Washington Square News, October 9, 2018

5 CULTURE

9 OPINION

With Suicide, Why Does NYU ‘Sweep It Under the Rug?’

Recognizing the Bravery of Kurdistan’s Women

7 ARTS

11 SPORTS

Cooper Revitalizes a Star in ‘A Star Is Born’

Meet the Olympic Qualifier Who Is NYU’s Newest Athletic Trainer

VOLUME LI | ISSUE 7

TUESDAY, OCTOBER 9, 2018

How a Stern Senior Escaped His Burning Building Ari Spitzer’s apartment was on fire, and he couldn’t leave through the front door. By NATALIE CHINN Culture Editor When Stern senior Ari Spitzer moved into his apartment in June, he wanted to install an AC unit in his window facing First Avenue. “You shouldn’t put it there because of the fire escape,” his mom warned him. “Who cares?” he responded. Four months later, Spitzer clambered out that very window, wheezing and watery-eyed, leaned over the railing of the fire escape and shouted for help. On Wednesday, Oct. 3, around 1:45 a.m., a kitchen fire from Japanese restaurant Uogashi ignited the bottom floor of 188 First Ave, the building where Spitzer lives. The six-alarm fire consumed the first three floors of the five-story prewar walkup and raged until midday. Spitzer was fast asleep when the fire started. He woke to an alarm, and his first instinct was to hit the snooze button. But this alarm sounded different — it wasn’t a default iPhone alarm, but rather a wailing mixture of sirens and a fire alarm. He opened his eyes to find red, white and blue lights dancing on his ceiling and bouncing around his room. “I was very disoriented,” Spitzer said. KATIE PEURRUNG | WSN

Top Left: Broken glass covers Spitzer’s bed. Bottom Left: The building’s windows are boarded up to prevent trespassing. Right: Spitzer stands in the doorway of his roommate’s room.

CONTINUED ON PAGE 4

5 Key Takeaways From the Being@NYU Survey By ALEX DOMB News Editor Thirty-one percent of all students, faculty, staff and administrators took the heavily advertised Being@NYU survey in the fall 2017 semester, administered as a means of gauging quality of life at the university. On Monday, the survey’s f indings, detailed in a 600-page report, were released to the NYU community. Over the past several days, a team of WSN editors read the entirety of the report to

identify its key f indings. Below are f ive important takeaways.

Who has considered leaving NYU?

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Different constituencies responded to the survey at varying rates. Response rates featured a heavy gender disparity. 55.1 percent of NYU community members identify as women while 44.5 identifies as men; however, 60.2 percent of survey respondents identified as women while only 36.3 percent identified as men. CONTINUED ON PAGE 2

RACHEL BUIGAS-LOPEZ

Washington Square News

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TUESDAY, OCTOBER 9. 2018

NEWS

NEWS@NYUNEWS.COM

Professor Wins Nobel Prize in Economics

5 Key Takeaways from the Being@NYU Survey CONTINUED FROM PAGE 1

Some racial and ethnic groups responded to the survey at significantly higher rates than others. 70.3 percent of people of Asian descent responded; 40.3 percent of people of African descent responded; 35.4 percent of white people responded and 27.2 percent of Hispanic/Latinx/Chicanx people responded.

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NYU boasts strong financial diversity, yet many students struggle with affordability. As of January 2017, NYU enrolled the fourth-highest percentage of low- and middle-income students of any “elite” university in the U.S., according to The New York Times. Being@NYU data backs up this ranking; 39.2 percent of NYU students come from families making under $70,000 dollars a year, while 17.7 percent of students come from families making under $30,000 dollars a year. However, many students have trouble funding tuition and living costs. 38 percent of students experience difficulty affording tuition; 29.7 percent experience difficulty affording housing costs; 25.9 percent experience difficulty affording course materials and 24.2 percent have difficulty affording their participation in social events. 33.1 percent of students surveyed agreed NYU is socioeconomically classist. 48.5 percent of students are employed during the school year. Of students who are employed, 47.8 percent have an on-campus job.

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A significant number of faculty believe hiring practices are unfair.

More than a quarter of faculty believe hiring practices are unjust at NYU. Of the 26.8 percent who reported this, 37.3 percent believe nepotism plays a role in hiring, 27.8 percent believe gender and gender identity is a factor, 26.9 percent believe racial iden-

Edited by ALEX DOMB, KRISTINA HAYHURST and SARAH JACKSON

tity plays a role and 22.1 percent believe ethnicity affected who is hired.

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The NYU community experiences hostility in an array of contexts. 17 percent of survey respondents indicated that they personally “had experienced exclusionary, intimidating, offensive and/or hostile conduct that interfered with their ability to work, learn or live at NYU within the past year.” Of those who said they have experienced hostility, 44.3 percent felt it was due to their racial and/ or ethnic identities, while 25.8 percent felt the hostility was a result of their gender or gender identity. 72.2 percent described the perpetrator as either a student or a faculty member. Of those who said they have experienced hostility, 45.5 percent of survey respondents said they have felt ignored or excluded at NYU and 32.1 percent said they have felt intimidated or bullied.

VICTOR PORCELLI | WSN

NYU Stern Professor Paul Romer speaks at an NYU press conference on Oct. 8, hours after he won the Nobel prize in Economic Science.

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Though many at NYU have recently considered leaving, most survey respondents felt comfortable with the campus climate.

By VICTOR PORCELLI Deputy News Editor

80.6 percent of survey respondents felt either “comfortable” or “very comfortable” with the general campus climate at NYU. Only 5.9 percent said they felt either “uncomfortable” or “very uncomfortable.” However, many subsets of community members have seriously considered leaving in the past year, including 55 percent of staff and administrators, 42 percent of faculty and 33 percent of undergraduate students. Of undergraduate students who have considered leaving, 63.2 percent said they have done so because they feel a lack of belonging on campus. Email Alex Domb at adomb@nyunews.com.

Campus Climate How respondents feel about NYU’s campus climate.

RACHEL BUIGAS-LOPEZ | WSN

NYU Stern Professor of Economics Paul Romer won the Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Science on Monday, becoming the first NYU professor to win a Nobel Prize in seven years. Romer is credited with applying — and highlighting the benefits of — macroeconomics in a way that serves a public good, especially in the context of urbanization. He shares the prize with Yale University professor William Nordhaus, who was recognized for his own work on the critical importance of climate change and how economics can provide a solution. Despite the more technical language used by the academy, Romer is unique in his attempts to make his research digestible for more than just his fellow economic experts. He and Nordhaus are both known for the optimistic lens through which they view and apply their work. “In selecting doctors Romer and Nordhaus, the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences has recognized economic research that is, in its essence, an optimistic view of the power of economic theory,” President Andrew Hamilton said in a press conference at the Kaufman Management Center. “Paul’s work in particular centers on economics as it applies to real life, and it teaches us that technology is something we can and should harness for the collective good.” Romer taught for some time at Stanford University, becoming a prominent economist for his theory concerning the effect of ideas on growth. Previously, economic theory suggested ideas were a public good, accessible to all, and that more effort toward the creation of ideas would not result in more of them. Romer created a more accurate model showing that when the money and resources put into generating ideas increases, the number of ideas does too, which in turn spurs the rest of the economy. This better explains why corporations, which are the primary funders of private research, of-

ten have monopolies on certain ideas like the formula for a drug or the patent for a product, and so emphasized the importance for government and universities to invest more into research to allow an increase in the number of ideas accessible to the public. Romer took a break from teaching in 2001 to start Aplia, the educational technology company currently used by NYU and other universities to interactively teach subjects like economics. In 2007, Romer sold Aplia to Cengage and came to NYU as he was looking for a university willing to “take a risk” and apply his research in an urban setting, according to Romer. NYU was willing, said Stern Dean Rangarajan Sundaram at the press conference. “He came to Stern in 2010 where he set up the Urbanization Project, in which [the founders], amongst other things, studied the way cities can be harnessed to advance growth and progress and how to shape urbanization itself to better the life of humankind,” Sundaram said. More recently, Romer was appointed the Chief Economist of the World Bank in 2016 but resigned after 15 months due to controversy after an annual “Doing Business” report ranked Chile significantly lower while under a socialist president. Romer resigned after being criticized for suggesting the lower ranking was politically motivated and promised to redo the report. Since then, he went back to teaching, seeing the university as a way to contribute to a larger community, which he feels is of great importance. “You can’t get drawn into the awards. You need to commit to something that’s larger than yourself, that’s what keeps you going,” Romer said at the press conference. “That sense of belonging means you can take satisfaction out of a career whether or not you happen to be the one who gets a prize for it.” Email Victor Porcelli at vporcelli@nyunews.com.

TUESDAY, OCTOBER 9, 2018

Washington Square News | News

Professor Argues Before SCOTUS By JARED PERAGLIA Deputy News Editor Longtime NYU Law professor Bryan M. Stevenson argued before the Supreme Court of the United States last Tuesday in the controversial Madison v. Alabama case. Convicted of the murder of a Mobile, Ala. police officer in 1985, Vernon Madison, now 67, has been in the state’s court three times. Although Madison was scheduled for execution in 2016, a federal appeals court ruled that he was incompetent for execution. The basis for the ruling was that Madison couldn’t remember the actions he was accused of or understand the subsequent criminal sentences due to brain injuries caused by multiple strokes and his dementia. Later, the Supreme Court overturned this ruling, and Madison’s execution was rescheduled for 2018. On Oct. 2, Stevenson argued that people can’t be executed for crimes they don’t remember since this is not consistent with the Eighth Amendment, which prohibits cruel and unusual punishments. If Stevenson succeeds in having Madison’s execution sentence removed, Madison will still spend the rest of his life in prison without parole. “What the Court has said is that our norms — our values — are implicated when we do things to really fragile, really vulnerable people,” Stevenson said in his closing remarks. “Dementia in this case renders Mr. Madison frail, bewildered, vulnerable, in a way that cannot be reconciled with executing him because of his incompetency.” As the founder and executive director of the Equal Justice Initiative, an organization that provides legal representation to prisoners who may be wrongly convicted, Stevenson has been battling excessive punishment and mass incarceration cases for years. During

COURTESY OF EQUAL JUSTICE INITIATIVE

NYU Law Professor Bryan Stevenson (middle) surrounded by colleagues on steps of the Supreme Court.

Madison’s first trials, mass incarceration in the United States was accelerating, especially within African-American communities. The judge in Madison’s first trial excluded African-Americans from sitting on the jury. In Madison’s third trial, the judge altered the jury’s recommended sentences. These instances were investigated, and the Alabama courts were found guilty of intentional racial discrimination, bringing the legitimacy of Madison’s verdict into question. Madison v. Alabama bears many similarities to the 2002 case of Atkins v. Virginia. Daryl Renard Atkins was convicted of armed robbery, abduction and murder of an airman in 1996. Though the York County Circuit Court gave Atkins the death penalty, the Supreme Court ruled in the 2002 case that he could not be executed because he was mentally disabled. Maurice Elbaz, president of the NYU Stern Business and Law Association, noted the important role this trial plays in the timeline of U.S. law. “A man’s life is at stake,” Elbaz said. “The question here is what constitutes rational un-

derstanding. Someone can’t be put to death if they don’t understand why. This case is important because it will help us define more terms for future cases.” President of the Undergraduate Law Review at NYU Katherine Maguire argued that mass incarceration was not a factor at play in Madison’s case. “The ethical dilemma of whether or not to execute a person who cannot remember their crime is, in my mind, separate from the issues of unjust convictions and mass incarceration that were perhaps present in Madison’s initial trial in 1985,” Maguire told WSN. Still, Maguire said it was inspiring to see an NYU Law professor argue in the nation’s highest court. “As an NYU undergraduate, it’s pretty amazing to see one of NYU’s graduate professors take on such a crucial role before [the] SCOTUS,” Maguire said. A verdict for this case has not yet been rendered. Email Jared Peraglia at jperaglia@nyunews.com.

By VICTOR PORCELLI Deputy News Editor

TONY WU | WSN

The ongoing construction on West 4th Street near Washington Square Park has reduced free space for pedestrians.

CRIME LOG

Student Punched by Unidentified Person By CRIME BOT Robot Reporter

West 4th Construction Ending Soon Walking by the Stern School of Business, students snake and squeeze past one another as they try to make it through the bottlenecked slab of sidewalk set aside for pedestrians. They brush shoulders, weaving in and out of the crowd to the thuds of a jackhammer. Closer to campus, crossing West 4th Street toward the scaffolding-covered Bobst Library, students are surrounded by cement dividers. Attempting to avoid the wetter portions of the road, they quickly brush by the man in an orange vest holding a sign that says “SLOWLY.” Students on NYU’s Washington Square campus have all experienced this, but few know the reason for the construction or, more importantly, when it will end. “That construction has been going on for so long to the point that I’ve been asking myself ‘why’ every time I see it,” Tandon sophomore Faisal Karim, who goes to Bobst most weekdays, told WSN. “Seeing construction gets me angry for the poor drivers who have to pass

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COURTESY OF IAN MICHAELS OF THE DEPARTMENT OF DESIGN AND CONSTRUCTION

A map of the ongoing construction in Washington Square Park to replace a water main, set to end in November.

by that place all the time.” The construction is part of the Department of Environmental Protection’s Washington Square Park Water Main Project. The purpose of the construction is to replace a 36-inch diameter cast-iron water main installed originally in 1898, according to the Department of Design and Construction, which is managing the project for the DEP. For $18.6 million, the 120-yearold water main will soon be replaced by a new, bigger and better 48-inch trunk main that will supply water to smaller pipes in the surrounding area, DDC Executive Director of Public Information Ian Michaels said in an email to WSN. “We expect that all underground infrastructure work will be completed in November of this year,” Michaels said.

“Then a temporary asphalt layer will be put down until final restoration can be done in the spring. Because of the properties of concrete and asphalt, we can’t do final restoration of the street in cold weather.” A November end date may come as a relief to students, with cement dividers and sectioned-off sidewalks having been constant inconveniences since the project began in 2015. Others couldn’t care less about when the construction is finished. “I don’t drive, so it honestly doesn’t bother me,” Stern first-year Nitya Patlola said. “I feel like in the city you have to find your way around anyway, so it’s fine if one way’s blocked; you’ll just find another way.” Email Victor Porcelli at vporcelli@nyunews.com.

From Sept. 27 to Oct. 3, the NYU Department of Public Safety received one report of assault, 10 reports of controlled substance violations, one report of criminal impersonation, one report of fondling, two reports of harassment and nine reports of larceny.

Assault On Oct. 3 at 11:33 a.m., an NYU student reported being punched by an unidentified person at Washington Square North and Fifth Avenue. A police report was filed, and the case is open and under investigation.

Controlled Substance Violation On Sept. 28 at 11 p.m., a resident assistant reported witnessing underage alcohol possession in Founders Residence Hall. Police notification was declined and the case has been referred to the Office of Community Standards. On Sept. 28 at 11 p.m., an RA reported witnessing underage alcohol possession in Broome Street Residence Hall. Police notification was declined and the case has been referred to the Office of Community Standards. On Sept. 28 at 11:20 p.m., an RA reported witnessing underage alcohol possession in Third North Residence Hall. Police notification was declined and the case has been referred to the Office of Community Standards. On Sept. 28 at 11:36 p.m., an RA reported witnessing underage alcohol possession in Founders Hall. Police notification was declined and the case has been referred to the Office of Community Standards. On Sept. 28 at 11:38 p.m., an RA reported witnessing underage alcohol possession in Broome Street Hall. Police notification was declined and the case has been referred to the Office of Community Standards. On Sept. 28 at 11:55 p.m., an RA reported witnessing underage alcohol possession in Founders Hall. Police notification was declined and the case has been referred to the Office of Community Standards. On Sept. 29 at 12:03 a.m., an RA reported witnessing underage alcohol possession in Founders Hall. Police notification was declined and the case has been referred to the Office of Community Standards. On Sept. 29 at 12:10 a.m., an RA reported witnessing underage alcohol possession in Founders Hall. Police notification was declined and the case has been referred to the Office of Community Standards. On Sept. 29 at 12:28 p.m., an RA reported witnessing underage alcohol possession in Palladium Residence Hall. Police notification was declined and the case has been referred to the Office of Community Standards. On Sept. 29 at 11:55 p.m., an RA reported witnessing underage alcohol possession in Clark Street Residence Hall. Police notification was declined and the case has been referred to the Office of Community Standards.

Criminal Impersonation On Sept. 30 at 9:30 p.m., an NYU student reported witnessing criminal impersonation in Third North Hall. The case has been referred to the Office of Community Standards.

Fondling On Sept. 29 at 5:09 p.m., an NYU student reported that she was the victim of a fondling in the lobby of Carlyle Court Residence Hall. A police report was filed, and the case is open and under investigation.

Harassment On Oct. 2 at 10:03 p.m., two NYU students reported being harassed by an unidentified person at University Place and 8th Street. A police report was not filed, and the case is open and under investigation. On Oct. 3 at 7:30 p.m., an NYU student reported being the victim of harassment in the Vanderbilt Hall courtyard. Police notification was declined, and the case has been referred to the Office of Title IX.

Larceny On Sept. 27 at 4:50 p.m., an NYU student reported that she was the victim of a larceny in Brittany Residence Hall. A police report was filed, and the case is open and under investigation. On Sept. 28 at 4:46 p.m., an NYU student reported that his bike was missing from the bike racks outside of 6 MetroTech Center. A police report was filed and the case is open and under investigation. On Sept. 28 at 4:48 p.m., an NYU student reported that his bike was missing from a bike rack outside of the Steinhardt East Building. Police notification was declined, and the case is open and under investigation. On Sept. 29 at 11:45 a.m., an NYU student reported that her wallet was missing from a bathroom in Elmer Holmes Bobst Library. Police notification was declined, and the case is open and under investigation. On Oct. 1 at 12:12 p.m., an NYU staff member reported her pens and lamp missing from her desk in Bobst Library. Police notification was declined, and the case is open and under investigation. On Oct. 1 at 8 p.m., an NYU student reported her bike missing from the bike racks outside 6 MetroTech Center. Police notification was declined, and the case is open and under investigation. On Oct. 2 at 6:54 p.m., an NYU student reported her bike missing from the Tisch Hall bike racks. Police notification was declined, and the case is open and under investigation. On Oct. 3 at 5:01 p.m., an NYU student reported his bike missing from the bike racks outside the Meyer Building. Police notification was declined, and the case is open and under investigation. On Oct. 3 at 6:27 p.m., an NYU student reported his laptop missing from a classroom in Rogers Hall. Police notification was declined, and the case is open and under investigation. Email Crime Bot at news@nyunews.com.

Washington Square News

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TUESDAY, OCTOBER 9. 2018

CULTURE

CULTURE@NYUNEWS.COM

Edited by NATALIE CHINN

How a Stern Senior Escaped His Burning Building

Fallen ceiling insulation on the floor of Spitzer’s roommate’s room.

“It was a very slow realization of ‘Sh-t, I actually can’t go back to sleep right now — something bad is happening.’” His mind racing, Spitzer launched into survival mode, his feet carrying him to the first exit he could think of: his front door. But when he opened it, he was hit by a wall of smoke, which instantly burned his nose, throat and eyes. Standing in his doorway, enveloped by smoke, Spitzer felt blind. Something was making the clouded hallway glow, but despite the light, he could barely make out the stairwell. “All I saw was pitch white,” he said. “I don’t know if it was a firefighter’s flashlight or if it was a fire or an emergency light — I don’t know what it was, but there was just thick smoke.” Spitzer retreated back into his apartment, making sure to close the door behind him. There was no chance he was exiting via the main stairwell. “I’m on the fourth floor — I couldn’t go down all those stairs,” Spitzer said. “I didn’t know if there was a fire on the bottom — I didn’t know what was going on, so that was a no-go.” His apartment now hazy from opening the door and his heart beating out of his chest, Spitzer rushed to his bedroom, where there was access to a fire escape. Without hesitation, he grabbed his keys and phone from the desk by his bed, slipped on his Adidas slides and turned his back on the apart-

KATIE PEURRUNG | WSN

ment he’d called home since June. “I opened the window, I kicked out the screen and I screamed.” Leaning over the railing of the fire escape, wearing only the T-shirt and shorts he slept in, Spitzer yelled into the endless smoke. “I could almost see shadows below with flashlights, so I kept yelling until one of the firefighters heard me,” Spitzer said. “It felt longer than it was, but one of them heard me and shined a light onto where I was.” Once the firefighters spotted Spitzer, they collectively shined their flashlights up, illuminating the path of the fire escape as he carefully descended. When he safely reached the ground — less than five minutes after waking up — he was immediately ushered to an ambulance, where he was given oxygen, information on the situation and time to call his parents and roommate, who was out of town. His roommate, Moshe Schwartz, a senior at Baruch College, didn’t catch Spitzer’s early morning call. “Ari had texted me, kind of informing me in a kind of funny way,” Schwartz said. “He was like, ‘Hey, the apartment burned down. We won’t be able to go back for a few hours, just wanted to let you know.’ I woke up at 7 a.m. to this text message and I’m like, ‘Wait, what?’” Later, Spitzer learned that he was one of the last people to evacuate from

the building — he had slept through nearly 30 minutes of the blaring fire alarm and sirens. There are only eight units in his apartment building, so Spitzer believes all the other tenants woke up early enough to evacuate down the main stairs. “The firefighters, I saw them the next morning, and they were like, ‘Oh, wait, you’re the fire escape guy,’” Spitzer said. Because of how long Spitzer was exposed to the smoke, he was taken to the Mount Sinai Beth Israel hospital, five blocks north of the apartment. They conducted several tests, including a blood test and chest x-ray, all of which came back looking good. He was discharged around 4:30 a.m. While Spitzer was at the hospital, his mother drove into the city from their home in New Jersey. With her, she brought a suitcase full of clothes and necessities Spitzer could use for the next few days. Together, they walked back to the apartment from the hospital, expecting the fire to be extinguished. However, there were even more fire trucks scattered along First Avenue than before. The fire raged well into the afternoon. In the meantime, Spitzer rested at a nearby friend’s place before diving back into his jam-packed schedule — although he did decide to skip his morning Texts and Ideas class. “I had a big interview that day,” said Spitzer, who’s in the middle of finance job recruitment. “I didn’t have any of my clothes, I didn’t have my computer — I didn’t even have a folder with my resumes in it. I had nothing. I had my health, and that was the most important.” Thankfully, Spitzer’s mother and friends came to his rescue. “My mom brought a very summer-y suit that I left at home,” he said. “Otherwise, I crowdsourced my outfit. [I had] a friend’s tie, a friend’s belt .” This last-minute bricolage was Spitzer’s uniform for the next three days as he jumped from interview to interview. On Thursday afternoon, Spitzer was allowed back into his apartment to collect his belongings, but to his dismay, all of his suits were ruined. “All my clothes and possessions were smoke-damaged — my clothes smell like crap — but no water dam-

age,” Spitzer said. “My computer’s fine, my wallet’s fine, all my papers are basically fine.” The only thing that was unsalvageable was the furniture, which was trashed during the firefighter’s efforts to extinguish the fire. Because the fire originated at the back of the building, which was not accessible from First Avenue, firefighters sprayed water from the top floors of Spitzer’s building, in addition to high floors of surrounding buildings. His apartment spans the width of the building, so firefighters snaked a hose through the street-facing window, all the way through the kitchen and liv-

“

I opened the window; I kicked out the screen and I screamed. ARI SPITZER Stern Senior

”

ing space to the back window in his roommate’s bedroom. “That’s where the damage to my apartment came from,” Spitzer said. “They shattered the windows; my bed was all full of shards. The AC unit was thrown on the floor, my stuff was turned aside.” However, Spitzer said his roommate’s bedroom was much worse than his. “My room was just completely wrecked,” Schwartz said. “The ceilings were coming down, it looked like someone took a hammer to the walls. I opened up my dresser and all my clothes are exactly where I left them, however, I smell them, and they reek of smoke. I took out a pair of shorts and there was soot on them, and my white shirt literally looked like a brown shirt.” Every time Spitzer and his room-

mate return to the building to pick up belongings, they are struck by how much damage the fire caused. “The minute you walk into the building, it’s like walking into an abandoned building, like in the movies,” Schwartz said. “You walk into the stairs and look into the first apartment, and it’s just burnt to a crisp.” The entire building still smells strongly of smoke, which now brings back harrowing memories for Spitzer. “Reliving it is scary,” he said. “It was a near-death experience and it hasn’t even hit me yet. I’m so busy [with] recruiting that I don’t have time to actually digest what’s going on.” Although Spitzer is still overwhelmed by the situation, he is taking it day by day. Right now, he is focused on staying on top of his recruitment schedule and figuring out housing. He has been staying at a friend’s apartment since the fire, but over the weekend, Spitzer went apartment hunting with his parents. He has plans to stay in a hotel this coming week until he and his roommate find a new place. He is also looking into NYU housing as a potential alternative. Moving forward, Spitzer is committed to regarding safety regulations with more seriousness. Although they didn’t end up putting the AC unit in that window, due to fire safety regulations, this moment will forever be seared in Spitzer’s mind. “That annoying regulation, which made the room decorations not exactly what I wanted, it saved my life.” However, Spitzer is most thankful to the firefighters and police officers that responded to the fire and put their lives in danger to extinguish it. Of the 14 people injured during the fire, 11 of them were firefighters. In order to show his gratitude, Spitzer has created a Facebook birthday fundraiser for the New York City Fire Department Foundation. “You kind of think, ‘Yeah, firemen, police, they’re important, we need them, but I’ll never need them,’” Spitzer said. “It’s very sobering to have been in that position to have been helped by the hard efforts of so many people.” Email Natalie Chinn at nchinn@nyunews.com.

The Student Operating a Hair Salon From Her Dorm By CALAIS WATKINS Contributing Writer

ALINA PATRICK | WSN

Jess Jilla, who dyes her hair at Vicki Pops Salon, but often does touch-ups herself, poses for a portrait in her dorm at Gramercy.

We’ve all had our traumatic experiences when it comes to hair. That bowl cut in elementary school your mom thought was so adorable? Looking back at the pictures makes you cringe. Going from brown to bleach blonde so your ex-boyfriend might see the picture on Instagram with the caption, “Fresh start!” He wasn’t worth it, anyway. We become so attached to our hair, and can’t imagine our 7-year-old selves thinking it was be a good idea to try chopping our own bangs — unless you’re one of the few brave souls that takes matters into their own hands. “I would watch YouTube videos of people dying their own hair and think, ‘That’s so sick, I could totally do that,” CAS sophomore Kristen Santillo said. “So I did.”

Santillo’s carefree attitude about hair is so rare, it’s inspiring. In fact, she has even prompted her friends to be bold. Since coming to NYU, she has altered upwards of six hairdos. Seeing as how we barely trust professionals to realize our hair visions perfectly, this confidence in a friend who operates out of a dorm room is baffling. Santillo recognizes and values others’ trust in her, and tries her best to create an environment that is both comfortable and fun for everybody. “I always like to get some music going, try to have a good time and not be weird about it,” Santillo said. “People can get really nervous and even I get nervous because you never really know how it’s going to turn out and it could always go wrong.” Santillo’s setup may sound more chaotic than sitting in a salon, but the

element of trust is not to be underestimated. Isn’t a hangout with friends less intimidating than alternating between staring at your reflection in the mirror and your phone, silently praying everything is going well? With an array of tools, Santillo does her best to give her clients the mane of their dreams. “I have hair-cutting scissors, a little apron like the ones at hair salons, combs, a brush, a bowl for mixing — the basics,” Santillo said. “I just ask that people to bring their own hair dye, so they choose the color and the brand, and I do the rest.” Naturally, operating in the dorm comes with challenges that arise in the sterile salon. Santillo doesn’t think much of it. “The showers don’t have detachable

shower heads so whenever I go to wash the dye out, people have to stand and lean over into the shower and water gets everywhere,” she said. On top of the inevitable chaos, Santillo acknowledges that working on something as precious as someone’s hair can risk a ruined relationship. “You don’t want to make a mess because any permanent damage will get you fined, so being careful with the dye is super important,” she added. Living in a dorm doesn’t mean your DIY dreams are over, it just requires a little more creativity in execution. There’s no guarantee that things won’t go wrong, but in the end, it always grows back, right? Email Calais Watkins at bstyle@nyunews.com.

Washington Square News | Culture

TUESDAY, OCTOBER 9, 2018

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With Suicide, Why Does NYU ‘Sweep It Under the Rug?’ By PAMELA JEW Under the Arch Managing Editor Emilio Torres opened up Instagram to mindless scroll through posts and unsolicited ads late Tuesday afternoon. But the Tisch first-year didn’t expect to see a post from NYU Memes for Slightly Bankrupt Teens — just a screenshot of an iPhone note — which alluded to the passing of a fellow first-year. It read, “In light of recent news…” He paused his reading, overcome with disbelief and rendered speechless, before searching “NYU student” to find a New York Post article. “I was shocked, and didn’t believe it at first,” Torres wrote. “It was strange to me that the school hadn’t, and still hasn’t, said anything about it. When I told my roommate, he didn’t believe me at first for the same reason.” On Oct. 2 the Post reported that an NYU student jumped in front of an L train at the First Avenue and 14th Street station. The fatal tragedy caused the L to stop running in both directions temporarily. Still, the student remains anonymous to the public, including the majority of NYU students, and is only known to be a male 18-year-old first-year. No other details have been made public thus far; the university also has yet to make a public statement to its faculty, staff or students. Students couldn’t wait around to find comfort and didn’t want their peers to also be left in the dark. Over the next 24 hours, Facebook and other social media platforms became a venue for sharing the initial Post article and WSN’s article as well. Torres’ next move was to share it on the NYU Class of 2022 Facebook page. “I just wanted to let people know, and that was the quickest way to reach the most NYU people as possible,” Torres wrote. NYU-specific Facebook groups soon did the same, including the NYU Memes Facebook group which has almost 12,000 members and was Torres’ source of information. According to the page’s admin and Tisch junior John Stanley, a member of the meme group posted the New YorkPostarticletothepage,whichsparkedconversation among the 13 administrators of the group. “The post was using the news as fodder, which made us feel uncomfortable,” Stanley wrote.

“From this, we said it would be best to make a post acknowledging the incident. We lumped parts together until we felt we covered the matter as best we could.” CAS junior and Professor Quotes Without Context administrator Nick Sawhney posted to address the suicide and online responses. Since the page’s emergence, Sawhney said this post has been the most liked and interacted with in the page’s history, considering its 2,000-plus members. “We often read statistics about depression and suicide, especially on college campuses, but hearing about it happening on our campus and in the subway made it feel a lot more visceral, and that closeness definitely impacted me,” Sawhney wrote on Wednesday. “I decided to make the post shortly after partly because of this, and also because even though it is a lighthearted meme

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Yes, a new $500-million campus in Brooklyn is nice, but what’s the worth of a human life? ARYSTAN TATISHEV Tandon junior and NYU Memes for Slightly Bankrupt Teens administrator

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group it still is a community of college students.” University Spokesperson John Beckman said that although the university does not have a mandatory post-protocol following a suicide on campus, it does look at suicide not as a “onesize-fits-all” but rather on a case-by-case basis and moves forward respectively. “We take into account the wishes of the family (some are fervent in their wish that they be [afforded] the greatest possible privacy in their time of grief); whether the death occurred in a public place on campus, an off-campus setting, or a private setting; and whether false rumors are emerg-

ing that need to be addressed,” Beckman wrote. It was not until around 1 p.m. Thursday — almost two days after the suicide occurred — that the Wellness Exchange sent out an email to the entire student body with the subject line: “Available to you 24 hours a day, every day.” The email did not mention the recent suicide, but rather reiteratedtheservicesprovidedbytheWellnessExchange. Currently, the university has not made a statement, but it has said to have completed “appropriate outreach,” according to Student Health Center Director Zoe Ragouzeos. This outreach includes anyone the university deems as in close proximity to the student: family, friends, professors, floor mates and sometimes even the student’s entire school or degree program. NYU has a history of suicides — a reason why we have gilded aluminum fencing on Bobst’s interior — and this is the third to be publicly addressed this year. In May, two suicides occurred within the Langone community in the span of one week — one being fourth-year radiology student Andrea Liu and the other an unnamed psychiatry resident. NYU doesn’t track suicides, like many public universities. Since NYU is a private university, tracking suicides is a choice for the administration. A choice that students aren’t pleased with. A choice that leaves them in the dark and likely to learn of suicides from outside media sources. These media sources might approach suicide with limited sensitivity, such as the New York Post’s featured image including the student being rolled away in a body bag. Students are having all these conversations online, but what about in the physical world? In fact, all of these interviews were completed over email or various social-media messaging platforms including Facebook Messenger, Reddit and Instagram. These conversations surrounding mental health and suicide seem to be difficult for students to have in person and even with health care providers. “Everyone is different, but I absolutely believe that it’s easier for some people to talk about mental health online rather than in person,” Former NYU Secrets administrator and NYU alum Carly Tennes wrote. “I know firsthand how hard it can be to broach these difficult topics in person

7 Bars to Keep You Busy All Week By EMILY MASON Contributing Writer New Yorkers love going out. Thursday through Saturday, the streets are flooded with drunk college students, young professionals, and even the occasional group of parents out on the town for the one night they could secure a babysitter. But everyone has their breaking point. Maybe it’s when you hear the same terrible Drake song played in three bars in a row, or maybe it’s when you see not one, not two but three ghosts of hookups past in the same club. Going out has become too routine — but there are ways to spice up your nightlife. We’ve got some suggestions for the most interesting spots to hit Monday through Sunday. Email Emily Mason at dining@nyunews.com.

Monday Nuyorican Poets Cafe Location: 236 E. Third St. Price: $8 Nuyorican is one of New York’s most beloved poetry spots. Its open mic Monday is probably the best place around to get up on stage and read whatever you’ve been working on or just listen to strangers pour their hearts. It’s a great place to grab a drink, meet some fellow poetry lovers and talk about how misunderstood Allen Ginsberg was. You may even be inspired to break out that black turtleneck and start smoking hand-rolled cigarettes.

Tuesday: The Half Pint Trivia Tuesday

Wednesday: Wednesday Late Night

Location: 76 W. Third St. Price: Free If you’re looking to impress a bunch of strangers with how smart you are, consider heading to The Half Pint in the West Village. The event is comprised of three rounds and participants can win a range of prizes including theater tickets, books and games. But be sure to call ahead and reserve your spot — seating fills up fast.

Location: 107 Macdougal St. Price: $10 The Grisly Pear is a comedy club on one of NYU’s mostloved neighboring streets: MacDougal. To lighten any mid-week blues, head over to the Pear at 11:45 p.m. for its weekly Wednesday Late Night event featuring a mixed bag of rotating comics. And if you’re trying to go hard on a Wednesday, drink every time someone makes a joke about how different men and women are, you’ll blackout in no time.

TONY WU | WSN

The Half Pint at 76 West 3rd Street.

SAM KLEIN | WSN

Tisch sophomore Brian Cheng (left) and Stern junior Dani Velasquez (right) sit back-toback illuminated by phone and laptop screens, respectively.

with your loved ones, make that first therapy appointment, or even say certain things aloud.” Many students have said that the resources that NYU provides aren’t the most approachable. Tisch junior Brian Cheng, who has his own history with mental health issues and has utilized the Student Health Center for other reasons, said that NYU and Wellness flashing its hot line number isn’t enough and should be a last resort. “From personal experience, every time I felt suicidal, I never thought about the hotline,” Cheng wrote. “The people around me were more important. It can be a bit of an easy thing to say call a [number], but that’s like having a buoy every time you go swimming or a lifesaver — it won’t always work.” The hot line and the new Wellness Exchange app have become the primary response that the university generally provides and gives out in faculty and staff training. NYU Active Minds President and CAS senior Or Dagan said he saw the issues with the Wellness Exchange throughout his two years as a resident assistant. “I have witnessed again and again the futility and incompetence of the Wellness Exchange service,” Dagan wrote. “When you call them you get an intense feeling of distance and cold detachment. In the many times I accompanied students, who were in real distress, in calling the Wellness

Thursday: Parkside Lounge Location: 317 E Houston St. Price: Free Parkside is a Houston Street staple. Stop by to hang out on one of the couches and play pool, or head to the concert space in the back for live music and dancing. It has tons of different events going on all the time so you’re bound to have some late night shenanigans.

Center, not once have they came out feeling a tiny bit better. To be honest, the Wellness Exchange feels more like a monitoring service than a mental health professional service.” Now with the Being@NYU survey results out and undergraduate students’ reactions to the recent suicide populating social media, will the university further address the concerns students bring forth? “[The university] needs more resources directed at wellness and mental wellbeing,” Tatishev wrote. “Yes, a new $500-million campus in Brooklyn is nice, but what’s the worth of a human life? From what I witnessed today, the community is willing to have conversations about mental health and the lack of resources that the university provides. All we need is NYU to be willing to take the responsibility and care of the community.” If you or someone you know is experiencing thoughts of suicide, please contact the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline at 1-800273-TALK (8255) or the Suicide Crisis Line at 1-800-783-2433. At NYU, contact the Wellness Exchange at 212-443-9999. Email Pamela Jew at pjew@nyunews.com.

Friday: SPIN Players’ Night Location: 48 E 23rd St. Price: Free This pingpong party starts popping at 10 p.m. every Friday night at Susan Sarandon’s legendary ping pong social club. Compete for prizes and play your way through each pingpong challenge. You’re bound to meet some new people.

JUSTIN PARK | WSN

The tabs at the SPIN Bar.

Saturday: Back to the Eighties Show with Jessie’s Girl Location: 158 Bleecker St. Price: $23 in advance, $25 day of If you’re feeling a retro vibe for Saturday night out, go to (le) poisson rouge for the weekly ’80s night. The DJ plays ’80s throwbacks while spandex-clad patrons party until the early morning. — it’s just like being in the ‘80’s minus all the quaaludes. Be sure to dress the part and get ready for a far-out evening.

Sunday: Videology Bar and Cinema Location: 308 Bedford Ave. On this slow bar night, check out Videology Bar and Cinema, which has a constant rotation of fun events series including Pictures with Elixirs, where you can enjoy a drink related to the movie of the evening. Past pairings include Hocus Pocus with a glass of Life Potion Punch and Only Lovers Left Alive while sucking on a blood popsicle. Not into that? Try out one of the Drink Along events where organizers create drinking games for cult classics like Scream or Beetlejuice.

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ARTS@NYUNEWS.COM

TUESDAY, OCTOBER 9. 2018

ARTS

‘Maniac’ Is Netflix’s Underwhelming Experiment

Edited by RYAN MIKEL and DANIELLA NICHINSON

‘First Man’ Controversy: Patriotism or Propaganda? By TAYLOR STOUT Staff Writer

Jonah Hill and Emma Stone in “Maniac.”

By ALEX WOLOSKY Contributing Writer During the second episode of Netflix’s “Maniac,” an exasperated Annie (Emma Stone) meets up with a drug dealer in Washington Square Park to beg him for more pills. An NYU flag waves in the background as the two bicker, sitting side-by-side at a chess table where the dealer plays against a purple animatronic koala. Distracted, he loses the match along with his $100 bet, and the koala grunts, “What’s yours is mine now, b-tch!” I chuckled, then yawned. And then the show moves on. It’s moments like these, small and idiosyncratic, that function as the nexus of the limited series’ dysto-

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‘Maniac’ is meant to make you think about the nature of destiny, consumerist culture, addiction, technology, mental illness, friendship, trauma, consciousness and family. But ultimately, in attempting to accomplish so much it fails to say anything new.

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pian version of New York City. Directed by Cary Joji Fukunaga and created by novelist Patrick Somerville, “Maniac” offers up a world in which people pay for subway fares with a service that pairs you with an AdBuddy, a person who follows you verbally reciting ads, and where the Statue of Liberty sits across from a twisted facsimile, the Statue of Extra Liberty. It’s all very bizarre, yet, just as quickly as the show intrigues you, it falls flat as a confusing attempt at recycled ideas. The purple koala from the beginning serves as nothing more than a kind of metaphor for how the show is set up: an overly flashy automaton made solely to impress you and to hide its helter-skelter foundation. Its failure is due, in part, to how it was constructed. The show is too calculated and heavy-handed for something that purports to be trippy and unpredictable. It centers around depressed schizophrenic Owen Milgrim (Jonah Hill) who buckles under the pres-

VIA NETFLIX.COM

sures of his well-to-do family and finds refuge in Annie, a tortured drug addict whose addiction worsens from, ironically, her lack of family. They cutely meet in a pharmaceutical trial conducted by Neberdine Pharmaceutical Biotech, where they undergo a series of experiments for a new drug that’s meant to eliminate sadness and pain. The experiment, headed by the neurotic Dr. Mantleray (Justin Theroux) doesn’t go according to plan, and after the third episode the series mainly follows their drug-induced hallucinations, intended to mimic movie genres from high fantasy to 1940s noir. It’s an interesting premise, but it becomes increasingly clear as each episode passes that the show is less concerned with its characters or plot than it is with keeping viewers glued to the screen, making sure you click to load the next episode before the credits even begin to roll. “Because Netflix is a data company, they know exactly how their viewers watch things. So they can look at something you’re writing and say, We know based on our data that if you do this, we will lose this many viewers,” explained Fukunaga in an interview with GQ. “So the question is: do we want to make a creative decision at the risk of losing people?” Hollywood is subservient to whims of the culture it creates. It feeds on views and subscriptions and Emmys and retweets. I’ll be the first to admit that my attention span is as short as a gnat’s. But letting viewer data inform the artistic process is a dangerous game, and “Maniac” suffers from its bingeablility. Serialized television simply doesn’t work in every format, and it goes without saying that shows as ambitious as “Maniac,” with all its quasi-existential preoccupations, should not be consumed in the same way as, for instance, The CW’s “Riverdale.” The show also falls on its face due to its casting. One would think that after veritable masterwork “Superbad,” Hill and Stone would already have a dynamic that shines. Yet, their chemistry is nonexistent. Owen’s plaintive, Eeyore-esque demeanor eats up any room for characterization and contradicts the show’s attempt to portray the complexity of mental illness. Meanwhile, Annie’s tragic backstory allows for more empathy, but her varied dream-sequence characters are so parodic that in the end the only couple I found myself rooting for was Mantleray and his chain-smoking assistant, Dr. Fujita (Sonoya Mizuno). It speaks, again, to the burgeoning formula of streamable television: big names, big money, big pay-off. But at what cost? I’m sure this show appealed to many. It’s visually exciting, tonally ranged and every so often it’ll nudge viewers toward a kernel of truth. But even then, it can’t help but talk down to you. “Maniac” is meant to make you think about the nature of destiny, consumerist culture, addiction, technology, mental illness, friendship, trauma, consciousness and family. But ultimately, in attempting to accomplish so much it fails to say anything new. Go ahead and stream an episode or two. It might just be your cup of tea. But if you’re looking for something more substantial than a Don Quixote motif, don’t count on “Maniac.” Email Alex Wolosky at film@nyunews.com.

Everybody has their biases — if a film is a glimpse of our world through the eyes of its director, then this statement rings true in cinema. However, the expression of personal opinion can sometimes become so overt and unchallenged in perspective that it crosses a fine line and becomes propaganda. After Oscar-winning director Damien Chazelle’s Neil Armstrong biopic “First Man” was screened at the Venice Film Festival this past August, a controversy broke out not over the content of the film, but over what was left out. While the film reportedly displays American flags in several shots, there is no scene that explicitly shows Neil Armstrong (Ryan Gosling) planting the American flag on the moon. Those who take issue with the film say its failure

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Yes, Neil Armstrong was an American. But before that, he was an individual.

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to include this pivotal moment is unpatriotic. But the film is about a man, not necessarily a nation. While Hollywood has been known to produce jingoistic pictures in the past, like “Top Gun,” or even “The Patriot,” is it ever a film’s duty to serve as a vessel for patriotism? Chazelle wanted to make a film that reflected the broader thematic implications of the moon landing rather than its historical or political context. “It felt like another variation on that theme of what the price of pursuing a goal like that is on the individual, on the people around them,” he said in an interview with the Los Angeles Times. This nuanced focus likely makes the film more poignant and original than it would be if it served merely as a patriotic vehicle to regurgitate images that nearly every American has already had seared into their consciousness through history class and political propaganda. Many other films have tackled classic American narratives with varying degrees of patriotism. Like “First Man,” these films often focus on the achievements of individuals, dubbed American heroes. While it is still often grim and harrowing, Clint Eastwood’s “American Sniper” is thoroughly patriotic because it portrays one of America’s most lethal

snipers as a hero. Through the patriotic American lens, he is not killing innocent people, but nobly protecting his country from terrorism. Clint Eastwood also directed “Sully” and this year’s “15:17 to Paris,” both of which portray the very American trope that an ordinary man can rise up and save lives through extraordinary acts of valor. On the other hand, films like “Hidden Figures” also depict the achievements of American heroes, but use the film as a vehicle to illuminate a new story rather than retell the same one. Director Theodore Melfi’s film hones in on the lives of three African-American mathematicians at NASA who worked on the revolutionary launch of astronaut of John Glenn. While the film still highlights American excellence for the greater good of the country, it does so in a way that makes the audience reconsider their own values and history. Though Neil Armstrong is certainly not unrecognized, “First Man” has a somewhat similar ambition to a film like “Hidden Figures.” By taking a character-driven approach instead of focusing on a larger narrative of the nation, it sheds light on the unknown story that unfolded around the iconic moment of the American flag being planted on the moon. However, those opposed to “First Man” did not feel so beholden to ArmstroWwng’s personal legacy. In a tweet, Republican Senator Marco Rubio described the decision to leave out the flag planting as “total lunacy” and “a disservice at a time when our people need reminders of what we can achieve when we work together,” noting that the moon landing mission was paid for by Americans and accomplished using American technology and workers. In a press conference, Gosling emphasized the focus on people rather than a nation. “I think this was widely regarded in the end as a human achievement [and] that’s how we chose to view it,” he said. According to Gosling, the filmmakers’ decision also reflects what Neil Armstrong would have wanted. “I don’t think that Neil viewed himself as an American hero,” he said in the same press conference. “From my interviews with his family and people that knew him, it was quite the opposite. And we wanted the film to reflect Neil.” Yes, Neil Armstrong was an American. But before that, he was an individual. And what makes us connect so viscerally with characters on screen is not a shared nationality, but the common experience of the human condition. Through “First Man,” Chazelle attempts to give audiences a fresh perspective on an iconic event. He is not erasing history to push an anti-American agenda, but rather, giving a delicate, personal perspective on a human achievement that has become so much larger than the man who accomplished it. Email Taylor Stout at film@nyunews.com.

Ryan Gosling portrays Niel Armstrong in “First Man.”

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TUESDAY, OCTOBER 9, 2018

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Cooper Revitalizes a Star in ‘A Star Is Born’ By RYAN MIKEL Arts Editor Lady Gaga received terrible reviews for her feature film debut in the 2013 movie “Machete Kills.” Commenting on her performance, the Washington Post wrote, “Lady Gaga should not quit her day job. The singer’s performance is painfully awkward.” Gaga is vocal about her career in music being the result of a lack of success in film. With scathing reviews like “Machete Kills” and a Golden Raspberry nomination under her belt, it’s hard to blame her. People wanted to see her fail, and she did. But like fellow “box off ice poison” in the past, Gaga rose from the ashes and made an unexpected leading debut in this year’s “A Star Is Born.” Opposite dreamboat actor and director Bradley Cooper, Gaga joins a long list of Hollywood darlings to take a stab at the leading female role in the f ifth remake of “A Star Is Born.” She plays Ally, a girl-nextdoor waitress with mighty vocal chops who falls into the gaze of Cooper’s Jackson Maine at a local drag bar. The drunken rockstar sees a spark in the aspiring star and woos her with romance and a spot in the limelight. But as Ally’s spotlight widens, his own slowly diminishes and the all-American rockstar falls from grace and the grasp of his onscreen partner. Ally’s career zooms to Grammy Award-winning heights while a drunken Maine humiliates her one handle of Johnnie Walker at a time.

The 2018 remake has been in the works for the better half of a decade. Originally due to star Beyoncé with Clint Eastwood at the helm, the reigns of the f ilm were eventually passed onto Cooper and Gaga. In this version, we see Gaga go outside her comfort zone into a dramatic leading role, but if you’ve followed the pop star, like me, since “Just Dance,” you’ll know this is just the Lady behind the Gaga for the past 10 years. Critics everywhere, and even Gaga herself, have remarked on the singer’s stripped-down look and how she has nothing to hide behind, but Gaga has never needed wigs, glitter or meat to succeed. The talent was always there if you paid attention — Cooper did, giving the 32-year-old the vehicle to see her silver screen potential to fruition. Cooper and Gaga are electric as the central couple. As with Emma Stone and Ryan Gosling of fellow movie-musical “La La Land,” the f ilm revolves around the two. This is not an ensemble piece despite fantastic work from Sam Elliott, Dave Chappelle and Andrew Dice Clay in supporting roles as Maine’s brother, childhood best friend and Ally’s father, respectively. Less of a technical spectacle than “La La Land,” the f ilm is a labor of love between Gaga and Cooper. The once-unnecessary, now-triumphant remake would have flopped under anyone else’s watch and here’s why: Cooper and Gaga share this symbiosis that can’t be replicated by any other pair in Hollywood

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Bradley Cooper and Lady Gaga in “A Star Is Born.”

today. Where Gaga falters as a thespian, Cooper excels in his direction of her. Where Cooper lacks in vocal fluency, Gaga comes to rescues with Carole King and James Taylor-style harmonization. As far as acting goes, Gaga is suspiciously authentic in Ally’s skin. The character is semi-autobiographical. She tells Maine that she doesn’t sing her own music because industry sharks don’t find her pretty enough. As she deals with these insecurities throughout the film, we see less acting and more of Gaga tapping into a deeply buried crevice of trauma experienced during her early days in the business. Cooper’s role is fiction and earns him the distinction of a transformation. His performance does not require prosthetics or an accent to depart from his pretty boy, rom-com days. He may look like Bradley Cooper, but his entire ethos transcends to that of a sunkissed rockstar in decline. With a brazen speaking voice, jumbled movements and a look of absolute desolation in his tantalizing eyes, he is undeniably Jackson Maine. Unlike Gaga, Cooper isn’t tapping into any past experience but rather giving a master class in disappearing into a character. Outside of performances, the music and camerawork elevate the film from

camp to magnificence. At times, on-thenose dialogue and awkward pacing make the film appear as a farce. Crucial plot points move unrealistically fast; in a blur, we see the two elope while Ally earns a

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A star isn’t born in Lady Gaga’s performance, but rather revitalized and rocketed to new heights.

” Grammy for best new artist. But Cooper has a technical vision for the film that conceals such issues. He draws from the bohemian musical numbers of the 1976 version starring Barbra Streisand and visual

symmetry comparable to Wes Anderson. He collaborates with cinematographer Matthew Libatique to create a whimsical southwestern landscape rich in deep red and blue hues that scream Americana. As expected, the soundtrack delivers with a bevy of “Bodyguard”-esque ballads and stadium pop-rock anthems. “Shallow,” “Always Remember Us This Way” and “I’ll Never Love Again” are all worthy of Oscar recognition and provide distinct tones — giddy, triumphant, bittersweet — representing the various chapters of the life the two spend together. Once called a “pointless running joke” on screen, Gaga will most likely contend for an Academy Award or two in the spring. A lot has changed since 2013, but her talent has remained. Much like Ally, all Gaga needed was a Jackson Maine to believe in her. A star isn’t born in Gaga’s performance, but rather revitalized and propelled to new heights. “A Star Is Born” is an overdue resurgence in Mother Monster’s career and the movie-musical we will be talking about until a sixth remake comes along. Email Ryan Mikel at rmikel@nyunews.com.

‘An American Marriage’ and a Distinctly American Writer By CLAIRE FISHMAN Contributing Writer When introducing Tayari Jones at the Lillian Vernon Creative Writers House this Friday afternoon, Darin Strauss recounted his f irst impressions of her. He noted that the f irst things that struck him about Jones were her warm kindness and f ierce intelligence. He said that Jones was one of the most ambitious and daring writers they had. It’s hard to believe the person that Strauss describes claims to only write three times a week in sittings that last “no longer than a typical workout.” But this idiosyncrasy speaks directly to her character, and perhaps even her genius. Jones has written the novels “Leaving Atlanta,” “The Untelling,” “Silver Sparrow” and “An American Marriage” and has won numerous awards and fellowships, her latest being the National Book Award Longlist for Fiction in 2018. During her reading, however, Jones failed to mention this prestigious award. She instead

focused on another achievement: receiving a call from Oprah Winfrey to tell her that “An American Marriage” had been chosen as a pick for Oprah’s Book Club. Jones had been driving when she received the call and had to promptly pull over when she heard the life-changing news. A large number of people read the books from Oprah’s Book Club. There were even several at the reading who remarked that the only reason they had read the book was because of Oprah’s Club. Jones was overjoyed. For Jones, writing “An American Marriage” was a laborious process that was distinctive from her other works. She had written novels before, but Jones claims that they were largely autobiographical and that “An American Marriage,” in contrast, was inspired by a chance conversation and six years of research on mass incarceration. However, Jones reminded her Friday audience that she didn’t write the book to seek social justice or to simply regurgitate information — that would be too boring. She needed a story, not a statistic. When Jones heard a young African-American couple fighting loudly

in a food court, she listened closely. The young man had just been sentenced to around 10 years of jail time. The woman pointed out that that was

a long time to wait and that he would never wait for her that long. The man didn’t disagree and the couple was left at a stalemate. Jones saw this as

CLAIRE FISHMAN | WSN

Tayari Jones (Left) and Darin Strauss (Right) engaged in discussion at the Creative Writers House on Friday.

an incredible opportunity for a story — “two characters that disagree but are both right.” That was the kind of moral ambiguity, Jones said, that was central to a good novel. Also central to a good novel, Jones pointed out, is the lack of an outline. When Jones writes, she likes to “chase a question,” not paint prose over a long roadmap of the story. This keeps her engaged and eager to discover the next conflict in her novel. Jones admitted that her approach may not work for everyone and, in fact, she left it out of her final piece of advice, which was addressed to young writers. When asked if Jones had a mantra or a motto she could share, Jones left her audience with two key guidelines for writing a novel: “Find out as little about the business as you can and you don’t have to write every day.” Writers will always find a reason to hold off starting something as huge as a novel, but remember that those reasons might be more self-invented than one thinks. Email Claire Fishman at arts@nyunews.com.

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TUESDAY, OCTOBER 9. 2018

OPINION

OPINION@NYUNEWS.COM

Edited by JANICE LEE

MEDIA

The Media Does Not Respect Victims of Sexual Assault

By NATASHA JOKIC Contributing Writer In July, Senator Dianne Feinstein received a letter. The letter accused Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh of sexual assault. The author of the letter was initially kept confidential, largely due to the torment she feared would be brought to both herself and her family. However, Dr. Christine Blasey Ford eventually felt compelled to come forward as the author of the letter as the publication of her identity seemed inevitable. Through a writer at the Washington Post who ultimately gained her trust, she was able to describe the

assault in her own words. Although Blasey Ford chose to come forward on her own terms, some of the media has boldly demonstrated that the potential for a big scoop outweighs the privacy of sexual assault victims. In a post-#MeToo era, this disrespect has to stop. So what happens when the publication of the identity of the victim could put them in danger? After revealing her identity, Blasey Ford has been on the receiving end of severe harassment, including death threats, and her family has had to move homes to ensure their safety. The reporters who showed up at her house were obviously not the cause of this invasion of privacy, as they were doing what every journalist does — reporting on a story. But in a way, the actions in the case of Blasey Ford exemplify a larger industry failure to demonstrate adequate empathy. This is not to say that victims of sexual assault should uncomfortable publicly coming forward — there is immense power in doing so, which should be applauded. However, the decision to do so should not inevitably result in such dire, life-threatening conse-

quences. Saying that Blasey Ford should understand the threats that result in coming forward and should therefore blame no one but herself makes the many outlets who have highlighted her story exempt from any form of accountability on the issue. Media outlets equip the masses with a certain amount of power. But when they’re able to uplift the voices of those like Blasey Ford while simultaneously providing a platform for those who claim her and others like her to be liars, the debate on accountability becomes a problem. Said accountability is also problematic when an initial story spirals into ridiculous claims that are thought to be true by a mass number of social media users. In response to several of these claims, the New York Times published an article that debunked scandalous rumors about Blasey Ford. While their endeavor in and of itself should be applauded, it is also a practice that has not been seen from publications that may not be as influential but still hold power to certain audiences. For example, some of these false claims have even been started by conser-

vative media figures who have still not been held responsible for spreading lies. The media cannot claim ignorance on responsible sexual assault reporting. There are plenty of guides available; their very existence suggesting that this is a topic that is often misreported. Take the Online News Association’s ethics guide, which says, “the general belief is that, given the stigma sexual assault carries in most societies, media should refrain from identifying victims of most sexual crimes, unless the victim is willing to speak publicly.” That is not to say that news outlets meant to disclose Blasey Ford’s identity without her approval — in fact, all outlets have only showed her name with her consent. The reasoning behind this ethics guideline, however — according to the National Alliance To End Sexual Violence — is that the amount of shame that a victim can receive upon being unintentionally identified can actually deter others from reporting their own sexual assault. Already, there is a huge issue with sexual assault being underreported; only around

23 percent of sexual assault are reported to the police, making it the least likely crime to be reported. Blasey Ford placing her name to her accusation was undoubtedly immensely brave, and her testimony was incredibly inspiring. As journalists, it is our responsibility to make sure our industry treats survivors better. If we do, then perhaps we will be able to better foster a culture whereby victims do not feel as if they have to be silent. In the words of Debra Katz, one of Blasey Ford’s lawyers, “victims must have the right to decide whether to come forward, especially in a political environment that is as ruthless as this one.” The right to this decision starts with changing the culture of our media industries, with consequences for those who demonstrate unethical practice. If the media begins to respect the wishes of sexual assault victims, perhaps another woman will not have to feel as if her privacy has been taken from her in a time of immense pain. Email Natasha Jokic at opinion@nyunews.com.

ECONOMY

Elon Musk Versus Toothless Regulation

By COLE STALLONE Contributing Writer Tesla and Elon Musk had a horror story of their own just before the Halloween season began. On Sept. 27, they were sued by the Securities and Exchange Commission which, when settled two days, resulted in a $20 million dollar fine for both Tesla and Musk with Musk stepping down as chairman and Tesla hiring him a glorified babysitter. While many view this settlement as a success for the SEC, the specifics of the

Musk case reveal the reality of regulatory capture — when a regulatory agency begins to serve the interests of the industry it was intended to regulate. The SEC and many other agencies in the United States are considered captured agencies, and this is evident in the settlement with and appeasement of Tesla — the SEC, by failing to hold Musk accountable, also fails to fulfill their obligation as an agency. Regulatory capture is an extremely dangerous threat to democracy and global stability, and this problem can only be solved by democratizing the economy and opposing capitalistic policies and initiatives. The Tesla lawsuit came after Musk falsely tweeted that the company was going private, and that he had the nearly $70 billion dollars required to do so secured. The SEC claimed that Musk had no genuine intention of going private and lied about the specificity of his proposed plan, a blatant violation of its rules.

And while the idea that a tweet could have dramatic consequences seems ridiculous, the volatility of capitalism proves otherwise. Nearly 30 million shares of Tesla stock were traded the day of the tweet, compared to 6 million the day before. Initially, the SEC lawsuit sought to strip Musk of his status as chairman and CEO. In the settlement, however, they took his stepping down as CEO off the table. To add to the embarrassment, Tesla rejected the initial settlement after Musk threatened to quit both positions. Ultimately the SEC did win out in negotiations and gave Musk a higher penalty. However, many are confused as to why the SEC didn’t take Musk to court after his refusal of the initial offer and his blatant attempt to hold both his board and the SEC hostage. Adding to the confusion is a statement by director Jay Clayton, in which he said: “corporate fines often are financed with funds that

could otherwise benefit shareholders, and the skills and support of certain individuals may be important to the future success of a company.” What this translates to is that despite the fact that Elon Musk clearly violated SEC rules, he is too important to the profit margins of his company to justify punishing him for this violation. This statement is an indirect signal to directors and executives that you can get away with violating any of our rules, so long as you produce a significant profit. What makes matters worse is that his steep fine is roughly 0.1 percent of Musk’s total net worth, and so even the SEC’s victory in the settlement seems questionable. The SEC is not the only agency that has fallen to regulatory capture — other agencies include the Environmental Protection Agency and the Federal Communications Commission. While the problem of regulatory capture seems overwhelming, one solution is eco-

nomic democratization — to give the decision-making powers to the public instead of to managers and shareholders. By definition, this puts the regulation of private companies within public interest, therefore preventing regulatory capture. However, what this solution says about capitalism as an economic structure is more interesting than the solution itself. If economic democratization is an acceptable solution to regulatory capture, a problem created by capitalism, then it is also acceptable to say that capitalism and democracy, within purely economic terms, oppose each other. As members of a largely hegemonic capitalist world, a decision needs to be made about what is most important going forward: the free market, or freedom. Email Cole Stallone at opinion@nyunews.com.

UNIVERSITY LIFE

Sound the Alarm Less Often

By KRISHANG NADGAUDA Contributing Writer Grumbling students forced out of their residence halls during a fire drill have become a common fixture of NYU culture. Fire drills are, to put it lightly, annoying and inconvenient. But the hostility directed at certain aspects of fire drills — such as the dreaded wait period in the block-long queue post-evacuation — are bullets misfired. The true issue

lies in the frequency at which unannounced drills occur, which inadvertently increase the severity of fire accidents. Fires are extremely serious and deadly; it’s imperative that students evacuate quickly if an alarm sounds. The fact that you cannot navigate through a residence hall without seeing at least one fire safety poster along the way is a testament to the gravity of the subject. NYU’s 2016 Fire Safety Log accounts for 15 incidents of fire accidents across all residence halls for that year. The causes of those incidents vary from candles to criminal mischiefs. Thus, the unpredictability of a fire accident cannot be understated. Fire drills, then, seem like the natural prelude to safety. As a first-year, I’ve been a part of one official fire drill or evacuation. Based on my firsthand experience, I can say that the swiftness of an occupant’s evacuation is

dependant only upon the pace people exit down the emergency stairs. But I’ve also reluctantly sat through two instances of fire alarms sounding off, as well as participated in a mistimed drill which resulted in only my floor residents evacuating. During each drill, I would peep out of my door to judge the credibility of the fire alarm based on whether my floormates were preparing to evacuate. Each time, I would see my floormates doing the same. We were creating an impromptu meeting, deciding how to answer the fundamental question during fire drill season — “To evacuate or not to evacuate?” This confusion of whether to take a fire alarm seriously or not is, in fact, not arbitrary at all. It is a result of a phenomenon known as semantic satiation. The phrase attributes the loss of a word’s meaning on its constant

repetition due to fatigue of brain cells. Basically, something loses significance if you do it over and over again — especially in a short period of time. The same goes for fire drills. NYU’s official fire drill procedures state that the law mandates all residence halls to conduct drills “at least three times each year, one of which required drills shall be held between September first and December first of each such year.” This period also marks the time for fire alarm checks and random alarm tests. Though one might argue that the unpredictable occurrence of accidents maintain a fire alarm’s panic-inducing abilities, this certainly isn’t the case. Frequent fire alarms damage their very alarming effect. Such frequency may incline residents to decide to sit through an alarm or hesitate to evacuate. Seven out of the 15 incidents

recorded in the aforementioned Fire Safety Log occurred in September and October — the peak season for fire drills. The prospect of residents dismissing genuine alarms as interruptive drills or even hesitating to evacuate during potentially critical fire accidents is dangerous. Fire drills should therefore be announced. The doubt over the credibility of fire alarms created by unannounced fire drills considered tests is too risky. To discipline residents into unquestioned cooperation during drills is a daunting and improbable task. It seems more viable to trust the residents to use their fire safety education in moments of genuine alarm. Email Krishang Nadgauda at opinion@nyunews.com.

Washington Square News | Opinion

TUESDAY, OCTOBER 9, 2018

9

POLITICS

Recognizing the Bravery of Kurdistan’s Women

By HANNA KHOSRAVI Deputy Opinion Editor It felt startlingly pertinent when, last week, the 2018 Nobel Peace Prize was awarded to two activists who have devoted their careers to the epidemics of sexual violence in their respective homelands. The prize was awarded to 63-year-old Dr. Denis Mukwege, a Congolese gynecological surgeon who has dedicated his practice to the treatment of victims of sexual violence in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. The award was also given to a survivor — 25-year-old Nadia Murad is a Yazidi-Kurdish survivor of genocidal rape by the Islamic State in northern Iraq. The Yazidis, a religious minority within the Kurdish community, and the Kurds as an entire ethnic group within the Middle East, have been systematically targeted and persecuted by the ruthless forces of ISIS. When Murad escaped from captivity following the murder of her mother and six of her brothers, she endeavored to bring her cause to the forefront of the international conversation. With the help of representation from renowned human rights lawyer Amal Clooney, who has served as an advocate of the Yazidi cause, Murad appealed to the United Nations and undertook an advocacy campaign with the goal of convincing the United States State Department of recognizing the existence of the ongoing genocide. The Kurds, as a cultural community, have not only been singled out and targeted by the Islamic State, but have organized, struggled and defended the Middle East to protect both their homeland and the region in its entirety — and to this day, they endure as a culture with little international recognition or support, while denied the rights of self-determination and statehood. As a Kurdish-Iranian-American, I’ve developed a nuanced perspective on my cultural background and identities. Being Kurdish meant possessing a somewhat contrived, but wholly unique, notion of the term “identity.” The Kurdish people, despite the richness and depth of their ancient culture, are members of a stateless nation — in essence, they do not actually occupy a designated homeland. The Kurds, as of now, encompass something more akin to a region — an area of mountainous, landlocked territory at the intersection of Iran, Iraq, Syria and Turkey. But the culture is known for its pride and celebration of heritage — the Kurdish language, anthem, flag and tolerance for other religions and cultures are completely distinct from their surrounding nations and cultures. Numbering at approximately 35 million, the Kurds are the fourth largest ethnic group in the Middle East and the largest indigenous population in the world without a country. An old Kurdish adage proclaims that the Kurds “have no friends but the mountains” — a haunting reflection when one considers that during Saddam Hussein’s reign of terror in Iraq, many Kurds fled to the mountains to fight against his genocidal persecution and the murder of an estimated 100,000 Kurds by the use of mustard gas in the 1988 Halabja Massacre and al-Anfal campaign against the Kurdish population. This genocidal atrocity which involved the largest chemical weapons attack against a civilian-populated area in international history was not all that long ago. Not only do we, as students and teachers in classrooms at a prestigious university, fail to commonly acknowledge this, but we seem to stand by, unaware as the Kurds are assailed again two decades later. As a child, I knew the basics of my family history: my grandfather was a freedom fighter, an Iranian Kurd who

Submitting to

spent much of his youth as a prisoner of conscience due to his protest against the Iranian monarchy and his pursuit of fundamental human rights for the Kurdish people. Most of the men — and many of the women — in my father’s family were at some point imprisoned and subjected to torture in Iran’s most notorious political and ideological prisons. But this desire for freedom, which has become characteristic of the Kurdish identity, has never faltered. Now more than ever, change comes our way as the world has witnessed the brave Kurdish men and women so valiantly facing down ISIS. As of the last few years, the Kurdish Peshmerga forces — the name of the Kurdish army, which translates to “those who face death” — have dedicated their lives to eliminating the threat of ISIS. Murad’s recent Nobel Prize brings further illumination to the understanding of the force and courage of women in Kurdish society. An estimated 35 percent of the military in Kurdistan is made up of women — that is the largest percentage of female fighters in any military in the world. In 2012, the Kurdish Democratic Union Party legally mandated that formal elections and government offices must include women. In fact, the autonomous Kurdish region in Northern Iraq, known as the Kurdish Regional Government, actually has a higher percentage of women in government roles than in the U.S. or the United Kingdom. Most Westerners associate the Middle East with governmental jurisdiction against women and regrettably, in the 21st century, this is not an altogether incorrect assumption. But Kurdish ideals have long proved different in terms of religious, ethnic and gender equality. Not only do female fighters occupy commanding combat roles in the military, but they have also been able to use their gender to advantage in an ideological intimidation of ISIS. “ISIS sees female Peshmerga as a specific threat and danger,” Newsweek reporter Simon Ross Valentine writes. “They believe, if they are killed by a women, they will be denied the rewards of paradise.” The haphazard establishment of borders post-World War II in the Sykes-Picot Agreement resulted in the practical impossibility of Kurdish sovereignty, as the Middle East was unevenly divided up into satellite territories at the wim of Western powers, and the Kurdish population was left quartered within various nations. But time and time again, the Kurds, a mostly Sunni Muslim population, have proven to be allies of the West. They have defended the Yazidi sector of Mt. Sinjar from ISIS, and they have provided a safe haven for Iraqi refugees and Christian, Jewish, and other religious minorities. Their secular and democratic governing mentality in the face of the mostly autocratic, religiously fundamentalist governments in the Middle East have established them as a stabilizing force. While the U.S. has benefited from this alliance with the Kurds, their support has consistently fallen short of Kurdish aspirations for independence. What is happening in the Middle East is not part of an irrelevant history. As Nadia Murad’s Nobel Prize shows, the persecution of the Kurdish people in the Middle East and their valiance in the fight against ISIS is occurring right now. And in a year when the sexual violence, discrimination, and subjugation of women has taken center stage in American political and social dynamics, Murad’s award should serve as a reminder for us to take a deeper look at a people seemingly left behind by the international community. The bravery and sacrifice of the Kurdish women, and Kurdish population, in confronting sexual assault and cultural violence underscore not just their bravery, but their usually liberal ideals in the face of despotism. We must recognize that the Kurdish people deserve significantly more support and attention, instead of being used, time and time again, solely as tactical partners in war and conflict.

STAFF EDITORIAL

How Can NYU Mourn the Loss of a Student? Last week, an NYU student took his life. While three news sources — including WSN — have reported on it, the university has not released an official statement addressing the loss. Before commenting on the role that NYU decided to take in light of this suicide, we must first recognize that suicide is extremely complex — it’s incredibly difficult to know precisely how best to provide for those in mourning, and for the community at large — especially because our predominant desire is simply to honor and commemorate this loss. With that in mind, we feel the need to acknowledge the socially isolating environment of NYU in which this student took his life and to discuss our desire to see the university balance concerns of suicide contagion and the loss experienced by the larger student body. In the wake of this tragedy, the newly established results of the Being@NYU survey are perturbingly relevant. According to the survey of 695 respondents, over 30 percent of undergraduates at NYU have considered leaving the university, primarily due to a lack of feeling of belonging and community at the school. In reviewing perspectives of accessibility at NYU, the survey saw an overwhelming pattern of student responses displaying “challenges receiving support for mental health service accessibility,” “shortcomings in campus facilities” and “classroom accessibility.” The survey seems to show how tangible these issues really are, and how the lack of a traditional college experience can affect students at NYU. Reporting these results is not an effort to blatantly criticize NYU services — the Health Center is making an effort at accessibility, as seen in their instillation of a new text therapy policy. But there can always be room for improvement. In a school that struggles with community as much as NYU does, striving to have a more approachable, comfortable Health Center and NYU service system is of the utmost importance. Yes, we all enter NYU with the knowledge that it will be an unconventional campus, but that doesn’t necessarily mean we are automatically prepared for the isolation that is often associated with being “in and of the city.” Though we want the university to acknowledge the loss and provide the student body with a space to mourn, the lack of response can be explained by

their desire to exercise caution given NYU’s history of student suicides. In 2003, two students died by suicide within five weeks of each other and in the 2003-2004 academic year, a total of five students took their lives. During that extremely devastating academic year, NYU implemented a 24-hour hotline to connect students to mental health services. Naturally, NYU has since sought to prevent more suicides and is particularly mindful of suicide contagion — a phenomenon when any exposure to suicide can result in increased suicidal behavior. “For that reason, if we believe that refraining from sending a broad communication can reduce the chances of a contagion effect, we are more than willing to absorb any resulting criticism,” NYU Spokesperson John Beckman said. There has even been psychology research that public memorials could result in a cluster of suicides, especially by those who are already considering taking their own lives. We ask NYU to take into account how the student body finds out the news regarding a fellow community member. With three articles already floating around social media, many students stumble upon the news inadvertently. A quick, misunderstood conclusion that could be drawn from NYU’s silence is that our university doesn’t perceive the loss of the community. We are even more prone to conclude that our community, starting at the highest level, is not invested. If NYU were to publicly acknowledge the incident, then perhaps we would be able to feel seen by our administrators and to have the opportunity to convene and mourn together. Of course, the action would depend on how the family would like the university to respond, but we feel that it’s important to voice this desire that we have as students. Because if we are indeed a community, then coming together to commemorate this loss is a vital aspect of the grieving process. If you or someone you know is experiencing thoughts of suicide, please contact the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline at 1-800273-TALK (8255) or the Suicide Crisis Line at 1-800-783-2433. At NYU, contact the Wellness Exchange at 212-443-9999.

Email the Editorial Board at editboard@nyunews.com. JANICE LEE Chair HANNA KHOSRAVI Co-chair MELANIE PINEDA Co-chair

Email Hanna Khosravi at hkhosravi@nyunews.com.

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.

Washington Square News

10

SPORTS

SPORTS@NYUNEWS.COM WEEKLY UPDATE

Women’s Golf Now Ranks Fourth in the U.S. By ZACH HAN Sports Editor Women’s Golf After taking first place at the Williams College Fall Invitational on Sept. 29-30, the NYU women’s golf team looked to add another first-place finish to its name when it competed in the General’s Invitational at Washington and Lee University from Oct. 7-8. After day one, the team ended with a team score of 302, which put it in second place behind rival Carnegie Mellon University by two strokes. The Violets stormed back in day two, snatching first place from Carnegie Mellon by five strokes with a final team score of 599. Leading the NYU women’s golf team was CAS junior Arisa Kimura, who shot an NYU record-tying three-under-par. Her record performance earned her the individual title in a pool of 65 golfers. Other key performers for the team were SPS senior Patty Treevichaphan, who finished tied for fifth overall, and Tisch sophomore Jessica Wu, who finished tied for 16th place. The NYU Violets are now ranked fourth in the nation after their stellar performances these past two weeks. They look to make it three first-place finishes in a row when they host the NYU Invitational from Oct. 13-14.

Men’s Soccer

Coming off a disappointing loss against UAA rival Carnegie Mellon University on Sept. 29 that broke its seven-game win streak, the NYU men’s soccer team looked to come out strong against another UAA rival when it visited 21st ranked Case Western Reserve University on Oct. 6. The Violets became gradually more aggressive on offense as the first half went on, scoring a goal late in the first half. CAS senior Alexander Dano assisted on a goal by CAS junior Owen Smith. The Violets continued that aggressiveness in the second half when Dano scored a goal only five minutes in. LS sophomore Maxi Rodriguez cemented the victory with a goal in the 84th minute, and the game ended in a 3-0 shutout. Goalkeeper and CAS senior Grant Engel was flawless in goal, rejecting all three of CWRU’s shots on goal and claiming his fourth shutout of the season. The NYU men’s soccer team avoided falling 0-2 against UAA rivals and will take a break from UAA play when they take on Sarah Lawrence College on Oct. 7.

Women’s Soccer

The NYU women’s soccer team looked to carry its momentum of a twogame win streak as it played Rutgers on Oct. 2 and UAA rival Case Western Reserve University on Oct. 6 this past week. However, the match ended in a scoreless tie. Despite NYU outshooting Rutgers with nine shots on goal to Rutgers’s four, both goalkeepers were at the top of their games and did not let a single shot score. In the second game of the week against Case Western, the Violets remained undefeated in UAA play with a 2-0 shutout. The defense stayed consistently strong under the leadership of goalkeeper and Stern sophomore Meghan Marhan who rejected all three of Case Western’s shots on goal. Stern junior Isabelle Turner led the offense, scoring the only two goals of the game just

TUESDAY, OCTOBER 9. 2018

Drama Follows Tense UFC Rematch

four minutes apart early in the first half. The Violets look to stay undefeated in UAA play when they host Emory University on Oct. 12.

Men’s and Women’s Swimming and Diving

Men’s swimming and diving opened its season strong as it convincingly defeated Division II West Chester University 194-95. The Violets dominated the freestyle and diving events. CAS sophomore Peyton Lucas won a pair of freestyle events, taking home first place in the 500-yard freestyle with a time of 4:48.12 and the 1,000-yard freestyle with a time of 9:52.98. SPS senior Nianzhong Liu won another pair of freestyle events, placing first in the 50-yard freestyle with a time of 21.16 and the 100-yard freestyle with a time of 46.27. Nursing first-year and diver Cole Vertin took first in both the 1-meter dive and the 3-meter dive, posting scores of 285.60 and 288.68, respectively. While the men’s swimming and diving team took the win in its season opener against West Chester University, the NYU women’s swimming and diving team fell to West Chester University 188-112. Despite the team loss, two athletes shone in their events which is a positive sign for the young season. CAS first-year Rachel Reistroffer had a brilliant debut, winning both the 500- and 1,000-yard freestyle, posting times of 5:10.11 and 10:26.01, respectively. CAS junior and diver Carmen White was the other silver lining in the loss, winning the 3-meter dive with a score of 277.42. The NYU swimming and diving team with host Rowan University on Oct. 20.

Women’s Volleyball

It was a rough weekend for the NYU women’s volleyball team after it dropped back-to-back games against Widener University and Stockton College on Oct. 6 at the Stockton Tri-Match. The first match against Widener tested the Violets’ resilience, but they ended up coming up short when they fell to Widener in five sets (2519, 23-25, 25-22, 22-25, 15-12). The Violets overcame two one-set deficits during the match but eventually lost in the fifth set after Widener University broke a 5-5 tie with consecutive points and led the rest of the way. CAS senior Nazzerine Waldon led the team in kills with 13 and CAS senior Daryl Mitchell led the team in assists with 23. Fatigue began to show after the hard-fought battle against Widener University when the Stockton College Ospreys swept the Violets in three sets (2826, 25-22, 25-17). Waldon led the team in kills with 10, while SPS senior Katie Goyette led the team in assists with 16. The NYU women’s volleyball team looks to bounce back when it competes against rival Carnegie Mellon University on Oct. 13-14.

Women’s Cross Country

On Oct. 3, NYU women’s cross country team’s own Gallatin first-year Valentina House earned ECAC Division III Metro Rookie of the Month. House led the NYU women’s cross country team in all four meets this season, including two thirdplace finishes. Email Zach Han at zhan@nyunews.com.

Edited by ZACH HAN and BRENDAN DUGGAN

SOPHIA DI IORIO | WSN

By BRENDAN DUGGAN Sports Editor In one of the most highly anticipated matchups of the year, an intense battle between two of mixed martial arts’ elite competitors — Khabib Nurmagomedov and Conor McGregor — ended in unexpected chaos. Looking to defend his Ultimate Fighting Championship Lightweight title, Russian-born Khabib aimed for his 27th straight MMA victory. In the other corner, Irish-born McGregor showed no fear as he attempted to upset Khabib and reclaim the UFC Lightweight belt. In a fierce, four-round fight, Khabib defeated McGregor and it appeared as though the night was over. But another fight was just beginning. As an exhausted McGregor accepted defeat, Khabib climbed over the Octagon wall and leaped into the crowd, attacking McGregor’s jiu jitsu coach, Dillon Danis, with a flying kick. The abrupt decision sent officials and spectators into a frenzy, with many nearby viewers fleeing for their own safety. As Khabib and Danis charged at each other, security worked to contain the brawl and restore order in the Las Vegas arena. Meanwhile, McGregor remained inside

the cage where security held him back from joining the post-fight skirmish. In a matter of seconds, members from Khabib’s corner climbed the Octagon wall and started swinging at McGregor, including a man in a red shirt — believed to be Russian MMA fighter Zubaira Tukhugov — who surreptitiously snuck behind McGregor and started viciously throwing punches. UFC President Dana White later announced that three of Khabib’s team members were arrested but then released after McGregor decided not to press charges. As viewers watched in awe, not even broadcasters knew what to make of the chaotic situation. What fueled the hatred between McGregor and Khabib’s teams? What caused two well-respected fighters to stoop to the lows of a personal feud? How did a seemingly civil fight spill out of the cage, transforming into a dangerous clash? The McGregor-Khabib beef dates back to November 2016, when the two got mixed up in a verbal altercation, yelling at each other backstage during the UFC 205 weigh-in. While McGregor fought Floyd Mayweather in a boxing match in August 2017, Khabib battled injuries that kept him out of the MMA Octagon for the vast majority of last year. But time out of the Octagon for both competitors did not diminish their rivalry. More recently, the Khabib-McGregor feud started to heat up again. On April 5, during a media event for UFC 223, McGregor and his crew traveled to Barclays Center in Brooklyn to confront Khabib and his crew. When Khabib’s crew wouldn’t get off their team bus, McGregor took matters into his own hands, angrily throwing a dolly into the back of the bus. The broken glass injured members of Khabib’s team, but a warrant for McGregor’s arrest lead to a meager consequence — five days of commu-

nity service. With the bus incident picked up by the mainstream media, the Khabib-McGregor rivalry reached new heights, and a showdown between the two prodigious MMA fighters was now inevitable. Born in Dublin, Ireland, NYU Stern junior Darragh Lacey offered his two cents about the emotional UFC fight; “It was exactly what I expected. I love McGregor but Khabib is undefeated for a reason, his wrestling is unreal.” When asked about the drama after the fight — and whether Khabib should be penalized — Lacey said he didn’t think there should be any consequences. “Conor went overboard before the fight. I’m Irish, I love Conor. But he insulted his family, insulted his religion, insulted his manager. It was coming. It was expected. It’s UFC. It’s MMA. It’s nothing fake. It’s the real deal.” A few hours after White answered a stampede of questions from the media, Khabib Nurmagomedov made a brief statement to the press. He did not answer any questions from reporters, but Khabib did apologize, acknowledging it wasn’t his “best side.” Khabib made a specific point to apologize to the Nevada Athletic Commission, an organization that could put pressure on the UFC to suspend Khabib, which could strip him of his Lightweight belt. As for McGregor, the 30-year-old Irish native tweeted he looks forward to stepping back into the Octagon soon. On a historic October night, the future of UFC took a dramatic turn. As long as security can protect the spectators, the personal feuds seem to add fuel to the fire and excitement for future fights. Out of all the drama that went down after the fight, there seems to be one thing everyone is looking forward to: a Khabib-McGregor rematch. Email Brendan Duggan at bduggan@nyunews.com.

Way-Too-Early NBA Award Predictions By ZACH HAN Sports Editor With the NBA preseason already underway, we got to see glimpses of familiar faces in new jerseys and highly coveted rookies begin what could become Hall of Fame careers. The amount of talent on the court makes it fun to speculate who will take home the end-of-season awards. Although the regular season has yet to commence, the questions surrounding the potential award winners for this season began arising during the NBA offseason. Here are predictions for a few of the major awards: Rookie of the Year Luka Doncic, Dallas Mavericks Although Luka Doncic is coming into the NBA this season as a rookie, he is probably one of the most decorated rookies the NBA has seen since Yao Ming went first overall in the 2002 NBA Draft. Without having played a single NBA minute, Doncic already has a Euroleague MVP under his belt after leading Real Madrid to the EuroLeague Championship Title last season, where he garnered Final Four MVP in the process. At 6 feet 7 inches tall and only 19 years old, Doncic already has an NBA-ready body for the shooting guard position with great length and athleticism. The Dallas Mavericks, while they are in rebuild mode, still look to remain competitive with Dirk Nowitzki on the team and new acquisition DeAndre Jordan; Doncic will have the ball in his hands very often, as he will become a focal point in their offense. With a respectable three-point shot

TONY WU | WSN

(33 percent for his EuroLeague career) and terrific court vision, look for Doncic to make his mark in the NBA this season as not only the Rookie of the Year, but an AllStar in the making.

Defensive Player of the Year Joel Embiid, Philadelphia 76ers Embiid is only 94 games into his NBA career and he’s already established himself as one of the most dynamic and skilled centers in the league. After garnering his first All-Star selection last season, he ended the year earning All-NBA Second Team honors as well as All-Defensive Second Team honors. Embiid was also ranked top 10 in defensive wins shared and defensive plus-minus last season. Embiid shows no signs of slowing down and will look to take the 76ers all the way to the Eastern Conference Finals this season in the weak Eastern Conference now that LeBron James is a Laker. Look for Embiid to become one of the NBA’s most dominant defensive presences in the paint and on the perimeter if he isn’t already.

When DeMarcus Cousins went down with an Achilles injury on Jan. 26, that was supposed to be the end of New Orleans Pelicans’ playoff hopes. Without their second best player and sitting at a near .500 record at 27-21, the Pelicans were supposed to be on the outside looking in during the playoffs. Instead, they finished the year with a 21-13 record, got the sixth seed in the West and made it to the second round of the Western Conference playoffs after upsetting the third seeded Portland Trail Blazers via a sweep. All of this was possible due to the spectacular play of Anthony Davis, who averaged 30.5 points per game on ridiculous efficiency while slashing at .55/.34/.85 during that time period. For his efforts, Davis became the seventh highest vote-getter in the MVP race last season. With Cousins a Golden State Warrior, Davis will be in the same situation as he was last season when Cousins got injured. If Davis can perform at the level he did post-Cousins injury last season and maintain that throughout the whole season, he will surely be in the MVP conversation and will likely win the highly coveted award.

Most Valuable Player Anthony Davis, New Orleans Pelicans

Email Zach Han at zhan@nyunews.com.

TUESDAY, OCTOBER 9, 2018

Washington Square News | Sports

11

Meet the Olympic Qualifier Who Is NYU’s Newest Trainer

COURTESY OF ANGELA SEVERN

Angela Severn, a former DI Swimmer, is in her first year as an athletic trainer at NYU.

By BRENDAN DUGGAN Sports Editor Growing up in a small New Jersey town, Angela Severn never imagined she would become an elite swimmer on her path to achieving athletic and academic excellence. Swimming in a man-made lake as a kid, her hobby soon developed into a passion, earning her a spot on the Ohio State swimming and diving team — where she achieved All-American honors three times — and eventually qualified for the 2012 Olympic Trials. However, Angela’s academic and athletic journey did not happen overnight. While many college students spend their undergraduate years drinking and dodging class, Severn’s experience stands apart. When she wasn’t in the pool, Severn was studying, training or spending time with her team. Angela’s passion for sports and medicine did not end when she graduated from Ohio State in 2013. After college, Severn earned her Master’s degree in clinical athletic training

from Bloomsburg University, where she later worked as an athletic trainer before coming to NYU for the start of this athletic season. Recently, Washington Square News had the opportunity to sit down and talk with Severn, who explained her journey and how she ended up at NYU.

Washington Square News: How have you enjoyed your first month at NYU so far? Angela Severn: It’s great. I came from small-town USA and now I’m living in the big city — in the heart of it all — in Midtown. I love having the big group of sports medicine staff we have here and I think that’s why I was looking for something new. I did graduate school at Bloomsburg University and worked there too, and I felt like I’ve always worked with and learned under the same people. The sports medicine world is so big, I wanted to branch out, meet new people, learn new things because that’s how you grow. I love what the city has to offer: all the broadway shows, the lights,

the noise, the excitement. I’m really into food so I love walking around. I like Central Park, and Bryant Park too, because it gives you the country, homey feel. WSN: Your bio mentions you qualified for the 2012 Olympic Trials. Is that something you always dreamed of as a kid? How did you continue to push yourself to the next level? AS: Growing up, we swam in a manmade lake, so I was swimming with the geese, the fish and the turtles. I can’t say it was that big of a dream when I was growing up, I wasn’t fast, I just really enjoyed swimming. My family moved from New Jersey to Pennsylvania and I kept going. I did water polo in high school with swimming and I realized I really loved water polo. And then I was stuck in high school because I wasn’t sure if I was being challenged enough, so I joined Germantown Academy. And that’s what kind of changed my life. I was recruited, went to Ohio State, and after Germantown it was like, “alright, maybe I can do this,” and I started working a lot harder. In 2012, Omaha, Nebraska it was unreal — the atmosphere and everything — it gives me the chills just thinking about it. Having your team there, having your family travel with you to watch you swim, it was definitely something I’ll always remember. WSN: What specifically were you doing at Bloomsburg and Valley Forge University? What were the most valuable lessons you learned from being there? AS: Valley Forge was my first job out of college, and I was the head athletic trainer and the strength and conditioning coach, so I was actually the only one in charge of all of that. It was a big responsibility but it made me learn everything so quickly. The systems, budgeting, insurance, I think it

was the best thing for me. I’m a very driven person, so for that to be my first job really helped. It was just a small Division III university, with no contact sports. It was long hours, but since I was also the strength and conditioning coach I could see my athletes on a daily basis, I really got to know them, their bodies and their mechanics, so I could fix it right away in the weight room and we had a lot less injuries that year. And then I went to Bloomsburg, I had seven teams there. The wrestling team was Division I, and then I had field hockey, soccer, cross country, track and field, and baseball. Again, it was very busy and I loved all my athletes there. I studied under George Salvaterra, who was the head athletic trainer at Penn State for 25 years, and I learned a lot from him. And now I’m here and I have women’s soccer, men’s volleyball and wrestling. WSN: Is there a big difference in working with Division I, II and III? AS: I think some of the biggest differences include the academics and the stressors. In terms of the sports, the passion is there across the board — Division I, II and III. Everyone wants to do so well in their sport and they want to succeed. If they’re hurt they always want to get better and get back on the field as quickly as possible. The bigger universities have money. I think the pride for the school is huge at Ohio State, so that school pride is one of the bigger differences. But across the board, everyone takes care of themselves and their bodies, because that’s what they’ve done their whole lives. It’s part of the reason I became an athletic trainer — because I’ve done sports my whole life — and I wanted to stay in the medical field and I love watching sports and helping my athletes in any way possible, the same way

athletic trainers helped me. BD: At Ohio State, you were on the swimming and diving team and ended up being a three-time All-American and a three-time All-Scholar athlete. What event did you compete in? What did it take for you to be both an All-American and an All-Scholar athlete in three of your four years? AS: I was a breast stroker — breast stroker on a relay — the individual relays, and I swam the Individual Medley — so that’s when you do all four strokes in one. The biggest thing is time management. You really have to get in a zone of wake up, do your work, make a schedule, make a plan. They always say this — school, social life, sports — you kind of have to pick two. Especially going to a big school like Ohio State, you just jump in with your team. Your team is your family, your team is your social life. So inside and outside of practice you all just take care of each other, and you just know you have to work and grind. It’s not easy; it’s never easy. You have to ask for help; it’s always there. It was stressful but it was also fun, you reach out with your team and your girls. We also trained with the men in the summer which made it interesting and different. We went on lots of trips; they’re your family and they help you get through everything. We practiced in the mornings 6 a.m. to 8 a.m., and then 1:45 p.m. to 4 p.m. in the afternoons, we would lift three days a week and spin or row the other days, so it was a lot of work. But it was fun, the intensity of the competition — I miss it every single day. But again, that’s why I like this job, I get to be in the middle of it all still. Email Brendan Duggan at bduggan@nyunews.com.

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