The dreaded Stern Curve comes to symbolize the very forces that divide the NYU community. Denied by admissions and deans but blatantly endorsed by professors (check any Stern class syllabus) this curve is so infamous it deserves its own trademark. However, it isn’t the existence of the curve that alienates the Stern community; it’s the mystery surrounding it. As a method of normalizing students into a perfectly portioned distribution, the curve creates order out of grading chaos. To deny its existence creates the aura and confusion surrounding the curve and illuminates the divide between Stern and other NYU schools.

 
Apart from the Curve, Stern has its own email account for students and separate wireless internet access for Stern students in Tisch Hall. Again, it’s not the existence of these amenities that alienates the Stern community from other NYU schools; it’s the attitudes and auras created.

In the midst of NYU’s aggressive global expansion, one begins to wonder what is being put on the backburner to pursue this educational colonialism. One issue that comes to mind is housing. As of present, NYU does not have nearly enough dorm space for the rapidly expanding student body. NYU is among the top ten universities in the US with students in dorms with over 15,000 students in 21 buildings yet each year they have difficulty in finding space for the students who need to live in the dorms.

Recently some incoming freshmen students have been put up in hotels due to the lack of dorm space. Greenwich Hotel, for example, houses approximately 320 residents. The issue is further complicated because some of the residential dorms are not owned by NYU. They are leased.

In 2007, Chief Justice of the Supreme Court, John Roberts wrote, “The way to stop discrimination on the basis of race is to stop discriminating on the basis of race.” This is sound logic, but it ignores the society in which it exists and to which it is inextricably tied. Though society is not color blind, nor should it be, it is the job of law to be exactly that to ensure the negative rights for all.

 
We discriminate on the basis of race constantly; such racialism should not have an inherently negative value. In Why Are All The Black Kids Sitting Together in the Cafeteria? psychology professor and college president, Beverly Tatum argues that racial discrimination establishes and affirms racial identities. Racial identity is an aspect of ethnic and cultural traditions; it has a negative impact on society if and only if it adopts an ethos of racial superiority.

Any student would tell you that life at NYU is far different than life at a traditional college. This is nothing new. Many high school students that were accepted to NYU have been told this countless times, including myself.

 
After matriculating, I was eager to explore all of the opportunities at NYU; but it only took me a week to figure out that I was on my own. The school’s attempt to reach out to the student body and let them know what was opportunities were offered consisted of a few posters scattered around hallways I did not even know existed. In a school that is suffering a community crisis, you would expect that the mysterious heads behind all of their doors and red tape would make a concerted effort to unify the campus.

One early Thursday morning, before my last class before the winter break, I entered my room in the Barney Building to discover a major leak from a broken pipe of the radiator on the floor above. The deteriorating ceiling and the dripping water were simply accompanied by two water buckets on the floor. As my teacher entered the room, he/she glared at the buckets, shook his/her head, and simply said, “This is a perfect example of how NYU treats the Barney Building.” Due to a fire last year, one room was completely ruined and the school, with great reluctance, upgraded the room. Although this art room is now modern and somewhat clean, that does not speak for the rest of the building. The basement (where sculptors work) gives off a dungeonesque mood, and the stairways are all unpolished and dirty.

 
NYU’s reluctance to renovate is not present at all NYU buildings, however. If you ever enter the Stern Building, there will never be one speck of dirt on that floor. Ever.

Over thanksgiving my uncle asked me a question that made me think. He asked whether I actually attended class. My parents were in the room so I automatically answered yes. At this point an active debate ensued over whether and why I should, or shouldn’t, attend class.

 
The uncle who posed the question said I shouldn’t (he’s a technology executive focusing on internet video). With the advent of services like the Khan academy, ItunesU, videotaped lectures, and the increasing use of the internet by students to learn essentially from the same centralized source. His argument was that we shouldn’t even have class but rather be assigned lectures from the internet, allowing for the best and brightest teachers to disseminate information in the broadest and best way possible.

Below we have put on display a number of old articles dealing with the ever-persistent issue of corruption at the uppermost tiers of NYU’s leadership. Perhaps you will notice a pattern (we sure hope you do). Now ask yourself, have we really progressed in the years since these articles were written?

 
Are NYU Trustees In Bed With Anyone Else?