Washington Square News, September 10, 2018

4 CULTURE

9 OPINION

Swipe Right and Swipe In: Dining Hall Dates

Frats Banning Alcohol Won’t Stop Its Abuse

6 ARTS

10 SPORTS

Fighting for Legitimacy, Ballerinas Resort to Rented Basements

Students Stand With Colin Kaepernick’s Nike Ad

VOLUME LI | ISSUE 3

MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 10, 2018

Food Insecurity Programs Serve Only ‘Tip of the Iceberg’

Rubin Will Cool Down — In Three Years

Due to fears of overuse, an NYU program meant to address food insecurity has been kept quiet.

By VICTOR PORCELLI Deputy News Editor Several days of hunger pangs prompted Gallatin junior Victor Markhoff’s decision to seek help from NYU’s Student Health Center.

“I’m starving,” he told the staffer on the receiving line. “How can I get food?”

The call led Markhoff to NYU’s Courtesy Meals program, which provides food-insecure students — those without a reliable source of food — with 75 dining dollars, no questions asked, up to twice during their careers at NYU. The program, which began in the fall of 2016, is meant to provide short-term aid to students unable to afford their next meal. Resident Assistants and Welcome Week staff were first told of the program’s existence this fall; before this semester, the only way a student could learn about the program was through the Student Health Center or specific administrators and staff.

“It was viewed as a bridge to get someone through running out of money or meals at the end of the week or the end of the month,” Senior Vice President for Student Affairs Marc Wais, who convened and chaired the Food Insecurity Work Group in spring 2016, said in an interview with WSN. The group is made up of students, faculty and staff and was created in response to students who came forward with their struggles with food insecurity.

Currently, 40 to 60 students use the Courtesy Meals program each semester, according to Wais. When asked why the program was not publicized more heavily, Wais noted the potential of students abusing

ERA GJONBALAJ

Rubin residents lie on temporary cots during the heat wave.

By VICTOR PORCELLI Deputy News Editor Rubin Residence Hall has become a joke among first-year NYU students for being the hottest dorm in town.

However, according to a recent article in The Chronicle of Higher Education, the Fifth Avenue dorm will install air conditioning in three years.

This news comes soon after a heat wave hit New York City on first-year students’ third night at NYU, which prompted some Rubin residents to sleep on cots in the building’s air-conditioned first and second floors on the night of Aug. 28. Some students were even displaced to nearby residence halls for the evening.

The heat was unrelenting last week, with temperatures in the past several days peaking in the mid-80s and low90s. Without air conditioning in their rooms or cots to sleep on in cooler rooms, many students instead had to make do in their stuffy, hot rooms or get creative.

“This week, many people slept in their rooms,” GLS first-year Era Gjonbalaj said. “There were no more cots this week, but my group of friends and I slept down in Rubin’s black box theater on the floor. There’s strong air conditioning in there and we all had big slumber parties with snacks and movies, even though classes started.”

But not all students wanted to sleep in a room full of strangers.

CONTINUED ON PAGE 3

CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 PHOTO ILLUSTRATION BY RACHEL BUIGAS-LOPEZ AND KATIE PEURRUNG | WSN

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Apply today to study in a new city!

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Washington Square News

2

NEWS

NEWS@NYUNEWS.COM

MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 10, 2018

Edited by ALEX DOMB, KRISTINA HAYHURST and SARAH JACKSON

New Study Challenges Hallucinogenic Stereotypes

By DEETS SHARMA Contributing Writer NYU researchers dove into the world of psychedelic medicine with a new study on the underground use of hallucinogens. The findings are challenging common stereotypes that the use of these Schedule I drugs is limited solely to recreational purposes.

Rory Meyers College of Nursing Assistant Professor Caroline Dorsen led the study, which investigates communities of people who use plant-based medicines outside of a clinical setting in the United States. These communities usually consist of individuals who are seeking a different form of consciousness.

“Participants in this study described plant medicine use as a healing modality used in the context of community and ritual,” Dorsen told WSN. “The goal of plant medicine use was not described as ‘to have fun’ or as an ‘escape’ — as with recreational drug use — but rather to face one’s life struggles and traumas in an effort to live a happier and healthier life.”

A large part of the underground ritual is the use of facilitators, who act as guides to those taking the medicine to ensure their safety and to remind them of their goals and intentions for the trip. The intention for the experience, as stated by Dorsen, is one of the factors that redefines the use from recreational

to ritualistic.

An NYU sophomore who chose to remain anonymous had an unintentionally bad trip when he took an edible laced with acid at 18 years old.

“What happened to me [then] was the most terrifying night of my entire life, and I would never want anyone else to experience that,” he said.

An anonymous CAS senior, however, said that her experience was rooted in self-discovery.

“While I was doing it with my friends for fun,” she said, “I went into it saying I want to do this drug so I can learn more about myself.”

Current research into the use of hallucinogens in a regulated, therapeutic setting has been producing positive results, but there is still plenty of work to be done before these substances can fully enter the mainstream market. This student, however, believes it has prospective benefits that may someday help the larger population.

“It’s a whole different reality; you forget who you are and become a whole blank slate,” she said. “It allows you to investigate ‘Who am I?’ and ‘What am I doing?’ It has the potential to do a lot of good.”

Email Deets Sharma at news@nyunews.com.

RACHEL BUIGAS-LOPEZ | WSN

Students dealing with food insecurity are often unable to afford groceries.

DANA BROWN | WSN

Food Insecurity Programs Serve Only ‘Tip of the Iceberg’ FROM PAGE 1

the program but said that an effort would be made to notify more students of the CMP this semester.

“Our only concern is we don’t want students to view this as an entitlement or to exploit the program and consider it to be like a free T-shirt,” Wais said.

Markhoff believes the concern is not an adequate reason for a lack of advertisement.

“I would rather have it that there were a couple of students who exploited the program and just thought they were entitled to it, than there be students who were hungry at NYU who don’t receive the assistance they need,” Markhoff said.

Besides the Courtesy Meals program, the work group has invested resources in Share Meals, a mobile app that connects students with those giving away meal swipes and the Facebook group Free Food Events at NYU. Over the past year, Share Meals gave away an average of 0.65 meals each day, according to Share Meals’ founder, Steinhardt graduate student Jonathan Chin.

One student felt her needs were still left unmet, despite the programs provided and supported by NYU. Steinhardt junior Anna, whose name has been changed, grew up food-insecure and found herself unable to pay for a meal plan without taking out a loan.

“I think that [the current program] is not enough, and it’s definitely not addressing the issue at a long-term level,” Anna said. “They’re little band-aid fixes, and the two Facebook groups, those aren’t even through NYU, they’re student-run.

I feel like the administration isn’t addressing the severity of the issue and doesn’t want to. They want to say they are and that they’re helping these students, but at the end of the day don’t have their best interests at heart.”

Senior Associate Vice President for Student Affairs Tom Ellett believes NYU is doing its best to combat such a monumental problem.

“I don’t think NYU is going to solve food insecurity,” Ellett said. “But can NYU do its part?

Absolutely. And I think it is, through students, staff and faculty conversing about opportunities to help students.”

Other urban universities, such as The New School, George Washington University and The City University of New York use food pantries — designated locations for students to receive free donated food — to combat student hunger.

The Food Insecurity Work Group considered instituting a food pantry at NYU but ultimately decided against it.

“It’s a very labor-intensive process,” Wais said.

“It requires a lot of space [and] we have a finite amount of space. It’s expensive, between the staffing and the space rental and the setup.”

Clinical Associate Professor Domingo Piñero was on the Food Insecurity Work Group and spoke out against the idea of a food pantry. Piñero noted that if NYU worked with the New York City Food Bank to fill the pantry, as other schools have, they may be taking food that would go to other communities in need.

“I felt that NYU did a very brave thing not having the food pantry because the food pantry would be the perfect opportunity to look good, but not necessarily do good,” Piñero said.

But Pinero isn’t opposed to addressing the problem of food insecurity at NYU. He thinks a

Wellness Exchange 726 Broadway, 4th floor New York, NY 10003 Kimmel Center for Student Life 60 Washington Square South, 2/7th floor New York, NY 10012 Dining Services 238 Thompson St. (GCASL) New York, NY 10012 Student Health Center 6 Metrotech Center, ROG-B020 New York, NY 11201

good first step is to gather more data. Wais confirmed that no studies have been done by the work group so far.

“Food insecurity is very easy to measure; there are standard surveys,” Piñero said. “You take the survey and use every adviser in the university as a point of distribution. Same survey, you can answer on your phone, and you would capture a lot of students.”

Piñero mentioned that data would be especially important because the current 40 to 60 students using the Courtesy Meals program each semester may be a small portion of a larger group of hungry students facing food insecurity at NYU. “That’s tiny,” Piñero said. “But again, are you reaching the whole group? I don’t think they are aware of it. Nobody knows. I’ve asked, students don’t know. I myself don’t know where you would go to get it. The 40 students, those are the tip of the iceberg.”

Piñero suggested that instead of using a food pantry, NYU should use their substantial resources, such as dining halls and financial services, to provide students with food through discounted meal plans or scholarships.

“Just give them access to [dining halls] and then work with them to figure out what the problem is and how you can help them.” Piñero said. “It’s likely that a little scholarship [for each student] would take care of it.”

Some students, however, would still like to see a food pantry.

“I think if NYU offered it, then students would come,” Anna said. “I don’t think the stigma would affect it, I think it would be worth it and I think I would have utilized it.”

CAS senior Ben, who did not wish for his last name to be published, skips breakfast and combines meals when he is unable to pay for more than one a day. Ben doesn’t know if scholarships are the answer, but thinks there must be some solution.

“There are solutions to this, and if it was confronted in a serious manner, I think it could be solved,” Ben said. “With the large amount of money that NYU holds, there’s really no reason that they should have any student worrying about where their next meal is going to be.”

Email Victor Porcelli at vporcelli@nyunews.com.

Washington Square News | News

MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 10, 2018

Campus Cash Canceled

By HELEN WAJDA Contributing Writer For years, NYU students have been able to use their NYU IDs as a form of payment at local businesses. This fall, however, the program has come to an end; local retailers are no longer accepting Campus Cash.

The program previously allowed those with NYU IDs to use their IDs as debit cards at a variety of nearby retailers and vendors. Local vendors that previously accepted Campus Cash include Bareburger, The Food Emporium, Pressed Juicery, Kellogg’s NYC, Gristedes, Whole Foods Market, Space Market and Boba Guys. To use Campus Cash, students deposit money into an online account linked to their NYU ID. Students will still be able to use Campus Cash at on-campus locations such as dining halls, the NYU Bookstore, laundry machines, mail services, printers and vending machines. To the confusion of many incoming students, the Campus Cash program is distinct from Dining Dollars, a form of payment that can only

be used at NYU dining halls.

Shonna Keogan, NYU’s director of Executive Communications, said NYU’s decision came after surveys showed the program to be increasingly unnecessary.

“The equipment used by vendors to process Campus Cash payments is outdated at this point, and most vendors are more interested in prioritizing electronic payment systems that are used by both NYU students and the wider population,” Keogan said in an email to WSN. “The discounts that were built into Campus Cash with outside vendors are now generally available to all NYU students simply by showing their NYU ID, regardless of the method of payment.”

Several NYU students, like CAS sophomore Marisol Toscano, told WSN they rarely used Campus Cash with local businesses and aren’t worried about NYU’s recent restriction.

“I only used it for laundry purposes. A lot of us are commuters, so we don’t really need [to use it]. I put it once or twice into a vending machine,” Toscano said.

“Everybody has cash on hand or a credit card, so there’s no need to add money to

your NYU [ID], unless it’s for laundry.”

Other students said the program seemed useful upon arriving at NYU, but eventually found Campus Cash more inconvenient than simply using a debit card.

“If I was at a restaurant [off campus], I would just use my card, but it was nice to not have to use my own money to go to Starbucks,” Steinhardt sophomore Isabella Bruder said. “I definitely used it freshman year, but after that I didn’t, because I didn’t really see the point in adding money onto a separate card that isn’t my debit card.”

Local store owners are unconcerned that the end of Campus Cash will negatively affect future business. Broadway Fresh&Co Manager Adrian Zavala felt that Campus Cash was more inconvenient than other, more traditional methods of payment.

Probably five to seven percent of our business came from Campus Cash,” Zavala said. “The downside to Campus Cash was that we had to use a different terminal ... it added an extra step.”

Pizza Mercato employee Francisco Romano echoed Zavala, noting that students have no grievances about using other forms of payment.

“It definitely is not affecting business at all,” Romano said. “Because if we say, ‘we’re not taking that anymore’, [NYU students] pay with cash or credit card.”

Campus Cash will still be accepted at over 250 on-campus locations. Food vendors that will continue accepting Campus Cash include University Hall Dunkin’ Donuts on 14th Street and Starbucks at Faye’s.

Editor’s note: Pizza Mercato runs ads in WSN in exchange for 10 pizzas a week.

RACHEL BUIGAS-LOPEZ | WSN

Au Bon Pain with a Campus Cash accepted here sign in the window.

Email Helen Wajda at news@nyunews.com.

Rubin Will Cool Down — In Three Years CAS first-year Joshua Jeffers slept in his dorm despite the heat because he did not want to sleep around unfamiliar people.

“This past week got really bad at times,” Jeffers wrote in a text to WSN. “I remember instances where I would walk into my room and feel dizzy even when sitting down, so I spent most of my free time in the lounge. We have two now three fans in our room, but it typically wouldn’t make our room cool, just manageable to be in.”

Other universities have felt the

heat as well. Students at Barnard College were recently hospitalized due to heat-related health issues. Seven out of 12 of Barnard College’s residence halls lack air conditioning.

Although the majority of the school year takes place during cooler climates, September and May are infamously hot for Rubin’s AC-deprived residents. However, Beckman’s comment to The Chronicle of Higher Education suggests future NYU students in housing may not have to suffer through the heat.

At the same time, the installation

of air conditioning might have some unintended negative consequences.

Though most students were happy to hear of the building upgrads, some students worry that renovation might make the dorm more expensive for future students.

“That might mean that the most affordable dorm becomes just another dorm with its lowest price rising up to the $12K level,” CAS first-year David Velasco told WSN. Email Victor Porcelli at vporcelli@nyunews.com.

VICTOR PORCELLI | WSN

Cots lined the second floor of Rubin on the night of Aug. 28, as temperatures outside soared into the mid 90s, forcing residents to temporarily sleep in the lower, air-conditioned floors of the residence hall.

3 CRIME LOG

Public Safety Officer Assaulted

By CRIME BOT Robot Reporter From Aug. 31 to Sept. 5, the NYU Department of Public Safety received one report of aggravated assault, 13 reports of controlled substance violations, one report of domestic violence, one report of fondling, one report of harassment, seven reports of larceny and one report of robbery.

Aggravated Assault On Sept. 4 at 8:30 p.m., an NYU Public SafetyOfficerreportedbeingthevictimofanaggravated assault in the Basic Science Building. A police report was filed and the case is open and under investigation.

Controlled Substance Violations On Aug. 31 at 11:19 p.m., a Resident Assistant reported witnessing underage alcohol possession in Weinstein Residence Hall. Police notification was declined and the case was referred to the Office of Student Conduct and Community Standards.

On Sept. 1 at 12:22 a.m., a Resident Assistant reported witnessing underage alcohol possession in Greenwich Residence Hall. Police notification was declined and the case was referred to the Office of Student Conduct and Community Standards.

On Sept. 1 at 1:01 a.m., a Resident Assistant reported witnessing underage alcohol possession in Lipton Residence Hall. Police notification was declined and the case was referred to the Office of Student Conduct and Community Standards.

On Sept. 1 at 1:20 a.m., a Resident Assistant reported witnessing underage alcohol possession in Palladium Residence Hall. Police notification was declined and the case was referred to the Office of Student Conduct and Community Standards.

On Sept. 1 at 9:45 p.m., a Resident Assistant reported witnessing underage alcohol possession in Othmer Residence Hall. Police notification was declined and the case was referred to the Office of Student Conduct and Community Standards.

On Sept. 1 at 9:58 p.m., a Resident Assistant reported witnessing underage alcohol possession in Palladium Hall. Police notification was declined and the case was referred to the Office of Student Conduct and Community Standards.

On Sept. 1 at 11:00 p.m., a Resident Assistant reported witnessing underage alcohol possession in Greenwich Hall. Police notification was declined and the case was referred to the Office of Student Conduct and Community Standards.

On Sept. 1 at 11:07 p.m., a Resident Assistant reported witnessing underage alcohol possession in Third North Residence Hall. Police notification was declined and the case was referred to the Office of Student Conduct and Community Standards.

On Sept. 1 at 11:09 p.m., an NYU Public Safety Officer responded to an alleged drug law violation. A small amount of marijuana was discovered and confiscated in Founders Residence Hall.

Police notification was declined and the case was referred to the Office of Community Standards.

On Sept. 1 at 11:26 p.m., an NYU Public Safety Officer responded to an alleged drug law violation. A small amount of marijuana was discovered and confiscated in Founders Hall. Police notification was declined and the case was referred to the Office of Student

Conduct and Community Standards.

On Sept. 1 at 11:36 p.m., a Resident Assistant reported witnessing underage alcohol possession in Lipton Hall. Police notification was declined and the case was referred to the Office of Student Conduct and Community Standards.

On Sept. 2 at 12:27 a.m., a Resident Assistant reported witnessing underage alcohol possession in Palladium Hall. Police notification was declined and the case was referred to the Office of Student Conduct and Community Standards.

On Sept. 3 at 10:58 p.m., an NYU Public Safety Officer reported to an alleged drug law violation. A small amount of marijuana was recovered in Palladium Hall. Police notification was declined, and the case is closed and referred to the Office of Community Standards.

Domestic Violence On Sept. 2 at 10 p.m., an NYU faculty member reported that she was the victim of domestic violence in Washington Square Village. The case is open and under investigation.

Fondling On Sept. 3 an NYU student reported that she was a victim of fondling in Weinstein Residence Hall. Police notification was declined, and the case was closed and referred to the Title IX Office.

Harassment On Aug. 31 at 11:50 p.m., an NYU student reported being harassed in Palladium Hall. Police notification was declined and the case is open and under investigation.

Larceny On Aug. 31 at 11:15 a.m., an NYU staff member reported jackets missing from his cubicle in Kimmel Center for University Life. Police notification was declined and the case is open and under investigation.

On Aug. 31 at 2:30 p.m., an NYU student reported his wallet missing from a laundry room in Lipton Hall. Police notification was declined and the case is open and under investigation.

On Sept. 1 at 3:20 p.m., an NYU student reported her clothing missing from a laundry room in Goddard Residence Hall. Police notification was declined and the case is open and under investigation.

On Sept. 3 at 3:55 a.m., an NYU student reported her phone missing from a bench in Washington Square Park. The case is open and under investigation.

On Sept. 4 at 7:01 p.m., an NYU Bookstore staff member reported witnessing a larceny in NYU Bookstore. Police notification was declined and the case is open and under investigation.

On Sept. 5 at 5:35 p.m., an NYU student reported her bike missing from bike racks outside Tisch Hall. The case is open and under investigation.

On Sept. 5 at 8:42 p.m., an NYU student reported his wallet missing from a basketball court in Palladium Gym. Police notification was declined, and the case is open and under investigation.

Robbery On Sept. 4 at 12:54 a.m., a non-NYU affiliate reported being robbed in Washington Square Park. A police report was filed, and the case is open and under investigation.

Email Crime Bot at news@nyunews.com.

Washington Square News | Culture

4

MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 10, 2018

CULTURE

CULTURE@NYUNEWS.COM

Edited by NATALIE CHINN

Quality Italian’s $68 Chicken Parm Pizza Underwhelms

By CELINA KHORMA Contributing Writer Imagine a chicken parm. Imagine a pizza.

Imagine them as one.

At Quality Italian, a Midtown steakhouse situated next to Central Park, there’s no need for imagination. A whole chicken parmesan pizza, marketed as a portion for two people, is the signature dish, which has recently made the rounds on social media — and while it is tasty, the $68 delicacy certainly has its shortcomings.

The dish is not at all your traditional New York City pizza. A large disk of breaded and fried chicken takes the place of dough, but the toppings of flavourful marinara and stretchy mozzarella are much more conventional. They even offer the dish with an extra dose of fusion, a.k.a. cacio e pepe style, with a creamy cheese sauce, dominant pepper flavors and even summer truffles.

Now, let’s be realistic. Fried chicken. Tomato sauce. Cheese. What could go wrong?

When it comes to flavor, Quality Italian

truly does hit the spot with this dish — but there are elements of the dish that are more or less just hype.

The dish is shaped like a pizza but, in reality, it’s little more than a chicken parmesan.

It goes to show that good marketing is the primary reason people order this insanely overpriced entree.

That brings me to the dish’s second flaw — the price. Little Italy restaurant Rubirosa serves chicken parm heroes for $14 at equal quality, and us NYU students already know we can score $1 pizza at joints scattered throughout the city.

Now, it’s fair for Quality Italian to amp up its prices, considering it is a high-end establishment. However, perhaps this fact would be a little more acceptable if they offered half portions, individual slices or at least some compromise to make up for how hard it can be to finish the dish.

You likely wouldn’t want to take it home either because deep fried chicken doesn’t boast the same texture after a day in the fridge, oftentimes making half the money

spent go toward wasted food.

Despite these frustrating flaws, the dish really is good and if you’ve never tried it, you should commit to the splurge at least once. Just keep in mind you would be better off doing so with a larger group of people. There are also other dishes at Quality Italian that are arguably better.

The complimentary warm garlic bread it serves is irresistable. The caesar salad with whole pieces of lemon, large chunks of parmesan and crisp breadcrumbs is also a must-order, as is the spicy lobster rigatoni, which oozes flavor you simply won’t find anywhere else. Lastly, its eccentric sundaes piled high with toppings and garnishe always ensure that your meal there will end with a bang.

Quality Italian does deserve credit where it’s due, but that esteem simply can’t go towards such an overrated, overpriced, dressed up pizza.

SAM KLEIN | WSN

Email Celina Khorma at culture@nyunews.com.

Quality Italian, a restaurant in Midtown, is best known for its chicken parmesan pizza.

Swipe Right and Swipe In: Dining Hall Dates

By SCOTT EDITOR Dining Editor As far as first dates go, a dining hall isn’t exactly what most people daydream about. You may imagine a candlelit restaurant or cafe, a concert or comedy show, or even a nice movie, but hey, we’re all on a budget. And if it’s

true love, location doesn’t matter, right?

You may want to start your journey of love in Upstein. It has its perks. Some may even go so far as to call it one of the best places on campus to grab a bite. After all, it has Jamba Juice and Chick-fil-A, and, unlike the Marketplace at Kimmel — notorious for its soul-crushing lines that end

Dining hall dating – if done right – can be a five-star experience.

SAM KLEIN | WSN

in a dish that barely qualifies as noodles — it’s a swift and simple experience.

However, be warned. Upstein isn’t as convenient for dates as it is for lunch. You may revel in the idea of blessing that rich daddy you met at Le Bain with a free chicken sandwich and waffle fries, and chances are he will be grateful, but such luxury comes with a wallet-wrenching price. You can count on running into every NYU person you’ve ever met. Hubris will destroy you if you think you’ll only run into a few close friends who know your plan and will politely leave you alone. That kid who talks too much in your Writing the Essay class? He’s there. The Welcome Week “friend” you haven’t talked to in a year? Oh, she’ll most definitely be there, and you can depend on the fact that everyone will not only be happy to see you, but eager to say ‘hi’ and meet your “older brother.”

O.K., so maybe Upstein isn’t the best idea for your first date. But how about Palladium? It has a ton of options, and some of it is healthy, so you won’t feel

super bloated when you transition from Netflix to chill in approximately two hours, and above all, it’s secluded. Being all the way up on 14th Street, you’re far less likely to run into people you know, lending to an intimate evening free of any awkward conversations and introductions to distant friends.

You won’t even get interrupted when you tell him his eyes are beautiful and he responds with “I know, right?” You may think you’re safe when you scan the room and see no one you know. But don’t be fooled.

That guy with the bleached hair in the corner? That’s his ex-boyfriend, and “he’s such a Gemini,” so you better be prepared for some glares and whispers in your general direction. Palladium will give you a date so uninterrupted no one will hear you scream.

If you have any brain cells at all, you might decide to skip on the dining halls going forward or just reevaluate your taste in men, but perhaps you give it one last Hail Mary try. After all, cuffing season is upon us. 18

Below is known for being on the nicer side, residing in the basement of the Torch Club, resembling an actual restaurant and not just a college building. The food is more or less the same as the Kimmels and Palladiums of the world, but it has cloth napkins, so your date will know you have a refined taste. Plus if you squint and use a little imagination, it looks like you could be at Balthazar. And the intimate lighting makes way for romantic conversation, revealing that the artist from Bed-Stuy is actually pretty funny. And over chilled glasses of fruit-infused water, he will tell you he thinks it’s cute that you snort when you laugh. If it comes down to dining hall dating, cut your losses with 18 Below.

While most dates are better left for a fast casual pasta joint, you won’t die alone if you want to stick to the dining halls. Yet the age-old question remains: Who’s going to swipe?

Email Scott Hogan at shogan@nyunews.com.

Dorm Hopping From Roaches to Riches

By MARTINA CASTELLANOS Contributing Writer When I walked in through the grey brick wall and white colonial arches of Third North Residence Hall, I was so excited to call this place my new home. Insomnia Cookies was just around the corner and the pizza place facing the North entrance was called Martina — my name. I mean what were the odds? I was born to live here, right? Wrong.

Trying to quell my excitement, I picked up the keys that would open the door to my new East Tower apartment. But my anticipation was suddenly choked as I set foot inside.

Sprawled across the bunk beds was a sign that read “STOP BEDBUGS,” accompanied by a guide to bed bug prevention.

However, bedbugs became the least of our problems when we soon encountered airborne roaches and huge centipedes.

Then there was the fungus. Before Third North, in my blissful ignorance, I only knew fungus to be green. Now, however, I know there are a variety of colors such as purple, pink, green, yellow, orange and brown.

As a rising sophomore, I chose to leave NYU housing for an off-campus apartment in the Financial District. Despite it being

quite a trek — a 25-minute subway ride, if you are lucky — I absolutely love my building. It has a terrace with jacuzzis, a yoga studio, a bar, a coffee station, an enormous communal kitchen, an arcade room and most importantly, it’s clean and livable.

Though my experience may have been particularly bad, I’m certainly not the only upperclassman who took a breath of fresh air after moving out of NYU housing. CAS sophomore Naima Dobbs also experienced a recent upgrade in living conditions, but within NYU housing. After dorming in Third North her first year, Dobbs now lives in Gramercy Green Residence Hall, which she said is way more luxurious than Third North.

“I had a bunk bed and had to jump from my top bunk onto the cold linoleum tiles every morning,” Dobbs said. “The walk to campus is a big trade-off though, because it is a solid 20-minute walk instead of a 10-minute walk. The NYU bus system is really reliable and I definitely would not choose to live in Third North over this.”

Third North is not the only first-year residence hall that former residents complain about. Gallatin sophomore Mouli Ghosh, who lived in Weinstein Residence Hall her first year, had grievances with her previous

living situation.

“Weinstein had all the things that a dorm is supposed to have but in the worst quality,” Ghosh said. “So the shower existed but like barely. There was brown water sometimes, the water pressure was bad and it was often cold.”

Yet, the water quality was the least of her problems.

“There was, of course, the mouse situation. I think my entire floor had mice at one point. It was a tag-team situation,” Ghosh said. “So as a joke, one of my closest friends, Will, lived across the hall and would always ask me to come look at the dead mice on his floor and the trail of blood they left behind.”

Mouli’s neighbor and close friend Will Haberkorn, a Gallatin sophomore, similarly remembers the horrors of living in Weinstein and expressed relief about his recent upgrade to Gramercy.

“Weinstein was so bad that my shower floor started to raise. I had to shower in the Palladium locker room a few times. Living in Gramercy is a huge upgrade.”

Another rising Stern sophomore, Christine McAleer, also traded out Third North for Gramercy this year. She recalled struggling to improve the quality of her living conditions while in the first-year dorm.

“Not only did I try bleaching the floor, but scrubbing the tile with my hands and yet I still couldn’t get the place to look nicer.”

She is excited about the marble tops and cooking in her new place. Small things like these make a big difference in day-to-day life, she said.

Ghosh also feels right at home in her new Gramercy apartment. “First of all, the bathrooms in Gramercy are insane,” Ghosh said. “There are marble top counters, the water is actually hot and everything actually functions. It feels more open and spacious. The kitchen even has stainless steel appliances.”

Though there were plenty of times that I was really grossed out and contemplated moving, I still appreciate the experience of living in Third North and the friendships that were made in those musky rooms. If you’re not sure if your current housing assignment is worth the health risk, definitely consider Gramercy the next time around.

Additional reporting by Tianne Johnson.

KATIE PEURRUNG; BRANDON KNOPP; COLLAGE BY TONY WU | WSN

Rubin (left) vs. Gramercy (right). Whereas the former is notorious for lacking air conditioning, the latter is known for ample amenities and great views.

Email Martina Castellanos at culture@nyunews.com.

Washington Square News

MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 10, 2018

5

All Hype, No Heat: VFILES at Fashion Week

By AMANDA BURKETT Beauty & Style Editor

SAM KLEIN | WSN

Patsy’s Pizza on University Place recently closed its doors, though other locations remain open.

Patsy’s Pies Rest in Peace

By TAYLOR NICOLE ROGERS Editor-at-Large After spending last fall at NYU London, I knew that my life in New York would never be the same once I returned. My mind had widened, my old friends had made new friends,

“

My mom loved the zuppa del giorno — white bean soup — we tried that evening so much so that she recreates it at home every winter.

”

clubs I once ran had fallen into other hands and different buildings were covered in scaffolding.

I didn’t truly realize how much I had missed until my friends and I tried making plans to grab a meal and my restaurant nomination was met with side glances and pained giggles. My favorite venue for birthdays, reunions, and celebrations of new internships on campus — Patsy’s Italian Restaurant at 67 University Pl. — had closed months ago. I had no idea.

A franchise location of the what the owners’ claimed was one of Frank Sinatra’s regular haunts, Patsy’s was among the f irst genuinely New York restaurants I frequented.

After gawking at its oversized piz-

zas through the shutters that would open on warm days while patrons dined on its delicate Juliet balconies, I f inally overcame my frugality and indulged in some real New York pizza. Patsy’s pies were everything New York pizza should be — thin, greasy, overflowing with toppings and absolutely delicious — and its pasta left me equally speechless.

From that day on, Patsy’s became a cornerstone of my f irst year. My hallmates and I spent countless happy nights there –– the perpetual emptiness of its dining room making it the ideal location for spur of the moment 15-person dinners. Patsy’s was the kind of place that obviously did most of its business via Seamless, which we took advantage of too. My roommate and I often had Patsy’s delivered six blocks to our room in Goddard Residence Hall when we couldn’t fathom stepping outside in sub-zero temperatures.

I took my mom to Patsy’s when she came to help me move out of Goddard for our favorite impossible to f ind pasta dish, Rigatoni con Salsiccia — sweet Italian sausage with spinach, broccoli, olive oil, garlic and wine after I decided that no “real New Yorker” could stomach the trek to Times Square for our other favorite pasta spot: Bella Vita. My mom loved the zuppa del giorno — white bean soup — we tried that evening so much so that she recreates it at home every winter.

Now, three years after Patsy’s entered my life, I’m closer to being a real New Yorker than I’ve ever been.

I leased my very own apartment, shouted at people on the sidewalk, interned for a New York congressman and reported from the trading floor of the New York Stock Exchange. But I’m also right back trudging through Times Square with tourists to Bella Vita (211 W. 43rd St.) with for my Rigatoni con Salsicce.

Pasty’s original location is still open at 236 West 56th.

Email Taylor Nicole Rogers at trogers@nyunews.com.

Over 2,000 hypebeasts swarmed the Barclays Center this past Wednesday for the VFILES runway show. Under a fog of Juul smoke was a sea of streetwear, fogging this year’s ongoing New York Fashion Week. Attendees came armored in all the biggest trends: from narrow-frame sunglasses to padlock necklaces, platform Doc Martens to Supreme waist bags.

The VFILES spirit has been family first since its launch in 2012. The CEO of the community-based media company, Julie Anne Quay, founded VFILES on principles of inclusion and its runway show follows suit. Models, makeup artists and designers were all selected from the VFILES community, and although the brand has released collections before, she refers to this endeavour as square one.

Each year, unestablished designers compete for a chance to show their collections on the VFILES runway.

This year’s was the 10th show since 2014, each one as unique as the last.

The highlights were free admission, a great DJ and a few noteworthy collections.

Overall, the show fell flat in comparison to past presentations, which highlighted chart-topping performers and turned away fluff. The show was ultimately an endless stream of VFILES branding rather than a showcase of five designers. When the collections hit the catwalk, awkwardness ensued as the clothes seemed to interrupt VFILES’ party.

ELENA VELEZ Designer Elena Velez set off the show with promise. Her deconstructed garments had edge — she trademarks many of her pieces with iron fixtures — and maintained a cool and earthy color scheme that set her apart from the other collections.

COURTESY OF VFILES

Lil’ Kim made an appearance at the beginning of the VFiles runway show on Sept. 5.

influence overwhelmed the majority of the looks and the collection as a whole felt inconsistent. No decipherable theme prevailed among picnic blanket patterns, Canadian tuxedos, a pink bridal dress and a purse that more closely resembled a loofa.

SHUTNG QIU After another displaced round of singers, couture returned. Shuting Qiu, a Chinese-born designer, bases her namesake collection in Antwerp.

The highly avant-garde print mixing and structural lack of direction tells a story that Qiu brings in from film, society and personal experience.

Though the collection was hard to look away from, little came from making a spectacle for the sake of spectacularity.

WINDOWSEN

MARRKNULL Following a series of easy-to-forget VFILES musical performances, MARRKNULL, a Beijing-born womenswear brand by Wang Wei and Tim Shi, took the stage. Streetwear

Sensen Lii’s Windowsen followed Qui’s collection. The looks delved deeper into fashion as a means of performance, with the only positive association being a spotted yellow gown’s similarity to a Yayoi Kusa-

COURTESY OF VFILES

During the show, VFILES debuted its own line of clothing during the show, which heavily focused on slogans.

ma pumpkin. A furry pool float, the chunkiest chunky sneakers ever made and some wrestling-inspired masks peeked out from the blur of neon and a serious mishmash of tulle.

VFILES YELLOW LABEL After nearly three hours of VFILES madness, the brand released its new in-house collection, VFILES Yellow Label. Opening with a sweater that read “We die they do nothing,” the presentation started off as textheavy sweats mixed with some all-denim looks. These simplistic outfits contrasted the procession of shiny put-together sets and boiler suits that followed, while a serious and more wearable side to the collection was found in monochromatic one-piece dresses. Audience members’ eyes were finally peeled away from social media feeds as Lil’ Kim made a surprise walk down the runway to close out the show.

Email Amanda Burkett at aburkett@nyunews.com.

COURTESY OF VFILES

Sensen Lii’s Windowsen featured voluminous tulle dresses in bright colors.

Washington Square News

6

MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 10, 2018

ARTS

ARTS@NYUNEWS.COM

Edited by RYAN MIKEL and DANIELLA NICHINSON

‘Kusama - Infinity’ Paints Colorful Portrait of a Vibrant Life ByTAYLOR STOUT Staff Writer “Infinity Net,” “Accumulation No. 1” and “Dots Obsession” are just a few pieces that are immediately connected to prominent artist Yayoi Kusama. Whether or not you consider yourself an art buff, you are likely familiar with Kusama’s singular and hypnotic works.

Her seemingly endless mirrored rooms, polka-dotted pumpkin sculptures and surreal paintings have found their way into exhibitions and social media feeds across the world. Just ask the 65,000 visitors who waited outside the David Zwirner art gallery on W. 19th street for hours in the dead of New York winter to stand in Kusama’s installation titled “Infinity Nets” for a mere 60 seconds.

But as Heather Lenz’s recently released documentary “Kusama - Infinity” reveals, these now ubiquitous works of art are the product of an artist who spent most of her

life forced out of her conservative hometown, out of the established art world and out of public favor.

“Kusama - Infinity,” which opened at Film Forum on Sept. 7, chronicles Kusama’s turbulent life and artistic journey. As a Japanese woman, Kusama struggled to gain recognition for her artwork in an industry that favored white men. While artists like Claes Oldenburg and Andy Warhol garnered acclaim for works allegedly inspired by Kusama, she was left in the dust.

As a child, Kusama’s mother would take her daughter’s paints away and Kusama was later greeted with indifference and disregard by her contemporaries.

Despite the continued disrespect, she showed up to galleries and art shows without invitation. She spoke for her own work. She fought tirelessly to become a part of the world that had rejected her. Eventually, and only in recent years, she got the recognition she deserved and then some. Kusama is now the

most popular living female artist and “Kusama - Infinity” is her long overdue portrait.

Beyond crafting a detailed illustration of Kusama’s life, the documentary truly excels in its thoughtful study of Kusama’s artistic preoccupations. The artist had a traumatic childhood and has continuously struggled with her mental health. Much of her work is graphically simple and shared online without much context, making it easy to appreciate the work on a surface level. However, Lenz goes beyond the aesthetic of the works and tells a story of a woman attempting to turn her trauma into art.

We are inundated with images of Kusama’s work across many social media platforms but only on rare occasions are we provoked to actually dig deeper into their meanings or view them as more than a joyful and Instagrammable experience. What the film so brilliantly tells us is that these works of art are not merely photogenic installations but expressions of a unique, fabricated uni-

Has Emo Dug Its Own Grave?

By NATASHA JOKIC Contributing Writer Emo — as we know it — is dead.

Most of us have grown out our bangs, ditched the dramatic eyeliner or attempted fit in as much as we can at NYU. Bands, such as Fall Out Boy and Panic! At The Disco, may have somehow soldiered on throughout the years, but their unflinching, chaotic and not-entirely-all-that-good pop repertoire is a far cry from today’s popular songs peddling the narrative of the lonely guy who just wants to get the girl. A brief look at what happened to the angst-fuelled, melodrama-heavy subculture can tell us a lot about how the music industry has changed over the past decade.

Sure, we all get down sometimes, but I haven’t found the need to sing along with lyrics like “here’s another sad song by a sad boy/playing the saddest chords he knows” with passionate misery in recent years. The emo bands of the 2000s either had to disband or adapt to the mainstream trends of today’s music in order to survive. These feelings of angst may still resonate with teenagers today, but with one key difference: guitar music is no longer as cool. Rap music has come to fill this void, with artists like Post Malone, Lil Xan and Lil Uzi Vert being compared to modern emo because of the tone and lyrics of the music. Yet, even with its modern-day “renditions,” the heavy drum-andbass heart of emo music has largely fallen into the forgotten-genre abyss.

Of course, it would be an oversimplification to say that all guitar music is irrelevant; the continuing success of bands like Foo Fighters and Royal Blood undoubtedly suggests otherwise. However, what it shows is that many a disheartened youth has switched genre. For a multitude of genres — grunge, rock and punk to name a few — the electric guitar was a central force of the music, even before the era of Myspace. The use of an electric guitar as the crux of a song has all but dissipated beyond the sub-genre niche.

The musical style isn’t the only thing that has

VIA FLICKR.COM

“Fall Out Boy” on stage during a performance.

changed within the emo subculture: band members from notable groups such as Brand New, Pierce the Veil, Moose Blood and Aiden have been accused of severe misconduct by fans, triggering boycotts. More widely, emo as a genre has come under fire for promoting toxic masculinity and misogyny in its lyrics. Even the rare female-fronted bands are not exempt from this — Paramore’s “Misery Business” was recently retired from their setlist as singer Hayley Williams has since apologized for its misogynistic themes, such as “Once a whore, you’re nothing more, I’m sorry that’ll never change.” This is not a new criticism of emo as a popular 2003 essay entitled “Where Girls Aren’t” demonstrates. However, in the #MeToo era, it’s becoming increasingly difficult to imagine lyrics like “what a shame the poor groom’s bride is a whore,” from Panic! At the Disco’s “I Write Sins Not Tragedies,” being released without more question or backlash.

Emo was in and of itself a subculture born from the internet and centered around the now-defunct Myspace. In 2005, I had two options to acquire music on my iPod Nano: buy a physical album and burn it or purchase a digital download. Both options were pretty expensive for a teenager with limited pocket money, so choices had to be well thought out. Risk and experimentation with music was costly, so it made more sense to stick within a genre that I knew I liked. There was the option of illegal downloads, but the combination of poor quality and my parents’ terribly slow internet didn’t always make that a viable option.

In the age of Spotify, everything has changed.

For the same price of a physical CD, I can now get a subscription to an online music streaming service which gives me the option to download any kind of music I want. With it comes the unsurprising discovery that I enjoy a range of music far broader than a group of man-boys screaming over guitar with floppy hair. In this case, it is obvious that today’s teenagers no longer identify so strongly with one particular genre because they simply don’t have to. This may be due to the very technology we use to access music, which makes music subculture increasingly dated. With hip-hop’s continued success, it is inevitable that the two genres have molded each other to create angsty tunes for an incoming generation that recognizes hip-hop as the charting genre. It is this pairing of genres, mainstream trends and ever-changing technology that haved reshaped what we used to know as emo.

Perhaps emo isn’t dead but reworked into its distant, cooler cousin.

Email Natasha Jokic at arts@nyunews.com.

verse that is part of Kusama’s mission to turn the energy of life into art. They are our portals into her turbulent and obsessive mind, and we as an audience have fallen for her vision of

Portrait of Yayoi Kusama.

chaotic infinity.

Email Taylor Stout at film@nyunews.com.

COURTESY OF DAVID ZWIRNER

Let’s Boot the Reboot

COLLAGE BY TONY WU | WSN

Charmed, popular TV show of the 2000s, is getting a reboot. Holly Marie Combs (right), who starred in the original show as Piper Halliwell, has expressed issues with the reboot.

By DANIEL BENITEZ Contributing Writer Vintage clothing is not the only part of our past coming back in style. TV shows from the ’90s and early 2000s are constantly being rebooted, but maybe not in the way its original fans like.

Earlier this year, Disney Channel announced the premiere of a live-action reboot of “Kim Possible,” releasing an exclusive first look at the actress, Sadie Stanley, in costume and a short teaser with the iconic catchphrase: “What’s the sitch?”

When the first looks were published on Twitter, Stanley and Disney Channel were attacked by users claiming that the acting in the trailer was subpar and that the story deviated from the original show.

“The trailer is awful but I’d definitely still watch it anyway,” LS sophomore Catherine Brown said.

This is not the first reboot that Disney has done that failed to appeal to longtime fans. The well-respected and adored classic “Freaky Friday” starring Lindsay Lohan and Jamie Lee Curtis was brought back and altered into a musical film, garnering a 25 percent audience rating on Rotten Tomatoes.

Another popular show that fans loved, followed and continued to re-

“

The trailer is awful, but I’d definitely still watch it anyway.

CATHERINE BROWN LS sophomore

”

watch was “Charmed,” which followed the lives of three sister-witches navigating love, careers and their newfound powers. The CW network decided to reboot the hit ’90s series and described it as a “fierce, funny, feminist reboot of the original series,” but with three new actresses. Fans quickly took their anger and disappointment to social media, demanding that CW not reboot the show without the original cast members.

Holly Marie Combs, the actress that portrayed the middle sister, Piper, said, “I hope the new show is far better than the marketing so the true legacy does

remain. Reboots fare better when they honor the original as opposed to taking shots at the original. Reboots also do better when they listen to a still passionate fan base which is what it’s all about, isn’t it?”

Other shows that have been brought back are “Roswell,” now called “Roswell, New Mexico,” which premieres in 2019; “Full House,” now called “Fuller House,” with Season 4 coming out on Netflix later this year; and “That’s So Raven,” now called “Raven’s Home,” with no current updates, but it has not been cancelled or renewed for a third season.

“I think it was cute when it was just a few shows getting revivals, but now it’s like all the shows from the 2000s [are] getting revivals. Like why didn’t they just continue the series instead of starting over?” CAS junior Juaquin Robles said.

While reboots of beloved television shows may seem like great ways to indulge the nostalgia of former viewers, they too often end up disappointing rather than pleasing the original shows’ devoted fans.

Email Daniel Benitez at film@nyunews.com.

Washington Square News | Arts

MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 10, 2018

7

The Limitations of ‘Crazy Rich Asians’

COURTESY OF WARNER BROS. PICTURES

The movie poster from “Crazy Rich Asians.”

By JOEL LEE Staff Writer Most would agree that the lack of Asian representation in pop culture has created a vacuum that has begun to close as of late.

With all the hype surrounding recent films like “Crazy Rich Asians,” “Searching” starring John Cho and Netflix’s “To All the Boys I’ve Loved Before,” Asian-Americans are finally becoming the protagonists of their own stories; however, audiences and NYU students have come to question and critique these films’ success.

Director Jon M. Chu’s “Crazy Rich Asians” has been recognized as a huge leap forward in the path to proper Asian representation. Adapted from Kevin Kwan’s novel of the same title, the film is the first in 25 years to feature an all-Asian cast since 1993’s “The Joy Luck Club.” The film, which connects the stories of four generations of Chinese women is a splashy depiction of the wealthiest in Asia and bestows Asians with a sense of pride by giving them a story in which they take the foreground.

However, backlash has arisen due to the film not accurately depicting Singapore, where the film is set. The blockbuster fails to include the almost 25 percent of Malays, Indians and other ethnic minorities that make up the country’s population. Others critique the fact that the film only portrays privileged characters, which buries the harsh reality of racial income inequality within the Asian-American community.

While the various criticisms and compliments the film has garnered since its release in August are important to consider, NYU students have mixed feelings on whether they should make or break this landmark moment for Asian-American representation.

“Jon Chu did a lot of things right, but arguably also a lot of things wrong,” said Tisch sophomore John Dai. “My take is, there’s no need to scrutinize every political, racial, etc. aspect of this film. I understand there’s much to talk about with the film being a cultural breakthrough for Asian-Americans, but I personally don’t like getting into the nitty-gritty.”

In a time when Asians can’t afford to lose their film roles to the Scarlett Johanssons of the film industry, “Crazy Rich Asians” has been hit with an enormous amount of pressure to do it all. Constant whitewashing results in frustration when an Asian lead is not perfectly representative of x, y and z.

Tisch sophomore Brian Cheng explains his hesitancy to absolutely champion the lauded film.

“As a filmmaker, you have to look at [“Crazy Rich Asians”] as a wildly popular bestselling book — either way it was going to get made into a movie, even changing [Constance Wu’s] character to be white at one point,” said Cheng. “The fact is they were going to do whatever they could to get their profit margin.”

Regardless of some criticism that “Crazy Rich Asians” has received, the film is undoubtedly a mark for change in the representation of Asian-Americans in cinema and entertainment. It was not long ago when seeing a TV show like “Fresh Off the Boat” or hearing American teens fangirl over K-pop bands like BTS was unheard of. “Crazy Rich Asians” gives leeway for Asians in mainstream media.

The future of Asian-American cinema shines more bright than it ever has. “Crazy Rich Asians” and similarly diverse stories provide an opportunity for minorities and their experiences to be validated on a major platform. Strides in casting, cinematography, directing and behind-the-scenes roles have a long way to go before they can be considered truly diverse, but at the end of the day, it is the quality of work and importance of the stories being told that will prevail.

“I have my own story — I am Asian and disabled and it gives me more hope and I can just tell my own story,” Cheng said. “To me, these movies normalize the Asian experience and showing [sic] that Asians can be the protagonist.”

Email Joel Lee at film@nyunews.com.

Fighting for Legitimacy, Ballerinas Resort to Rented Basements

By GURU RAMANATHAN Film & TV Editor In the empty, echoey basement of a West Village church, a group of NYU students set down their bags and begin to stretch. Silenced by feelings of passion and fear, they realize their lack of options and embrace the unlikely space, launching into a graceful ballet rehearsal.

This makeshift studio space was one of many around the city that sophomores Camille Barbin and Catherine Devine, students in LS and CAS respectively, have been forced to rent out for their five-month-old performance-based ballet company, the NYU Ballet Collaborative, due to issues with using the studios within Tisch School

of the Arts.

“In second semester, we pulled together a group of students and just started rehearsing,” Devine said. “We didn’t have funding. We didn’t apply to be the club, yet. We didn’t have a performance we were preparing for.

We literally just started rehearsing random pieces.”

Ever since they were three years old, Barbin and Devine have danced ballet.

Barbin recalls dressing up as a ballerina for her second grade career day, telling people that she wanted to spend her life dancing. In her first year, Barbin was seeking out a ballet performance group within NYU, but was disappointed to find that a school with a bustling arts scene had no such opportunities — other than the Ballet Company, which only

The NYU Ballet Collaborative during its audition.

COURTESY OF NYU BALLET COLLABORATIVE

holds classes once a week and is geared toward beginners.

Devine approached Barbin before last year’s winter break about forming their own group. Their common passion inspired them to establish a platform for advanced ballet dancers to create a thriving environment of elegant art. Thus, the NYU Ballet Collaborative was born.

Their current goal is to put on a rendition of “The Nutcracker” by the end of the semester and have just finished holding auditions for what will hopefully be their first recital. The group strives for a variety of performances, hoping to provide dancers with a place for expression.

The road to success has been far from easy, mainly due to issues within the university itself. The Ballet Collaborative was initially denied club status because it was deemed too similar to the Ballet Company. Barbin and Devine eventually appealed the decision by sending a descriptive and passionate email about the distinction from the Ballet Company and their personal mission. However, with this hurdle cleared, the duo now face a myriad of other obstacles.

“The dance studio in [the Kimmel Center for Student life] is atrocious,” Devine said. “It is wood floor that’s not sprung, so we can’t use pointe shoes on it and it’s dangerous when we’re jumping a lot. NYU does have ballet studios with proper flooring. Some of them are in [the Tisch School of the Arts], and there’s one in [the Gallatin School of Individualized Studies]. But the school refuses to let us use those studios because we’re not a Tisch club, and we’re not a Gallatin club — we’re an

COURTESY OF NYU BALLET COLLABORATIVE

Catherine Devine, a CAS sophomore and co-founder of NYU Ballet Collaborative, dancing.

all-university club.”

Barbin and Devine have resorted to renting studios around the city, which eats up most of the club’s budget, leaving little to support performances and travel. At times, the company goes to extreme lengths to find a practice space, such as locating the aforementioned church, but they do usually end up with a real, suitable studio.

Devine said there are two solutions to these ongoing administrative issues.

“One of them is really, really simple: just give us more funding,” she said.

“The other solution is that the university could purchase this mat so they don’t have to spring the floors.”

The Ballet Collaborative has encountered what seems to be problem after problem since its beginning, but Barbin and Devine are trying to stay optimistic for the future. Instead of taking baby steps on this exhausting journey, its members are charging full steam into a new frontier for themselves and NYU as a whole.

Despite the barriers they have faced, they hope to open an opportunity for serious ballet dancers to hone their craft, be part of a like-minded student group and share their infectious passion with the NYU community.

Email Guru Ramanathan at gramanathan@nyunews.com.

Washington Square News

8

MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 10, 2018

OPINION

OPINION@NYUNEWS.COM

Edited by JANICE LEE

SPORTS

This Is How Tennis Treats Black Women

By SAYER DEVLIN Managing Editor It’s not often that the champion of the U.S. Open stands as defeated as Naomi Osaka did after she beat Serena Williams — the winningest tennis player in the Open era — in straight sets at Arthur Ashe Stadium in the final.

Regardless of the winner, the moment should have jubilant. Instead, Osaka and Williams ended up sobbing through the trophy ceremony.

Osaka dominated the first set of Saturday’s match, dispatching Williams 6-2. Osaka tenaciously scrambled after every one of Williams’ shots, returning in positions, at angles and with power that would make her opponent proud.

In the second set, Williams found her mojo breaking Osaka’s serve to go up 3-1 — but not before she was issued a warning by the Portuguese chair umpire Carlos Ramos for receiving coaching via hand signals, which is against the rules. Osaka then stormed back, breaking Williams’ serve to pull even at 3-3. Williams was assessed a point penalty after smashing her racket into the hardcourt in frustration.

Williams, offended by the insinuation that she was cheating, continued to make her case to Ramos during the second case.

Osaka would win her next serve to go up 4-3 over Williams.

Williams pleaded for an apology from Ramos in between games when she called

Ramos a liar and a thief for stealing a point from her. She was then given a game penalty for her third infraction, putting Osaka up 5-3 — an exceedingly rare move without precedent in a Grand Slam Final.

“This has happened to me too many times,” Williams said through tears. “This is not fair. There are a lot of men out here that have said a lot of things and because they are men, that doesn’t happen to them. This is unbelievable.”

What Williams was referring to when she said “too many times” could be any number of things. Perhaps she was referencing the time Caroline Wozniacki stuffed towels in her shirt and skirt to “imitate” Williams while warming up. Perhaps she was alluding to one of three previous controversies at the U.S. Open in 2004, where the umpire made incorrect calls against Williams in a match she would eventually lose; in 2009, where Williams was fined $175,000 for a profane outburst directed at

an umpire; and in 2011, where an umpire gifted Williams’ opponent a point after Williams exclaimed “Come on!” when she hit a would-be winner.

The optics of Ramos’ decisions to thrice penalize Serena Williams in the U.S. Open Final alone are a damning indictment of tennis’s racist past and present while the umpire’s antics were just the most recent examples of structural, institutional and interpersonal sexism and racism directed at Williams throughout her career.

In the next game, Williams would swiftly defeat Osaka to close the gap to 5-4. Before the following and final game, ESPN would show a shot of the normally steely Serena Williams weeping and struggling to control her breaths.

Osaka, who won the match after defeating Williams in the next game, burst into tears, not jubilance, after the match point.

She would hide her face with her visor and towel.

The trauma felt by her idol was also felt

by Osaka herself, tainting what should have been an opportunity for Osaka to reclaim and own her dueling identities — as Japanese, as black and as American.

It did not matter that both finalists were black. It did not matter that the competitors played in a stadium named after a black man and in a tennis complex named after a lesbian woman who fought for equal pay.

Ultimately, the powers that Williams needed to plead with — Ramos, Early, Kelso and even the institution of tennis itself — were white. Williams, despite her thousands of hours training, immense talent, sterling pedigree could not triumph over the whiteness embedded in her profession.

Arthur Ashe Stadium, despite its namesake, was never designed to crown players like Williams and Osaka as champions.

Email Sayer Devlin at sdevlin@nyunews.com.

MEDIA

The Lost Voice of Journalism

By MITCH BEDOWS Contributing Writer For 62 years, the beatniks, hippies and bohemians populating Greenwich Village could read and embrace the medium of their collective consciousness. Often fearless and riveting, The Village Voice

epitomized the best parts of bygone generations’ progressive and energetic desires to improve the world around them. But no longer. On Aug. 31, roughly a year after shuttering its print publication, that soundly American voice ceased.

Merely one of the hundreds of local newspaper closures and consolidations in the last 20 years, The Village Voice is just the most recent and hardest-hitting for many, especially in the NYU community.

Most people are familiar with America’s shifting newspaper industry. The decline of print journalism means the rise of digital publications, which has led to the birth of sensationalist, clickbait reporting.

Inadequate reporting leads to the subversion and questioning of truth, which

paves the way for Donald Trump and his antagonization of the media. Today’s Trump-centered news cycle is an ignorant one that overlooks far more complex and damaging effects of the journalism industry’s decline.

Concerning impacts on civil and social life are often glossed over because they sound dull or don’t have Trump’s name blazed across the headline. Local papers are generally sentenced to unsexy reporting, which remains unappreciated by surrounding communities. Instead of covering dramatic battles to pass national legislation or to f ill Supreme Court vacancies, local journalists investigate, for example, the mismanage-

ment of municipal funding for new schools or the corruption of county board off icials. Small-time journalism helps prevent patronage havens, nepotism and malignant corporate influences in communities. In isolation, these effects are small in scope, so when people read those articles, they rarely care. Yet these papers quantif iably improve bond prices, help public hospitals and schools run properly and preserve civic dignity.

Amid the closures, the absence of these services is more harmful than the lack of Trump coverage. If one source doesn’t cover a national news event, many others inevitably will.

But local news continues to be ne-

glected. Continuing to spread this voice will not slow down the problem, as the shifting of journalism from one medium to another and the associated effects of such a change are inevitable. Instead of reminiscing about what’s lost, we should identify what is missing in print journalism’s absence and combat these losses in whatever ways we can. The death of The Village Voice has left a void in Greenwich Village, and it is up to the NYU community, which prides itself on being socially and politically responsible, to f ill it.

Email Mitch Bedows at opinion@nyunews.com.

POLITICS

How the Anonymous Op-Ed Should Move Us to Action

By HANNA KHOSRAVI Deputy Opinion Editor Working at the Opinion desk of Washington Square News, I obviously possess a steadfast passion for the Op-Ed as a written form. When earlier this week, The New York Times chose to publish an Op-Ed from an anonymous “senior official” working within President Donald Trump’s administration, I — along with the rest of the United States — was disturbed by the content I inevitably read, to say the least.

The now infamous Op-Ed, in which the writer outlines the “resistance” within Trump’s administration, is nothing short of horrifying.

Following its publication, Trump immediately — and in classic form — channeled his reaction by tweeting the word “TREASON!” (in all-caps, of course). Vice President Mike Pence called the essay “an assault on our democracy.” Reporters are already comparing the publication of the OpEd to Deep Throat, the source that leaked information about the Watergate scandal, and the Trump administration is considering usage of lie-detector tests to find its culprit.

Moments like these, when dissidence is cast as treason rather than a fundamental aspect of democratic values, can feel crippling. But then on Friday, former President Barack Obama decided to comment on these seemingly dire political events while accepting an award at the University

of Illinois. He expressed his understanding that these were extraordinary times. He, for the first time, outwardly criticized Trump’s presidency.

Most importantly, he called the youth he was speaking with at the University of Illinois to take action.

Obama implored students to take matters into their own hands: he insisted that while this distressing Op-Ed would inevitably unsettle us, the greatest power we have in our democracy is the power to get out and vote. Obama addressed us directly, as a generation of young people defined by the increasing divisiveness within our political and governmental spheres. Obama’s speech last Friday served as a reminder for me to pick up my laptop, get online and go through the surprisingly simple, five-minute process of registering to vote so that I can do my duty when the midterms come around this November. Maybe I’m wide-eyed because this is my first

big election cycle in which I can vote, but why shouldn’t I be?

We have the fundamental right to be vehicles for change. By being granted the right to vote, we, as young people, are handed the opportunity to stake our claim in history and to not sit idly by while our democracy is being abused.

We sit in classrooms each day and are told by our history professors that we learn history so that we better understand our future. We continue to teach our students about war, oppression and historic patterns of discrimination so that we do not let these things happen again. Nonetheless, we sometimes forget how much power we have to affect this change at the ballot box.

So please — go online (if you are from one of the 37 states that enables online registration) and register. Do it while you’re laying in bed scrolling through Twitter tonight. Do it while you’re brushing your teeth tomorrow morning or standing in line for cof-

fee before class. You’ll feel better for having done it — to reiterate Obama’s sentiments, “don’t boo, vote.”

We do not live in a nation where a senior official in the White House should be anonymously coming forward to declare that “there are people inside the White House who secretly aren’t following the president’s orders,” as Obama says. That shouldn’t be a reassurance.

We, as a population, should come together to elect a leader that we deem fit to not only protect our nation, but to protect each and every one of us. And while protesting and organizing is inexplicably crucial, no matter how many times we storm the streets or call for impeachment, or express our utter and absolute agony, it will all be in vain unless we get out and vote this November. We owe it to ourselves, and we owe it to each other.

Email Hanna Khosravi at hkhosravi@nyunews.com.

Washington Square News | Opinion

MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 10, 2018

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Meet the Fall 2018 Columnists Washington Square News is excited to introduce our nine columnists for Fall 2018. Our columnists are NYU students who are eager to inform and explore realms ranging from policy to technology to NYU culture to traditional topics retold by marginalized communities. One columnist will be featured in print each week — find the rest of their content on our website.

Jasem Alzaabi

An Emirati Abroad This column offers insight into the social and cultural interactions of the United Arab Emirates population internally and its intersections with the Western world. As a local, Jasem hopes to correct the inaccurate and at times problematic perception of the UAE by shedding light on the important aspects of Emirati life and providing a reflection of the current UAE cultural landscape as he sees it.

Serena Vanchiro Just Tech-ing In

Aliyah Austin

Decolonizing Social Justice

What do SpaceX, a commercial leader in the aerospace world and LELO, a European sex-toy company, have in common? They’re both pioneers in the tech world and simultaneously changing our lives in more ways than one. This column will discuss socially and technologically relevant topics like forthcoming innovations, tech controversies, women in STEM and university updates on Tandon projects and startups.

It’s time to confront issue of social justice at NYU through a truly intersectional, socialist lens. This column is written with the goal of decolonization in mind, in hopes that it will widen the space available for marginalized communities to have dialogue. Aliyah acknowledges criticism is necessary for growth, so she welcomes and hopes for both.

Serena Vanchiro is a junior studying Mechanical Engineering at the Tandon School of Engineering.

Aliyah Austin is a sophomore majoring in Social Work and Journalism.

Timothy Cho

Mickey Desruisseaux

Greg A. Berrios

Much of the political ignorance of this era stems from beginning with politics and ending with policy. By starting with ideologies and beliefs, then imposing them upon specific circumstances, the resulting policy is more a product of ulterior motives than a practical solution.

This thinking is backwards. Let us start with the problem, then work toward politics, so that the debates are not over facts but over execution.

(P)optics will be an irreverent take on the political and pop cultural news of the day from a nerdy, left-of-center, black-ish perspective. A play on words, the title hinges on the word “optics” to communicate insight on both pop culture and politics.

Bottoms on Top will be a column dedicated to issues and topics of relevance to the vibrant queer community of NYU and New York City as a whole. This column aims to look into the important discourses of sexual identity and queerness and how to navigate this large metropolitan city as an LGBTQ individual.

Jasem Alzaabi is a junior studying Mechanical Engineering at the Tandon School of Engineering.

Bite-Sized Policy

(P)optics

Mickey Desruisseaux is a 1L at the School of Law.

Bottoms on Top

Greg A. Berrios is junior majoring in Media, Culture and Communication at Steinhardt and minoring in Producing at Tisch School of the Arts.

Timothy Cho is a CAS senior majoring in Public Policy and minoring in Mathematics.

Cheyenne Porcher

Ash Ryoo

Dyshere Logan

A space devoted to exploring the ups and downs of navigating love, sex and relationships for those whose narratives have historically been pushed to the margins.

As Jonathan Larson, the late creator of the prophetic ’90s classic “Rent,” wrote: “The opposite of war isn’t peace, it’s creation.” How, then, do artists of color, artists set apart from the rest due to their ethnicity and the “exotic” quality their works possess, meet the challenge posed by this beloved visionary?

This column will strive to answer this question.

At What Cost? is a testimony-based column which takes the lived experiences of NYU students and connects them to broader societal challenges.

As much as we’d like to view NYU as a utopian “safe space,” our fellow students are forced to make difficult choices every day — this is our opportunity to unpack them.

Identity of Love

Cheyenne Porcher is a sophomore in Gallatin School of Individualized Study, where her concentration is ‘Journalism, Activism, & the Arts.’

Art in Color

Ash Ryoo is a student of the NYU Tisch Graduate Musical Theater Writing Program.

Submitting to

At What Cost?

Dyshere Logan is a sophomore at the Stern School of Business studying Finance and Sustainable Business.

STAFF EDITORIAL

Frats Banning Alcohol Won’t Stop Its Abuse As the new semester begins, the North-American Interfraternity Conference has instituted a new ban on hard alcohol, affecting nine of NYU’s Greek life organizations.

The conference, a multinational organization representing 66 fraternities, has instituted the ban following negative press regarding recent college deaths involving hazing rituals. While NYU has strict policies against underage drinking and the on-campus distribution of alcohol, this ban will ultimately be ineffective due to its one-year grace period and the wide availability of alcohol in New York City.

The incident which caused this fraternity ban was the hazing death of an underage student as a result of binge drinking at Pennsylvania State University last year. All represented NIC fraternities are to institute policies regarding the ban

by Sept. 1, 2019. NYU has existing policies prohibiting alcohol consumption by underage individuals, but alcohol is permitted for those ages 21 or older. If no actual change is instituted by NYU’s nine fraternities affected by the policy, it is likely that no change due to alcohol policy will occur. It’s now or never for fraternities.

But the ban may not be effective in the NYU community, in part because NYU party culture is rooted in the city’s rampant nightlife.

The various Welcome Week parties hosted by New York City clubs are blatant examples. Unmonitored and unaffiliated groups run events at numerous night clubs around Manhattan when most first years are moving in. The events offer entry to anyone 18 or older and provide opportunities for students to consume alcohol off campus, subsequently with a lower chance

of facing disciplinary consequences from NYU. NYU has a long, public history of disciplinary action against Greek life. Several sororities and fraternities, including Alpha Epsilon Pi, Phi Gamma Delta, Pi Kappa Alpha and Omega Phi Beta, have been suspended at NYU due to hazing in the past. Recent studies have also shown Greek life’s close relationship with substance abuse and its heavy influence on undergraduate students on a national level. But the bigger issue at hand is the culture around drinking at college rather than the policies — or lack thereof — which ban it. College campuses are already expected to follow the legal drinking age, yet this is continuously ignored. Students in general are noncompliant with the drinking age at alarming rates due to peer pressure and easy access to substances. What really makes college drinking culture toxic, however, is the dangerous prevalence of binge drinking, a practice which more than 40 percent of college students participate in. This practice can lead to various health and safety risks, including assault and accidental deaths.

Banning alcohol on campus is not a new idea. Other bans on alcohol have already been implemented in universities before the aforementioned nationwide fraternity ban was announced. How is this policy expected to differ from others — which have not yet been proven to have made significant change in college drinking culture — that have attempted to combat the issue in the past? This policy may be a step in the right direction, but it is unrealistic considering how integral casual drinking is to socialization at NYU and New York City at large.

Email the Editorial Board at editboard@nyunews.com.

JANICE LEE Chair HANNA KHOSRAVI Co-chair MELANIE PINEDA Co-chair

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

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SPORTS

SPORTS@NYUNEWS.COM

WEEKLY UPDATE

Sept. 2 to Sept. 8

By BELA KIRPALANI Editor-at-Large Men’s Soccer The men’s soccer team defeated State University of New York at New Paltz on Saturday 2-1, thanks to a goal from Stern first-year Pablo Vargas in the final minute. NYU took the lead in the first half when Stern first-years Oliver Kleban and Louis Meeks combined for Kleban’s second goal of the season. Goalkeeper and CAS senior Grant Engel recorded five saves in his second win of the season.

The Violets won their third straight game on Sunday, defeating Bard College 2-1. Kleban scored his third goal of the season to give NYU the lead before Stern sophomore Matteo Russo scored his first goal of the season to double their advantage.

The Violets’ record now stands at 3-1-0.

NYU will take on John Jay College on Sept. 12 at 4 p.m.

Women’s Soccer The women’s soccer team suffered its first loss of the season against Stevens Institute of Technology on Sept. 7, falling 2-0. Both goals for SIT came in the first half, and the Violets were unable to find their way back into the game.

The Violets lost 3-0 to Swarthmore College on Sept. 9. Following the loss, the women’s soccer team’s record is now 2-2-0.

The team will return to action against The City College of New York on Sept. 12 at 7 p.m.

Women’s Volleyball The women’s volleyball team lost its first match of the season against SIT in three straight sets (25-16, 25-19, 25-21) on Sept. 5.

The Violets split two matches at the York-Spartan Invitational at York College in Pennsylvania on Sept. 7, winning against Gallaudet University, before losing to Elizabethtown College. NYU defeated Gallaudet in three sets (25-10, 25-16, 25-22), and Gallatin sophomore Kate Glavan and CAS senior Nazzerine Waldon both finished with a team-high seven kills. In the second match, Elizabethtown won in straight sets (25-22, 25-19, 25-23), but Waldon again led the team with seven kills.

On the second day of the invitational, the Violets faced off against Haverford College and Johns Hopkins University.

NYU defeated Haverford in four sets (25-17, 23-25, 25-20, 25-20). In the win, CAS first-year Gretchen Kincade totaled 14 kills while Tandon first-year Stella Alverson led the squad with 20 assists. In the second match of the day, NYU lost to Johns Hopkins University in straight sets (25-14, 25-17, 25-14).

The Violets will be back on the court on Sept. 11 at 7 p.m. when they visit the College of New Rochelle.

Men’s Cross Country NYU men’s cross country finished in fourth place at the Vassar Ron Stonitsch Invitational on Sept. 8 in Poughkeepsie, N.Y. CAS junior Yuji Kusick was NYU’s top finisher, taking 19th place with a time of 20:30.7 in the 6K race. Fellow Violet and Tisch first-year Malcolm Silver-Van Meter was not far behind, placing 21st place

MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 10, 2018

with a time of 20:35.2.

The men’s cross country team returns to action at the Bill Fritz Invitational at Rowan University on Sept. 15.

Women’s Cross Country NYU women’s cross country also finished in fourth place at the Vassar Ron Stonitsch Invitational on Sept. 8 in Poughkeepsie, N.Y. Gallatin first-year Valentina House led the team for the second consecutive week with a third-place finish and a time of 19:22.6 in the 5K course.

The Violets will compete at the Bill Fritz Invitational at Rowan University on Sept. 15.

Women’s Golf The NYU women’s golf team, which was ranked fourth in the nation after the 2017-18 season, showed no signs of slowing down as it kicked off the new season in style at the two-round St. Lawrence Invitational in Canton, N.Y. on Sept. 8-9.

After shooting a team-record 293 at the St. Lawrence Invitational on Saturday, the Violets maintained their lead and captured first place after shooting 299 on Sunday. CAS junior Jenni Bluetling led the tournament with a two-round total of 146, while SPS junior Patty Treevichapan and Stern junior Arshia Mahant tied for second place each with totals of 149.

NYU returns to the course on Sept.

22-23 at the Mount Holyoke Invitational in South Hadley, Mass.

Men’s Golf The NYU men’s golf team also captured first place at the St. Lawrence Invitational on Sunday after it totaled 599 over two rounds.

Stern first-year Joseph Burlison finished second in the tournament with a two-day total of 147. Meanwhile, Tisch first-year Robbie Keyes finished tied for third place with 149.

The Violets travel next to Middlebury, Vt. for the Duke Nelson Invitational on Sept. 15-16.

Women’s Tennis The women’s tennis team opened its 2018-19 season at the Lions’ Kickoff Tournament hosted by The College of New Jersey on Sept. 8, in Ewing, N.J. Stern junior Flyora Shiyanova and LS first-year Kate Shaffer, seeded second and fifth respectively, recorded NYU’s only victories in the first round against TCNJ. Shiyanova lost her first set 6-7, before coming back to win the next two 6-3 and 10-7, while Shaffer dominated in a 6-3, 6-1 win.

In the second round against the University of the Sciences, the Violets took three out of the six matches. Shiyanova led the way with her second win of the day, narrowly defeating her opponent 7-5, 7-6. First-seeded CAS sophomore Coco Kulle earned her first win of the day with a 6-2, 6-4 triumph over her opponent, while sixth-seeded CAS junior Ayesha Das secured NYU’s final victory of the round with a dominant 6-2, 6-2 match.

NYU will play in the Vassar Scramble on Sept. 15-16 in Poughkeepsie, N.Y. Email Bela Kirpalani at bkirpalani@nyunews.com.

Edited by BELA KIRPALANI

Students Stand With Colin Kaepernick’s Nike Ad

By BELA KIRPALANI Editor-at-Large

legend Serena Williams and the NBA superstar LeBron James. The ad ends with the slogan, “It’s only crazy until you do it.

Just do it.”

“I loved it,” Stern senior Meredith Hackerson said. “The first time I watched it, it gave me chills, as it also did the second, and every time I’ve seen it since. It’s a powerful message and one that I think is important – you should never be compla-

If someone told us in 2013 that Colin Kaepernick would one day be the face of Nike, we might not have questioned it.

He had just jumpstarted his career and was presumed to be the next big thing in the National Football League. But five years later, he is without a team and one of the most controversial figures in sports.

Nike confirmed on Labor Day that Kaepernick signed a multiyear deal that makes him the face of the company’s 30th anniversary “Just Do It” campaign.

During the summer of 2016, Kaeper- I have a great deal nick began kneeling during the national of respect for those anthem to draw attention to police brutality targeting young black, sparking who choose to use controversy throughout the league and their fame to try and the nation. Since then, a wave of on-field protests has taken the league by storm, promote positive pitting players, owners, league officials change. and fans against each other. The NFL has struggled to contain the protests, leading SYONA VARTY Tisch junior television ratings to dip and others — including President Donald Trump — to attack the NFL for not disciplining players who refuse to stand for the national anthem.

Though Kaepernick and other NFL players have maintained that the purpose of their protest is to raise awareness of acts of police brutality resulting in deaths of cent, you should always keep striving to unarmed black Americans, many, mostly better yourself.” white, people across the country still critiStern sophomore and softball player cize the players and NFL organizations for Honor Sankey agreed and believes that disrespecting the military, flag and nation.

Nike made the right decision in standing Amid all the tension, Kaepernick opt- with Kaepernick. ed out of his contract with the San Fran“I think it’s a great business decision, cisco 49ers to become a free agent in 2016 and will land Nike on the right side of and he remains unsigned. But he stays un- history,” Sankey said. “More importantly, apologetically committed to his mission however, it’s the right social decision, and of peacefully protesting in an attempt to I was happy to see Nike come out in supbring about change in the United States. port of Kaepernick after the NFL was so In fact, Nike’s new advertisement featur- incredibly dismissive of him.” ing Kaepernick confirms that his activism Nike is also the official and exclusive and movement against racism and social in- provider of NFL apparel until their curjustice will continue to be a topic of discourse rent deal expires in 2028. In response to among Americans and fans of football. the news that Kaepernick, who has reThe first ad is a black-and-white pho- portedly been under contract with Nike tograph of Kaepernick’s face with the since 2011, would be involved in Nike’s words, “Believe in something. Even if ad campaign, the NFL said in a statement it means sacrificing everything” — per- that it “believes in dialogue, understandhaps a reference to Kaepernick’s lawsuit ing and unity” and embraces “the role and against the NFL for allegedly ostracizing responsibility of everyone involved with the quarterback and colluding to keep this game to promote meaningful, posihim out of the league over his role in the tive change in our communities.” protests. On Aug. 30, the league’s request Nike’s “Dream Crazy” advertisement to dismiss Kaepernick’s case was denied. aired during the third quarter of the On Wednesday, Nike came out with a NFL’s season opener between reigning 90-second video advertisement narrated Super Bowl champions Philadelphia Eaby Kaepernick, and also featuring tennis gles and the Atlanta Falcons which was

“ ”

nationally televised on NBC. While many support Kaepernick’s partnership with Nike, others across the country have decided to boycott the company and even burn their Nike apparel.

Countless videos of people cutting up their Nike socks and burning Nike sneakers have surfaced on social media, with the hashtags #NikeBoycott and #BurnYourNikes.

The trend has even caught the eye of President Trump, who tweeted “Just like the NFL, whose ratings have gone WAY DOWN, Nike is getting absolutely killed with anger and boycotts. I wonder if they had any idea that it would be this way?”

Kaepernick has long been a lightning rod for controversy, anger and discourse in the United States, and Nike’s public show of support has caused a rift between those who wholeheartedly agree with the company’s decision and those who refuse to support anyone or anything affiliated with Kaepernick.

“I think those who choose to boycott Nike have every right to do so, but personally, Nike’s partnership has made me respect them more,” Tisch junior Syona Varty said.

While some, including President Trump, may have thought that Nike would suffer financially from the repercussions of their partnership with Kaepernick, the opposite has happened. A report from Edison Trend shows that following a brief decline, the shoe titan’s online sales grew 31 percent after the debut of the ad campaign, compared to 2017’s 17 percent increase during that same time period.

Colin Kaepernick is one example of an athlete that has taken a strong public stand on social and political issues, but Varty believes that other athletes can do more.

“I think athletes, and celebrities in general, have a unique responsibility thrust upon them with fame,” Varty said. “They are role models to many children and influencers in our society. That being said, I believe it is their right to use their platform to promote change if they so please.

I do not believe every celebrity must — it is their choice — but I have a great deal of respect for those who choose to use their fame to try and promote positive change.”

“Dream Crazy” has been viewed more than 21 million times on YouTube and generated more than 224,000 retweets.

The conversation surrounding his protests doesn’t look to be slowing down anytime soon.

Email Bela Kirpalani at bkirpalani@nyunews.com.

SAM KLEIN | WSN

Nike recently unveiled a new series of advertisements, including this billboard of Colin Kaepernick by Madison Square Garden. The text over the image of Kaepernick, the NFL quarterback who started protesting police brutality in 2016, reads “Believe in something.

Even if it means sacrificing everything.”

MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 10, 2018

MULTIMEDIA@NYUNEWS.COM

Washington Square News

EXPOSURE

11

Edited by KATIE PEURRUNG

Colored and Cut: Highlights From Fashion Week

ECHO CHEN | WSN

Above: Vivienne Hu In her most elaborate collection yet, Vivienne Hu tactfully mixed floral prints with pinstripes. She invented new structures to her dresses, implementing tasteful peplums and ruffles as well as refined cut-outs.

ERIC HART | WSN

Top Right: Barbara Tfank Next door to Brittany Residence Hall, the serene world of Barbara Tfank temporarily took form.

Age-old representations of glamour and sophistication radiated through Tfank’s signature tea dresses.

Center: The Blonds Designers David and Phillipe Blond showcased a detailed line of neon, embellished costumes equipped with capes, tiny sunglasses and wigs to match.

Center Left: Nonie In a series of satin dresses and structured button-downs, Nonie added a new shine to businesswear.

NATASHA FENGA | WSN

REBECCA GELPI | WSN

Left: Fashion Palette Australia With an impressive selection of 11 designers, Fashion Palette Australia showcased everything from athleisure to ballgowns. “Harvey the Label” stood apart for a few unique prints over sheer fabrics.

DA by Daniel incorporated show-stopping accessories to complement its posh sequin dresses.

Right: Christopher Lowman American visuals dominated the Christopher Lowman presentation laden with red, white and blue. At the Jimmy Hotel rooftop bar, models sported classic athletic silhouettes styled with vintage-inspired pearl necklaces.

Email Amanda Burkett at aburkett@nyunews.com.

SARA MIRANDA | WSN

ISABELLA BEAUCHAMP | WSN

Washington Square News Staff Jemima McEvoy Managing Editor

Sayer Devlin DEPUTY Sakshi Venkatraman, Alejandro Villa Vásquez Creative Director

Rachel Buigas-Lopez, Laura Shkouratoff DEPUTY Arvind Sindhwani Copy Chiefs

Tarra Chen, Viral Shanker DEPUTY Akshay Prabhushankar, Faith Marnecheck Multimedia

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Opinion Page

EDITOR Janice Lee DEPUTY Hanna Khosravi,

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Under the Arch Pamela Jew EDITOR Tyler Crews, Yasmin Gulec FICTION George Hajjar, Danielle Matta ADVERTISING

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Brian Christensen Zapiecki Director of Sales

Allison Lambdin Director of Marketing and Logistics

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Creative Director, Blacklight

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Account Associates

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Broone LaMantia, Akiva Thalheim Senior Staff NEWS Alex Domb, Kristina Hayhurst, Sarah Jackson CULTURE Natalie Chinn ARTS Ryan Mikel, Daniella Nichinson Deputy Staff NEWS Victor Porcelli ARTS Ali Zimmerman FILM Alex Cullina, Guru Ramanathan THEATER & BOOKS

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Editorial Adviser

Rachel Holliday Smith Editors-at-Large

Thomas Chou, Connor Gatesman, Andrew Heying, Bela Kirpalani, Taylor Nicole Rogers ABOUT WSN: Washington Square News (ISSN 15499389) is the student newspaper of New York University. WSN is published in print on Mondays and throughout the week online during NYU’s academic year, except for university holidays, vacations and exam periods.

CORRECTIONS: WSN is committed to accurate reporting. When we make errors, we do our best to correct them as quickly as possible. If you believe we have erred, contact the managing editors at managing@nyunews.com or at 212.998.4302.

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