Washington Square News February 11, 2019

5 CULTURE

9 OPINION

Adjusting to New York City’s Smoking Culture

GSOC Students Deserved Better Communication

6 ARTS

10 SPORTS

The Fyre Festival Scam Continues

Men’s Basketball Comes From Behind Against Case

VOLUME LII | ISSUE 3

MONDAY, FEBRUARY 11, 2019

NYU Deems Former Federal Judges ‘So-Called Experts’ Two former federal judges submitted court filings in support of professors who sued the university last year.

By JARED PERAGLIA Deputy News Editor In a court filing submitted by NYU, the university called two former federal judges “so-called experts” after the judges expressed support for the professors who sued the university last year.

During summer 2018, NYU was embroiled in a lengthy legal battle against a number of its employees who sued the university on the grounds that their retirement funds had been mismanaged.

The plaintiffs’ claims of mismanagement were rejected last July by Judge Katherine Forrest, who has close ties to NYU. According to former Federal Judge Timothy K. Lewis, if Forrest had ruled against NYU, the case might have cost the school millions of dollars.

Forrest is an NYU alumna who later worked for the university. She also worked at Cravath, Swaine & Moore — a law firm headed by Evan Chesler, an NYU board member — before becoming a district court judge. After closing the case and leaving the bench, Forrest returned to that same firm last summer.

Although Forrest disclosed her relations to the university before the case, plaintiffs said that Forrest presided over the case while considering a partnership at Chesler’s firm.

Both federal judges were paid by the plaintiffs on an hourly basis for their opinions. Judge F.A. Little, Jr. was paid $500 an hour and Lewis was compensated $1,000 an hour.

In their court filings, the judges claim the receipt of substantial fees had no impact on their opinions.

Lewis outlined in his court filing to SDNY that Judge Forrest should have recused herself before the case was submitted.

“Judge Forrest should have disclosed her professional relationship with Mr. Chesler and recused herself once she began to seriously consider returning to Cravath,” Lewis wrote.

Little alleged in his filing that Forrest and Chesler had a close tie.

“Judge Forrest and Mr. Chesler, Chairman of the firm, had a very close working relationship,” Little wrote.

“Judge Forrest described the relationship as ‘a great compliment and very challenging and fulfilling’ and they made her ‘feel like a star.’”

CONTINUED ON PAGE 2

ALANA BEYER AND SOPHIA DI IORIO | WSN

The courthouse where the hearing to decide if the plaintiffs, who are NYU retirees, will receive a trial in their case against the university.

Washington Square News

2

MONDAY, FEBRUARY 11, 2019

NEWS

NEWS@NYUNEWS.COM

Edited by VICTOR PORCELLI and MEGHNA MAHARISHI

NYU Deems Former Federal Judges ‘So-Called Experts’ CONTINUED FROM PAGE 1

NYU claims that the judges’ statements disregard the entire picture and focus only on a few details, calling their allegations “inadmissible” and “assumptions.”

“If not created from whole cloth, these allegations would be improper factual narrative to be disregarded by the Court,” the university wrote in their court filing.

Little included information in his court filing that Chesler was involved

in creating the committee that oversees the retirement plans.

“In 2009, the NYU Executive Committee of the Board, which included Mr. Chesler, created the Retirement Plan Committee as fiduciaries to the Plan’s involved in the case,” Little wrote in his court filing.

This is not the first time 403(b) retirement plans, a commonly used plan among employees, have caused controversy — Schlichter and plaintiffs have sued 12 prestigious universities for mis-

management of these retirement plans.

The preeminent attorney in the Employee Retirement Income Security Act excessive fee litigation, Schlichter is a pioneer when it comes to this kind of litigation. Schlichter created the type of lawsuit NYU is currently involved in and that others have used against universities that mismanaged their retirement plans.

NYU was the first major university to challenge allegations, set a trial date and win their case.

Unpacking the Graduate Student-NYU Healthcare Conflict

P HOTO BY HON-LUM CHEUNG-CHENG

GSOC and NYU continue to debate about the university’s decision to consolidate graduate student health care plans.

By VICTOR PORCELLI News Editor

What happened The Graduate Student Health Insurance Plan was consolidated with NYU’s Comprehensive plan. GSHIP was available to doctoral students in the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences under the Henry M. MacCracken program, which provides multi-year funding to most doctoral students in GSAS. As a result of the consolidation, there was a $10 increase in co-pays as well as 90 instead of 100 percent coverage of certain tests, including X-rays and durable medical devices at the Student Health Center.

The Graduate Student Organizing Committee claimed that this change violated their contract, which began in 2015, and states that employees’ conditions of employment are to remain the same until it expires on Aug. 1, 2020.

Students were repeatedly told that the consolidation occurred because of a requirement by the New York State Department of Financial Services, but a spokesperson from the agency denied.

reviewing them, in order to address any issues beforehand. If the plans were to be formally rejected, it could disrupt the NYU’s ability to offer insurance, according to university spokesperson John Beckman.

Last year, NYU was informed that there was an issue with offering GSHIP. To be offered GSHIP, students have to be part of the MacCracken program.

However, federal regulation states that risk pools can be distinguished only by a “bona fide school-related classification.”

The MacCracken program does not count as a school-related classification.

“Ultimately, the University decided to combine Comprehensive and GSHIP as a way to ensure that all risk pools were based on a bona fide school-related classification and the rates were in compliance with the law,” Beckman wrote in a statement to WSN. To solve this problem, NYU consolidated GSHIP and the Comprehensive plan because there were fewer students enrolled in GSHIP — around 1,000 compared to the estimated 5,000 using the Comprehensive plan. Fewer students’ coverage would change this way.

Additionally, the premiums of GSHIP were higher than the Comprehensive plan but Comprehensive plan members pay their own premiums, so it would result in lower costs for students, according to Beckman.

NYU’s point of view Every year, NYU reaches out to the New York State Department of Financial Services to informally review its health insurance plans before officially

Does that mean they didn’t lie?

In a recent email to WSN, the Department of Financial Services reasserted their statement that they did not require

One week after WSN reported on NYU lying to its graduate students about a requirement to consolidate healthcare plans, the implications and extent of this misrepresentation of the truth remain unclear.

NYU to consolidate the plans.

“The Department of Financial Services did not require consolidation of the NYU health plans,” DFS wrote in an email to WSN. “The decision was made by NYU. The Department’s role is to ensure that health plan rates are not excessive, inadequate or unfairly discriminatory and reflect the benefits provided by plans.”

NYU sees its assertion, made by multiple administrators, as an “attempt to simplify a complex subject,” Beckman said. However, the DFS statement suggests the use of the word “required,” was a lie. Although it is unclear what other options the university may have had after the plans were rejected, the DFS did not force them to choose consolidation as a solution.

Is this legal?

GSOC and NYU underwent arbitration on Jan. 16, in which a mutually agreed upon third party was presented with arguments from both sides on why the consolidation did or did not violate GSOC’s contract with the university.

According to the steward in GSOC and co-chair of the organizing committee, Caroline Bowman, GSOC and its local union representative are speaking with lawyers about how this could affect the arbitration.

For one, arbitration is done under oath. Bowman said that Executive Director of the Student Health Center Dr. Carlo Ciotoli asserted that the university was required to consolidate the plans during arbitration. If this is considered a lie, it could warrant a perjury charge.

Where does this leave GSOC? Bowman said that, besides looking into the legal repercussions, she is frustrated that the university did not consult with GSOC about different ways they could address the concerns raised by DFS. “Given the nature of this requirement, there appears to have been different options that NYU might have been able to take to comply with what they were being told,” Bowman said. “The union should have been notified and consulted in figuring out next steps or how the university could comply with this regulation while also maintaining the benefits that we think we’re entitled to in virtue of our collective bargaining agreement.”

Email Victor Porcelli at vporcelli@nyunews.com.

In a statement to WSN, university spokesperson John Beckman called the plaintiffs’ motion for a hearing this Wednesday “baseless.”

“Their submission of well-reimbursed opinions from retired judges, who had not fully reviewed the record of the case, does not change the facts, and they lost their case on the facts,” Beckman wrote.

NYU continued to comment on the judges’ opinions, calling them “pieces of advocacy” and mentioning in

their court filing that they may have been unethical.

“Judges Little, Jr. and Judge Lewis may have violated their own ethical duties by not undertaking a thorough and impartial review of the record,” NYU wrote in their court filing.

The hearing will take place before the Southern District of New York this Wednesday.

Email Jared Peraglia at jperaglia@nyunews.com.

Resolutions Halted Before USenate

By MANSEE KHURANA Deputy News Editor The University Senate will hold its first meeting of the spring 2019 semester on Valentine’s Day. It will be the first opportunity for the University Senate to potentially present on three resolutions that passed in the Student Government Assembly last semester.

The fact that these resolutions — including the Resolution For Decarbonization, the Resolution on the University Wide Request for Information and the Resolution on the Human Rights of Palestinians — have not reached the University Senate is a point of concern for the resolutions’ leaders.

Co-author of the Resolution on the University Wide Request for Information and the Resolution on Human Rights of Palestinians, CAS senior Bayan Abubakr, was apprehensive about whether these resolutions would make it to the University Senate.

“Getting either Resolution passed would be an accomplishment, and honestly, a bit of a surprise,” Abubakr said in an email to WSN. “[The] administration has not been receptive to either Resolution, and I understand that they think it is not in their best interests to move forward [as a University] with either one.”

Resolutions that SGA passes are supposed to be reviewed by the Executive Committee.

After the committee completes its review, the resolution is presented to the University Senate. All three resolutions are in different stages of this process.

The decarbonization resolution review has been completed and the information resolution will be reviewed in the coming weeks.

The University released a statement opposing the Resolution on the Human Rights of Palestinians four days after it passed in Student Government, saying that the resolution would not move forward.

The administration’s opposition towards the Palestinian resolution has caused authors of the information resolution to doubt whether or not it will ever reach the University Senate.

“While lobbying the other university senators is difficult as is, an administration that is actively planning to keep it off the agenda only makes our work more challenging,” said CAS senior Ben Zinevich, who co-authored the information resolution and the Palestinian resolution.

While the authors of these two resolutions maintain that they are facing pushback from the administration, the Resolution for Decarbonization has been reviewed, and the administration has been much more receptive to some of the measures. University spokesperson Shonna Keogan said in an email to WSN that a statement regarding university sustainability will be made in the coming weeks.

However, authors of the Resolution on

the University Wide Request for Information seem convinced that key administrative leaders oppose the proposal because they don’t want to increase transparency.

“The fellow authors and I have spoken to certain committee members about the resolution,” Zinevich said. “But we’re dismayed to hear that [Senior Vice President of Student Affairs] Marc Wais, [President] Andrew Hamilton and other administration members have positioned themselves as an opponent of a transparent university.”

Member of the University Senate’s Committee on Organization and Governance and current NYU Law student David Moosmann said that the committee is currently looking to review the resolution and consult students and the administration. They hope to find a way to pare down the resolution so that the implementation is feasible, while still adhering to the authors’ original message of transparency.

Moosmann also said he does not believe there is any significant hostility to this resolution and instead thinks that the administration is trying to be cautious when it comes to such a high-impact resolution.

“My view is that when you have something that is this complex and this important, it’s better that it be done right than done quickly,” Moosmann said. “This is not a non-binding resolution that just makes a political statement.

This is something that is designed to make a real policy change and statement, so it’s natural that it’s going to take time.”

Moosmann went on to say the three most important aspects considered in this review process are the cost, various privacy concerns and including university competitiveness in negotiation settings. The last issue, competitiveness, is what the administration is primarily focused on during this review process.

“Of course, disclosure and transparency have value, but sometimes overdisclosure doesn’t help our strategic position, like when we want to negotiate a contract, or something like that,” Moosmann said. “While there is not an official line position on this issue, it is something people are thinking about.”

Whether or not the University Senate votes on this resolution, Zinevich said this should be a concern of the students, who should take matters into their own hands.

“What we should look to is seeing who we can continue building coalitions with outside of the student community and across the University, be it through faculty, staff, activist groups and other university actors,” Zinevich said. “While these measures of transparency and declassification are common in other universities, it is going to take a lot to get the administration to listen to those asking for divestment, transparency and democracy.”

Email Mansee Khurana at mkhurana@nyunews.com.

Washington Square News | News

MONDAY, FEBRUARY 11, 2019

MLK Week Seeks to Answer ‘What’s Left of the Dream?’

By BRIANNA ZIMMERMAN Contributing Writer Students and professors lined up around the block in freezing weather, watching on TVs outside of Skirball Center for the Performing Arts for a glimpse of renowned writer Roxane Gay on Thursday. The marquee event had the highest number of RSVPs ever, according to a university administrator.

Nearing the end of the 14th annual MLK week at NYU, Gay said that she saw “What’s Left of the Dream?” as a need for a plan to execute justice and take direct action against all types of oppression, whether based on race, gender or otherwise.

Tisch School of the Arts Professor Manthia Diawara, who started the Africana Studies Program at Tisch and is a renowned writer, filmmaker and cultural critic, received the MLK Jr. Humanitarian Award, given each year to a professor who exemplifies the ideas of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.” Guest speaker Kimberly Dark kicked off the week by discussing growing income inequality, particularly in the contexts of race and gender on Monday.

In games that asked attendees to visualize steep income inequality, Dark demonstrated how rules governing gender, race and wealth function in the U.S. She showed how people of color are affected by the history of segregated housing in New York City and how women are economically destabilized by being in long-term relationships.

Tandon senior Deborah Alabi, who attended the first talk and volunteered for Dark, felt that she got a lot out of the event.

“It was super interesting,” Alabi said. “Especially the part about underrepresentation in the media, and how we are intrinsically taught to value some occupations over others as opposed to measuring our jobs against our own work ethic and selves.”

The rest of the week featuredan open mic on Tuesday and a seminar on Wednesday, both of which further explored race, gender and wealth in America.

Student organizer at the Center for Multicultural Education and Programs and School of Professional Studies senior Nelson Perez was struck by how

MLK week showed NYU’s attempt to highlight issues on campus and have an educational, up-to-date discussion about culture.

“The biggest thing for me was how the gender pay gap works, how women might miss promotions or carry a lot more responsibility than men in a relationship,” Perez said. “It’s easy to know it’s a thing but difficult to understand why and how it happens if you don’t study it, so that was great.”

This year’s theme, “What’s Left of the Dream?” was the result of organizers’ discussions around what is happening in our community and our nation, according to Assistant Dean of Student Affairs Rose Ampuero.

Although the theme may differ, Ampuero wrote in an email to WSN that some aspects remain the same from past MLK weeks. “[W]hat always remains in practice is honoring MLK’s legacy by the work we do and how we educate students through the programming week and beyond,” Ampuero said.

Email Brianna Zimmerman at news@nyunews.com.

3 CRIME LOG

Posters Vandalized at Second Street

By VICTOR PORCELLI News Edior From Feb. 2 to 6, the Department of Public Safety received one report of burglary/harassment, two reports of criminal mischief, one drug law violation, two reports of larceny, five reports of liquor law violations and one report of trespassing.

Burglary/Harassment On Feb. 3 at 3:07 p.m., an NYU student reported headphones and money missing from her dorm room in Founders Residence Hall. Police notification was declined and the case is open and under investigation.

Criminal Mischief On Feb. 2 at 7:15 p.m., a resident assistant reported witnessing vandalism on a bulletin board in Coral Tower Residence Hall. Police notification was declined and the case is open and under investigation.

On Feb. 5 at 5:30 p.m., an RA reported witnessing vandalism on several flyers at Second Street Residence Hall. Police notification was declined and the case was closed and referred to the Office of Community Standards.

Drug Law Violation On Feb. 2 at 10:49 p.m., Public Safety recovered a small amount of marijuana in Greenwich Residence Hall. Police notification was declined and the case was closed and referred to the Office of Community Standards.

Larceny

A poster showcasing MLK Week’s event lineup, including a talk by Roxane Gay that filled up Skirball Center.

JORENE HE | WSN

On Feb. 5 at 4:19 p.m., an NYU student reported missing clothing from her dorm room at Rubin Residence Hall. Police notification was declined and the case was closed and referred to the Office of Community Standards.

On Feb. 6 at 8:30 p.m., a Starbucks employee reported missing boxes of coffee. A police report was filed and the case is open and under investigation.

Liquor Law Violations On Feb. 2 at 10:13 p.m., an RA reported witnessing underage alcohol possession at Third Avenue North Residence Hall. Police notification was declined and the case was closed and referred to the Office of Community Standards.

On Feb. 2 at 10:30 p.m., an RA reported witnessing underage alcohol possession at Third North. Police notification was declined and the case is open and under investigation.

On Feb. 2 at 11:15 p.m., an RA reported witnessing underage alcohol possession at Third North. Police notification was declined and the case was closed and referred to the Office of Community Standards.

On Feb. 2 at 12:20 a.m., an RA reported witnessing underage alcohol possession at Greenwich Hall. Additionally, Public Safety recovered a small amount of marijuana. Police notification was declined and the case was closed and referred to the Office of Community Standards.

On Feb. 2 at 1:32 a.m., an RA reported witnessing underage alcohol possession at Third North. Police notification was declined and the case was closed and referred to the Office of Community Standards.

Trespassing On Feb. 2 at 1:59 a.m., NYU students reported that an unidentified person trespassed onto their loft at Third North. Public Safety escorted the person out of the loft. Police were notified but no report was taken and the case is open and under investigation.

Email Victor Porcelli at vporcelli@nyunews.com.

Weekly LS Panels Highlight Diverse Black Experiences

By EMILY MASON Staff Writer LS Clinical Assistant Professor Kaia Shivers read lines in the Yoruba language, with each sentence punctuated by a collective chant of “ashe,” the Yoruba word meaning “so be it.”

This was part of the f irst event of the Black Experience in America panel series, entitled “The Black Millennial.”

This chant was accompanied by the sound of panelists pouring water into a pot and Shivers — who curated the series — ringing a handbell as she spoke. At the end, audience members shouted out the names of influential black people who have died, including Marcus Garvey, Maya Angelou and Trayvon Martin.

Shivers performed a libation ceremony, a ritual pouring of a liquid, or grains such as rice, in memory of the dead, to kick off “The Black Experience in America” series. The series will feature weekly discussions during Black History Month and will cover an array of topics relevant to

the black community.

“The idea was to get these four radically different topics and invite important people in the f ield or [those] who have a lot of experience, and then watch them have a conversation,” Shivers said. “The discussion from people was ‘Wow, we haven’t had this in a long time, and this is so very necessary in this critical time in the United States.’”

The upcoming panels are titled “Afro-Latinidad in the African Diaspora,” “Social Justice and the Criminal Justice System” and “The Black Aesthetic with Special Guests Sheril Antonio and Chyna Layne.”

LS sophomore Hunter Major, who attended the panel, emphasized the importance of spaces for conversation.

“When we take space — ourselves — to engage each other and everyone in conversation, that is how we make ourselves known,” Major said. “I think spaces like this are incredibly sacred.”

Shivers said her goal when curating

the panel is to display the diversity of the black community.

“This event is designed to give people a platform to understand what that [diversity] looks like,” Shivers said. “In the United States particularly, when it comes to black people, we’re often viewed as monolithic —‘oh, they’re just black’ — but we’re so diverse.”

Mariah Cameron is an alumna at the City College of New York who attended the event. Cameron said that an issue she sees with the current discourse surrounding race is that white people are hesitant to involve themselves in the conversation.

“The problem that I’m having is that black academics are like ‘Well, we want to solve the issues that race is creating’ and a lot of white people [are] saying ‘Well, I don’t want to step on their toes,’” Cameron said.

“But that’s not the problem.”

Professor Shivers echoed Cameron’s sentiment, encouraging every member of the NYU community to come and learn from the events.

“When you say something like Black History Month, I think a lot of people think it’s an exclusive place or space for black people,” Shivers said. “This is the time for non-

black people to engage, so come and ask questions.”

Email Emily Mason at news@nyunews.com.

EMILY MASON | WSN

Panelists at the Black Millennial event discuss the experience of being black in the U.S.

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CULTURE@NYUNEWS.COM

MONDAY, FEBRUARY 11, 2019

CULTURE

Edited by FAITH MARNECHECK

Warhol’s History Around Washington Square

By CALAIS WATKINS Staff Writer If you’re like most, you know Andy Warhol for his Campbell soup can paintings that persist as an iconic representation of pop art. But there’s much more to the 20th-century artist than this collection.

From the 1960s to the 1980s, Warhol reigned in New York City. He collected artists and visionaries to work in his studio known as “The Factory,” established in Union Square.

With his band of followers behind him, Warhol pioneered a movement.

That movement permeated into the culture of the East Village and Greenwich Village, and its effects are still seen today.

Tisch sophomore Caroline Hedrick commented on the allure surrounding Warhol and why she believes his influence lingers.

“It was either you knew him personally or it was word of mouth,” Hedrick said. “Hearing about Andy Warhol created this mystical sense about him and brought him his fame, which is very different from a modern-day celebrity, such as a Kardashian.”

In an effort to differentiate themselves, students at NYU can become obsessed with originality, hoping to stand out like Warhol once did. But Warhol did not achieve success alone.

His reliance on other people stresses the importance of community.

“He had a whole posse of people working under him and along-

side him,” CAS sophomore Isabella Bohren said. “They lived together and created artwork 24/7 and that is really what New York is all about. Those roots are still here in the creative community, and that’s really special.”

By communicating and working together, the student body has a unique opportunity to feed off of one another’s creativity, much like the atmosphere Warhol cultivated in his factory.

Encouraged by his fame, his followers and the ever-evolving culture of New York City, Warhol branched out to new mediums beyond painting and f ilm. CAS sophomore Emmett Hannigan, a computer science major, spoke about Warhol’s digital innovations.

“In the late 1980s, Andy Warhol was one of the f irst people to create art on digital computers,” Hannigan said. “He helped spearhead the modern notion of viewing digital technology as a medium for art and creativity.”

Beginning in the 70s, computers entered the mainstream market and became available to the general public.

“People saw them as a way to process word documents or make calculations easier,” Hannigan said.

Andy Warhol saw computers in a way very few others did, making modern-day web design classes possible.

Beyond a persistent general culture of creativity and community, tangible examples of Warhol’s influence can be seen around campus. A temporary ex-

JULIA MCNEIL | WSN

The outside of the Velvet Underground Experience, a recent pop-up exhibit on Broadway that explores New York City in the early 1960s.

hibition on The Velvet Underground — a band from the 1960s managed for some time by Warhol — opened on Broadway near the NYU Book-

store earlier this year. To learn even more about Warhol and see his influence in action, visit the Andy Warhol exhibit on display at the Whitney

Museum until March 31.

Email Calais Watkins at culture@nyunews.com.

NYU Alumna Tandra Birkett: Bringing Fashion Week to Harlem

VIA INSTAGRAM.COM

Tandra Birkett, co-founder of Harlem Fashion Week, is interviewed at the Museum of the City of New York.

By CAROL LEE Beauty & Style Editor Harlem-raised entrepreneur and educational consultant Tandra Birkett starting collaborating in 2016 with her daughter, fashion designer Yvonne Jewnell, to bring fashion week to Upper Manhattan.

In the span of three years, the mother-daughter duo successfully developed Harlem Fashion Week into

the major cultural force — and off icially sanctioned New York Fashion Week event — it is today.

Birkett credited her alma mater — she attended NYU from 1989 to 1993 — for giving her the solid educational foundation she needed, as well as exposure to a wealth of diversity. Although she was a political science major in CAS, her love of fashion drove her to participate in a fashion club during her undergraduate experience.

She pinpointed the genesis of her skills as a fashion show producer at that time, during which she helped coordinate a multitude of shows by reaching out to brands and casting models.

“That def initely began my understanding of the business side of working with fashion, working with department stores,” Birkett said. “We did stuff with Macy’s and did stuff with Burberry and Tommy Hilf iger.”

Even back then, her desire to bring designers of color to the forefront was apparent.

“We did an international fashion show, and I lobbied for a component, a segment on Africa,” Birkett said. “So I went to different stores in Brooklyn and Harlem and got designers and models. And then I had created the whole African segment to the international fashion show that we were having.”

However, after graduation, fashion went on the backburner as Birkett established a career as a history teacher and motivational speaker. Years later, her daughter, Jewnell, was the one who reeled her back into the industry by pursuing a career in fashion design.

In an effort to support Jewnell, Birkett dug up her previous experience and skills to help create a platform in Harlem for her daughter and other up-and-coming designers from communities of color. Because the duo was attempting to establish a NYFW show from scratch with little capital backing their pursuit, they faced immense diff iculty.

“It literally was, you know, built on a teacher’s salary, to be honest with you,” Birkett said. “There was no money involved. We didn’t have any backers at all. Just had drive and determination to make something happen.”

“

There was no money involved.

We didn’t have any backers at all.

Just had drive and determination to make something happen.

TANDRA BIRKETT CAS Alumna

”

Birkett also believes that setting up shop in Harlem instead of Lower Manhattan was integral to their success. She emphasized the revolutionary nature of Harlem Fashion Week as one of the f irst established fashion institutions in that area, building on its rich cultural history.

“In SoHo, for example, there’s tons of fashion, you know, organizations

and stores,” Birkett said. “It’s a hub for fashion, so it’s pretty saturated, while Harlem wasn’t saturated.

It was a good opportunity in terms of developing something that, you know, that wasn’t there, and trying to galvanize some of the fashion that’s already present.”

Beyond helping designers showcase their creations, Birkett used her background in education and political science to develop a fashion education program. Burgeoning designers who wish to develop their brand and build their business can attend the workshop to learn skills beyond the runway. Designers can also attend a symposium to learn about sustainable business tactics from a multitude of panelists already established in the fashion industry.

For NYU students looking to break into any industry, fashion or otherwise, Birkett had a few wise words to share. She stressed the importance of innovation and creativity, but above all, she underscored the need to be bold.

“I would encourage students to knock on that door that they think won’t open anyway,” Birkett said.

“That email that you don’t think will get answered, send it anyway. Go to that off ice that you think they’re not going to listen to you and do it anyway, because you may be surprised. They may actually open that email, open that door, and they may give you a shot.”

Email Carol Lee at clee@nyunews.com.

Washington Square News | Culture

MONDAY, FEBRUARY 11, 2019

5

On-Campus H Mart Will Bring Asian Groceries to NYU

By TAYLOR JEFFRIES Staff Writer If students suddenly begin crowding outside Alumni Residence Hall in the future, it’s probably because an H Mart just opened. The Asian-American supermarket chain that has 61 stores nationally is planning to open another New York location in the vacant retail spot beside the dorm.

Although the opening day is yet to be announced, the H Mart logo on the glass windows of the retail space on Third Avenue is creating anticipation among NYU students and other residents of the East Village. One of the fans of this undertaking is LS sophomore Danton Liem who favors the convenience that this H Mart will bring for many.

“I think it’s great because around here there is only one other Asian market that’s open called Sunrise Mart,” Liem said. “Sunrise Mart is more of a Japanese market and H Mart is everything Asian so you can find anything you want. You don’t have to

go all the way to Chinatown or go up to [Koreatown].”

“

H Mart is everything Asian so you can find anything you want.

DANTON LIEM LS Sophomore

”

With the closing of M2M on Waverly Place, there are limited options for the NYU community to get Asian groceries without making a long trek. This will be the third H Mart to open in Manhattan — the other two are located in Koreatown and the Upper West Side — so students seeking Asian ingredients will

have greater accessibility and variety.

For Steinhardt sophomore Abbie Wang, H Mart will be the Asian market of choice because of the quality and larger selection of products that H Mart supplies to its customers.

Wang mentioned that she loves H Mart because its imported products remind her of Taiwan. “[H Mart] really helps when I feel homesick,” Wang said. “Food is just really important to me. It’s what I eat every day and I would love to have an H Mart near me so I can have Asian food.”

Gallatin sophomore Lea Veloso believes that building this H Mart will attract customers of all ethnicities, not just the Asian community.

“H Mart is popular because Asian markets are so convenient for everyone,” Veloso said. “It doesn’t just cater to the Asian community, but caters to all humans of all backgrounds because you can honestly shop there for anything.”

Email Taylor Jeffries at dining@nyunews.com.

EMILY FREEDMAN | WSN

A new H Mart will open in the vacant retail spot underneath Alumni Residence Hall.

Adjusting to New York City’s Smoking Culture

By KYLIE MARSH Contributing Writer Students casually puff ing on cigarettes f ive feet in front of Bobst Library’s no-smoking sign can be a perplexing sight to outsiders. For NYU students, it’s routine.

“It’s inevitable that students smoke on campus despite signs because legally we’re adults,” CAS junior Katherine Chen said. “However, I really hate the smoke outside of Bobst because it’s contained and there’s no way to escape it.”

NYU has a smoke-free campus policy, though you wouldn’t know it from the countless students seen smoking in front of entrances to NYU buildings like Bobst Library and the Silver Center for Arts and Sciences.

The policy, enacted in June 2014, “prohibits smoking at all times on the University campus, including… within close proximity to… any building entrance.” This poli-

cy was created in compliance with the New York City Smoke-Free Air Act, intended to ensure the comfort and health of students and the city’s residents.

TV commercials, public service announcements and large, gory images on cigarette packs do their best to inform Americans about the dangers of nicotine products.

Chen has apprehensions about smoking fueled by vivid images of black lungs as well as worries about wrinkles and yellowed teeth. Having lived and studied in the United States, Europe, Asia and the Middle East, she also realizes the varying perceptions of smoking among different countries.

“Generally, the U.S. is more stringent on health education, especially of smoking,” Chen said. “I do think that people view it more negatively here, while it is much more normalized and not taboo in other countries.”

While some would agree that

smoking is looked down upon in the city, CAS sophomore Dae Oh Kim states that the U.S. is more lenient compared to his home country of Korea. According to Kim, there are heavily enforced laws and social punishment in Korea that effectively prohibit smoking within 20 feet of any bus stop.

“If you’re smoking on big streets [in Korea], the cops will f ind you,” Kim said. “If there are people around, they’ll give you the stare or give you the talk. There are smoking zones and internet cafes, and in really big parking lots there’s a corner you can go to, but that’s about it. Everywhere else is a no-smoking zone.”

Since coming to NYU, Kim picked up vaping to get his nicotine f ix, saying that he only started smoking in college but admits he is now addicted.

“Everyone was vaping, so I tried it out,” Kim said. “It’s an addiction, so I just smoke and it’s really

hard to stop.”

He added that he’s among the many who have chosen the entrance of Bobst as their go-to smoke spot, not concerned about NYU’s no-smoking policy.

“It’s a joke,” Kim said. “It’s not really enforced. They’re not going to curb [students’ smoking habits], no way.”

Many students feel that NYU’s no-smoking policy isn’t effective.

As a non-smoker, Steinhardt graduate student Yuki Abe appreciates how her hometown in Japan has many designated smoking areas to control the prevalence and smell in public, and she wishes there was something similar at NYU.

“

Everyone was vaping, so I tried it out. It’s an addiction, so I just smoke and it’s really hard to stop.

DAE OH KIM CAS Sophomore

”

CYDNEY BLITZER | WSN

An NYU student lights a cigarette.

“Smoking also affects non-smokers,” Abe said. “In Japan, there are still some restaurants, cafes or bars where people can smoke. It’s not a big deal for Japanese students, but there are people who don’t like smoking, like me. I don’t like people smoking on campus or on the street.”

While NYU hopes to dissuade students through off icial no-smoking rules, some think the solution lies in accommodation rather than suppression.

Students smokers f ind many defenses for validating their addiction.

GSAS student Channy Jordan-Grier, who is from North Carolina, says that smoking is common among college students, especially in states where the age limit on purchasing nicotine products is only 18, as it is in most of New York state.

Like Kim, Jordan-Grier started smoking in college and picked it up as a regular habit as the years went by and stress piled on.

“It was very occasional, like once a month,” Jordan-Grier said. “Senior year, I smoked almost every day because I had two jobs, I was going to school and I had to graduate.”

A smoking habit picked up in college can often persist even after graduation.

“Me and my friends would go hang out and de-stress together,” Jordan-Grier said. “It still serves that purpose now.”

Beyond stress relief and socialization, smoking can keep people warm and satiated during the winter season.

“A pack of cigarettes can run you as little as two dollars where I’m from,” Jordan-Grier said. “That’s 20 cigarettes for 10 cents a cigarette. Instead of buying food that you can’t afford, you would have your appetite suppressed for at least a few days before you can earn any more money. It also took my mind off the blistering cold.”

There is, however, an abundance of research proving that the devastating harm caused by cigarettes far outweighs any of these benef its.

Whether for or against smoking, students can agree that the answer lies in separation and compromise instead of trying to force students to give up their ingrained guilty pleasures.

“At the end of the day, it’s an addiction and that’s people’s way to cope with things,” Jordan-Grier said. “They shouldn’t be punished for how they’re coping.”

Luckily for NYU’s smoking community, they have a whole city of public streets on which they can take a smoke break.

Email Kylie Marsh at culture@nyunews.com.

Washington Square News

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ARTS

ARTS@NYUNEWS.COM

Fyre Festival Scam Continues

By DANTE SACCO Staff Writer Fyre Festival, the brainchild of practiced millennial manipulator Billy McFarland, was a 2017 ultra-luxe music festival in the Bahamas imagined to appeal to the basest desires of that much-maligned generation with celebrities, alcohol and scenic vistas; it was packaged and sold as the ideal opportunity for the young and well-to-do to capture enough social media content to adorn their feeds for a lifetime. The festival gained notoriety as attendees arrived at an island some have aptly described as reminiscent of “Lord of the Flies.”

On Jan. 18, Netflix was set to release its Fyre Festival documentary, “FYRE: The Greatest Party That Never Happened,” the first inside look at the music festival of the decade that went legendarily awry.

In a surprising move, on Jan. 14, Hulu brashly moved up the release date of its dueling documentary, “Fyre Fraud,” to premiere immediately, four days before its Netflix counterpart. This was a proxy war for these longtime streaming rivals and it appeared Hulu was simply jockeying to be first to the story. However, after watching both, the early release is not only an attempt to be first to the buzzer on Fyre Festival but also to controvert the entire Netflix documentary. The Netflix documentary is but one in a series of misrepresentations that have occurred surrounding this now infamous festival.

The social media marketing for Fyre Festival was contracted to the advertising company FuckJerry. Their ingenious online campaign led to the kind of immediate and ubiquitous attention among millennials that was previously reserved for events like presidential assassinations and moon landings, but now, is garnered by music festivals, Kardashian child-births and pictures of eggs. It also led to a public image leading up to the festival of an island oasis, featuring no mention of the FEMA tents, wet mattresses and general chaos that festival goers would arrive to.

FuckJerry and its parent company Jerry Media, a company with a long history of dubious activity, were created by Elliot Tebele. In a conflict of interest so apparent that it’s staggering the production was allowed to continue, Jerry Media was a producer for Netflix’s “FYRE” and Elliot Tebele himself was credited as

Cover art for “Fyre” on Netflix.

MONDAY, FEBRUARY 11, 2019

an executive producer on the film. This all went on despite his role as a partner to the festival since the beginning and the creation of a false image of luxury. Netflix essentially tasked the Titanic’s iceberg spotter with producing a documentary about its sinking.

The Hulu documentary is happy to point this out, although it does not name Netflix. The film interviews Oren Aks, the former FuckJerry employee who was tasked with constructing the Fyre Festival’s social media presence. The Hulu documentary and Aks go on to imply that FuckJerry was complicit in deceiving Fyre Festival attendees with the illusion that the physical Fyre Festival setup matched the vision of paradise propagat-

“

Netflix essentially tasked the Titanic’s iceberg spotter with producing a documentary about its sinking.

”

ed by the festival’s social media presence.

In the Netflix documentary, however, FuckJerry is another victim of McFarland. In Hulu’s accounting of the situation, FuckJerry, if not responsible for Fyre Festival’s failure, at least amplified the effects of the fallout. Jerry Media is now attempting to control the narrative and history of Fyre Festival through their involvement in the Netflix documentary. The company that misled the public about Fyre Festival at the outset is still misleading the public about Fyre Festival in the aftermath.

Hulu subtly skewers the Netflix documentary, but Hulu has its own scandal

on its hands. The moral high ground the film occupies has been called into question, after it was revealed that McFarland was paid for his appearance in “Fyre Fraud.” McFarland was not involved with the production but compensating him for talking to the interviewers, aside from being journalistically unethical, also seems to rub salt in the wounds of the Bahamians and Fyre Festival attendees to whom McFarland caused significant financial harm.

There is a moral gripe to be had against McFarland being paid for participation, but ultimately it is valuable to hear the voice of the man behind the festival, and the Hulu film can be forgiven. The same cannot be said for the Netflix documentary, where Jerry Media’s participation in producing the film seems to violently veer the entire Fyre Festival narrative off course in a manner that substantially changes the history of the festival and the accounting of its organizers’ mistakes.

In retrospect, the film looks more or less like a cover-up. With an internet that is rife with outrage at all but the most minor of transgressions, it is surprising that Netflix’s “FYRE” has escaped much of the vitriol. It has been remarkably well-received for an endeavor with such a grand lapse of integrity.

It should be pointed out that both documentaries are wildly entertaining; the events portrayed are almost unbelievably cartoonish, appallingly representative of the pitfalls of modern internet culture and it all plays out with some characters so pathologically disconnected with reality that the viewer is left aghast.

Billy McFarland and Jerry Media, the man largely responsible for the Fyre Festival disaster and the co-conspirator company that put the finishing touches on the scam, both turned around and profited off of their mistakes with these films.

This is a fitting ending to the Fyre Festival story. Whether it is told by Netflix, Jerry Media, Hulu or Billy McFarland himself, the Fyre Festival story warns of the distorted reality and widespread employment of contrived notoriety that is native to so much of the internet’s content, and finally, of how far some are willing to go to achieve this fame and manipulate our desire for it.

Email Dante Sacco at film@nyunews.com.

VIA NETFLIX

Edited by GURU RAMANATHAN

‘Russian Doll’ Is an Endlessly Entertaining Binge Watch

VIA NETFLIX

Cover art for “Russian Doll” on Netflix.

By ANNA LEE Staff Writer “Russian Doll,” Netflix’s newest series, which premiered on Feb. 1, has already sparked great critical and public attention from viewers worldwide only a week after its release. Originally created by an all-female dream team of Amy Poehler, Natasha Lyonne and Leslye Headland, “Russian Doll” is an exploration of existentialism, alternate realities, the relativity of time and childhood traumas. These psychological thematic centers that the show’s narrative revolves around strengthen the exquisite characters, leading the audience to become more invested in the show’s intense conflicts. While only a week has passed since the show’s release, audiences are already begging for more.

At first glance, the New York City-based series seemingly follows a “Groundhog Day”-esque plot, revolving around a young woman named Nadia (Natasha Lyonne) who repeatedly dies at her birthday party.

At the end of every night, she somehow manages to get herself killed in ominous ways: by falling in the Hudson River, stepping into potholes and even being hit by a washing machine thrown out of a window. Upon her repeated deaths, she wakes up on the morning of her birthday in the dimly lit, Bohemian bathroom of her friend’s home, before setting off on a scavenger hunt to better understand why she’s trapped in such a hellish fever dream.

The stunning cinematography lets us familiarize ourselves with some of New York City’s more hidden locations, like old Jewish schools, delis, parks and rustic holes-in-the-wall.

We follow Nadia’s progression as she finds clues and formulates theories of why she’s living the same day over and over again. The screenwriting, which was particularly compelling, helps bring to life Nadia’s witty and bold New Yorker attitude. Nadia’s mostly cynical dialogue is in line with the dark comedy sub-genre, yet the series simply cannot be categorized.

While the ironic, dry-humored screenplay incorporates an aspect of dark comedy, other cinematic elements offer a different turn in the genre. The lighting has a low-key, dim and almost expressionist nature, full of deep shadows, soft glows of natural light with a warm, earthy color-palette, falling into the conventions of a neo-noir genre, which also helps to develop the ambiguous, ominous narrative of the show.

The visual and stylistic choices behind “Russian Doll” are a dramatic departure from mainstream television series. These choices attempt to evoke realism through a simple light setup or displace an overall lack of focus on lighting entirely. The series’ unconventional outlook on narrative structure and sharp dialogue already makes it one of the most intriguing and memorable viewing experiences of the year.

Email Anna Lee at film@nyunews.com.

MONDAY, FEBRUARY 11, 2019

Washington Square News | Arts

7

Steinhardt’s ‘Rags’: A Tale of Trump’s America, 100 Years Ago

By ALEX CULLINA Theater & Books Editor Immigrants seek a better life for their children in the United States Unsympathetic government officials attempt to separate a mother and her child. Xenophobic nativists demand that we “take our city back.”

These events could have been ripped straight from the headlines of the last couple years, but they’re also all plot points from the 1986 musical “Rags,” which the Steinhardt Music and Performing Arts Department is staging through Feb. 11.

“Rags,” with a book by Joseph Stein (“Fiddler on the Roof”), lyrics by Stephen Schwartz (“Wicked”) and music

by Charles Strouse (“Annie”), opens with Bella (Steinhardt junior Noelle Leinwol), Rebecca (Steinhardt junior Natalie Young; the role was also played

by Steinhardt junior Madeline Bernstein on Feb. 7 and 9) and Rebecca’s young son David (Professional Performing Arts High School seventh grader Graydon Yosowitz) on a ship bound for New York City. Bella is to be reunited with her father Avram (Steinhardt first-year masters student Tristan Lesso), while the widowed Rebecca has no one waiting for her and David.

When Rebecca is threatened with de-

portation and separation from her son upon their arrival at Ellis Island, Bella convinces her father to pretend to be a relative of the mother and child, rescuing them from an uncertain future.

Avram then secures a home for Rebecca, David and Bella with his sister Anna and brother-in-law Jack, as well as a job for Rebecca. A gifted seamstress, she sews dresses for a pittance under Jack’s supervision.

And so the story continues — Rebecca’s skill gets her noticed by Max, the wealthy German-Jewish man she and Jack work for. She juggles romantic advances from Max and dashing Italian union organizer Sal, while Bella and Avram are both pursued by suitors of their own. A strike is called. David, Rebecca and Bella face racist harassment on the street. A factory burns.

Director Gabriel Barre — who starred in the original Broadway production — and original lyricist Stephen Schwartz workshopped the production with the students, revising the text to foreground the theme of immigration and xenophobia. This newest version will premiere in the U.K. at Hope Mill Theatre in March.

But the parallels between the events of the show and life in Trump’s America aren’t at all heavy-handed. Their impact is all the more forceful for how clearly they speak for themselves — racism, xenopho-

bia and a selective interpretation of the American Dream aren’t anywhere close to 21st-century inventions.

The smartest part of the show is the inclusion of two characters credited as the Americans (Steinhardt first-year Benjamin Raanan and Steinhardt first-year masters student Logan Hoy Tucker).

Clad in white suits and boater hats, they relay the sometimes contradictory sentiments of the U.S. public through song.

In “Greenhorns,” they’re the callous capitalists delighting in the flood of cheap immigrant labor, while in “Take Our Country Back/Greenhorns,” they’re a part of a racist, anti-immigrant mob.

Through their presence on stage, we’re reminded that oppressive power structures aren’t mere abstract concepts, but are constituted and upheld by people and their actions.

The young actors represent themselves well. Particular standouts include Steinhardt first-year master’s student Steven Eddy as Jack, who plays the inveterate kvetcher with a deft comedic touch, and Steinhardt second-year masters student Patrick Clark, whose rakish Sal is a gestural, romantic dreamer. And Young infuses Rebecca with a realistic pathos, even if her voice was a little worn out by the time her big closing number, “Children of the Wind (Reprise),” came around.

While the plotting of “Rags” is rel-

Students in the production of “Rags”

atively intricate, the lessons the show offers are simplistic, the stuff of your typical Broadway musical: love conquers all, friends and family are what matters, we’re not so different after all. But the show is also suffused with a specificity that allows these cliches a bit of room to breathe.

Whenever the characters enter Jack and Anna’s apartment, they touch the doorframe, a reference to an ancient Jewish spiritual tradition; we’re reminded of the ties that bind these characters togeth-

COURTESY OF NYU STEINHARDT

er, to the Old Country and to each other.

In a lovely scene, Bella’s aunt and uncle host a Shabbat dinner as Sal attends Catholic Mass, the Hebrew and Latin chanting coming together to form a solemn, holy harmony. Maybe we’re not so different after all.

“Rags” runs two hours and 40 minutes, and plays at the Frederick Loewe Theatre through Monday, Feb. 11.

Email Alex Cullina at acullina@nyunews.com.

From Across the Atlantic, NYU’s strangers Brings People Together

PHOTO BY ANNA LETSON

Album art for student music group strangers.

By NICOLE ROSENTHAL Music Editor They collaborate through their computer screens while sitting 7,000

miles apart. But Gallatin senior Alexa Riesenberg, based in Manhattan, and bandmate Gino Lee, who lives in South Africa — better known by their production name, strangers — overcome this distance, delivering their own unique take on lush pop arrangements and upbeat grooves.

With Riesenberg serving as the primary vocalist for the duo, Lee lends his talents on the production side. The production team released their f irst single “I Like” last month, garnering over 10,000 streams on Spotify alone.

“It became a story that we wrote about the feeling of being in a relationship and seeing your ex with somebody new and that feeling of jealousy and spite,” Risenberg said of the bouncy single, which fea-

tures poignant dynamics between male and female vocal harmonies.

“We really do want to bring strangers together with our music. That’s what it’s about.”

Both members are in charge of writing the songs – a challenge when operating in different continents.

(The two f irst met at an open mic in Brooklyn last year while Lee was visiting the U.S.)They aim to illustrate the human connection through smart, accessible pop music.

“It’s def initely hard,” Riesenberg said. “Sometimes both of us will be on mute for like two hours [on Skype] until we wave [at each other] when we come up with a good part. Def initely for me, [Gino] brings something new to the table because he listens to a lot more U.K. pop, which is

def initely different than here.”

The duo, reminiscent of pop giants Shawn Mendes, Cheat Codes and Bebe Rexha, already has several unreleased songs under their belt, with plans to release another single in the near future.

“We have a lot of [songs] started,” Riesenberg said. “Hopefully we’ll f inish this semester.”

Riesenberg formulated her own concentration titled Critical Approaches to Pop Music, which incorporates a blend of songwriting, music production and music anthropology.

With the intention of breaking into the music industry as either a songwriter or an artist, the Manhattanite knows the exact direction she wants to take her music.

“We want to be a pop-writing-pro-

duction team duo,” Riesenberg said.

“We want to write and produce pop music […] I’ve always gravitated naturally toward pop music. A lot of the time it’s trivialized and it comes down to a taste war.”

Riesenberg is unafraid of any stigma against the pop genre as well, believing the genre to have more weight than some would like to admit.

“If you say you don’t like Taylor Swift, sometimes it comes off as you trying to show off your better taste,” Riesenberg said with a laugh. “I think pop music has a lot more to say than we usually let it. The fact that everyone is listening to it is a statement in itself.”

Email Nicole Rosenthal at nrosenthal@nyunews.com.

Recasting Rosie the Riveter

By AASHNA AGARWAL Staff Writer Portraits of women in power poses woo passersby at the intersection of LaGuardia Place and West Third Street, courtesy of artists Renata Stih and Frieder Schnock. Their exhibit “Rosie Won the War” in the Kimmel Windows is a modern take on Norman Rockwell’s lasting “Rosie the Riveter.”

The exhibit, which has been in the works for the past two and a half years, is sponsored by Ulrich Baer, Vice Provost of Faculty, Arts, Humanities and Diversity at NYU. The 13-piece exhibit consists of portraits and a memorandum from Hilary Lewis, Chief Curator and Creative Director of the Glass House.

The life-size portraits feature the modern woman wearing blue-collar, World War II era clothing derived from her current profession, juxtaposing the clothing worn by the women in the portraits with their careers.

The result is a take on gender norms: Barbara, an architect and associate professor at the University of Texas, is dressed as a welder while Tanja, an art historian and director at the Max Planck Institute of Art History, is dressed as a cartographer.

“Inspiring people through real-life portraits of real-life women who are doing amazing things in the context of our own layered histories can’t help but make a person feel excited about the future,” curator of the Kimmel Windows and GSAS alumna Pamela Jean Tinnen said. “We’ve made some amazing advancements for both women’s rights and also science and technology.”

The women are framed by battle maps and inventions from World War II along with a caption detailing advancements made in the war thanks to women and the actual careers of those photographed. Mixing playful colors and lighthearted facial expressions, the irony in the pieces does not detract from the seriousness of the

message but rather enhances it.

“It’s more fun to play off of this idea,” Tinnen said. “If you remember the original ‘Rosie the Riveter,’ it was playful. They’re taking that into their photoshoots and having that play with this idea of gender in the way they’re staging the artists and the way they’re designing the artwork around that, and I think that’s a more effective way to engage audiences.”

Each portrait was carefully chosen from the greater exhibit of 21 pieces, and many were selected specifically since they depict women from the New York City area. Timed to fall in line with Rosie the Riveter Day on March 21, established with a Senate resolution in 2017, the exhibit is meant to celebrate women whose role in society has since evolved. The artists intend to portray women as dynamic and intelligent, dominating any and every field, and tie their work into the larger feminist movement.

“You know, in today’s so-often divisive political climate, and with

so much upsetting news every day it seems, it’s really wonderful to have these Rosies on view for the NYU community, and for the public at large,” Tinnen said. “If something can inspire you and make you smile or laugh at the same time, that’s a

pretty good thing!”

“Rosie Won the War” is on display at the Kimmel Windows Gallery until March 22.

Email Aashna Agarwal at arts@nyunews.com.

JORENE HE | WSN

The Kimmel Center for University Life’s window gallery show “Rosie Won the War.”

Washington Square News

8

MONDAY, FEBRUARY 11, 2019

OPINION

OPINION@NYUNEWS.COM

Edited by HANNA KHOSRAVI and MELANIE PINEDA

UNIVERSITY LIFE

Finding Home in New York City

By NOSHEEN HOSSAIN Contributing Writer Entering college, I had a very strict, categorical definition of what home meant.

To me, home was the idea of feeling fully grounded in the location that I occupied — a sense of connectedness to the city, attachment to the people in my network and an intimate familiarity with my surround-

ings. As I prepared to move to New York City for college in fall 2018, I stubbornly attached my idea of home to a very specific geographical location — the city in California where I grew up and from where I was about to move away for at least four years during a critical segment of my life.

Unfortunately, this resulted in a horribly closed-minded attitude when I arrived here last fall. I viewed college with a sense of impermanence: a brief hiatus from home that would only momentarily cause me to be placeless while I would still remain grounded in my community back home and remain in close touch with friends and family. All of this caused me to go through my first semester without truly being mentally present — I didn’t care much to form meaningful attachments

here. Finding my community, integrating myself within the city and becoming familiar with the web of people around me wasn’t exactly my first priority, even though these are all things I value deeply.

However, after finally being able to go home during winter break for a full six weeks, I could feel my perspective shift.

I was seeing the same familiar faces on a regular basis again, and the comfort with which I navigated through my day felt like a sharp yet refreshing contrast to how I moved about my months at NYU. I became more conscious of how much I valued community, and I also had the powerful realization that this feeling of comfort and interconnectedness didn’t have to be exclusive to my hometown. Winter break provided me with the sense of security I

needed, as it assuaged any fears I had regarding losing closeness or loyalty with the people at home. This gave me confidence that I wasn’t in any way leaving behind the community where I grew up by trying to move forward and establish more roots elsewhere.

By the end of winter break, I felt much more ready to be a college student as a second-semester first-year than I did last semester. I now feel open to new opportunities, I am excited to get another chance to explore the city and I want to be more invested in new friendships. I believe more in my capability to fully be here without detracting from the way I am invested in my friends and family back home.

As more people are making their way around the world for work or study, it is

important to be flexible and adaptive to new situations and communities. I am slowly learning that I am not doing myself any favors by being closed-minded about where I can feel truly grounded.

I now feel excited to take on my second semester and be mentally present as I do so, knowing that my home will always be there when I go back. NYU is not famous for its community within the student body. Nonetheless, I feel as optimistic as ever that eventually, with enough open-mindedness and a bit of luck, I can still end up feeling grounded within a small community I create for myself in this big city.

Email Nosheen Hossain at opinion@nyunews.com.

POLITICS

The Conservatism of Climate Estimates

By COLE STALLONE Deputy Opinion Editor The beginning of 2019 in climate politics was defined by one phrase — “faster than previously thought.” Many have been caught off guard by data from earlier in January that showed the ocean was warming at a faster rate than scientists previously believed. Several reports followed this, making similar claims about different areas of the climate. These trends reveal the dangers of climate estimations, which are inherently conservative due to being determined on an international level. In response, we must follow the recommendations strictly; these are the absolute minimum standards as supported by the vast majority of scientific evidence. We must also be willing to explore more radical and comprehensive climate action. As the climate crisis grows more dire, these solutions will become necessary to meet the challenges that lay ahead.

Reports from Antarctica show ice is melting at a rate significantly higher than

expected, which could cause higher sea levels that result in dramatic consequences globally. Similarly, research out of Greenland shows that ice from the island is melting into the Atlantic at a rate four times quicker than previously expected. The impact that these events have on the climate cannot be overstated. The result of melting ice is the release of methane, a toxic greenhouse gas that traps more heat in the atmosphere than carbon dioxide. Methane, after 20 years, can be 84 times more dangerous than carbon dioxide; over a hundred years, it can still be 28 times as dangerous.

The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change is arguably the highest international authority on the climate crisis. The UN releases periodic assessment reports on the current state of the climate. The most recent report was released in 2014, and another one isn’t expected until 2022. The data and arguments in this report presented most of the scientific evidence used to formulate the Paris Agreement in 2015. By virtue of being a diverse international body, the results are inherently conservative; only information that all participating members could agree on was included. Therefore, the conclusions reached in this report are literally the most conservative estimations of the international body.

That being said, at the time of this report’s release, the state of climate politics was generally looking positive. Over the

course of his administration, President Barack Obama oversaw large investments into renewable energy, greater fuel efficiency and overall, progress was made towards the creation of international solutions to climate change. Most importantly, as a part of the Paris Agreement, it was agreed that the global average temperature should remain well below 2 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels. The election of Donald Trump drastically changed the political atmosphere. Despite reports in October to the contrary, a December climate report from the Department of Energy shows that greenhouse gas emissions have increased over the course of Trump’s administration.

These findings sharply contrast the recommendations of the IPCC and highlight the danger of adopting conservative measures as the standard.

In addition to the irregular assessment reports, the IPCC can release special reports on specific topics at the request of governments. The most recent publication — the Special Report on Global Warming of 1.5 degrees Celsius — emphasizes the benefits of maintaining the global temperature at a level below 1.5 to 2 degrees Celsius, while acknowledging the difficulties of accomplishing such a task. This is a notable pivot from its previous position, changing 2 degrees Celsius from the acceptable standard to the bare minimum. The conservatism of the assessment reports applies to special

reports so that logically, the measurement of 1.5 degrees Celsius is most likely closer to the standard we should strive for as opposed to 2 degrees Celsius.

In the political context of President Donald Trump, whose environmental policy is already creating lasting damage, our institutions are working against us.

Fuel efficiency has decreased; coal, oil and gas production have increased and endangered species have had key protections removed. The result of Trump’s policies has been the increased pollution of our air and water as well as the suppression of scien-

tific research.

At the core of the climate crisis is the improper maintenance of the ecosystem. The environmental damages that continue to occur cannot be fixed with minor repairs.

Short-term solutions focused on mitigation and economic stimulus are promising for the near future, but the data demands urgency. When our climate and our politics begin to degrade, radical solutions need to be explored.

Email Cole Stallone at cstallone@nyunews.com.

SOPHIA DI IORIO | WSN

LETTER TO THE EDITOR

Asian Americans Are Asian Enough

By JOEL LEE Under the Arch Deputy Editor Last Monday, WSN published an oped by NYU student Ryan Moon titled “Struggling to Define Asian-American in 2019.” I experienced a sense of indignation as I read Moon’s claim that “the imitation of white culture that Asian Americans call their identity is embarrassing.” An all too familiar sense of guilt over not feeling Asian enough washed over me.

I can only speak as a Korean American. It is too easy to homogenize Asian Americans and to ignore their diversity of experiences and origins. Moon argues that Asian Americans have lost their cultural identity, referencing Western beauty standards, assimilation into American culture and the “model minority” myth as culprits. To address this, Moon vaguely issues a call to action to “stop adhering to the rules of another race”.

Moon’s argument presupposes that Asian Americans are too caught up with becoming white. However, we shouldn’t forget that assimilation for Asian Americans has always meant survival. Parents taught their kids English instead of Korean so they would suffer less discrimination. Historically, Asian immigrants were stereotyped as one homogeneous group and therefore could not assimilate as easily as their European counterparts.

Their Asianness always translated into always being the “other.”

Today, Asian Americans still aren’t given the privilege of being perceived as rightfully American. “Where are you really from?” is a question that I’ve grown to abhor. It is a tiring position to simultaneously call a country home and be denied the opportunity to be considered one of its own. Simultaneously, Asian Americans must deal with the feeling that their American upbringing invalidates their Asian identity.

This guilt underlies Moon’s argument. Then I ask: what more must I do to define and prove my Asian identity and reject whiteness? Asian Americans are stuck between two cultures that do not claim ownership of them.

I agree with Moon that Asians shouldn’t “negate their minority status” as discrimination against Asians is

alive and well in the United States’ job market and higher education. Moon erroneously uses the model minority myth as a rhetorical device to question why Asian-Americans assimilate rather than highlight the myth as a tool to suppress black and brown people of color like in the Harvard admissions lawsuit.

Moon follows the common essentialist discourse that Asians, by participating in American culture, are whitewashing themselves. He writes that “the Asian American can never be a white American, no matter how blonde he dyes his hair or how much makeup she wears.”

I too am deeply troubled by the beauty industry as it feeds on one’s insecurities.

Nevertheless, to immediately attribute an Asian American’s aesthetic choices to self-hatred is dangerous. It prevents individuals from having the agency to authentically express themselves without

contradiction.

What is embarrassing is the idea that Asian Americans must choose between being Asian and American when we have historically and continually carved our own unique place in U.S. society. If I had to choose a motherland, it would be the U.S. My Americanness is not a performance of whiteness, but it is rooted in embracing the cultures in which I simultaneously exist.

We are in the same boat as I, too, do not know as much Korean as I would like. I do not know if this guilt of not feeling Asian enough will ever go away.

In spite of that, I refuse to believe that my cultural identity as an Asian and an American is a moral and cultural failure rather than a celebration of the people and places I call home.

Email Joel Lee at joellee@nyunews.com.

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MONDAY, FEBRUARY 11, 2019

CULTURE

The Misleading Nature of Veganism

By MATIGAN KING Contributing Writer In the complex, polarizing world of nutrition and diets, people tend to favor black and white rules to answer their questions. But simple answers are not available nor possible in this highly nuanced f ield. Certain foods receive healthy or unhealthy labels depending on whether or not they are acceptable within a certain diet or adhere to a particular nutritional code. Many dishes that proclaim to be vegan, for instance, are automatically assumed to be healthy, but such arbitrary designations should raise suspicion.

The focus on plant-based food in the vegan diet is a positive development, but just because something is touted as plant-based does not mean it is necessarily clean for our bodies. One beet burger at a popular vegan food chain, by CHLOE., for instance, contains all-purpose flour, vegetable oil and sugar, all of which can have detrimental effects on one’s health. Additionally, a popular brand of Veganaise — vegan mayonnaise — contains safflower oil and brown rice syrup, which is essentially a different name for sugar.

Such ingredients are often quietly added to so-called health foods to improve taste or shelf life, undermining nutritional value. Similarly, a muff in from gluten-free brand Udi’s is made with sugar and canola oil, other ingredients which do not seem to be actual food, and contains 23 grams of sugar per serving. To put this in perspective, the American Heart Association recommends that women ingest no more than 25 grams of added sugar per day and that men ingest no more than 38 grams. Essentially, it is best not to rely on added sugar as a regular component of one’s daily diet.

This, of course, does not mean that all vegan foods are suboptimal for one’s health, as veganism’s focus on vegetables and legumes can certainly benef it one’s overall wellbeing. One study from McMaster University, for instance, found that those who consumed three to four servings of vegetables, fruits and legumes per day had a lowered mortality risk. Likewise, another study found that those who consumed one serving of green, leafy vegetables per day had a higher cognitive performance than those who did not.

Eating such wholesome, real plant-

Submitting to

based foods like vegetables and fruits can signif icantly benef it one’s overall health and wellbeing. The problem is focusing too strongly on overly simplistic labels attributed to foods. After all, there are many examples of ref ined carbohydrates, ice creams, sweetened beverages and fried foods that can all accurately be labeled “vegan.” A vegan, gluten-free muff in is still a muff in and should be regarded as such.

Vegan choices are present all over our campus as well. But as NYU continues to try to accommodate various diets, it too has succumbed to the labeling fallacy. Vegan cauliflower mash, for instance, with the “eat well” indication next to the title, contains cane sugar, carrageenan, vegetable oil and a colorant. All of these additional, questionable ingredients undermine the assumed nutritional value of the dish. Perhaps it would be more benef icial if NYU focused on the quality of the individual ingredients it uses, as opposed to the name of the diet it is trying to accomodate.

Many people choose to adopt veganism for ethical, environmental or religious purposes, which is understandable and respectable. However, even veganism may not be the most ethical diet, as plant harvesting often involves unfair treatment of laborers, many of whom are children.

Pest control methods and farming practices have also been known to harm insects and animals. Hence, veganism does not automatically indicate that a certain food was produced in a cruelty-free manner.

Everyone’s body is different, and thus everyone’s diet should be personalized. The tribalistic culture surrounding nutrition today is misleading and can potentially be dangerous, as people blindly adhere to rigid guidelines or fall victim to the latest trend.

The best way to navigate the confusing and ever-changing maze of nutrition is to listen to one’s own body. Eating real food that nourishes the body, soul and mind is the healthiest way to live, and this approach does not rely on sensationalist labels to decide what is healthy or not. We all know our bodies the best, but the food industry continually tries to convince us otherwise.

This is why we need to take initiative when it comes to health, never ceasing to explore and experiment in order to discover what works best for our own bodies and lifestyles. True nutrition is not the result of blindly adhering to a certain diet; it is, rather, a continuous and imperfect learning process that evolves and morphs just as we do, with the occasional ice cream sundae thrown in.

Email Matigan King at opinion@nyunews.com.

STAFF EDITORIAL

GSOC Deserved Better Communication This last week, an administrative decision to withhold information from the student body resulted in yet another controversy regarding credibility.

WSN covered NYU’s lack of openness around their claim that the State required them to consolidate the Graduate Student Health Insurance Plan with the Comprehensive Health Insurance Plan. Later, a representative from the Department of Financial Services refuted this claim — the State did not require them to do so. NYU’s decision to consolidate had been made solely by NYU and its health insurance company.

This decision impacted over 1,000 students. Previous to this, fully funded students in GSAS could use the Graduate Student Health Insurance Plan, which had more extensive coverage and lower copays for children and spouses. On June 20, these GSAS students were notified that this plan, GSHIP, would be combined with another plan — NYU’s Comprehensive Plan — to cover all students with the same comprehensive plan. The move from GSHIP to the Comprehensive Plan resulted in higher copays and less coverage for all students that used to have GSHIP, and their families who were offered it at a subsidized rate.

NYU’s lack of communication with the students who were personally affected by this issue was not only unjustifiable, but created a problem which could have easily been avoided. To begin, NYU denied a request for information from the Graduate Student Organizing Committee. In their denial, NYU referred GSOC to a website that also claimed they were required to consolidate by the State. To make matters worse, during arbitration with GSOC, NYU failed to clarify. Caroline Bowman, an organizer of GSOC who was present during the arbitration, said Dr. Carlo Ciotoli, Executive Director of the Student Health Center, reiterated his previous claim that the New York State Department of Financial Services required NYU to consolidate its health insurance plans.

It is not the goal to argue that the administration’s specific actions in reference to the consolidation were inherently malicious. But the issue lies in their inability to be transparent with the student body. NYU could have made it public that they were only trying to follow regulation by consolidating the healthcare plans. From additional information the university provided after the article, it seems that their original health care plans, which included GSHIP, were denied by the State. Instead, they made a choice to say that they had been required to do so.

This is not the same as being required to consolidate

the plans but does a better job of explaining why they may have chosen to do so.

Perhaps the administration was worried about being criticized regarding a decision that would increase costs for students — which was made without consulting the student body. However, the ramifications of a lack of transparency are far greater in terms of damaging the administration’s credibility than their ownership of the consolidation would have been.

NYU has consistently attempted to resolve issues behind closed doors, revealing a lack of concern for hearing our voices as students. This isn’t the first time NYU has had an issue with transparency — whether it be through the absence of communication from the Board of Trustees or the university’s silence on the loss of a student. But a university can only effectively respond to its community’s concerns when a line of communication exists. Undeniably, our community would benefit if NYU chose to actively seek out students’ ideas — rather than rush to contain information they deem as a threat to their image. Instead of acting unilaterally on behalf of the students, the university should have made students aware that the State couldn’t accept the insurance plans as they existed, and opened up a dialogue about what to do next. This could have created an opportunity to work with GSOC to solve the issue, and would have prevented NYU from being accused of lying to its students.

Similarly, in the health care controversy, the university made a decision to communicate their reasoning after WSN’s article was published. The university was dissatisfied with WSN’s characterization of their miscommunication as a lie and expressed this in an email to WSN. However, if the university had responded to GSOC’s original request for information, or their repeated asks for clarification afterward during the grievance and arbitration process, the misunderstanding could have been avoided.

Instead, at each point, NYU decided to keep the information on the consolidated plans private, making it much easier to assume the worst when a spokesperson from the New York State Department of Financial Services stated that the agency had not required them to consolidate the plan.

Whatever one feels about the university’s decision, it is unquestionably problematic that they made it without consulting the student body. Education is a two-way street, and for our university to be successful, it requires the participation of all parties. To foster and encourage both transparency and dialogue is of the utmost importance in cultivating trust and communication.

Email the Editorial Board at editboard@nyunews.com.

HANNA KHOSRAVI Chair MELANIE PINEDA Chair COLE STALLONE Co-chair SARAH JOHN Co-chair

SEND MAIL TO: 75 THIRD AVE. #SB07, NEW YORK, N.Y. 10003 OR EMAIL: OPINION@NYUNEWS.COM WSN welcomes letters to the editor, opinion pieces and articles relevant to the NYU community, or in response to articles. Letters should be less than 450 words. All submissions must be typed or emailed and must include the author’s name, address and phone number. Members of the NYU community must include a year and school or job title. WSN does not print unsigned letters or editorials. WSN reserves the right to reject any submission and edit accepted submissions in any and all ways. With the exception of the staff editorial, opinions expressed on the editorial pages are not necessarily those of WSN, and our publication of opinions is not an endorsement of them.

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MONDAY, FEBRUARY 11, 2019

SPORTS

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Men’s Basketball Comes From Behind Against Case

Edited by BRENDAN DUGGAN and ZACH HAN

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CAS first-year Alex Casieri sets up for a 3-pointer during a game in December.

By ZACH HAN Sports Editor Men’s Volleyball The men’s volleyball team showed out this past week, playing and winning all three games to bump their winning streak up to four. The team started the streak off with a regular season win against Baruch College on Feb. 5, three sets to two. CAS junior captain Evan Lindley led the team with 17 kills, 10 digs and six service aces.

Off of that win, the men began competition at the United Volleyball Conference on Feb. 8 against Massachusetts Institute of Technology. The Violets dominated play, winning in straight sets, each by a score of 25-17. Leading NYU was Stern junior Alex Li, who had a game-high 11 kills, and Stern junior Matin Bikdeli, who had a gamehigh 30 assists.

The men continued their strong play against Elmira College the next day, winning in straight sets again. Bikdeli led the team in assists once again with 21, to go along with four kills.

Going for their fifth straight win, the men will play Stevens Institute of Technology on Feb. 13.

Women’s Basketball The women’s basketball team defeated Case Western Reserve University 8372 on Feb. 8 after trailing early in the first half. Steinhardt sophomore Janean Cuffee finished with a game-high 24 points and added five assists, four rebounds, three steals and two blocks while playing every minute for the fifth time in NYU’s last seven games.

On Feb. 10, the Violets defeated Carnegie Mellon University 61-52, improving their record to 9-2. CAS sophomore Lauren Koyama scored a career-high 26 points, coming off the bench to lead NYU to the win.

NYU will look to make it three in a row on Feb. 15 when it travels to Washington University in St. Louis.

Men’s Basketball The men’s basketball team ground out a hard-fought win against Case Western Reserve University on Feb. 8,

overcoming a 10-point first-half deficit to win the game by 10 with a final score of 81-71. After going down by 10 early, the Violets regained their footing as they tied up the game at 26-26 by the end of the first half. The game continued to be a back-and-forth battle until, with NYU up 64-63, CAS junior Dom Cristiano and CAS first-year Alex Casieri hit backto-back shots to give the Violets breathing room en route to the win. Cristiano led NYU with 22 points and CAS sophomore Bobby Hawkinson posted his fourth double-double of the season with 14 points and 15 rebounds.

The Violets host conference rival Carnegie Mellon University on Feb. 10.

Track and Field The men’s and women’s track and field teams competed at the David Hemery Valentine Invitational from Feb. 8 to 9 at Boston University. There was no team scoring since it featured student-athletes from all three NCAA divisions and many unattached competitors.

The highlight performer for the women’s team was CAS junior Evelyn Nkanga, who won her heat in the 400 meter, placing her 79th overall out of 172 runners.

The men had many great performances of their own. SPS senior Malcolm Montilus finished seventh overall in the 400 meter out of 192 runners, putting up a time of 48.02. His brother, SPS junior Julian Montilus, finished 52nd overall in the same event. NYU’s top finisher in the 800-meter was Stern senior Soham Kamat, who finished 118th overall out of a pool of 269. SPS first-year Matthew Edelman placed 21st overall in the long jump and CAS junior Carter Beardsley finished 17th overall in the shot put.

The Violets’ next meet is the Sam Howell Invitational, hosted by Princeton University, on Feb. 16.

Swimming and Diving The men’s and women’s swimming and diving teams hosted the NYU Invitational on Feb. 8 to 9. Although there was no team scoring, the Violets still put on impressive performances throughout the invitational.

Wrestling An injury-riddled NYU wrestling team ended its regular season on Feb. 9 after competing in the UAA Championships. Only one of three regular starters were dressed for the competition, and the injuries proved to be more than the team could overcome as it lost the only two matches it competed in.

NYU fell to the University of Chicago 36-3 and then to Case Western Reserve University 32-21.

Despite the losses, NYU’s bright spot came when CAS junior captain Evan Drill (141 pounds) won both of his bouts and was named Most Outstanding Wrestler of the event, becoming the eighth straight NYU representative to win the award at the UAA Championships. Drill was also named All-UAA for the second straight year.

Coming up for the wrestling team is the postseason, in which a select few grapplers are set to compete at the Futures Tournament on Feb. 16 while the starters are set to compete at the NCAA Northeast Regional Tournament on Feb. 23 to 24.

Email Zach Han at zhan@nyunews.com.

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On the first day of competition, the Violets took first in the 200-yard freestyle relay. Stern first-year Camille Rochaix won the 500-yard freestyle, Stern senior Katie Hollenbeck won the 200-yard butterfly and CAS junior Daniel Sing won the 100-yard freestyle. In diving, CAS junior Carmen White captured first in the women’s three-meter dive and Rory Meyers first-year Cole Vertin took first in the men’s one-meter dive.

NYU continued its strong effort from the first day into the final day. First-place finishes for the men include LS first-year Jordan Chen (400-yard individual medley), Sing (50-yard freestyle) and Vertin (three-meter dive). First-place finishes for the women include Hollenbeck (100yard butterfly), CAS first-year Siobhan McCarthy (100-yard backstroke) and White (one-meter dive).

The Violets return to the pool on Feb. 13 for the UAA Championships, hosted by the University of Chicago.

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Rachel Buigas-Lopez, Amanda Burkett, Sayer Devlin, Sarah Jackson, Tianne Johnson, Janice Lee, Jemima McEvoy, Laura Shkouratoff ABOUT WSN: Washington Square News (ISSN 15499389) is the student newspaper of New York University. WSN is published in print on Mondays and throughout the week online during NYU’s academic year, except for university holidays, vacations and exam periods.

CORRECTIONS: WSN is committed to accurate reporting. When we make errors, we do our best to correct them as quickly as possible. If you believe we have erred, contact the managing editors at managing@nyunews.com.

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We are telling big stories — the Bling Ring, Venmo fraud, drug donkeys — ones that expanded past our print-standard 500 words, ones that paint pictures with words.

This magazine aims to be a platform where undergraduate and graduate students alike can mutter on about their love of the blue-seated MTA trains or put into words the flavor of their love of grandma’s dumplings.

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