NYU studies its impact on Village

In an effort to appease angry Village residents, university officials have announced the school's plans to launch several studies examining NYU's impact on Greenwich Village and New York City.

Alicia Hurley, associate vice president for government and community affairs, announced the studies recently, which she said are part of an effort to cultivate more amicable "town-and-gown" relations between the university and the local community.

"We want to undertake these types of studies for two reasons," Hurley said. "First, we hope to be able to better educate our internal constituencies about what it means to be 'in and of the city.' "

Hurley said that for the university to be a good neighbor, all parties need a more accurate understanding of how the school fits in.

"We often engage in conversations with our neighbors about projects and initiatives the university is undertaking," she said. "These studies will help us be more informed of our presence and how it can be improved and enriched."

Andrew Berman, director of the Greenwich Village Historical Preservation Society and a frequent critic of the university's growth, said he is skeptical.

"If done correctly, what they will find is that NYU's expansion and development has led to a degree of homogenization of the neighborhood," Berman said. "NYU says it's of the city, but we're worried they're turning our neighborhood into their de facto campus."

Berman said he saw the university's residence halls on Third Avenue and 14th Street and the construction of the Kimmel Center as evidence of NYU's lack of consideration for the surrounding community and its architectural heritage.

"If you look at them, these are all poorly designed, out-of-scale institutional developments," Berman said. "They stand as living monuments to the divide between NYU and the neighborhood of which they are a part."

Hurley, however, said NYU's overall effect on the city has been positive.

"We have already found, through the data collection involved with the Carnegie Foundation classification, that the university has an enormous, positive impact on the local area through all the community-service projects and outreach," Hurley said.

But Hurley said it is true that the 175-year-old relationship is not as good as the university would like.

"However, we are inextricably bound to each other," she said. "NYU would not be in and of the city in the way we envision ourselves and aspire to be, if we were not so completely interwoven into our local community."

Hurley said the Village's reputation as an intellectual and creative center would not be as strong without the university's presence.

Berman agreed with that point, but he said limits still need to be in place.

"We very much appreciate their presence in the neighborhood and want them to stay," he said. "But we don't want them to overwhelm the neighborhood."

As part of the plan, NYU has already conducted an internal self-study and sent the findings to the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching. The group gave the university the classification of "community engaged" as a result.

The classification acknowledges the university's commitment to working with the local, regional, national and global communities, according to the foundation's website.