionally to the people I care about the most and made me immune to feeling resentment toward others.

I am not saying that all who are privileged are also naive — I have met plenty who are not.

But it is important to engage in honest self-reflection of one’s own privilege. Rather than coming from a self-critical point of view and allowing it to affect guilt, we should look for

the ways we can embrace it, to reflect on the qualities the sheltered privilege has equipped us with and learn how to utilize them to be the best person we can be for the people who have been less fortunate.

Instead of shying away from this reality of being an individual with the privilege of a sheltered upbringing, I have chosen to recognize the gift of growing up in an environment where I was never forced to confront aspects of what might make me feel different from others. It has allowed me to come to New York with conf idence in who I am and who I have the potential to become.

I know I’m privileged. I know I have had a protected upbringing, especially now that I have been plunged headf irst into the jading cynicism of New York City, surrounded by people who are guarded even with their closest friends. If those of us who are privileged can focus on giving as wholeheartedly as we can to our communities, while still keeping our privileges in check by not treating others poorly or feigning despair, we might even be able to provide shelter for those that have not known the same solace.

Email Nosheen Hossain at opinion@nyunews.com.

RACHEL BUIGAS-LOPEZ | WSN

POLITICS

Giving Up My Voting Rights in My Home State

By YASMIN PATEL Contributing Writer As I made my way to pick up a nutritious lunch of Insomnia Cookies sometime mid-Welcome Week, my mind began to wander and the phrase “Register to vote, and then vote!” suddenly rang through my head. This mantra, pounded into my brain by everyone, from the “colorful crayon” performers during the Presidential Welcome to President Andrew Hamilton, pushed me away from gaining my f irst few pounds of the freshman 15 and toward the voting registration desk in the Center for Student Life. My dramatically prolonged experience in the center

led to my becoming an active voting citizen of New York City. Registering to vote in the state is a vital part of integrating yourself into the NYU community and the world that it offers, even if that means leaving behind the opportunity to vote in your home state for the time being.

Moving away from your home state should not inhibit you from voting this November. I myself was a registered voter in the state of California, which I gave up at the Kimmel Center for University Life in a possibly unrealistic declaration to stay in this enchanting city forever. With the desire to stay in New York for as long as possible fresh on my mind, I had to have known that it was necessary to relinquish my home state vote in order to register in another.

Yet I was unprepared to be asked the following question: “Do you want to f ill out an absentee ballot?”

I panicked — the idea of voting absentee went beyond my superf icially strong but veritably limited knowledge on voting. I learned that if I

Washington Square News

wished to vote in my home state, I could do so from New York through this ballot. For me, the prospect of mailing my ballot in before an election seemed somewhat f inicky, and I felt compelled by the imminent New York primaries. Either way, it is an important time for both those who feel comfortable giving up their home state voting rights and those who want to maintain representation at home to actively engage their voting abilities as citizens of the United States.

Voter turnout among young people is consistently low. Despite the fact that younger generations are considered to be politically engaged, thanks to social media, they also tend to be the most itinerant of age groups, moving to new cities for school or work before settling down.

Although I have never voted in California, it feels as though my decision to register as solely a New York state voter seamlessly accompanies the transition into the next part of my life as a college student. Getting to

exercise these voting rights as I start a life in New York makes it all the more of a place to call home.

While in the process of signing away one of the only legal adult ties I had to my home state, I grew increasingly aware of my transition into a full-fledged New Yorker (despite recently learning that my eager vote in the primaries did not count, since one must be a resident of New York for 30 days in order to register). Fortunately, however, the next elections for local, state and federal off icials in New York City are on Nov. 6, giving prospective voters just enough time to register and wear their “I Voted” stickers, as I will, like a badge of honor.

Please exercise your civic duty in whatever way you see f it, whether you take the time to vote absentee or choose to register in

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New York — but note that there is something special about being able to vote where you live, and starting to grow some roots.

Email Yasmin Patel at opinion@nyunews.com.

RACHEL BUIGAS-LOPEZ | WSN

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Washington Square News | Opinion

MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 17, 2018

9

POLITICS

Hurricane Florence Got the Support Maria Deserved

By PAOLA NAGOVITCH Abroad Editor It has been a year since Hurricane Maria made landfall in Puerto Rico, a U.S. territory, on Sept.

20 as a Category 4 storm. In that year, Puerto Ricans suffered the largest electricity blackout in U.S. history — which left the island without power for 11 months. Nearly 3,000 people died and many more were temporarily displaced. Scores of people migrated out of Puerto Rico, which lead to the closure of more than 250 public schools. Last week, in the contiguous United States, Hurricane Florence, a Category 1 storm, made landfall on the Carolina coasts. As a Puerto Rican, I am following Hurricane Florence closely, praying for those affected, but also noting the disparity in preparation and reaction between Florence and Maria. A year later, Hurricane Florence has reaffirmed that the U.S. government failed Puerto Rico in preparation, assistance and recovery.

In preparation for Hurricane Florence, President Donald Trump mobilized government assets, including local law enforcement and first responders, the National Guard, the U.S. Coast Guard and the Federal Emergency Management Agency. Three thousand National Guard soldiers and airmen were directed to the East Coast, FEMA and its partners promised to support all those who need it and the power companies had 40,000 workers from 17 states on standby for post-hurricane power restoration. Puerto Rico did not experience this incredible outpour of support and preparation before Maria. Instead, the federal government only prepared for one storm, Hurricane Irma, which passed north of Puerto Rico on Sept. 7 and fractured the island’s power grid. Because FEMA was not prepared for another catastrophic storm within the same month, the federal government left Puerto Rico with only a fraction of the aid necessary pre-landfall.

While this tragedy unfolds on the East Coast, President Trump has taken to Twitter to deny Puerto Rico’s post-hurricane death toll, praise his administration’s recovery efforts on the island and establish a conspiracy claiming that the Democrats

are responsible for making his efforts look bad.

But there is no conspiracy. The report released by FEMA detailing the agency’s failures in Puerto Rico proves that the federal government neglected and abandoned its own citizens in their time of need.

During the first 72 hours after the hurricane hit, FEMA admits that it had no idea what was happening across the island and failed to coordinate with local officials to create a plan. After that initial lapse in action, the response was pitiful. FEMA lacked thousands of skilled workers, lost track of aid it delivered, had no functional way of keeping track of who needed aid, sent satellite phones to the island that didn’t work in the Caribbean and did not have enough generators.

As resources continue to be deployed to the East Coast while Hurricane Florence makes its way inland, the U.S. population must remember that this impressive response on behalf of Trump’s administration was built on the suffering of Puerto Rico.

Millions of Americans in Puerto Rico lost their homes, their lives, their welfare and their island so that the federal government could learn how to effectively prepare for a natural disaster, a fact that the Trump administration will not face. It is no coincidence that the U.S. government has mobilized so forcefully for Hurricane Florence. They are aware of the ways they failed last year as proven by the FEMA report. Releasing the report was a positive sign that federal officials were willing to publicly recognize that they mishandled the aftermath of Hurricane Maria. However, that progress has been erased by Trump’s latest Twitter outburst denying that 3,000 people died because of the hurricane and the pathetic recovery efforts. By explicitly discrediting and diminishing the humanitarian crisis in Puerto Rico, Trump is perpetuating the cycle of neglect against the island instead of admitting the administration’s failures and working to restore the territory.

I sincerely hope that, once Florence is over, those affected do not suffer the same fate Puerto Ricans did. However, as Hurricane Florence batters the East Coast and Trump continues to belittle the crisis in Puerto Rico, it is crucial that we recognize the incompetence of the federal government’s disgraceful response a year ago. Our recognition of Hurricane Florence is valiant, but should serve as a consistent reminder of those who were so wrongfully left behind and neglected in Puerto Rico. The passage of time should not serve as an allowance to forget our government’s reprehensible abandonment of its own citizens.

Email Paola Nagovitch at pnagovitch@nyunews.com.

STAFF EDITORIAL

It’s About Time Rubin Cooled Down When the first-years moved into Rubin Residence Hall, they were just beginning to feel the brunt of living without air conditioning in New York City. Following a heat advisory issued during their first week on campus, Rubin residents received an email with the option to sleep in a cot in the building’s air-conditioned lounge.

That night, many residents took the opportunity and were displaced from their rooms to find relief from the intense heat. Though NYU announced that air conditioning will be coming to the dorm in three years, Rubin’s lack of air conditioning should have been addressed much earlier.

At first glance, a lack of air conditioning might seem like a true firstworld problem. However, with rising temperatures and longer heat waves due to climate change, air conditioning is now being viewed as a necessity, not a luxury. Researchers at Harvard University recently conducted a study which found that students who live in dorms without air conditioning perform significantly worse on basic cognitive tests than those with the amenity. This study is one of the “few [that] have observed heat wave effects on indoor temperatures.” While more research is needed to draw a conclusion, with rising extreme heat in New York City, the need for air conditioning becomes clearer. In response to the situation, University Spokesperson John Beckman discussed plans for renovating Rubin in 2021. However, with global warming becoming a more pressing issue each day, it seems as though this renovation might be coming a little too late.

Other college campuses face similar problems with a lack of air conditioning in some dorms. At the University of Pennsylvania, 800 students who live on campus were provided with Italian ices during the recent heat wave to help them cool down in lieu of air-conditioning. Considering that all dorms are the same price at UPenn, students questioned why the school risked their health and comfort. Other schools that offered students the option to sleep in common lounges during the heatwave included Dartmouth College and Yale, in addition to NYU. In 2017, Yale debuted two new residential halls without air conditioning. The halls were designed to include a mechanism to circulate “chilled air.” However, at the beginning of this academic year, the circulation mechanism failed to fight the heat wave, resulting in students having to spend nights on the basketball courts. In today’s climate, air conditioning is a must for students to succeed in highly demanding academic environments.

As global temperatures continue to rise, scientists expect more people to die of heat-related causes. Yet the issue of a lack of air conditioning in college dorms continues to be considered as a norm at several universities. These students, who are paying steadily increasing tuition fees, are facing the same problem that previous generations of students had to, but for a much higher price tag and in a hotter climate. It is time to change housing regulations so that air conditioning is not seen as a privilege but as a necessity.

Email the Editorial Board at editboard@nyunews.com.

JANICE LEE Chair HANNA KHOSRAVI Co-chair MELANIE PINEDA Co-chair MELANIE PINEDA | WSN

Graffiti on 13th Street refers to the death toll from Hurricane Maria.

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Washington Square News

10

MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 17, 2018

SPORTS

SPORTS@NYUNEWS.COM

WEEKLY UPDATE

Women’s Soccer Team Breaks Goal Record

By BELA KIRPALANI Editor-at-Large

Sports Analytics Seeps Into NYU Locker Rooms

By KEVIN RYU Contributing Writer

Men’s Soccer The men’s soccer team defeated John Jay College 2-0 on Wednesday, Sept. 12.

Stern first-year Oliver Kleban scored NYU’s first goal before fellow Stern first-year Pablo Vargas doubled the team’s lead.

The Violets won their fifth straight game on Saturday, comfortably defeating Hunter College 4-0.

Stern first-year Louie Meeks notched his first collegiate goal, just before Stern sophomore Matteo Russo made it 2-0 with his second goal of the season. Later in the match, Kleban continued his hot start to the season, scoring his fifth goal in four games.

CAS first-year Vince Bulzoni capped off the win with the team’s fourth goal.

The men’s soccer team returns to action on Wednesday, Sept. 19 at 7 p.m. when they will host Baruch College.

Women’s Soccer The women’s soccer team set a new NYU record for most goals scored in a game, after it waltzed to a 15-0 (yes, you read that right) win over the City College of New York.

NYU’s previous single-game record for goals scored was 11, set in both 1996 and 2000.

CAS juniors Alex Benedict and Jade Keane each scored two goals in the first half while CAS sophomore Tori Bianco bagged a hat trick. CAS first-year Ellie Marks and CAS junior Isabella de Almagro also got on the scoresheet in the first half.

The onslaught continued in the second half, with Keane completing her hat trick and a goal apiece from de Almagro, Tisch sophomore Lila Ketz, Stern junior Isabelle Turner, CAS junior Ashley Krygowski and CAS senior Maddie Peña.

The Violets will face off against the University of Scranton on Tuesday, Sept. 18 at 7 p.m.

Men’s Cross Country The men’s cross country team finished in second place with 75 points at the Bill Fritz/Charlie Way Invitational on Sept. 15 in Glassboro, N.J. Tisch senior Ben Haderle led the way for NYU, finishing in ninth place with 26:48.91 while GLS junior Ben Karam finished right behind in 10th with 26:51.47. Both runners were competing for the first time this season.

Also making their season debuts were CAS sophomores Dillan Spector and Jonathan Sussman, finishing in 14th and 15th place, respectively.

Rounding off the action for the Violets, Tandon first-year Toni Macabantad took 32nd place.

The men’s cross country team travels to Lehigh University next for the Paul Short Invitational on Saturday, Sept. 29.

Women’s Cross Country The women’s cross country team claimed fifth place at the Bill Fritz/ Charlie Way Invitational on Sept. 15, ending with 139 points.

Gallatin first-year Valentina House led the team for the third week in a row, finishing in eighth place with

Edited by BELA KIRPALANI

SAM KLEIN | WSN

First-year Oliver Kleban takes a shot in a Sept. 12 game against John Jay. Kleban is the Men’s Soccer team’s top scorer this year.

23:34.01. CAS junior Isabella Steains finished in 20th place in the competition with 24:15.77. Also competing for NYU were Stern senior Karen Yao and Tandon sophomore Mary Grace Neville, finishing in 48th place and 53rd place, respectively.

The Violets will be back in action on Saturday, Sept. 29 at the Paul Short Invitational in Bethlehem, Pa.

Women’s Volleyball The women’s volleyball team defeated the College of New Rochelle in three sets (25-11, 25-18, 26-24) on Tuesday, Sept. 11.

The Violets won two matches as part of the Knights Invitational on Friday, Sept. 14, defeating Moravian College in four sets (25-21, 25-18, 19-25, 25-18) before clinching a win against Widener University in another four-set victory (19-25, 25-19, 25-16, 29-27).

NYU concluded the Knights Invitational on Saturday, Sept. 15 with two more wins. The women’s volleyball team defeated host Neumann University in straight sets (25-23, 25-11, 25-21) before completing the fourmatch sweep with a win against the University of Scranton (25-16, 21-25, 25-22, 25-19).

The Violets will return to the court on Thursday, Sept. 20 at 7 p.m. when they travel to the College of Mount St. Vincent.

Men’s Tennis The men’s tennis team opened its fall season at the Connecticut College/U.S. Coast Guard Academy Invitational on Saturday, Sept. 15 in New London, Conn.

Battling against Connecticut College, the U.S. Coast Guard Academy, Springfield College and Roger Williams University, the Violets combined to finish 16-9 across all brackets in the tournament, going 11-6 in singles and 5-3 in doubles.

CAS first-year Christian Otero and Stern first-year Levi Shlyankevich made their collegiate debuts, each going 2-0 in the singles round. Otero beat his opponents (6-0, 6-1 and 6-0, 6-0), while Shlyankevich won his first round (6-1, 7-5) before defeating his second-round opponent (6-0, 6-1).

Otero and CAS senior Shrikar Kundur partnered to win both matches in the doubles round, 8-1 each time.

CAS junior Joshua Piatos and Stern senior Benedict Teoh also went 2-0 in

the doubles round, topping their opponents by scores of 8-4, 8-5.

The Violets continue their season on Saturday, Sept. 22 at 10 a.m. at the College of New Jersey Invitational.

Women’s Tennis The women’s tennis team competed in the Vassar Scramble on Saturday, Sept. 15 in Poughkeepsie, N.Y. Facing off against Vassar College, Connecticut College and SUNY New Paltz, the Violets went 5-7 in singles play and 2-0 in doubles.

CAS junior Coco Kulle was NYU’s standout player, winning both of her singles matches (5-7, 6-4, 10-6 and 6-1, 6-1) as well as her doubles match alongside partner Flyora Shiyanova (8-6).

CAS sophomore Kate Shaffer (6-3, 6-2) and Stern junior Judy Kam (6-4, 6-1) also secured singles victories, before teaming up to win their doubles match 8-3.

Men’s Golf The men’s golf team finished in third place at the Duke Nelson Invitational on Saturday and Sunday, Sept. 15 and 16, in Middlebury, Vt. Stern first-year Moibhi Tyndall was the top finisher for NYU, shooting a two-day score of 144 (72-72) to finish third among 111 players.

Another standout performer was fellow Stern first-year Joseph Burlison, who finished in 10th place with a 36hole score of 147 (70-77).

The Violets return to the course on Saturday, Sept. 22 at the Liberty League Championship Fall Preview.

One of the most signif icant trends in sports the past decade has been the increased emphasis on the use of analytics. Initially frowned upon and derided, analytics quickly became a way for teams to gain an edge on their competitors. For professional teams, mathematicians have become just as valuable as traditional scouts.

In soccer, clubs realized that crossing the ball was one of the most ineff icient ways to try to score. In basketball, teams began to play the percentages, encouraging players to increase their 3-point attempts and to limit the number of mid-range shots. Over the course of a 48-minute game, the math favors the team that takes more 3-point shots than mid-range jump shots, even though the latter had a slightly higher chance of going in.

“

Nelson knows that there is a point when data analysis becomes detrimental and where more traditional forms of scouting and player evaluation, such as game film, can supplement statistical analysis. .

”

Coach Dagan Nelson of the NYU men’s basketball team recognizes that the use of analytics has altered the way that people study and think about basketball.

“Over the last decade, from 2010, the use of analytics has risen dramat-

ically,” Nelson said.

As a participant in the analytics revolution, he has witnessed the benef its of using statistical information and has adjusted how he strategizes for games.

“We certainly look at numbers,” Nelson explained. “We look at both team-wide trends but also data on the individual players.”

Technology companies that Nelson utilizes, such as Synergy Sports Technology, provide statistics not included in traditional box scores — for instance, through Synergy, coaches can track the players’ preferred spots for shots, their eff iciency from different parts of the court and a player’s true shooting percentage, which factors in free throws and 3-point f ield goals.

By looking at this data, Nelson can alter the team’s strategy to account for the different tendencies of the opposing team’s players. For instance, Nelson notes that there has been a signif icant increase in the number of players that take about 60 percent of their shots from the three. As a result, drills that focus on improving the players’ perimeter defense have become a more important part of practice.

Moreover, the data can help Nelson identify certain exploitable traits in his players, which he can use to help them become more well-rounded.

With experience employing analytics to formulate his strategy, Nelson knows that there is a point when data analysis becomes detrimental and where more traditional forms of scouting and player evaluation, such as game f ilm, can supplement statistical analysis, Although Nelson recognizes the value of analytics, he is also cognizant of the dangers of overreliance on data.

“It is important to avoid paralysis through analysis,” Nelson said.

Email Kevin Ryu at sports@nyunews.com.

Women’s Golf The women’s golf team won the St. Lawrence Invitational on Sunday, Sept.

9 after shooting a team-record 293 on Saturday.

CAS senior Jenni Bluetling was recognized as the Liberty League’s Performer of the Week after she won the individual title by shooting a two-day score of 146, including a one-underpar 71 on Saturday.

Stern first-year Arshia Mahant was named Rookie of the Week following her two-day score of 149 (73-76).

NYU will return to action on Saturday, Sept. 22 at the Mount Holyoke Invitational at 9 a.m.

Email Bela Kirpalani at bkirpalani@nyunews.com

The Women’s Basketball team during a practice in February 2018.

SAM KLEIN | WSN

MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 17, 2018

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Washington Square News | Sports

EXPOSURE

11

Edited by KATIE PEURRUNG

Scenes From Cynthia Nixon’s Once-Hopeful Campaign

By ALINA PATRICK Contributing Writer On Sept. 12, the night before the New York primary elections, Cynthia Nixon held a rally.

Representatives from the Working Families Party, various community organizers and members of the New York City community who felt alienated

by Andrew Cuomo’s policies all spoke about the inclusive nature of Nixon’s campaign and the need for a Democratic governor who was not afraid to be left of center. Nixon spoke about her main objectives as governor: extending the rights of undocumented immigrants, promoting inclusion of the LGBTQ community and ending racist drug prosecutions, among other issues. I spoke to many volunteers and supporters who described Nixon as unapologetically liberal and unbesmirched by the support of corporate coffers. Nixon’s past as an actress on “Sex and the City” seemed to most of her supporters as an advantage and a way to use her celebrity status to promote awareness over issues she was running on.

ALINA PATRICK | WSN

Speeches were also given by the candidate for Lieutenant Governor of New York, Jumaane Williams, and candidate for Attorney General of New York, Zephyr Teachout. Williams spoke emphatically about a need for more compassion in the current political arena. He instructed the audience to all hold hands and experience the love and passion in the room. Teachout explained the need for more stringent action against corruption in New York politics. However, the overwhelming message from each candidate, representative and volunteer who spoke was that primaries are an important yet neglected part of the political process. So many people don’t even know there is an election going on, let alone who’s running. Primaries ensure that the right candidates are representing the people and can determine which issues will become the most important in a candidate’s career. Even though Nixon lost, her message still stands — participation is the only way to change anything.

Email Alina Patrick at multimedia@nyunews.com.

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