NYU’s Daily Student Newspaper
washington square news Vol. 42, No. 71
thursday, october 2, 2014
nyunews.com
university affairs
student affairs
Town hall heats up over NYU Abu Dhabi
Langone hospital takeover resumes
By Nicole Brown and Kavish Harjai Management
By Stephanie Grella Contributing Writer
A Brooklyn judge has dismissed the New York State Nurses Association’s lawsuit against NYU Langone Medical Center, allowing Langone to continue its takeover of Long Island College Hospital’s emergency services and ambulatory care unit. Justice Johnny Lee Baynes announced his decision on Sept. 29 to dismiss the lawsuit filed by NYSNA that accused Langone of failing to offer current LICH nurses hiring priority for the new emergency care unit. Baynes said NYSNA did not have the right to impact a deal that it was not directly involved in. Brooklyn developer Fortis Property Group will purchase the Cobble Hill hospital from SUNY and have Langone manage the hospital’s freestanding emergency center, which is all that remains of the hospital, for the original price of $240 million. “[Sept. 29’s] action by the court
LANGONE continued on PG. 3
Staff PHOTOs BY NICOLE BROWN
Time capsule from 1950 unearthed outside NYU’s 370 Jay St. Clockwise from top left: Construction workers lift the capsule out of the sidewalk. New York City Transit President Carmen Bianco and conservator Toya Dubin look inside the lead box. Dubin cleans off a glass box that is believed to have held a microfilm of the original construction plan for the building, since ruined by erosion.
At the first town hall of the semester on Oct. 1 in the Kimmel Center for University Life, NYU President John Sexton defended working conditions at NYU Abu Dhabi. The first question was submitted through social media by NYU Disorientation, a group of students that debate controversial topics on campus, and asked why labor rights were not respected when building the NYUAD campus on Saadiyat Island. Sexton said the question assumed allegations made last semester by a number of news outlets are true, but he believes otherwise. First, Sexton explained that the conditions of the workers at the new campus, including maintenance, cafeteria and security staff, are better than in other work environments. “We know these people by name. They’re my friends,” Sexton said
TOWN HALL continued on PG. 3
See more photos online at nyunews.com.
Entertainment
‘Gilmore Girls’ arrives on Netflix, worth revisiting By Isabel Jones Film Editor
In 2000, the WB introduced something new — a motherdaughter dramedy that appealed to young and old alike, a family show that was not afraid of teen pregnancy or obscure pop culture references and a program that gave voices to strong female characters. With this, “Gilmore Girls” was born, and the world met Lorelai and Rory Gilmore, the off-kilter duo that viewers would come to worship for nearly a decade. Although Amy Sherman-Palladino’s fast-talking, coffeecrazed Gilmore girls have not occupied a regular time slot since the series finale in 2007, escaping to Stars Hollow is now
VIA FACEBOOK.COM
Lauren Graham (left) and Alexis Bledel played the Gilmore girls. as simple as logging on to Netflix, as of yesterday. There are many reasons “Gilmore Girls” deserves to be revisited, aside
from its convenient position in the Netflix suggestions. “Gilmore Girls” was media magic. The immediate chemistry between Lauren Graham and Alexis Bledel, who were relatively unknown at the time, is astounding. From the pilot episode, as they sat in their respective rooms listening to Macy Gray, the close bond between these actors was clear. The line that is often drawn between actor and character was never apparent. In viewers’ minds, Graham and Bledel simply were Lorelai and Rory in real life, too. Today, the two still are the Gilmore girls. In the past seven years, Bledel and Graham have not even come close to approaching the success they had with “Gilmore Girls.” While this may be unfor-
tunate for the actors, viewers can relish the idea that, for a moment in time, everything was aligned for the cast and crew, and a singular vision was carried out. It is rare to achieve perfect harmony within a working ensemble. All the more magical is the possibility that it will probably never happen again. Showrunner Amy Sherman-Palladino, while an impeccable talent, has yet to pen another hit — “Bunheads” and “The Return of Jezebel James” missed the mark by a mile or two. Graham’s whiny performance on “Parenthood” is hardly worth writing home about, and Bledel has only been in minor film and TV roles since the “Gilmore” years. A true classic, “Gilmore Girls” still holds up 14 years after its premiere. Viewers can see
its tropes play out in popular series of today, like the incessantly bickering Luke and Lorelai-esque pair of Danny and Mindy on “The Mindy Project.” But mostly, viewers are just left with a bunch of quick-to-becancelled wannabes, lacking the charisma of “Gilmore Girls” and oversaturated with pop culture references and quirky, small-town personalities. “Gilmore Girls” was successful because it was innovative. It is one of only a few programs that can claim no derivative, no exploitation of fame and no lazy adherence to cliché. A true original awaits, now just a click away on Netflix. Email Isabel Jones at ijones@nyunews.com.