Results tagged “nyu”

A reader tip in Gothamist Contribute said, "2 cabs into scaffolding at nyu (719 broadway)." And then another reader, jlocke, sent us a photograph of the aftermath, writing, "Picture of what was reported in the anonymous tips to be two cabs into scaffolding at NYU on Broadway between Waverly and Washington, two blocks from the taxi into scaffolding accident that injured six on [Nov. 1]. Scaffolding didn't collapse this time, but the whole block is taped off."

As more and more New Yorkers are using bikes to commute and the city continues its massive — and at times controversial — push to expand its network of bike lanes, the Daily News examines the city's 650 miles of cycling routes and names its favorites. Among other selections, the tabloid's biking experts dub Ninth Avenue's protected bike lane between 16th Street and 31st Street as the city's "Safest," the Bleecker Street lane in the Village as the "Commuter's Choice," and the cycling routes on Ninth and Tenth streets as having the "Best-looking Crowd" because they are used by "hotties cutting through the Village and NYU's campus." Funny, because we thought all of the cycling hotties were using the lanes in South Williamsburg.

A source at the real estate agency that leased Jude Law an apartment in the heart of NYU's campus has no sympathy for the "Hamlet "star. The actor — who has been so terrorized by his collegiate fans that he was forced to throw oranges at them — was aware that he would be moving next to an NYU dormitory, an insider at Brown Harris Stevens told the Post. "Obviously, Jude rented this apartment knowing where it was," the source said. That makes some sense, considering that the Hayden Hall dorm, like almost every building near Washington Square Park, is decked out with large purple and white flags.

It's hard to feel bad for Jude Law when we all lack privacy in the city — in much less swank digs. Turns out the actor moved in right next to the NYU freshman dorm Hayden Hall, and the student body is enjoying their new view. The dubious dorm dwellers have now leaked their secret to the NY Post (with paparazzi style photos), saying whenever they spot Law on his Washington Square balcony (sometimes with his son), there's complete chaos.

The New York University web-rendition of contemporary metropolitan reality shows like Gossip Girl and The City is looking to expand its cast for the spring season. Executive Producer Michael Flutie's webisode venture titled Under The Arch follows select NYU students and alums as they go about their lives in the city. While the show revolves around 9 students and their "authentic experiences," the casting call is open to "new students, friends, influencers and talent" from all over for its second season. The search continues tomorrow at the David Barton Gym (4 Astor Place) from 9:30am-12pm. And just so you know how to dress for your big audition, get a look at the show here.

Posting online comments under multiple aliases is apparently against the law, at least in the case of Raphael Haim Golb, 49, who is suspected of using 50 different e-mail addresses and monikers — some of the names belonging to academic rivals — to bolster his arguments about the origins of the Dead Sea Scrolls. To back up his belief that the relics were actually produced in Jerusalem libraries, Golb allegedly used multiple online "sock puppets," or fake identities, to make it seem like he had supporters.

Allegedly the NYPD was investigating Andrew Williamson-Noble's death at NYU's Bobst Library early yesterday morning as a possible homicide, until they discovered a suicide note in his dorm room. While his final words should remain private, the Daily News has apparently done some digging into his personal life.

New information has already come out about the NYU student who committed suicide early this morning at Bobst Library. The man was 20-year-old Andrew Williamson-Noble of Irvington, New York. The Daily News reports that he used an NYU-issued card to gain access to the library, and jumped from the 10th floor.

Early this morning we received an email from an NYU student who was studying at Bobst Library. He told us that around 4:30 a.m. he heard a "huge boom" that ended up being a successful suicide attempt. He told us the "kid must have jumped from high judging from where he landed in the lobby. Couldn't tell his condition from what I saw. I was told by a cop on the scene that he didn't look good."

College presidents in New York are making bank. Last year, three of the top 10 highest-paid private-college presidents nationwide received million dollar paychecks from New York’s most elite instititions, the Post reports. According to a report by the College Board, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute president Shirley Ann Jackson earned $1.6 million in 2007-08 while Columbia University's president, Lee Bollinger brought in $1.38 million and NYU's John Sexton $1.3 million. In all, 23 college presidents across the country topped the $1 million mark, nearly double the number from 2006-07.

NYU students: When they're not doing porn to pay tuition or collecting food stamps, they're occupying administration buildings and issuing manifestos. But it's almost the end of October and there hasn't been a single sit-in from the Take Back NYU rebels, who made the big time in February with a 40-hour occupation and a hilarious hit video. So where are they now?

With college loan debt, three months till graduation, and less than encouraging job prospects, NYU journalism school student Ryan McLendon decided to sign up for food stamps. According to CityRoom, McLendon waited more than seven hours over two days to see a food stamps counselor in Williamsburg, along with young families and other struggling New Yorkers. Since 2002 the number of NYC residents on food stamps has grown by more than 74%. In the end, when McLendon finally met with a food stamps counselor, the computers were down.

Judging by her photo in the Daily News, grad student Lorelei Lee looks like any other woman at NYU. But what sets her apart is her unorthodox way of paying for the university's sky-high tuition, by performing in porn movies. Lee, who takes her name from Marilyn Monroe's character in Gentlemen Prefer Blondes, has been working in the adult entertainment industry since she was 19, and has 200 films under her, um, belt. She's also a graduate from San Francisco State University, and is now working on her Master's in Fine Arts at NYU. But what do her classmates think about her XXX-tra curricular activities?

Dropping $52,000/year for courses like a Guitar Hero class—what recession? NYU tells the Post it has "enrolled its largest student body in decades this year...More than 21,600 undergraduates enrolled at NYU this school year -- up nearly 400 from last year -- while more than 18,200 graduate students enrolled -- a one-year spike of nearly 800 enrollees." The school's enrollment has also increased 33% since 1990.

The building at 19 Washington Square North is almost ready to become the NYC center of NYU's campus in Abu Dhabi. The center will hold office space and a special teleconference room where NYU professors can offer instruction to students, who will be in Abu Dhabi.

A freelance artist is suing NYU because she says her alma mater stole her mascot design and used it for merchandise without compensating her. 22-year-old Ariel Fleurimond (MySpace) was a psychology major working as an equipment room clerk in the athletic department in 2007 when associate director Noah Lefebre asked her to create a mascot. Fleurimond says she came up with a cartoon cougar she called "Orion" and submitted the illustration, but never heard anything about it. Cut to last summer, when she discovered, painted on the floor of the gym, her cougar—which she says has been appropriated as NYU's bobcat. NYU's legal department reviewed her complaint and decided that Fleurimond had been fairly compensated for her work in the athletic department, but her lawyer tells the Daily News, "She was paid to pick up dirty towels." Fleurimond hopes to get millions because she copyrighted her cougar cartoon, but it's important to remember that the bobcat is a relatively new mascot at NYU. NYU teams are the "Fighting Violets"; bobcat is a macho portmanteau of "Bobst Catalog," the school's filing system. NYU's spokesman says, "We fully expect to prevail." You go, Violets!

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."

Even though consumer banks seem to be opening on every block these days, a new study from the Pew Charitable Trust shows that a staggering 12% of New York households still don't have bank accounts, preferring to cash their checks and hide their savings in their houses. Many of those are low-income earners and the NY Times cites LES bodega owner, Jose Alberto Abreau, as an example: "When he makes 'good money,' he said, he asks friends to take it to his family in the Dominican Republic." Additionally, he has repeatedly refused offers from credit union workers trying to convince him to build a credit history. Not surprisingly, the volatile economy hasn't helped banks earn anyone's trust. Peter Mosbacher of Amalgamated Bank admitted that they "are having that challenge to get people to understand that the American banking system is stable." Maybe the skeptics are on to something, though, because how is anyone supposed to trust banks when they take years to catch NYU scammers?

In what Brooklyn DA Charles Hynes describes as "really a beaut of a scam," four friends from the NYU finance school are accused of ripping off Brooklyn banks for $422,000. Exploiting a regulation that requires banks to repay customers who claimed their ATM cards were lost or stolen within 10 days, the four allegedly made large withdraws from their accounts repeatedly over five years, then claimed that their cards had been stolen. "The scheme was as simple as it was brazen," Hynes told reporters today. The defendants were allegedly captured by video cameras when taking the money out, but they almost always wore motorcycle helmets or other covering to hide their identities. The accused are lawyer Eric Manganelli, 36; financial consultant Lam Dang, 37; bank employee John Tluczek, 37; and his wife, Marzena Tluczek, 35. They face multiple counts of grand larceny, falsifying business records and other charges, and each faces 2 1/3 to 7 years in prison for the top counts. The scheme was finally discovered after one bank investigator called another bank and they began comparing notes.

Suggestions that Harry Potter actress Emma Watson might attend Columbia University in the fall sent a collective shiver through the campus' online community today. Columbia alumnus-founded gossip blog JustJared.com posted a piece shortly before noon speculating that an entry in the school's online phone directory might belong to the 19-year-old starlet, who had toured the college last October. An hour later, Columbia's student-run Bwog picked up the story and set off a frenzy among the students. Comments on the site and Facebook statuses quickly popped up to rejoice in the news—"Emma Watson at Columbia??? Columbia - 19078096 Other Ivies - 0"—which only got worse as other gossip sites began re-posting JustJared's scoop. Their bubbles may be bursting, though, as it seems the directory entry may actually match a different Ms. Watson, and the actress herself has yet to confirm. But fortunately for Columbians, even if their hopes for NYU-style undergraduate celebrity fail to apparate, they can always return to their old pastime: stalking James Franco in the university library.

After a recent end-to-end walk through the newly renovated Washington Square Park, there was a certain ring missing from the din— had anyone polled us to see if we smoke (smoke). To make sure that the new-look park stays on the up-and-up, there's word that a local community group is planning to hire additional security that the Post says "will soon be booting druggies and lowlifes" out of the square.

This generation's obsession with instant nostalgia and visually documenting every part of their daily lives serves as the punchline in this Onion News Network piece. In the story, an NYU dorm is set ablaze during a party, and "after examining the evidence from the 25 iPhones, 15 Blackberries, 10 video cameras and 40 digital cameras obtained from the students who attended the party" the entire event was reconstructed, placing blame on chain smoking 22-year-old Danny Gordon.

             

Yesterday was the biggest day of thousands of NYU students' lives as they graduated from their respective colleges and schools, but guess what—even that isn't enough to let them sit in the seats near the field at Yankee Stadium! With Washington Square Park's renovation forcing the school to relocate its school-wide graduation ceremonies to the Bronx for a spell, the Yankees prohibited NYU from filling the premium seats with students.

In the annual affair that provides 6,000 young New Yorkers with their "only time I've ever been to the Bronx" story, NYU held its commencement ceremonies at Yankee Stadium this afternoon. After some hype that there would be a repeat streaking performance (of both last year's graduation and last night's Met game), Will Lopez will get to brag to his bros tonight that no one had the guts to do it this year.

Speaking of stadium streaking, NYU's commencement ceremony is at Yankee Stadium today, and there's talk that the new ballfield could get its first buff job to match last night's Citi Field christening. You'll recall that last year NYU graduate Will Lopez made news by dashing onto the field (video) in boxers and his gown, rounding third, and getting tackled by security. Lopez tells the News, "I have a bunch of friends that are graduating this year. All of them are like, 'One of us has to carry the torch.' It would be great if somebody tried to make it a tradition. But I'm not sure if any of them have the guts to do it." This from the guy who "streaked" with underwear on because he "thought they might nail me for public indecency." Anyway, his buddies' fifteen minutes of fame is going be tougher to come by this year because security is definitely on the lookout for such shenanigans, and the keynote speaker is Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. But come on, bros, you aren't seriously going to let the Secret Service stand in the way of tradition?

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.

Hi, is this Jimmy McIndigent? This is the NYU Admissions Office calling! Listen, we know you've worked so hard in high school all these years to get into the college of your dreams, but looking over your family's financial profile, it's gonna take a lot more than your summer job at Mi-T-Mart to make this nut. Now, we're not encouraging you to back out or anything—though if you did there's probably still time for us to find one more rich kid to take your place. It's just that not everyone is the right "financial fit" for NYU, which currently costs over $50,000 a year. Yeah, that's a lot, but have you seen that new Kimmel Center? We just had Ra Ra Riot play there; it was sick! Anyhoo, we've just been calling 1,800 of the 7,300 accepted students who qualified for financial aid with this little "heads up" to make sure they're seriously going through with "mortgaging their future" with all these loans! Just food for thought, k? TTYL!

A reader sent us this glimpse of the scene by NYU's Gallatin school and writes, "There are like 10-15 cops just standing at the corner and across the street because Take Back NYU"—of the Kimmel Center takeover—"is protesting again...against tuition hikes." NYU Local has more details: "The Gallatin Open House was briefly interrupted tonight when a group of about 15 TBNYU! protesters started pounding on the newly renovated building’s windows. This prompted an NYU administrator, the same one who busted through the Kimmel barricade, to dash outside and squelch. He told them he would have the NYPD remove them if they continued. They stopped." Take Back NYU notes there's a roundtable discussion about having a socially responsible finance committee at the school tomorrow.

According to court papers unsealed yesterday, hedge fund manager J. Ezra Merkin was apparently warned that Bernard Madoff's investments were shady back in the 1990s. Merkin, currently accused of funneling $2.4 billion into Madoff's fund, is being sued by NYU—which lost $24 million of its endowment through Merkin's fund. Fox Business, which filed a motion to have the documents unsealed, reports that Merkin employee Victor Teicher, a former financial analyst convicted for insider trading, told Merkin that Madoff's fund didn't "smell right" and "were inconsistent with what could possibly take place in reality." Teicher also said in his deposition that Merkin's accountant said Madoff's work "looked like a fraud." When news of Madoff's fraud this past December surfaced, Teicher sent Merkin an e-mail: "The Madoff news is hilarious; hope you negotiate out of this mess as well as possible; I'm yours to help in any way I can; unfortunately, you've paid a big price for a lesson on the cost of being greedy," and followed up with another, "I guess you did such a good job in fooling a lot of people that you ultimately fooled yourself."

Besides saying that she supports the Beatrice Inn (run by her brother Paul), actress Chloe Sevigny discussed the East Village with the Observer (while hosting a party for Kiehl's) last week. She summed up how the neighborhood has changed, "Oh, you know, it's bank, nail salon, bank, nail salon, bank, nail salon. The Subway across the street from Veselka, it's just an eyesore. The bigger chains coming in everywhere, it's depressing. You know what really bugs me about the neighborhood, actually? The students! The N.Y.U. kids and they've opened an SVA dorm near my house, so now it's even more." The wife says that if she did move from the EV, she'd go back to Gramercy Park. [Via EV Grieve]