[UPDATE BELOW] A protest at Hunter College against education budget cuts turned, well, normal yesterday, with police arresting three individuals who were not enrolled at the school. Before the demonstration moved out to the streets, unidentified activists broke the glass doors to the Financial Aid office, and, as one dissident blog puts it, "the much hated security turnstiles at the entrance to the building." Somebody also scrawled graffiti on the walls, and a source tells the Hunter Word that the cost of repairing all the damage could clock in at $25,000. Way to stick it to the man the cash-strapped, taxpayer-funded institution that's facing budget cuts! And you'll never guess who's rumored to be behind the vandalism! more ›

Those tabloid bottom-feeders at the Daily News are so desperate for page views that they've been reduced to publishing a gratuitous photo spread documenting the release of the 2010 Hooters calender. It's far beneath Gothamist's dignity to link to such lowbrow frat-bait, but we have taken the time to gather some photos from the event—just so you can fully understand the shameless hucksterism that's gripped the Zuckerman organization. We've also got some barely SFW video below, too... for reference. more ›

An observational study by Hunter College students has concluded that when it comes to traffic regulations, cyclists are incorrigible scofflaws. Students spent October observing 3,000 cyclists chosen at random at 69 locations throughout the five boroughs; they found that only 43 percent of all cyclists stopped at red lights, and roughly 14 percent did not use designated bike lanes, which is not required by law. City law does require children under age 14 to wear helmets, but the study determined that less than half do so. Also:
• Commercial cyclists such as messengers and delivery workers are required to wear helmets, but only 27 percent were observed wearing helmets.
• A gender disparity in helmet use was also evident, with roughly half of female cyclist observed using helmets, compared to just a third of the males.
• About 13 percent of cyclists were observed riding against traffic, and almost 13 percent were observed riding on sidewalks.

"To our eyes, this isn't just about personal behavior, this is about streets that are dangerous and not serving all the people who use them. Well-designed streets give us behavior we want. A good example is 9th Avenue in Chelsea, where there is now a protected bike lane. more ›

New York is in the midst of graduation season, when freshly minted scholars don cap and gown to accept sheepskins and jobs they will probably remember as their most demeaning. But first they'll have the opportunity to ingest the wisdom of their commencement speakers. Also, it's an opportunity to get on TV and be tackled by security guards. David Letterman ran a top-ten list of signs that you have a bad commencement speaker. Shockingly, no mention of whether the speaker's name rhymed with Gov. Nelliot Schvitzer. more ›

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. more ›