Throughout the school year, WSN will bring you hundreds of news stories, covering all aspects of NYU and its community. And, each year, a few important stories tend to stick out - and some stick around, like an annoying housefly. Here are a few of the stories WSN covered that will play a big role in your future at NYU:
Housing: Cliff Street and Water Street
In February, Rockrose Development Corp. announced that it would not renew NYU's lease for the Cliff Street residence hall, located downtown in the financial district. Rockrose planned wanted to convert the building into condominiums.
But in April, however, the university struck a last minute deal for a one-year lease extension on the property, in order to secure the residence hall's 350 beds.
The lease for Water Street residence hall, which is mere blocks from Cliff Street, expires in 2009. The university has repeatedly stated that it will not renew the lease on the property, which houses approximately 1200 students. This has raised some concern among students, despite the university's reassurance that it will still maintain its four-year housing guarantee.
Housing: 12th Street Residence Hall
Construction began on the university's newest resident hall last spring - a 26 story dorm which plans to house about 750 freshman.
Located on 12th Street between 3rd and 4th avenues, the dorm will be and will be the tallest structure in the East Village, which led many groups to petition the city to curb development of the site.
The dorm is being built of the former site of the historic St. Ann's Church. In order to appease angry neighbors tired of the university's constant development in the village, the facade of the church has been preserved and will be incorporated into the hall's architecture.
Cogeneration Plant
In May, construction began on a controversial cogeneration plant that will, at times, tear up portions of Mercer Street.
The project - which stirred ire in local businesses such as Think Coffee, and neighboring apartment buildings - will take about two years to finish.
When finished, the $120 million project will provide power to 30 NYU buildings, up from the seven which are powered by the current power facility.
House of Delegates
In August 2005, the university announced that it would not negotiate a second contract with the graduate student labor union, which sparked a six month strike in November 2005.
Despite hundreds of canceled recitations, loud picket lines and petitions signed by professors, the university refused to yield to GSOC's demands for third party representation and, when striking graduate assistants returned to their positions at the beginning of the fall 2006 semester, the strike was officially over. But the union - the Graduate Student Organizing Committee (GSOC) - promised they would continue the effort for a union.
The decision not to renew the contract came after the Nation Labor Review Board (NLRB) decided that private universities did not need to recognize graduate student assistant unions.
With the strike over, the university began to bring together plans to provide the graduate students with a form of representation. In January 2007, the House of Delegates - a group of elected graduate students that would be incorporated into the university's governance system - held its first elections.
Following that election, 75 percent of the House's 50 seats were filled by students running on a so-called GSOC "ticket."
Attorney General Investigation
In early April, NYU signed a deal with the New York Attorney General's office, following Attorney General Andrew Cuomo's investigation of several universities' relationships with student lenders.
The investigation targeted the relationship between universities and "preferred lenders." In exchange for recommending students to these preferred lenders, universities received kickbacks from the lending institutions.
NYU's preferred lender, Citibank, gave the university about $1.3 million over the course of their five-year deal. NYU said that it distributed all of the money it received from Citibank into financial aid for students.
Under the deal with the Attorney General's office, the university was required to give the $1.3 million back to Citibank, which then credited students' accounts based on how much they had borrowed.
Despite returning the money, the university claimed no wrong doing and said it had chose Citibank following a competitive bidding process to find a lender that offered the lowest rates to the highest number of students.
Study Abroad
This summer proved to be a productive one for the university's study abroad division, which secured a new site for undergraduates in the Middle East.
In early June, NYU signed a letter of intent with Israel's Tel Aviv University, for a site to open in fall 2008.
The site, which will be the university's eight foreign satellite campus for undergraduates, will host about 50 students each semester.
Also in June, the American University in Paris received authorization to begin construction of a new academic center and residence hall Seguin Island, located on the Seine River just west of the city of Paris.
Scheduled to open in 2010, students enrolled in the NYU at AUP program will be able to use these facilities.
Security in the wake of V-Tech
In the days following the tragedy at Virginia Tech, NYU responded by heightening security on campus for a few days after the shooting, and many student groups held vigils in honor of the victims.
Increased scrutiny of NYU's own emergency communication system led to the creation and implementation of a new system to contact students with important information in case of a campus or city-wide emergency.
Last week, the university sent e-mails to students asking them to provide their cell phone information in Personal Records section of Albert. In the case of an emergency, the university will send out a text message containing important information to students.
College Republicans
The College Republicans proved to be a big agitator on campus last semester, hosting two controversial events that prompted protests from several other groups on campus.
In February, the College Republicans, under the leadership of President Sarah Chambers, hosted the "Find the Illegal Immigrant" event. Participants donned INS badges and searched throughout Washington Square Park to find someone with an "Illegal Immigrant" name tag. Although only nine people showed up and signed up to play, more than 300 protesters gathered in the street to protest the event, calling it "racist."
Then, a month later, the College Republicans drew more cries from groups on campus when they hosted Chris Simcox, president of the controversial Minutemen Civil Defense Corp., a private organization that patrols the U.S.-Mexico border searching for illegal immigrants. Students gathered both outside of Kimmel Center and inside the auditorium where the event was taking place to protest the event.
Weeks later, the Coalition for Immigrant Rights, a group formed in the wake of the Republican's first controversial event, held their own Immigration Panel.
CAS Student Council Scandal
The last few weeks of the spring semester were dominated by investigations in electoral fraud and financial misconduct committed by members of the CAS Student Council, specifically former president Meredith Dolgin. Just hours before the council held elections for its 2007-08 Executive Board, WSN learned that Dolgin had disbanded the council's five member Elections Committee, after discovering that WSN had been investigating possible financial improprieties committed by Dolgin. Feeling she could no longer trust the current Elections Committee, Dolgin disbanded it and created her own, three-person Elections Committee, with her at the helm and two of her political allies by her side.
The new Elections Committee disqualified the petitions of three candidates, including presidential candidate Jenny Shen, stating that the Committee could not verify enough of Shen's signatures for her to qualify. As a result, the only candidate who qualified to run for president was freshman Michael Atkins.
After WSN disclosed this information, CAS launched an investigation, which concluded that a special election would have to be held for three positions in question. However, in a final act of defiance Dolgin ignored the findings of the CAS investigation and attempted to install Atkins as president in the last regular council meeting of the year. Before Atkins could finish his move to adjourn the meeting, cementing his place as president, Dean Anita Farrington-Brathwaite intervened and stopped him.
During the next week, both a special election and a new CAS investigation into financial improprieties committee by Dolgin were launched. Jenny Shen emerged victorious in her bid for presidency, and further misconduct was discovered about Dolgin, including paying her grandmother a $2,200 honorarium to come speak at an event on campus - something the council's constitution specifically forbids.
Now, with Shen running the show, the council is set to vote on a measure when it resumes meetings next month to retroactively impeach Dolgin for her financial misconduct.
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