Results tagged “college”

An audit by the State Comptroller's Office has found that five CUNY colleges failed to report 73 percent of the felonies that occurred on their campuses, as required by law. The most ironic offender? John Jay College of Criminal Justice, which failed to report 19 of its 20 felonies.

If you were anywhere near the Village this weekend, you probably noticed a sea of doe-eyed teenagers and their parents arriving at NYU and trying to get a quick verdict on if this whole "going to college in New York thing" is all it's cracked to be. Well the New York Post has taken a quick scan of the new course catalog and is quick to give them a heads up—it's bogus! The tabloid finds classes that require students to play Guitar Hero (for "psychological" purposes) and another on exercise and brain chemistry where students take an aerobics class for an hour before sitting down for a lecture. Neuroscience professor Wendy Suzuki explains, "I got the idea at Equinox Gym. I took this kickboxing and dance class that made me feel great. I thought if I could make my students feel like that after my class, I'd be the best teacher in the world!" If that's not enough, the paper digs deeper and finds ?!?!?! (NYU has one of the top-ranked TV and Film studies programs in the nation.) The Post claims that parents were "livid," like one dad who saw the Guitar Hero class, "I just wrote a big check here. I'm not paying for him to study video games. It seems a bit watered down."

We're looking for one more enthusiastic intern to work out of our Brooklyn office (or from the comfort of your own home/dorm room, depending on the task at hand) on Tuesdays and Fridays for the rest of the summer, and, who knows, maybe beyond. Responsibilities vary widely, hours are very flexible. Bloggers, journalism students, English majors, autodidacts, quick wits, and anyone with a passion for NYC and the skills to write about it are encouraged to drop us a line. No pay, but occasional perks and college credit available. For more details inquire within, and please email your resume and any other relevant information to info (AT) gothamist (DOT) com, subject "internship." (No attachments, please.)

It's time to run down the various commencement speakers around town—please let us know about others in comments (or email us at tips[at] gothamist[dot]com). This Wednesday, New York University will have its commencement at Yankee Stadium—and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton will give the commencement address. Clinton will also be the commencement speaker at Barnard College's ceremony next Monday.

Several NYU dining halls were just points away from being shut down by the Health Department after inspections, and the sanitary conditions have greatly deteriorated at the 13 cafeterias listed on the DOH website. The only dining hall that improved was the Hayden Dining Hall, but that's not saying much: It only dropped from 27 violation points to 26—28 is the dirty magic number that gets an eatery shut down. It seems the big problem is vermin, which multiplied because of "the severity of construction in and around NYU, which creates movement and migrations," says Director of Dining Services Owen Moor. Speaking to the Washington Square News, one cafeteria worker was more blunt: "The building is infested with rats, so there isn’t much we can do personally about that." Senior Anisha Noble sums up the student perspective: "That is disgusting." Totally. It's a miracle the students who recently occupied the Kimmel Building cafeteria survived without having their stomachs pumped: Not only did the dining hall tie for second-worst (24 points), but it was also cited for serving food with artificial trans-fat. No wonder they were so outraged!

Governor David Paterson met with students at Morrisville State College yesterday to talk about the budget, and was forced to admit that his proposed "obesity tax" was all but defeated, Newsday reports. In response to a student's question about the "foolish tax on soda," Paterson said he doesn't "think the legislature will pass it...But often publicity is as important as legislation." The plan would have put an 18% tax on soda and other sugary drinks containing less than 70% fruit juice, raising an estimated $1 billion for the state while discouraging the consumption of such crap. But the beverage industry was prepared to fight it in court, and yesterday the governor spun the failed proposal as simply part of an ongoing effort to raise awareness. He also warned students who think diet cola is the health-conscious choice: "Sure there's sugar in regular soda, but the chemicals in diet soda will kill you, too." Apparently, the students were just too mature to ask him to elaborate on the dangers of Coke.

As two young women were led out of FIT student housing in handcuffs last night after getting busted for running a coke ring, the only emotions revealed from their faces came from having a case of the giggles. When they spotted reporters out front of their West 31st Street dorms following the arrests of the two as well as their supplier on multiple counts of cocaine possession and sale, 22-year-old Christine Scafa laughed and said, "Oh my God, are you guys serious? We're not Plaxico Burress!" This triggered her 21-year-old partner in crime Mickenzie Dippenworth to zing back, "Well, I'm a Plaxico Burress fan." Like her fallen idol, Dippenworth was no stranger to the city club scene, where she originally sold cocaine to an undercover cop at nearby hotspot Home. That led to a series of undercover purchases as police gathered evidence of the two dealing to a number of fellow FIT students. The Post says that both were from "very good backgrounds:" Scafa ran in this year's NYC Marathon and Dippenworth was once a girl scout. UPDATE: FIT's president sent an email to the school community: "this situation appears to be an isolated incident and involves no others on campus."

Hey ambitious young (or old!) strivers looking for internet media experience here in New York City: Gothamist is seeking interns to work out of our Brooklyn office. Responsibilities vary widely, hours are flexible. We're particularly interested in applicants with speedy typing skills, an eye for photography, Photoshop skills and a familiarity with blogs. No pay but college internship credit is possible. Please email your resume and any other relevant information to info (AT) gothamist (DOT) com, subject "internship." (No attachments, please.)

Just weeks into the first semester, students narced out an unidentified NYU freshman for allegedly selling coke from her dorm room, prompting her expulsion from the residence. That a student at an obscenely expensive university was supplementing her allowance by slinging a little yey is hardly a shocker. But what's raising eyebrows over at the campus paper is that her room was never searched, no evidence was collected, she wasn't formally charged with a crime, and the accusations were never passed along to campus cops or the NYPD.

After a two year absence, 47-year-old Yeshiva University literature professor Jay Ladin returned to school last week as Joy Ladin, putting the oy in Joy by arriving at the midtown campus wearing a black skirt and pink lipstick. According to the head of the National Center for Transgender Equality, Ladin is the only transgender employee of a religiously conservative university in America.

For college kids heading back to school in New York this Fall, don't plan on pulling all-nighters whilst chain smoking--or covering up your pot smoke with a Marlboro, for that matter. The Bwog just got word of a legislation, which was signed by Gov. Paterson in July, that makes smoking illegal in all New York college dormitories. They add that "a pair of RAs also noted that at least for Columbia, the mere possession of tobacco products is forbidden." Who knew that smoking in the dorms was even legal anymore? As Columbia's website states, there are both safety and health concerns with smoking in living quarters, and from now on, "those who choose to smoke do at least 20 feet away from undergraduate housing and dining buildings" (this includes fraternity and sorority housing).

"About halfway through, I bit in and felt something hard and crunchy." That’s what NYU senior Benjamin Jarosch declared after eating part of a found muffin, and he wasn’t talking about a walnut: his innocuous-looking blueberry muffin was stuffed with three razorblades. Jarosch and his buddies had discovered the muffin, along with four others, wrapped in tin foil, upon arriving in the classroom.

Controversy is swirling around a course offered at Hunter College that an untenured professor says he was pressured to “teach.” The course was paid for last year by the International Anti-Counterfeiting Coalition [IACC], an industry group combating the proliferation of cheap counterfeit clothes, jewelry, accessories, etc.

The NYPD detectives working the homicide investigation of Carol Simon have identified a suspect in her killing, although they are not publicizing his identity. Simon was shot as she was returning to her car where her son was waiting for her at a gas station. The killing occurred Saturday evening in the Crown Heights neighborhood of Brooklyn, as an argument between two men turned violent and one of the men pulled a gun.

• Today on the Gothamist Newsmap: a police officer was struck on Richmond and Wilson Aves. on Staten Island, there was a large fight on Franklin Ave. and Empire Blvd. in Brooklyn, and a double homicide on Furman Ave. and East 237th St. in the Bronx.
• The US Postal Service is expecting to process one billion individual pieces of mail today, three times the daily average. The busiest day of the year is expected to be Wednesday.
• Interboro Institute, the two-year commercial college, is going out of business due to financial and regulatory problems.
• Oysters used to be one of the most plentiful animals in NY Harbor. Now they're making a recovery in one of the most unlikely of places--the Gowanus Canal.
• The Metropolitan Museum received quite the holiday present when the estate of Diane Arbus presented it with the photographer's entire archives as a gift.
• The airline industry is seeking in court to block a passenger bill of rights that originated in New York due to horrendous service.
• The city's looking to combat the obesity of New Yorkers (we're less obese than the rest of the country) by increasing the number of permits issued to food cart vendors selling fresh fruit and vegetables.
• Collaborative sleuthing tries to dig up why the planned Brooklyn College dorm that used to be under construction seems to be going nowhere.

The family of Carol Simon is grieving after she was killed while walking on Eastern Parkway near Bedford around 5:30PM on Saturday. Simon, a 35-year-old nurse's assistant, had been on her way to take her son to swimming lessons when an argument between two men became violent and one pulled out a gun.

Joseph Jirovec and Kimberly Babajko are two of ten people arrested in an attack that was initiated by a friendly greeting of "Happy Channukah!" aboard a Q train in Brooklyn last week. Both Jirovec and Babajko have criminal records for assaulting minorities and could face hate crime charges in their latest brush with justice. Both are scheduled to appear in Brooklyn Criminal Court today for the vicious beating they allegedly administered to Walter Adler, who was on his way home from a holiday dinner. Adler and his girlfriend were spared further injury when a complete stranger, Hassan Askari, intervened at his own physical expense. The young Muslim man was beaten alongside Adler.

The story around the possible hate crime attack on a Q train the other night seems to be made for the season. Not only does it come while subway violence is a big topic, it also involves a group of Jewish subway riders being called "dirty Jews" and "Jew bitches" and attacked by people who cried, "Happy Hanukkah, that's when the Jews killed Jesus." And here's the kicker: The only person who stepped in...

The Siena College Research Institute released information on how New Yorkers feel about Governor Spitzer, and the news is bad. Thirteen months after Spitzer was elected overwhelmingly to office, he now has a rating of 36% favorable/51% unfavorable (sliding from 64-22 in June, 41-46 in November) and a job performance rating of 27% positive=70 negative (55-37 in June, 33-64 in November). Not only that, but Siena Poll spokesman Steven Greenberg said, "A majority of voters,...

Writer/director Robert Tinnell has sifted through his fond childhood memories of big Italian Christmas gatherings and emerged with a unique fusion of comic book and cookbook called The Feast of the Seven Fishes. Originally a popular internet comic, the humorously fictional book is inspired by the Italian Christmas Eve tradition involving big seafood dinners and lots of red wine. (The book's boisterous familial storyline will also be adapted into a feature length film of the...

Since settling in New York in 2001, promoter Todd Patrick – known through his website as Todd P – has established himself as a major force in the avant-garde rock scene. In the fastidious spirit of a modern day Bill Graham – though without the passion for profits – Patrick has distinguished himself with his commitment to producing shows at atypical, under-the-radar locations like lofts, rooftops and funky, “illegal” clubs. Often eschewing such vagaries as...

A 17-year-old who was given a 2007 Dodge Charger SRT8 as a starting-college gift was driving in Queens when the car hit a guard rail, "became airborne for 100 feet," and finally hit a concrete pillar. Two passengers, 18-year-olds Devindra Harilal and Christopher Karan, were killed.

Sumner Redstone, who as majority shareholder still calls the shots at Viacom, has arranged a special holiday treat for his already well-exploited “permalancers”. (The term refers to the practice favored by Viacom and other companies of employing workers full time but classifying them “freelance” to keep their sneaky hands out of the insurance jar.) Though Viacom permalancers had previously been eligible for healthcare benefits after a year, new rules dictate that insurance will only be...

A reader wrote on Gothamist Contribute:Tonight, (Sunday, Dec 2) at 3am, there was a fight at 119th & amsterdam, in front of a bar. I was walking on the other side of the avenue, and it was clear that things were escalating. All of a sudden, I heard two gunshots -- like a 'pop', except louder, like a tire bursting -- and I saw everyone scatter; everyone walking down my side of the avenue...

If you're going to donate sperm to someone as a favor, talk it over with your lawyer first! Newsday reports a Nassau County doctor who donated sperm to a co-worker over 18 years ago is "legaly considered the father and may have to pay child support for the college-bound teenager." The doctor says he donated the sperm to his co-worker and her partner; he had agreed to give up rights and benefits to the child,...

Today is a citywide "Day Out Against Hate." City Council Speaker Christine Quinn and the Reverend Al Sharpton have spearheaded the event, which was prompted by a number of disturbing hate crime incidents, from swastikas in Brooklyn Heights to a noose found at the Columbia University campus. The Politicker was at one of the events this morning, where Brooklyn Borough President Marty Markowitz "suggested, rather strongly, that city public school students be required to make...

Die Romantik (myspace, website) is a guitar, drum and keyboard trio with a knack for weaving lush, elegant melodies that never lose the element of surprise. Brooklyn by way of France, the group has developed a local following that recently earned them a spot on the lineup for Malajube’s show at Bowery Ballroom. Their debut full-length album, Narcissist’s Waltz, was summed up by Stylus magazine thusly: “An album of sophisticated arrangements and lullaby melodies that...

• Today on the Gothamist Newsmap: a shooting on Jerome Ave. in the Bronx, a stabbing at Ft. Hamilton H.S. in Brooklyn, and a fall victim on 88th St. in Queens.
• Hillary and Rudy initially attempted to settle things by seeing who would yell "uncle" first as they tried to crush each other's hand.
• A 31-year-old NJ man says that he throttled his mother with his bare hands after she criticized him for his messy housekeeping, but it was an accident that he actually killed her.
• The NYPD gets serious about gun control when maintenance workers find two missing service pistols stashed in the ceiling of the 90th Precinct.
• A new venue for identity theft: cloning license plates for congestion pricing. It's happening in London and is one more potential headache for NYers.
• A college senior badly injured in a car accident saved the lives of at least four people through the donation of his organs.
• The "The Stop the Madrassa Community Coalition" is demanding that the woman they drummed out of a job apologize for accusing them of making "anti-Muslim and anti-Arab comments."
• Save yourself a trip to the mall. Design your own holiday sweater online!

• Today on the Gothamist Newsmap: a water rescue at Atlantic Beach Bridge in Queens, a fall victim onto the train tracks at West 42nd St. and 9th Ave. in Manhattan, and a car in the water on Bay and Edgewater Sts. in Staten Island.
• He didn't have to be shot in the back with a shotgun! Dick Cheney's heart problems continue. Seriously though, best wishes.
• Gov. Elliot Spitzer is going to be sequestered in a Brooklyn Marriott this weekend to hear it from fellow Democratic lawmakers. He'll eventually issue a mea culpa for resembling the party's mascot too closely and the Democrats will try to move on from there.
• "Wii. We need a Wii and world peace, but I'll take a Wii," said Mxxxxxxx Fxxxxx, 43, of Staten Island as she and her two daughters scoured Times Square stores for the red-hot Nintendo video-game console."
• Yep, immigrants are a drag on the economy: "In the suburbs north and east of the city, about 4 of every 10 doctors and more than one-fourth of college professors were foreign-born."
• "SELF" Magazine rated Long Island the second-healthiest region in the country. New York women ranked 8th in the 2nd annual ranking.
• Things to bring to a party: cake, wine, and not a knife to stick in your host's neck. The latter was the choice of one party guest, who surprised her friend with a sharp knife and a quick death.
• Brooke Astor's son Anthony and his attorney have been asked to surrender themselves on criminal charges.