New York University
Numerous noted scholars have taught at New York University since its inception in 1831, among them several
Nobel Prize,
Pulitzer Prize and
MacArthur Fellowship winners, many
Guggenheim Fellows and several members of the
National Academy of Science.
NYU's aggressive recruitment of renowned professors and high-potential graduates has been a large factor in the University's growing prestige. It has often been involved in bidding wars to lure top faculty in an attempt to boost its academic reputation. NYU is remarkable in that it went from being a near-bankrupt commuter school to becoming one of the country's most prestigious research universities, in large part due to the fact that, instead of building its endowment, the University spent its money on building new facilities and hiring more faculty.
On November 9, 2005, graduate student teaching assistants and research assistants, members of the Graduate Student Organizing Committee (GSOC-UAW Local 2110) went on strike. The strike began three months after President
John Sexton and the
University Leadership Team refused to negotiate a second contract with the union. The administration was responding to a July 2004
National Labor Relations Board decision which reversed the four year old precedent established at New York University in November of 2000, requiring NYU to recognize and negotiate with its graduate employees. In a November 28, 2005 letter, Sexton issued a statement declaring that all strikers who did not return to work at the beginning of the following week would lose their teaching positions for the entirety of the following semester. The union's members voted at four membership meetings on November 30th and December 1, 2005, to remain on strike. Early in the Spring 2006 semester Sexton began a policy of sanctioning striking GAs, prohibiting them from teaching and removing their funding for future semesters.
Most NYU buildings are scattered across a roughly square area bounded by
Houston Street to the south,
Broadway to the east,
14th Street to the north, and
Sixth Avenue (Avenue of the Americas) to the west. The majority of NYU buildings surround
Washington Square Park. In the past, there has often been tension between NYU and other neighborhood residents and businesses over real estate issues. In spite of this, NYU is the largest landowner in the city.
Washington Square campus
Since the late 1970s, the center of NYU is its
Washington Square campus in the heart of
Greenwich Village. Every year it holds its commencement (graduation) ceremonies in Washington Square Park. One of the city's most creative and energetic communities, the Village is a historic neighborhood that has attracted generations of writers, musicians, artists, and intellectuals. Today, Greenwich village is one of the toniest areas in New York City, and is home to many young professionals.
Notable facilities on
Washington Square are the
Elmer Holmes Bobst Library, designed by
Philip Johnson and
Richard Foster, who also designed several other structures, such as Tisch Hall, Meyer Hall and the Hagop Kevorkian Center. Historic landmark buildings include the
Silver Center (formerly known as "Main building"), Brown Building (formerly called the "Asch building", site of the
Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire), Judson Hall, which houses the
King Juan Carlos I of Spain Center [
1], Vanderbilt Hall, the historic townhouse row on
Washington Square North, the Kaufman Management Center and the Torch Club, the NYU dining and club facility for alumni and faculty. Just a block south of Washington Square, there is NYU's
Washington Square Village which houses graduate students and junior faculty, and senior faculty residences in the Silver Towers, designed by
I.M. Pei, where an enlargement of Picasso's sculpture Bust of Sylvette (1934) is displayed.
In the 1990s, NYU became a "two square" university by building up a second community around
Union Square, which is about a ten minute walk from Washington Square. NYU's Union Square community consists of the upper classmen residence halls of Carlyle Court, Palladium Residence Hall, Alumni Hall, Coral Towers, Thirteenth Street Hall, and Third North Residence Hall. The Union Square area has many upscale restaurants, lounges, bars, and markets such as
Whole Foods and a new
Trader Joe's.
NYU theaters and clubs
NYU operates a number of theaters and performance facilities which are frequently used by the university's
music conservatory and
Tisch School of the Arts but also external productions. All productions are generally open to the public. The largest performance spaces at NYU are the
Skirball Center for the Performing Arts (850 seats) at 566 LaGuardia Place, just south of Washington Square South, and the Eisner-Lubin Auditorium (560 seats) in the Kimmel Center. Recently, the Skirball Center saw important speeches on foreign policy by
John Kerry[John Kerry's speech at NYU http://www.globalsecurity.org/wmd/library/news/iraq/2004/09/iraq-040920-kerry01.htm] and
Al Gore[Al Gore's speech at NYU http://www.moveon.org/gore-speech.html] as well as the recording of the season finale of
The Apprentice 3. Of fame is also NYU's Provincetown Playhouse on MacDougal Street, where Eugene O'Neill among many others launched his career and the Frederick Loewe Theatre. Catalyst to many careers in music (
Bruce Springsteen started here among many others) was the famous nightclub The Bottom Line located on the corner of West 4th and Mercer Streets. Despite the protest of the music scene and many fans, the club was evicted by NYU after being unable to meet the increased rent payments for several months.
Bobst Library
The Elmer Holmes Bobst Library, built between 1967 and 1972, is the largest library at New York University and one of the largest academic libraries in the United States. Designed by
Philip Johnson and
Richard Foster, the 12 story, 39,000 m² (425,000 square feet) structure sits on the southern edge of Washington Square Park and is the flagship of an eight-library, 4.5 million volume system that provides students and faculty members with access to the world's scholarship and serves as a center for the University community's intellectual life. Bobst Library houses more than 3.3 million volumes, 20 thousand journals, and over 3.5 million microforms; and provides access to thousands of electronic resources both on-site and to the NYU community around the world via the Internet. The Library is visited by more than 6,500 users per day, and circulates almost one million books annually. In addition to its regular collection it houses a number of special collections and archives, including the Archives of Irish America and the
Tamiment Library and Robert F. Wagner Archives.
The floor of the library, when viewed from above, was designed to appear three dimensional. In late 2003, Bobst Library was the site of several suicides. Two students jumped from the open air crosswalks inside the library, crashing to the marble floor below. Both later died from their injuries. After the second suicide, NYU installed glass windows on each level to prevent further jumping. These deaths were the first among a rash of jumping deaths at NYU in 2003 and 2004. In 2003, Bobst Library was also in the news for being the home of a
homeless student who took permanent residence at the Library since he could not afford student housing.
[http://www.homelessatnyu.com/]Washington Square Arch
Despite being public property, the Washington Square Arch is the unofficial symbol of NYU, expanding the 5th avenue axis into
Washington Square Park. The arch was designed by Stanford White in 1889 to commemorate the centennial of George Washington's inauguration in New York City. Originally of wood and papier mache, it was rebuilt as a massive marble and concrete structure from 1890-1895. Today, thousands of NYU graduates march through the arch into Washington Square park to participate in the annual commencement exercises. The arch was renovated in a $2.7-million restoration project from 2002-2004.
[http://www.nycgovparks.org/sub_newsroom/daily_plants/daily_plant_main.php?id=10606]Recent developments
Over the last few years, NYU has developed a number of new facilities on and around its Washington Square Campus:
=Kimmel Center for University Life
=The Kimmel Center for University Life gives students, faculty, alumni, and staff at NYU the space to come together as a community for major events, ceremonies formal and informal, and artistic performances of all kinds. Named for benefactors Helen and Martin Kimmel, the center also houses the Skirball Center for the Performing Arts, the Rosenthal Pavilion, the Eisner & Lubin Auditorium, and the Loeb Student Center. The Kimmel Center is known for lighting up Washington Square at night, as the lights in the building are never turned off. Annually, the electricity bill for the Kimmel Center for University Life tops $1,000,000.
=Furman Hall
=Furman Hall was named after NYU Law alumnus Jay Furman (JD '71). It includes classroom space, student meeting areas, the Law School clinical program, faculty and administrative offices, and faculty residences. The new building is located on West Third Street between Sullivan and Thompson streets, south of Washington Square Park. It totals 170,000 gross square feet. The building's architect is Kohn Pederson Fox Associates PC. NYU worked closely with the Greenwich Village community to integrate the new building into surrounding architecture. Reconstructed elements of two historic buildings were incorporated into the new facade, one of which was occupied by poet Edgar Allan Poe.
[Albert Amateau. "N.Y.U. opens new building for law school". The Villager. Volume 73, Number 37, January 14 - 2, 2004 http://www.thevillager.com/villager_37/nyuopensnew.html]=Life Science Facility
=In 2005, NYU announced the development of a new life science facility on Waverly Place. The facility will house laboratories and related academic space for the life sciences and will be the first NYU science building developed since the opening of Meyer Hall in 1971. The new facility will be created through the renovation of three existing buildings at 12 - 16 Waverly Place whilst preserving the original, existing facades.
[Lincoln Anderson. "N.Y.U. to use Waverly buildings for its new life sciences center". The Villager. Volume 74, Number 28, November 17 - 22, 2004 http://www.thevillager.com/villager_81/nyutousewaverly.html]=E. 12th Street Residence Hall
=In November 2005, NYU announced plans to build a 26 floor, 190,000 square foot residence hall on 12th Street. The residence hall is expected to house about 700 undergraduates and contain a host of other student facilities. It is to be the tallest building in the
East Village.
[http://www.nyunews.com/vnews/display.v/ART/2005/11/08/4370457b6de3d] This has caused quite a stir among East Village and New York residents, seeing as how the new building would be built over the old St. Ann's Church, and would be the tallest building in the East Village.
[http://villagevoice.com/news/0610,lombardi,72426,2.html]Medical and other campuses
The main NYU Medical Campus is located at the East River water front at 1st Ave. between 30th and 34th street. The campus hosts the Medical School, Tisch Hospital and the Rusk Institute of Rehabilitation Medicine. Other NYU Centers across the city include NYU Hospital for Joint Diseases and the Bellevue Hospital Center. NYU's Ehrenkranz School of Social Work operates branch campus programs in Westchester County at
Manhattanville College and in Rockland County at
St. Thomas Aquinas College. NYU maintains a research facility in Sterling Forest, near Tuxedo, New York, which houses several institutes, notably the Nelson Institute of Environmental Medicine. The Midtown Center at 11 West 42nd Street and the
Woolworth Building in the financial district are home to NYU's continuing education programs.
Foreign facilities
NYU has an extensive study abroad program which a good portion of the student body participates in and the school has earned the nickname "Global U". Unlike most other universities, NYU maintains its own international facilities in several countries. Most notable is the 57-acre campus of NYU Florence at
Villa LaPietra in Italy, bequeathed by the late Sir
Harold Acton to NYU in 1994.
[http://www.nyu.edu/nyutoday/archives/16/01/Stories/LaPietra.html] NYU also has its own facilities in London, Paris, Prague, Berlin, Ghana, and Madrid, and is currently starting a program in Shanghai.
International houses on campus
NYU has several international houses to foster the study of international culture and languages. The international houses have their own classroom space, libraries, offices and often host campus events. The NYU international houses are:
*
Deutsches Haus*
La Maison Française*
Glucksman Irish House,
*
Casa Italiana,
*
King Juan Carlos I of Spain Center*
Hagop Kevorkian CenterNYU was also the founding member of the
League of World UniversitiesResidence halls
NYU Residence halls are unique in that many are converted
apartment complexes or old
hotels. Freshman residence halls are in the Washington Square area. While many of the upper classmen dorms are in the Union Square area, some are as far away as the financial district. Until the Spring 2005 semester, NYU utilized a lottery system to determine eligibility for residence hall preference. Under this system, a student received one point for every semester they had lived in campus housing. Freshmen are exempted from the lottery system and are traditionally placed in the halls closest to the main campus area. Therefore, historically most of the students who lived in dorms located off-campus were sophomores. However, beginning in the Fall 2006 semester, sophomores will receive priority housing, giving them first choice of residence halls. The university operates its own transit system to transport these students, via
bus or trolley, to campus. Some students, however, feel that this independently run transit system is inconvenient and opt to utilize the
New York Subway system.
Due to an increase in the number of students applying for housing, approximately 500 residents do not currently have an assignment for Fall 2006. However, all residents are guaranteed housing for that semester.
[http://www.nyunews.com/vnews/display.v/ART/2006/03/30/442ba4d5f148c]There are currently twenty-one buildings in the New York University undergraduate housing community. Undergraduate students are guaranteed housing for the duration of their tenure at NYU.
NYU residence halls receive favorable ratings overall, and some are downright luxurious. Many rooms are spacious, and contain amenities considered rare for individual college residence hall rooms such as kitchens and living rooms/common areas. All residence halls are staffed by 24 hour security staff, contain multiple residence assistants(RAs), and several halls contain faculty in residence. Unlike many other universities, NYU rooms all have their own bathrooms and thus there are no common bathrooms. Many residence halls have their own dining hall, and the university has meal options to suit various diets. Almost all of the residence halls have a
laundry room that is open to resident students twenty-four hours a day. The price of using these facilities varies from hall to hall, due to the fact that some halls are leased and NYU can not control the laundry prices.
All of the residence halls are governed by the Inter-Residence Hall Council (IRHC), which is an umbrella student council organization. Each hall elects student representatives to the IRHC, and these representatives meet with one another to form committees and vote on an executive board. The goal of this group is to create programs for university students and to act as a liaison to university administration.
NYU's location in
Greenwich Village — a vibrant and creative neighborhood that has attracted generations of artists, writers, intellectuals, and musicians — provides a unique perspective in which to study. The Villageâ€"and the rest of New York Cityâ€"acts as an extension of NYU's campus. Being that NYU's "campus" is a patchwork of buildings and structures across much of the Village, it is indeed an "urban university" that has embraced the city as an essential element of the academic experience. NYU is largely a reflection of the population of New York City, having a mostly progressive and liberal-minded student body. According to the
Princeton Review, NYU ranks second in the nation in its acceptance of
gays and
lesbians.
That said, NYU is often criticized for its lack of a "campus life" and it has been said that the University lacks a strong sense of community, particularly amongst undergraduates. This fact was put into perspective when a string of six highly publicized suicides took place at (or around) the University during the 2003-2004 academic year.
[http://www.thevillager.com/villager_46/nyucopeswith.html] NYU responded by offering free counseling to all enrolled students and installing glass walls to enclose the balconies at
Bobst Library, where two of the suicides took place. They have begun installing locks on all windows in buildings with many stories, as well as restricting access to balconies in dorms.
In 2004, NYU unveiled its new Kimmel Center for University Life, on the south side of Washington Square, which includes a 1,022-seat performing arts center (the Skirball Center for Performing Arts), space for student clubs and activity programming, and student lounges.
NYU prides itself on being conducive to any students wishing to create their own sense of environment within the thriving campus activities. NYU's policy of needing only four members to constitute a club makes this a popular trend among today's students. Aside from the sports teams, fraternities, sororities, and clubs that focus on fields of study, some of the most visible on-campus organizations are those of the print media clubs, such as the
Washington Square News, comedy magazine
The PLAGUE and the literary journals
Washington Square Review and
The Minetta Review.
NYU's sports teams are called the Fighting Violets and its school
mascot is the Bobcat. Almost all sporting teams participate in the
NCAA's
Division III and the
University Athletic Association, except for men's volleyball, which competes in the
Division I Eastern Collegiate Volleyball Association. The
fencing team is Division I, and is considered one of the best in the nation. The National Intercollegiate Women's Fencing Association (NIWFA) was founded by NYU freshmen Julia Jones and Dorothy Hafner. The school's official colors are purple and white. NYU has not had a varsity
football team since the 1970s.
NYU has won one NCAA Division III national championship. In 1997, the women's basketball team, led by head coach
Janice Quinn, won a championship title over the
University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire. NYU had a football team and competed in Division I athletics until the university's Bronx campus and its athletic facilities were sold in the 1970s.
Many NYU students also compete in a number of club and intramural sports, including
lacrosse,
crew,
squash,
rugby,
badminton,
ice hockey,
baseball,
softball,
equestrian,
martial arts,
ultimate frisbee and
triathlon. The
Coles Sports and Recreation Center serves as the home base of several of NYU's intercollegiate athletic teams, including
basketball,
wrestling and
volleyball. Coles is considered the hub of recreational and athletic needs for the university's students, faculty, staff, and alumni. Coles has substantial facilities such as weight rooms, squash courts, tennis courts, olympic sized swimming pool, basketball courts, and a rooftop running track. It also offers around 130 classes, serving approximately 10,000 members of the university community.
Many of the university's varsity teams have to play their home games away from the Coles center due to the lack of space for playing fields in Manhattan. The soccer teams play their home games at Van Cortlandt Park and the track and field teams have their home meets at the New Balance Track and Field Center. The golf team does not have a home course in Manhattan, but they often practice at
Chelsea Piers Athletic Facility and at various
country club courses in the New York area.
The women and mens track and field teams, under their respective coaches Jef Smith, Lauren Henkel, and Nicholas McDonough practice at both Coles and the 169th St Armory. Christian Majdick of the men's track and field team captured the NCAA Division III championship for the triple jump in 2003. Lauren Henkel one of the most accomplished athletes in NYU track and field history and the current assistant coach of the women's track and field team garnered All-American status three times for High Jump under the tutelage of Jef Smith.
The men's and women's soccer teams, under their respective coaches Joe Behan and Amanda Vandervort practice at Riverbank State Park in Harlem. In 2003 the women's soccer team competed in the NCAA Division III Sweet Sixteen.
In 2002, the University opened the Palladium Athletic Facility as the second on-campus recreational facility. Its amenities include a rock climbing wall, a
natatorium with an Olympic sized swimming pool, basketball courts,
weight training, cardio rooms, and a spinning room. The Palladium, erected on the site of the famous New York
night club bearing the same name, is home to the university's
swimming and
diving teams, and
water polo teams. NYU men's and women's swimming teams, under their respective head coaches Bob Sorensen and Lauren Smith, have done well in recent years capturing consecutive (2004-2005) Eastern Collegiate Athletic Conference (ECAC) Division III Swimming and Diving Championships.
Albert - the online system, named after Albert Gallatin, by which students can register for courses, check grades, pay bills, and obtain school records.
Asian Pub - Also known as "Cooper 35"; a bar located on
Cooper Square in the East Village that caters primarily to undergraduate students and offers inexpensive mixed drinks.
BBQ - Dallas BBQ restaurant located very close to campus, popular with students who seldomly eat there, but frequent the 11am-7pm
happy hour for large, cheap drinks.
BDT - The
Bobst Diving Team, referencing the large number of suicides committed by jumping from a high level in the Bobst Library.
Bobcat - the mascot of the university and also the search engine of Bobst Library.
Campus Cash - a system by which students can deposit money on their NYU cards, and the card can be used to purchase goods and services at both NYU locations and various campus area merchants.
Dining Dollars, formerly
Declining Dollars - a fixed sum of money which comes with NYU meal plans. Dining Dollars are used in NYU dining halls for things other than normal meals such as paying for guests or buying snacks. Dining Dollars now carry over semester to semester.
Freshman Cluster - the freshman residence halls near Washington Square consisting of Hayden, Goddard, Weinstein, Brittany, and Rubin.
F.Y.R.E. - First Year Residence Experience. FYRE is part of the Department of Residential Education and is focused on enhancing the intellectual and social experience for new students and helping them develop a community at NYU. [
2]
G-ho - reference to Greenwich Hotel, a residence hall located in the West Village.
Gallatino - nickname for a student in the Gallatin School of Individualized Study.
Grad Alley - the celebration and street fair that takes place in the Washington Square area before graduation. Grad Alley is capped with a fireworks display.
GSP- The General Studies Program. A two-year liberal arts education after which the student can transfer into the school they originally applied for.
Josie's- the Josie Woods pub on Waverly Place, which is very popular with students and occasionally with professors.
MAP - the Morse Academic Plan, which is the liberal arts core curriculum of CAS. Other NYU schools also require their students to fulfill certain portions of MAP.
NYUHome - the email system of the university.
P-town - nickname for the Palladium Residence Hall, located near Union Square.
PUG - The
Palladium Unified Government, the name of the Palladium's Hall Council.
Senior Shaft- After spending 3 years and thousands of dollars, upcoming seniors are denied priority housing after 2006's alteration of the lottery system.
Sternie - nickname for a student in the Stern School of Business.
The None-Bar None, a bar on 3rd avenue which is very popular amongst undergraduates.
The Stern Curve - what students consider a brutal curve in the Stern School of Business that's designed to prevent
grade inflation.
Tischie - nickname for a student in the Tisch School.
Union Square Cluster - the mostly upperclassmen residence halls near Union Square consisting of Carlyle Court, University Hall, Palladium Hall, and Coral Towers.
U Hall - University Hall, a residence hall located in the Union Square area.
Upstein/Downstein - The two dining venues within Weinstein Residence Hall. "Upstein" is, obviously, upstairs and is a foodcourt. "Downstein" is an all-you-can-eat traditional dining hall.
WSN - the
Washington Square News, the daily campus newspaper.
NYU has been portrayed or been the scene in several films and novels:
*
Will Truman and
Grace Adler (from "
Will & Grace") are portrayed as having attended NYU (they lived across the hall from each other) and frequently wear shirts with the NYU letters on them.
*
Kramer hires Darren, an intern from NYU, to help him run "Kramerica Industries" on season 9 of
Seinfeld (episode 158 - "The Voice").
*
Jerry is interviewed by a reporter from the NYU student newspaper (and mistakenly believed to be gay) on season 4 of Seinfeld (episode 57 - "The Outing").
* Finch in the
American Pie films is noted to attend NYU when he graduates high school.
* The movie
Loser was set at NYU.
* Denis Fleming in the film
Can't Hardly Wait is an NYU student.
* Alvy Singer in
Annie Hall is an NYU student.
*
A Friend of Dorothy is set at NYU.
*
The Freshman, 1990, is set at NYU with
Matthew Broderick portraying an NYU Film student.
*
The Apprentice 3 season finale was shot at the NYU Kimmel Center.
* Scenes from
The Exorcist were filmed at NYU Medical Center.
* The film
Greenwich Village Writers: The Bohemian Legacy was filmed at NYU, starring several NYU Professors.
* In the film
In Good Company, Alex Foreman (
Scarlett Johansson) is an NYU student, just moving into Hayden Residence Hall off Washington Square Park.
* Dr. Guy Luthan played by
Hugh Grant in
Extreme Measures is an NYU Med Student.
*
Henry James' novel
Washington Square is set around the NYU area. Several movie and TV adaptations have been made of the novel (1949, 1975, 1996).
*
Rose of Washington Square, 1939 and
13 Washington Square, 1928, directed by Melville W. Brown, are centered around the NYU Campus.
* Tibby in the novel
The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants attends NYU.
*
Nicolas Cage attended NYU in college in the movie
The Family Man and ends up as a prominent investment banker.
* True to life,
Al Pacino's character of
Frank Serpico attends NYU in the film
Serpico.
* Theo Huxtable (played by
Malcolm-Jamal Warner) in
The Cosby Show graduated from NYU in the series finale.
* David Kessler, the title character of 1981's "An American Werewolf in London," is an NYU student; an NYU t-shirt is featured in the film.
* In
Clueless, Cher gives Josh advice: "I hear the girls at NYU aren't at all particular."
* In
Wall Street,
Charlie Sheen's Bud Fox is an NYU graduate. Without saying Stern, "the NYU business school" is mentioned frequently as his alma mater.
*
Ross Geller in
Friends becomes an NYU Professor in Season 6.
*Justin Cobb in the 2005 film
Thumbsucker secretly applies and is accepted to NYU.
*In Jonathan Larson's musical
Rent, one of the characters (Tom Collins) is a teacher at NYU and another (Mark Cohen) studied film there as an undergrad.
*The WB show
Felicity was set at the "University of New York", clearly modeled after NYU.
*Cecil Dreeme (1861) by
Theodore Winthrop is set at NYU's old main building.
* NYU's old University Heights Campus in the Bronx provided the scenery for
A Beautiful Mind (2001),
Mona Lisa Smile (2003),
Sophie's Choice (1982),
The Thomas Crown Affair (1999), and
Maid in Manhattan (2002).
*The main chracter in "
Before Sunset" attended NYU.
* In 1941, the graduating class included three later
Nobel Prize laureates (
Julius Axelrod,
Gertrude B. Elion and
Clifford Shull), Olympic Gold Medalist
John Woodruff, sportscaster
Howard Cosell and sociologist
Morris Janowitz.
* Until 1973, NYU owned pasta company C.F. Mueller in a trust fund.
* When designing Bobst Library, Tisch and Meyer Halls,
Philip Johnson and
Richard Foster also set up a master plan for a complete redesign of the NYU Washington Square Campus. However, it was never implemented.
* At the age of 16,
David Copperfield was teaching a course in magic at NYU.
* In 1840 John William Draper, professor of chemistry and natural history and president of the Medical faculty, produces one of the earliest daguerreotype portraits of the human face. Draper also produces one of the first photographs of the moon.
* The contractors of the
Old University Building used prisoners from
Sing Sing to cut the marble. This hiring was the catalyst for the famous Stonecutter's Riot.
* NYU's Tisch School of the Arts has produced more Academy Award winners than any other institution in the U.S.
* The graduating class of 1955 at NYU included:
Nobel Prize laureate
Eric R. Kandel,
Grammy Award winner
Fred Ebb, the CEO of MetLife
John J. Creedon,
Herb Kelleher, founder of
Southwest Airlines, the founders of
Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen & Katz,
Allan L. Schuman, CEO of Ecolab and three members of Congress,
Ambro,
Guarini,
Meskill.* There are two versions of the origin of the university color,
violet. Some believe that it may have been chosen because violets are said to have grown abundantly in
Washington Square and around the buttresses of the Old University Building. Others argue that the color may have been adopted because the violet was the flower associated with Athens, the center of learning in ancient Greece. Today, the NYU violet is registered with the
Color Association of the United States as
Mayfair Violet, 17575.
* Although the nickname for the University's sports teams has always been
The Violets, the need was felt for a mascot to appear at athletic competitions. In the 1980s, the Department of Athletics began using a Bobcat as the mascot. The choice was derived from the abbreviation then being used by the Bobst Library computerized catalog â€" short: Bobcat.
[http://www.nyu.edu/athletics/clubs/mascots/history.html]* The model for the football player on the
Heisman Trophy was Ed Smith of the 1934 NYU football team.
* The university logo, the upheld torch, is derived from the
Statue of Liberty, signifying NYU's service to the city of New York. The torch is depicted on both the NYU seal and the more abstract NYU logo, designed in 1965 by renowned graphic artist
Ivan Chermayeff. There is also a real silver torch designed by Tiffany and Company of New York (a gift from Helen Miller Gould in 1911) which is housed in the Torch Club, NYU's alumni club on campus. The torch also gets passed at Commencement from a senior faculty member to the youngest graduating senior.
* The
Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire on
March 25,
1911, took place in the Brown Building which today is part of the NYU campus. More than a hundred garment workers died or jumped to their deaths after a fire broke out whilst all exit doors were locked. The fire led to legislation requiring improved factory safety standards and helped spur the growth of the International Ladies' Garment Workers' Union.*
Washington Square Park was used as a mass grave during the cholera pestilence in New York. Today, the skeletons of more than 20,000 victims still remain buried underneath the square. Until 1819, the square (then known as potter's field) was used for executions. The great English elm in the northwest corner of the park, also known as
Hangman's Elm, was supposedly used for executions as well.* The class of 1977 included: former Fed Chairman
Alan Greenspan, IRS Commissioner
Mark Everson,
INSEAD Dean Gabriel Hawawini,
Pulitzer-, Academy Awards and
Tony Award winner
John Patrick Shanley, NHL Commissioner
Gary Bettman,
NASDAQ CEO
Robert Greifeld and
Cathy Minehan, Federal Reserve Chairman Boston* At NYU,
Samuel F.B. Morse and
Samuel Colt invented the devices named after them.
* The Palladium Residence Hall is named after the night club, The Palladium, owned by
Steve Rubell and
Ian Schrager (both former owners of
Studio 54). The Palladium was built on the site of the Academy of Music. It became the Palladium Theatre in the 1970s, serving both as a movie theatre by day and a concert venue by night (hosting artists such as
Bruce Springsteen, the
Rolling Stones,
U2,
Pat Benatar,
Aerosmith,
Journey and featured on the cover of
the Clash's 1980
London Calling album cover.) NYU purchased the land and built the Palladium Residence Hall in 2001.
* The American Chemical Society was founded at NYU on April 6, 1876
* The old University Building was subject to several ghost stories. It was believed that the building was haunted by a young artist resident who had died in one of the building's turrets. The spirit was said to pace through the hallways and staircases. In 1880, the San Francisco Chronicle reported that "the structure has an evil repute with the servant girls of the neighborhood…They have a notion that deep in subcellars lie corpses, skeletons and other dreadful things."
* NYU Professor of Physics
Daniel Webster Hering is credited with taking the first human x-ray in the United States on February 5, 1896 at Bellevue Hospital.
* The NYU Victory, a US Navy Cargo Ship, launched May 16, 1945, was named for NYU
* A mock revolution was held atop Washington Square Arch in 1916. One night, Gertrude Drick, John Sloan, Marcel Duchamp, and five other friends ascended the interior stairway to emerge on top of the arch. There, they announced the secession of Greenwich Village from the Union, stating that it would henceforth be known as the "Free and Independent Republic of Washington Square."
*
Def Jam Records co-founder,
Rick Rubin is an NYU graduate
* Since 1885, the most spirited undergraduate class has been awarded "The Bun." The award consisted of a bun enclosed in a silver casket. The phrase "You take the bun," parallels the more modern saying, "You take the cake," thus the name. Taken three times in 1921, 1971, and 1981, the Bun was last returned in 2002 and now resides in the Silver Center.
As of the end of 2004, New York University counted more than 350,000 alumni around the world. The New York University Office for Alumni Affairs oversees the various activities, such as class reunions, local NYU club gatherings, NYU alumni travel and career services. For a list of notable alumni, see
List of New York University People*
Education in New York City* Dim, Joan,
The Miracle on Washington Square. Lanham, MD: Lexington Books, 2000.
* Frusciano, Tom and Pettit, Marilyn
New York University and the City, an Illustrated History. New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press, 1997.
* Gitlow, Abrahm L.,
NYU's Stern School of Business: A Centennial Retrospective, New York, NY: NYU Press, 1995
* Harris, Luther S.,
Around Washington Square : An Illustrated History of Greenwich Village,Baltimore, MD, Johns Hopkins University Press, 2003
* Jones, Theodore F.
New York University, 1832 - 1932, London, H. Milford, Oxford University Press, 1933
* Lewis, Naphtali,
Greek papyri in the collection of New York University, Leiden, E.J. Brill, 1968
* Tonne, Herbert A. (ed.),
Early Leaders in Business Education at New York University, National Business Education Association, Reston, Va., 1981
* Potash, David M.,
The Graduate School of Arts and Sciences at New York University: A History. New York: NYU Arts and Sciences Publications, 1991.
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New York University*
Washington Square News - NYU's daily student newspaper
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WNYU 89.1 FM - NYU's student radio station
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NYU Exposed - Information on NYU finances, real estate, and administration
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NYU Athletics*
NYU Engineering Program*
STERN Opportunity*
NYU Factbook*
About NYU*Location:
