Blog-Proj
1/31/20
Sophomore Zoe Ozochiawaeze was about to return to school at NYU when her family encountered some financial difficulties that left her short of attending school. She had tried all of the financial aid resources yet she was at a deficit so, despite her fears of shame, she started a gofundme so raise money for her tuition cost. Her go fund me got 84 shares on social media and resulted in 34 donors totaling $2695 which help her to get back to school. While NYU claims they are trying to make their financial aid and student wages better, there has been no attempt to lower tuition costs. Zoe is not the only one who had to rely on go fund me to attend school as another student Josh created one to help pay but was relieved by a last-minute grant from the financial aid office. Paying for school is stressful, and sometimes students have to rely on outside sources to get them through there education.
1/31/20
30 volunteers of the rise and resist movement gathered in the grand central station to protest the U.S. Immigration policy. The protest was silent and nonviolent as they do not want risk of being arrested. Their sign read, “U.S. Immigration Policy is a crime.” The group was created post the 2016 election and in response to the Trump organization. The recent protest was in response to the supreme court ruling in favor of Trump’s hardline immigration policy, which, “which prevents immigrants from finding permanent residency based on how likely they are to use public benefits such as housing assistance, health care, or food stamps.” The group ideas are based on how they think the nation should welcome alyssum seekers rather than turn them away and are in open detest of how ICE has handled immigration in the past year with separating children from parents at the Mexican border and the quality of treatment of those asylum seekers. Many of the group’s members are older individuals with strong opinions on how the immigration policy should change and be more open to diversity in the United States.
2/4/20
https://nyunews.com/news/2020/02/03-nyu-shanghai-students-cancel-studyabroad
Frustration Mounts as NYU Students cancel Shanhai Study Abroad Plans
Due to the Corona Virus, many students have had to cancel their study plans involving being in Shanghai. This has lead to lots of students having to switch to online classes instead of attending school in Shanghai. Students who were supposed to study abroad in Shanghai were given the option to either choose another global destination or do the classes remotely. The U.S. government was put out an official warning to not travel to China for “non-essential” reasons. For many of NYU’s students, they have had to figure out alternatives or be left on their own as the orientation for the study abroad semester was canceled. A few have noted how the global education program has not been very helpful during this progress and that more communication would be helpful considering this is the student’s future and careers that will be affected by this. Due to not being able to study abroad, some students didn’t have housing in NYC so they have been forced to couch hop until they sort out housing, which is making students very frustrated with how NYC has handled the situation.
Senate Acquittal of President Trump Spurs Protest
A protest was formed in Columbus circle on Wednesday to protest the acquittal of President Trump. During the vote, every democratic senator voted to guilty on both articles of impeachment along with Mitt Romney who was the only Republican Senator to vote guilty. Even with overwhelming evidence against President Trump, the Republican senators choose to vote not guilty. The two articles of impeachment against Trump were an abuse of power and obstruction of Justice. Those charges were impart brought up due to Trump’s attempted to deal with Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky in which trump would trade military aid for information that would harm Joe Biden’s campaign that related to Hunter Biden. Many of the protesters called for congress to not quit on this process and to keep up their campaign to take down President Trump. One protester even went to say how most Trump supporters in so brainwashed that they appear to be members of a cult.
2/11/20
New York City, a fire that burned in two buildings injured five first responders. The fire happened in the middle of the afternoon as 100 first responders showed up at the scene 4 minutes after the 911 call was made. The fires took place above two restaurants and completely gutted the interior of the building leaving nothing left for its residents who were quoted to say they had lost all of their possessions. Adding to the details of the fire, firefights had to break a window to let the smoke out and didn’t realize how bad it was until the smoke kept coming out for a while. The restaurant’s owners are in shambles states the article as the aftermath of the fire leaves many residents with nothing left. The story is still developing as there is no indication yet of what started the fire. Nor what the residents will do now that their homes are livelihoods are gone.
With the Corona Virus trending on social media everywhere, it has been giving re-birth to certain racial stigmas against Asian people in NYC. While the disease is not prominent in NYC, as there have only been 5 reported cases, the disease has spread rapidly in China. A certain student who returned back to NYC said she feels scared to sneeze or couch in public so she doesn’t get singled out for being sick and unclean. She is not alone in this fear as many Asian people also feel this same fear. There is lot of misinformation being spread around on social media on the virus which is leading to many people creating a lot of fear and panic surrounding being potentially exposed to this virus. There is a historical motif in having fear of Asian people carrying disease so it’s not uncommon that this stereotype has risen once again said an NYU and Rutgers professor who founded the Asian/ American Institute at NYU.
2/18/20
NYU’s Abu Dhabi is celebrating it’s ten year anniversary and it’s time for a reflection on the past ten years. The funding from it comes majoritively from the United Arab Emirates and its gotten lots of recent success boasting 14,000 applications for the class of 2023. When it open it only had 148 students and not it has 24 majors with more minors and special programs. NYU is not the first major university that has open up campuses abroad citing Duke Kunshan University and the University of Utah. NYU firmly believes in global educational experiences. Despite the greatness of this situation, controversy has arisen as there have been reports in labor law violations and denying visas to faculty members on grounds of religion. There has been evidence of this through private investigation. The school journalism department boycotted the program on grounds of their professor being denied a visa because he was a shitte muslim. Students entering NYUAD are now wary of this controversy.
This article points out that many students who attend NYU and or live in Manhatten don’t often go visit the other boroughs of NYC. Just by crossing the river and getting into a new borough opens the door to a lot more culture than one would think. The writer talks about how one of the students wanted to look for a Peruvian community and couldn’t find one in Manhatten, so she broadened her search to the other boroughs and found it in Queens. Some students talk about how people can get so caught up living in Manhatten that they forget so much culture surrounds them in the other boroughs. There are cheap places, more vibrant places playing all sorts of music, many different streets and neighborhoods are full of diverse people and cultures. A specific place a student mention was the flushing meadows park in queens which features cool memorabilia since the U.S. Open was hosted there in 1978.
2/25/20
Nyu’s Florence, Italy campus will be closing on Thursday amidst the Corona Virus outbreak in Italy. The campus sent out an email saying that all NYU’s students had to vacate the dorms and return home to the United States, all classes will be available online. The campus is set to reopen on March 29th but that date is very tentative. What makes this whole situation even more frustrating is how NYU is handling the situation, many students have said. The email saying the campus would close was vague and was sent out at 11 pm, which is a very odd time. Students in Florence are now scrambling to find flights home and deal with the gravity of the situation as their study abroad semester has taken a turn for the worst. Some students say they will not be able to return to the campus if it open. They understand that NYU is looking out for their health and safety but the way they are handling the campus closing is not well thought through.
The group, DPT, has taken to the subways to protest over-policing in NYU’s subways. The group DPT is known for being an activist and artist group that supports a bunch of different movements such as Free Palestine, Indigenous resurgence, de-gentrification, and black liberation. Along with that, an NYU professor has been accused of being apart of this group and having an active role in these protests. The protests have taken the form of activists spray painting the phrase, “f*ck the police” in the subways. The most recent protest, came after NYC’s governor signed an act that would place a new 500 police officers in subways. Democratic in NYU agree with the reasons for the protest but denounce the methods they are using to protest because it’s creating back-up’s in the subways, and is on the aggressive side. NYU college democrats are calling for them to use more peaceful methods of protest.
3/7/20
With the increase in global concern for the Corona Virus, NYU study abroad sites are facing rapid change. With some sites closing, the university is offering online classes to all students who’s classes were canceled on campus. While some students are ok with that change, a good amount is upset that since they pay so much money to attend college, they expect to have class in face-to-face environments with their professors. The coronavirus is also affecting whether students return home or not, most seem to want to stay considering going back to the USA doesn’t seem all that much safer than staying in the country they are currently in. An aspect that NYU warns students is that along with health risks, there potentially could be global travel restrictions. Some students are worried about their spring break plans. Overall, most of NYU students are not too concerned with staying healthy but are more worried about their education and travel restrictions because a big part of all that is the economic aspect of it.
A 21-year-old puerto-Rican girl was denied access from a bar in NYC due to her PuertoRican ID. When she tried to get in the bar, the bouncer denied her ID which is a valid ID due to Puerto Ricans being U.S. citizens. The ID’s are valid and could have been verified by a scanner that the bouncers had, the bouncers also told the girl to go somewhere else and to leave immediately. This is not the first time that an incident like this has happened at this bar. Many yelp reviews speak of the same kind of discrimination being reported by bouncers. The manager spoke to how they will deny fake IDs if they seem suspicious had had no protocol against PR natives, who, are in fact U.S. citizens.
3/16/20
There has been a confirmed case of Coronavirus on the NYU campus. A faculty member was tested positive. In an email sent out by the school, they have told students that the person will not be teaching for the semester and will not be on campus anytime soon. They have also said that the faculty member has been on campus within the past 8-15 days. This is the first positive test in this community and NYU is doing everything they can to hinder the spread of the virus. The Law school has also informed all students who have been in contact with the person to be sure that they take extra precautions.
NYU has now canceled every single campus abroad in Europe facing the global pandemic of the Corona Virus. Students studying in Berlin, London, Madrid, Paris, and Prague all received an email on Tuesday stating the closing of the campuses. The decision to remain abroad will be left to the individual students abroad and their families. NYU is not closing the dorms, leaving the decision to return home to the students. This decision of making it voluntary also leaves the students with anger, frustration, and sadness. Students claim that NYU doesn’t want to reimburse students for travel fees home so they are not making leaving mandatory. Many students have concern about money as they have paid for housing, and have money saved up for traveling around their study abroad locations. An email sent out to students explaining all of this information has also included the cancellation of all travel courses and internships.
Step 4
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