NYU’s Independent Student Newspaper | est. 1973
nyunews.com
Monday, April 23, 2018
Volume L, Issue 13
ARTS
FEATURES
OPINION
SPORTS
Tisch Alumnus MOZIAH Talks Debut Single and What’s Next
Not All Students Are Fangirling Over Trudeau
Your Hometown Needs Your Vote
Big Things to Come From the Bobcat
ON PAGE 9
ON PAGE 11
ON PAGE 5
ON PAGE 7
FEATURES
Stern Professor Lays Out Progressive Vision for Congress By SUNANDA GASKINS Staff Writer
Entering Suraj Patel’s East Village apartment, I am greeted by three millennial-aged staffers hanging around a kitchen counter. Before one of them can tell me Patel will be back in a minute, he strides in from the rainy New York streets in a navy blue Canada Goose jacket. He jokes with his staffers about what a busy schedule he’s had today and invites me to sit with him across the living room. Suraj Patel, Stern School of Business adjunct Professor, NYU School of Law alumni and candidate for New York’s 12th Congressional District for the United States House of Representatives, is embracing a certain idealism that comes with having a strong progressive vision for America. He has raised over $1.1 million and is beginning to pose a threat to incumbent Democrat Carolyn Maloney, who has held office since 1993, since announcing his candidacy in December 2017. “Yes, of course I’m idealistic,” Patel said. “This should be the most idealistic district in the country,” he said of New York’s 12th Congressional District which spans across the Upper East Side, the Lower East Side, the East Village and parts of Brooklyn and Queens. Patel’s campaign champions many progressive issues — legalizing marijuana, ending mass incarceration and delivering medicare for all — through social media, employing Buzzfeed-esque YouTube videos to relate to a younger generation of voters. Patel is running on many issues which he lays out succinctly on the campaign trail: “Climate: Changing,” “Immigrants: Welcome,” “Guns: Control Them,” “Gender: A Spectrum,” “Empathy: Essential,” to name a few. The Patel campaign intends to reach an untapped voter-base that is younger, more diverse and more educated than those who typically vote in New York’s congressional races. Any NYU passersby can spot his campaign headquarters just steps away from NYU’s Arthur L. Carter Journalism Institute in Cooper Square. Gallatin Junior Joseph Taecker-Wyss shares a similar stance with Patel on the topic of incarceration. reform. Taecker-Wyss is active in the Incarceration to Education Coalition at NYU. CONTINUED ON PAGE 6|
STAFF PHOTO BY ECHO CHEN
A Muslim student standing in the lobby of the Henry Kaufman Management Center. Stern gained attention from the larger NYU community for incidents of Islamophobia and discrimination.
Racial Discrimination and Islamophobia Pervasive in Stern By JEMIMA MCEVOY and SAKSHI VENKATRAMAN Editor-in-Chief and News Editor
Stern senior Essma Bengabsia was sitting at a booth with other members of her club, Islamic Finance Group, during a club fair on Jan. 24 when a Stern student approached them and asked if they were recruiting for ISIS. For the predominantly Muslim club focused on Islamic finance and business in the Muslim world, incidents like this aren’t uncommon. Fellow students often ask members of the group’s executive board who don’t wear hijabs whether they are real Muslims, and the president of another club, the Stern Political Economy Exchange, asked IFG if they wanted to co-sponsor an event titled “ISIS Militants in Europe.” Despite numerous attempts to report discrimination to the administration of the Stern School of Business, IFG club members said
they have seen no disciplinary response from the university. Through interviews with nine students, four administrators and one member of Stern’s faculty, WSN found a culture of subtle, and often overt, discrimination and ostracization by classmates and faculty within Stern that impacts more than just Muslim students. In recent weeks, Bengabsia and other members of IFG have brought these ongoing issues of diversity and inclusion to Stern’s Student Council, the college’s administration and, just last Thursday, to President Andrew Hamilton at a public town hall. Bengabsia started a spreadsheet this semester where she has been tracking the details of Islamophobic incidents that she reports to the university. The Stern administration has recently reacted — coordinating a 15-minute meeting between Stern administrators and Associate Vice President for Student Affairs and Diversity Initiatives Monroe France. There will also be a
community meeting on Monday, April 23 at 5 p.m. during which students will have a forum to bring up concerns, according to Assistant Dean of Students, Engagement & Innovation Ashish Bhatia. For the four percent of black students that comprise the population of Stern, similar issues of bias and discrimination make the climate uncomfortable. From stares in the classroom to the use of the n-word in the hallways, Stern junior Sarah Mengual spoke to WSN about the microaggressions — actions or statements that indirectly or subtly discriminate against members of a marginalized group — and overt racism she has experienced in Stern as a black student. “Every time I entered Stern, I felt like someone was staring at me,” she said. “At some points, I had the urge to tape my ID to my forehead so people know I go here.” CONTINUED ON PAGE 2|