NYU’s Daily Student Newspaper
WASHINGTON SQUARE NEWS Vol. 42, No. 34
MONDAY, APRIL 7, 2014
nyunews.com
University sees record number of applicants
INSIDE THIS
ISSUE
By MICHAEL DOMANICO
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Thoughts from incoming freshmen Potential members in the upcoming NYU class of 2018 share their thoughts about being accepted. 2018 on PG. 4
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OutdoorFest brings nature to New York Alumna Sarah Knapp’s organization holds outdoor events for city dwellers. OUTDOOR on PG. 5
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Arianna Huffington delivers keynote address at annual Stern conference The journalist told students about the importance of being well-rested and stepping away from technology. She advised audience members to prioritize their health.
According to the admissions office, NYU has admitted over 18,000 students, roughly 34 percent of its 52,000 applicants, to the class of 2018. The 18,000 accepted students were admitted to one of the university’s degree-granting campuses in New York, Abu Dhabi or Shanghai, one of three global academic centers in Florence, London or Paris, or multiple sites. Shawn Abbott, assistant vice president and dean of admissions, said this admissions cycle marks the first time the Polytechnic School of Engineering has been included in the admissions counts, making it difficult to compare this year’s statistics with last year’s pool of 48,500 applicants. “It is suffice to say that we had an increase, but how that increase is characterized is not simple, especially since Poly used to have rolling admission and was still accepting applications through the summer of
ADMIT continued on PG. 3
STORY ON PAGE 3
Erotic gay art, once Wrestling coach moves hidden, on display on to Long Island charity By KAVISH HARJAI
Mozilla CEO steps down from position Brendan Eich should have anticipated the social backlash to his actions. HOUSE on PG. 7
JOHN AMBROSIO FOR WSN
Bronx Documentary Center raises $30,000 Successful crowdfunding by photojournalist and NYU alumna brings photography to the Bronx. BRONX on NYUNEWS.COM
Museum-goers are flocking to the Leslie Lohman Museum of Gay and Lesbian Art for a stimulating, never-before-seen exhibit. “Stroke: From Under the Mattress to the Museum Wall,” which is on display from March 28 to May 25, features gay erotica meant to explore sexuality and identity. Robert Richards, the curator of the exhibit, said he proposed the idea four years ago, and it took off in the past year after Hunter O’Hanian became the museum’s executive director. Richards said the exhibit visually explicates an important period in gay history. “The show is about beauty — beautiful drawings [and] beautiful men,” Richards said. “It’s a huge body of work that can’t be forgotten because it defines a whole era of gay men’s lives.” The 80 illustrations from 25 artists, originally published in magazines from the 1950s to the 1990s, are now mounted on the
red and yellow walls of the museum. The exhibit also has pieces from as recently last year. The media of the erotica encompass ink, paint, pencil and gouache. In the 1950s, the U.S. government sanctioned all public materials displaying sexual perversion, which included anything homosexual. However, gay men wanted to explore their sexual identities, and publishers hurdled these sanctions by publishing erotic illustrations in periodicals advertised as bodybuilding and strength magazines. The illustrations are outlandishly sexual, displaying hyper-masculine men enjoying each other’s company and embracing their natural sex drives. The men depicted in the illustrations are rugged and have hard, chiseled bodies. Although looking superhuman, the subjects of the illustration were what gay men aspired to be, Richards said. However, the magazines put
EROTIC continued on PG. 4
By SEAN BILLINGS
Former NYU wrestling coach Shawn Swift is working to help underprivileged communities on Long Island. Through his charity, the iLiveFit Foundation, Swift aims to provide health and fitness resources to lowincome children, adults and people with disabilities. Swift, who coached from 2009 to 2012, explained that his philosophy was that all classes of people, especially children, should have access to fitness, not just the elite. “My inspiration comes from years of gym ownership and having to turn people away from memberships, personal training and exercise classes because of inability to pay,” Swift said. The foundation has a few fitness programs, including the Wildcat Wrestling Club. Swift explained that his personal connections to wrestling are what led him to include a youth-wrestling program in the foundation.
In contrast to sports that require a lot of equipment to play or even practice, wrestlers only need their body and a mat to practice on. “I always believed that the cost of supplies for a child to wrestle is nominal,” Swift said. The organization also supports the Louisa Ann Swift Transplant chance weight-loss program. The program is named after Swift’s mother, who passed away after not being able to obtain an organ transplant. LAST aims to promote the process of organ transplantation, as there are many cases where men and women are unable to donate their organs to a loved one because their Body Mass Index, a key indicator of one’s fitness, is too high to allow for transplant. “Close to 20 people die a day waiting for a transplant,” Swift said. “Although my mother could not be saved, as she developed cancer right before I was going
FOUNDATION cont’d. on PG. 8