NYUNEWS.COM | WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 13, 2013 | WASHINGTON SQUARE NEWS
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Special assistant to President Obama to arrive at NYU
University and Princeton University, and he was the religious affairs director for Obama’s first presidential campaign. Obama named DuBois the director of the faith-based office following the 2008 election, and DuBois often served as an unofficial pastor to the president. In addition to teaching at NYU, DuBois is reportedly penning a book about spirituality for leaders and launching an organization that will seek to resolve social issues through religious groups. Calvin Sung, a CAS sophomore and the vice president of the NYU chapter of the Newman Catholic Fellowship, expressed his excitement over DuBois joining the university’s faculty. “DuBois offers a unique perspective integrating faith directly into his career and is a strong role model for those seeking to make faith a regular and relevant part of their daily lives,” Sung said. “In light of recent disappointments among Church leaders, students need honest inspiration now more than ever.” The faith-based office was established by President George W. Bush in 2001 to foster communication and coordination between the U.S. government and nonprofit organizations, both secular and religious. Critics have attacked the federal government’s decision to sponsor institutions that discriminate in hiring, and some have questioned the apparent violation of the separation between church and state. Professor Guillermina Jasso, who teaches sociology at NYU,
agreed that any agency that blurs the line between church and state could be dangerous. “One of the glories of this country is the wall between church and state. Any erosion of that wall is troubling,” she said. “Remember, church and state have very different objectives ... The state is blind to personal characteristics and ideally treats everyone the same. Not so [in] the church.” Lentz added that NYU is an appropriate forum for discussing controversies regarding religious life. “As an academic community, we invite vigorous debate and open dialogue about all topics, in and out of the classroom,” Lentz said. Michael Domanico is co-copy chief. Email him at mdomanico@nyunews.com.
VIA POLITIC365.COM
DuBois will teach multi-faith leadership classes at NYU.
Stern students take Harlem Shake viral By AMY ZHANG
Around 40 students filled Stern’s Tisch Hall Monday night to film Gould Plaza Shake (Harlem Shake), otherwise known as NYU’s version of the Harlem Shake. Called to arms by Stern’s senior class president Jacqueline Serame, 39 students brought props ranging from gold pants and face masks to Santa hats and NYU sweaters as they prepared for filming. Starring Stern senior Andrew Terry Rosenbaum, the video features a group of motionless students as lone dancer Rosenbaum jerks left and right, performing the Harlem Shake. According to Serame, the whole process was short and organized, requiring only one hour to shoot and three hours to edit before being posted at midnight. After YouTube user SomeHappenings uploaded the Gould Plaza Shake, the video quickly moved across Stern’s social media sites and between NYU students. At press time, the video had over 2,500 views. Serame’s campaign to raise awareness of the school’s Facebook page Stern Legacy sparked her interest in the series of Harlem Shake videos taking YouTube by storm. According to the website Smosh,
ANSI and NYU-Poly partnership gives students class discounts By NEELA QADIR
A money-saving partnership between the American National Standards Institute and NYU Polytechnic Institute was announced last week. The partnership will allow full ANSI members to receive a 10 percent rebate when taking an online course through NYU-Poly. Lisa Ann Bellantuono, program coordinator of Enterprise Learning at NYU-Poly, said that the partnership would help to raise more awareness of NYU-Poly’s online graduate program, NYU e-Poly. “[The program] provides 17 online master’s degrees and advance certificates,” said Bellantuono. NYU-Poly, which maintains partnerships with the Associate for Computing Machinery, the Associate of Information Technology Professionals, the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, the New York Academy and The Wall Street Technology Associate, is the first local school to partner with ANSI. “Our NYU-Poly Enterprise Learning Department is in charge of locating such societies with similar interests in technology, science and engineering. These agreements are a key marketing strategy for our online graduate program,” said Bellantuono. Although NYU-Poly has agreed to the partnership, ANSI took the opportunity to announce the partnership without consulting NYU-Poly, and without allowing the school to issue its own press release or participate in a joint statement.
the original Harlem Shake dance originated in Harlem, N.Y. in 1981. A music producer named Baauer released an electronica version of the song last May. Since then, meme dance videos have proliferated on YouTube, but the most recent surge flared when a Harlem Shake video was posted one week ago. Hundreds of different versions have followed, and NYU’s includes its own surprises. Rosenbaum revealed that at one point, a building crew member dropped his broom to join the team. “It was very much a bonding experience,” Rosenbaum said. “The best thing about the Harlem Shake is that you don’t need to know everyone. A flash mob at its finest. All of these Sternies came together to actually break the stereotype and have some fun.” When asked whether Stern Legacy would have more videos released soon, Serame said attempts would be made. “I think everyone should watch for [Rosenbaum] though,” Serame said. “There’s definitely going to be more legacy videos there.” Amy Zhang is managing editor. Additional reporting by Hanqing Chen. Email her at azhang@nyunews.com.
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VIA WIKIPEDIA.ORG
“While it is indeed great that the account has generated such an active PR, we would ourselves not have considered it special news. The Institute, on the other hand, did,” said Katepalli Raju Sreenivasan, NYU-Poly’s provost and acting president. According to Elizabeth Neiman, senior director of communications and public relations at ANSI, the institute wanted to connect with NYU-Poly so that it could branch out to students with varying interests. She noted that among the graduate degrees offered by NYU e-Poly are bioinformatics, cybersecurity, manufacturing engineering, project management and wireless innovation. “ANSI is focused on outreach to students of all types — whether they are part of an undergraduate or graduate program, whether they are taking continuing education courses or whether they are focused on earning workforcerelated credentials like certifications or training certificates,” said Neiman. However, Neiman stressed that the tuition rebate is reserved for full members of the institute and does not apply to the general public
or non-ANSI members. She hopes that the rebate would allow students to save some money while getting their education. NYU-Poly freshman Tahsina Islam said that although students might save money by taking an online course, the experience is different from one in a classroom with a live professor. “I personally would not take the online course because I prefer having a teacher in front of me teaching and to be physically interacting with the students around me,” said Tahsina. “I feel that being at an engineering school, having student-student interaction is really essential.” Online courses are also available to NYU undergraduate and graduate students, pending their adviser approval. This year, NYU-Poly came in ninth place for best online graduate engineering program by U.S. News and World Report’s rankings. The school also received the Outstanding Online Program distinction from Sloan Consortium. Neela Qadir is deputy university editor. Email her at nqadir@nyunews.com.
President Obama addresses college students’ interests By NICOLE BROWN and VERONICA CARCHEDI
President Barack Obama addressed several issues related to college students while underlining job creation and bipartisan agreement during last night’s State of the Union Speech. Although tax credits, grants and better loans have made schooling more affordable, Obama said taking the burden away from taxpayers to fund higher education could further decrease costs for students. To maintain the value of their education while increasing affordability, Obama also proposed reforms to the Higher Education Act that will put pressure on colleges. Additionally, the president announced the “College Scorecard,” which will give parents and students the opportunity to rate a college based on its cost and quality of education. “Today, skyrocketing costs price way too many young people out of a higher education, or saddle them with unsustainable debt,” Obama said. “Colleges must do their part to keep costs down.” College students looking for part-time jobs may be pleased to hear that Obama wants to increase the federal minimum wage to $9. The president said the idea of tying minimum wage to the cost of living was one that he and Gov. Mitt Romney agreed on last year. Technology and STEM programs were also emphasized. Obama highlighted the collaboration between IBM, New York Public Schools and the City University of New
York, which allows high schoolers to graduate with a technical degree. He said this program should be a model for the nation. He also stressed the importance of a bipartisan agreement to protect future generations from the harmful effects of climate change. “We can choose to believe that Superstorm Sandy, and the most severe drought in decades, and the worst wildfires some states have ever seen were all just a freak coinci-
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Colleges must do their part to keep costs down
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dences,” he said. “Or we can choose to believe in the overwhelming judgment of science and act before it’s too late.” Obama added that investing in renewable energy would help create jobs and revive the economy. Although the main focuses of this year’s State of the Union were job growth and bipartisanship, the president has not forgotten the interests of college students. Nicole Brown is investigative editor. Veronica Carchedi is city/state editor. Email them at cstate@nyunews.com.