 | |
| | |
| Motto: | Perstare et praestare (Latin) |
| Motto in English: | To persevere and to excel |
| Established: | 1831 |
| Type: | Private |
| Endowment: | $2.5 billion[1] |
| President: | John Sexton, Ph.D., J.D. |
| Faculty: | 6,755 |
| Staff: | 15,286 |
| Students: | 50,917[2] |
| Undergraduates: | 19,401 |
| Postgraduates: | 18,990 |
| Location: | New York, NY, United States |
| Campus: | Urban |
| Colors: | Violet and White |
| Nickname: | Violets |
| Mascot: |  Bobcat |
| Athletics: | NCAA Division III UAA 19 varsity teams |
| Website: | www.nyu.edu |
New York University (NYU) is a private, nonsectarian, research university in New York City. NYU's main campus is situated in the Greenwich Village section of Manhattan. Founded in 1831, NYU is the largest private, nonprofit institution of higher education in the United States, with an enrollment of more than 50,000 students.
NYU is organized into 16 schools, colleges, and institutes,[3] located in six centers throughout Manhattan and Downtown Brooklyn. NYU operates study abroad facilities in London, Paris, Florence, Prague, Madrid, Berlin, Accra, Shanghai, and Buenos Aires, in addition to the Singapore campus of the Tisch School of the Arts, and will open campuses in Tel Aviv in 2009 and Abu Dhabi in 2010.[4] Polytechnic University, located in Brooklyn, New York, merged with the university to become the Polytechnic Institute of New York University and provides NYU with an engineering school for the first time in three decades.[5]
From 2003 to 2007, NYU was ranked as America's "#1 dream school" by The Princeton Review.[6] NYU counts 31 Nobel Prize winners; 2 Abel Prize winners[7][8]; 16 Pulitzer Prize winners [9]; 19 Academy Award winners [10] (more than any other American university);[11] Emmy[12], Grammy[13], and Tony Award[14] winners. NYU also has MacArthur and Guggenheim Fellowship holders[15] as well as National Academy of Sciences members among its past and present graduates and faculty.[16]
With 12,500 residents, NYU has the seventh largest university housing system in the U.S. and the largest among private schools.[17] Some of the first fraternities in the country were formed at NYU.[18][19]
NYU's sports teams are called the Violets, the colors being the trademarked hue "NYU Violet" and white; the school mascot is the bobcat. Almost all sporting teams participate in the NCAA's Division III and the University Athletic Association. While NYU has had All-American football players, it has not had a varsity football team since the 1960s.
History
A group of prominent New York City residents – the city's landed class of merchants, bankers, and traders – established NYU on April 18, 1831. These New Yorkers believed the city needed a university designed for young men who would be admitted based on merit, not birthright or social class. Albert Gallatin, Secretary of Treasury under Thomas Jefferson, is cited as the founder. NYU was created non-denominational, unlike many American colonial colleges at the time.[20]
On April 21, 1831, the new institution received its charter and was incorporated as the University of the City of New York by the New York State Legislature; older documents often refer to it by that name. The university has been popularly known as New York University since its beginning and was officially renamed New York University in 1896. In 1832, NYU held its first classes in rented rooms of four-story Clinton Hall, situated near City Hall.[20] In 1835, the School of Law, NYU's first professional school, was established.
Whereas NYU had its Washington Square campus since its founding, the university purchased a campus at University Heights in the Bronx because of overcrowding on the old campus. NYU also had a desire to follow New York City's development further uptown. NYU's move to the Bronx occurred in 1894, spearheaded by the efforts of Chancellor Henry Mitchell MacCracken.[20] The University Heights campus was far more spacious than its predecessor was. As a result, most of the university's operations along with the undergraduate College of Arts and Science and School of Engineering were housed there. With most of NYU's operations transferred to the new campus, the Washington Square campus declined; only the law school remained there until the establishment of Washington Square College in 1914. This college would become the downtown arts and sciences division of NYU. In 1935, NYU opened the "Nassau College-Hofstra Memorial of New York University at Hempstead, Long Island". This extension would later become a fully independent Hofstra University.[21]
In the late 1960s and early 1970s, financial crisis gripped the New York City government and the troubles spread to the city's institutions, including NYU.[22] Feeling the pressures of imminent bankruptcy, NYU President James McNaughton Hester negotiated the sale of the University Heights campus to the City University of New York, which occurred in 1973. After the sale of the Bronx campus, University College merged with Washington Square College. In the 1980s, under the leadership of President John Brademas,[23] NYU launched a billion-dollar campaign that was spent almost entirely on updating facilities.[24]. The campaign was set to complete in 15 years, but ended up being completed in 10.[25] In 2003 current President John Sexton launched a 2.5-billion dollar campaign for funds to be spent especially on faculty and financial aid resources.[26]
The university logo, the upheld torch, is derived from the Statue of Liberty, signifying NYU's service to the city of New York. The torch is depicted on both the NYU seal and the more abstract NYU logo, designed in 1965 by renowned graphic artist Ivan Chermayeff. There are two versions of the origin of the university color, violet. Some believe that it may have been chosen because violets are said to have grown abundantly in Washington Square and around the buttresses of the Old University Building. Others argue that the color may have been adopted because the violet was the flower associated with Athens, the center of learning in ancient Greece.[16]
Cultural setting
Washington Square and Greenwich Village have been hubs of cultural life in New York City since the early nineteenth century. Much of this culture has intersected with NYU at various points in its history. Artists of the Hudson River School, the United States’ first prominent school of painters, settled around Washington Square. Samuel F.B. Morse, the first chair of Painting and Sculpture at NYU, and Daniel Huntington were early tenants of the Old University Building in the mid-nineteenth century. (The University rented out studio space and residential apartments within the "academic" building.) Artists and intellectuals such as Edgar Allan Poe, Mark Twain, Herman Melville and Walt Whitman contributed to the artistic scene near NYU. As a result, they had notable interaction with the cultural and academic life of the University.[22]
In the 1870s, sculptors Augustus Saint-Gaudens and Daniel Chester French lived and worked near the Square. By the 1920s, Washington Square Park area was nationally recognized as a focal point for artistic and moral rebellion. As such, the Washington Square campus became more diverse and bustled with urban energy, leading to academic change at NYU.[22] Famed residents of this time include Eugene O'Neill, John Sloan, and Maurice Prendergast. In the 1930s, the abstract expressionists Jackson Pollock and Willem de Kooning, and the realists Edward Hopper and Thomas Hart Benton had studios around Washington Square. In the 1960s the area became one of the centers of the beat and folk generation, when Allen Ginsberg and Bob Dylan settled there. This led to tension with the University, which at the time was in the midst of an aggressive facilities expansion phase.[22] The area also has played a prominent role in the gay liberation movement, and NYU reflects this; the Princeton Review ranks the school as the third most gay friendly university in the country.[27]
Campus
Most of NYU's buildings are located across a roughly square area bounded by Houston Street to the south, Broadway to the east, 14th Street to the north, and Sixth Avenue (Avenue of the Americas) to the west. Most of NYU's buildings surround Washington Square Park.
Washington Square campus
Since the late 1970s, the central part of NYU has been its Washington Square campus in the heart of Greenwich Village. Despite being public property the Washington Square Arch is the unofficial symbol of NYU. Every year NYU holds its commencement ceremonies in Washington Square Park.
In the 1990s, NYU became a "two square" university by building a second community around Union Square, about a 10-minute walk from Washington Square. NYU's Union Square community primarily consists of the sophomore priority residence halls of Carlyle Court, Palladium Residence Hall, Alumni Hall, Coral Tower, Thirteenth Street Hall, and freshmen residence halls Third North Residence Hall and University Hall.
NYU operates theaters and performance facilities that are often used by the University's music conservatory and Tisch School of the Arts. External productions are also occasionally held in NYU's facilities. The largest performance accommodations at NYU are the Skirball Center for Performing Arts (850 seats) at 566 LaGuardia Place, just south of Washington Square South; and the Eisner-Lubin Auditorium (560 seats) in the Kimmel Center. Recently, the Skirball Center hosted important speeches on foreign policy by John Kerry[28] and Al Gore[29] as well as the recording of the third season finale of The Apprentice. The Skirball Center is the largest performing arts facility south of 42nd Street.[30][31]
Bobst Library
The Elmer Holmes Bobst Library, built between 1967 and 1972, is the largest library at NYU and one of the largest academic libraries in the U.S. Designed by Philip Johnson and Richard Foster, the 12-story, 425,000 square feet (39,000 m²) structure sits on the southern edge of Washington Square Park and is the flagship of an eight-library, 4.5 million volume system. The library is visited by more than 6,500 users each day, and circulates almost one million books annually.[32] In addition to its regular collection it houses special collections and archives, including the Archives of Irish America and the Tamiment Library and Robert F. Wagner Archives.
In late 2003, Bobst Library was the site of two suicides. Two students jumped from the open-air crosswalks inside the library onto the marble floor below. The students later died of their injuries.[33] After the second suicide, NYU installed plexi-glass windows on each level to prevent further attempts. In 2003, Bobst Library was also in the news for being the home of a homeless student who resided at the library because he could not afford student housing.[34][35]
New facilities
Since the early 2000s NYU has developed new facilities on and around its Washington Square Campus. The Kimmel Center for University Life was built in 2003 to serve as the primary location for the University's student services offices. The center also houses the Skirball Center for the Performing Arts, the Rosenthal Pavilion, the Eisner & Lubin Auditorium, and the Loeb Student Center. The School of Law built Furman Hall in 2004, incorporating elements of two historic buildings into the new facade, one of which was occupied by poet Edgar Allan Poe.[36]
In 2005, NYU announced the development of a new life science facility on Waverly Place. The facility is the first NYU science building developed since the opening of Meyer Hall in 1971.[37] In November 2005, NYU announced plans to build a 26-floor, 190,000-square-foot (18,000 m2) residence hall on 12th Street. The residence hall is expected to accommodate about 700 undergraduates and contain a host of other student facilities. It is to be the tallest building in the East Village.[38] The plans have caused anger among East Village and other New York City residents, as the new building would be built over the old St. Ann's Church.[39]
Other campuses and facilities
The NYU Medical Center is situated near the East River waterfront at 550 First Avenue between East 30th and East 34th Streets. The campus hosts the Medical School, Tisch Hospital, and the Rusk Institute of Rehabilitation Medicine. Other NYU Centers across the city include NYU Hospital for Joint Diseases and the Bellevue Hospital Center. NYU's Silver School of Social Work (formerly Ehrenkranz School of Social Work) manages branch campus programs in Westchester County at Manhattanville College and in Rockland County at St. Thomas Aquinas College.
In Sterling Forest, near Tuxedo, New York, NYU has a research facility that contains institutes, in particular the Nelson Institute of Environmental Medicine. The Midtown Center at 11 West 42nd Street and the Woolworth Building in the financial district are home to NYU's continuing education programs.
NYU has a host of foreign facilities used for study abroad programs. Most noteworthy is the 57-acre (230,000 m2) campus of NYU Florence Villa LaPietra in Italy, bequeathed by the late Sir Harold Acton to NYU in 1994.[40] NYU manages undergraduate academic year study abroad programs in Florence, London, Paris, Prague, Berlin, Accra, and Madrid; and recently started programs in Shanghai and Buenos Aires. On June 1, 2007, NYU announced plans to develop a campus in Israel with Tel Aviv University. The program is scheduled to begin accepting students for the 2008-2009 academic year.[41] Most recently, the government of the United Arab Emirates has announced plans to fund a campus abroad for NYU in the capital city of Abu Dhabi, the first of its kind to be established abroad by a major U.S. research university, which is set to receive students by 2010.[4]
NYU also has international houses on campus, including the Deutsches Haus, La Maison Française, the Glucksman Ireland House, Casa Italiana, the King Juan Carlos I of Spain Center, the Hagop Kevorkian Center, an Africa House and a China House. NYU was also the founding member of the League of World Universities.
Residence halls
With 12,500 residents, NYU has the seventh largest university housing system in the U.S. and the largest among private schools.[17] Uniquely, many of NYU's residence halls are converted apartment complexes or old hotels. Most freshman residence halls are in the Washington Square area. While nearly all of the residence halls that primarily house upperclassmen are in the Union Square area, two of them are located in the Financial District and one in Chinatown. The university operates its own transit system to transport its students, by bus, to campus. Undergraduate students are guaranteed housing during their enrollment at NYU. Twenty-one buildings are in NYU's undergraduate housing system. In general, NYU residence halls receive favorable ratings, and some are opulent. Many rooms are spacious and contain amenities considered rare for individual college residence hall rooms, such as kitchens and living rooms/common areas.[42] All the residence halls are governed by the Inter-Residence Hall Council (IRHC), an umbrella student council organization. In 2007, the National Association of College and University Residence Halls named NYU the National School of the Year for IRHC and NRHH's strong efforts over the past year. In addition, NYU was awarded National Program of the Year for UltraViolet Live, the annual inter-hall competition that raises funds for Relay For Life.
There has been friction between the residents of the East Village and NYU.[43] Amongst brownstones and historic buildings, the school has built many of large residence halls. NYU's destruction or purchase of many historic buildings (such as the Peter Cooper post office or St. Ann's Church, a rusticated-stone structure with a Romanesque tower that dated to 1847) have made it symbolic of change that many long-time residents fear is destroying what made the neighborhood interesting and attractive.[44]
Academics
Schools and colleges
New York University comprises 16 colleges, schools, and divisions. The College of Arts and Science was the only school when NYU was founded. In addition to CAS, the undergraduate schools include: the Gallatin School of Individualized Study; the School of Social Work; the Steinhardt School of Culture, Education and Human Development - the first school of education in the United States; the Stern School of Business; and Tisch School of the Arts. A number of these schools also offer graduate and professional programs.
In addition, the University offers programs in postgraduate schools and divisions: the College of Dentistry, the College of Nursing, the Courant Institute of Mathematical Sciences, the Institute of Fine Arts, Institute for the Study of the Ancient World, the School of Continuing and Professional Studies, the School of Law, the School of Medicine, Graduate School of Arts and Science, and the Wagner Graduate School of Public Service.
NYU closed their School of Aeronautics in 1973, their College of Veterinary Surgeons in 1922, and merged other previous programs with other schools. For example, their School of Engineering was merged with the Polytechnic University of New York in 1973, and NYU's former College Hofstra Memorial is Hofstra University as of 1963.[45] On August 7, 2007, NYU and Polytechnic University announced that the two institutions are engaged in merger discussions.[46][47]In October, 2007, NYU's Board of Trustees and the Board of Trustees of Polytechnic University have both approved their continuing to move forward toward a merger of NYU and Polytechnic University. On June 24, 2008, the merger between New York University and Polytechnic University was finally approved by the New York State Regents after the vote that will enable NYU and Polytechnic University to move forward with their partnership.[48]
Rankings
NYU is ranked 31st among Shanghai Jiao Tong University's world's top 500 universities and 40th among Times Higher Education Supplement's world's top 100 universities.[49][50] The undergraduate program is ranked 33rd among "National Universities" by U.S. News and World Report.[51]
NYU is ranked #11 in the social sciences among Shanghai Jiao Tong University's world's top 100 universities.[52] NYU is ranked #1 in Italian, finance, mathematics, and theater in the U.S. by the Faculty Scholarly Productivity Index, which uses data, such as faculty publications, grants, and honors and awards to rank 104 doctoral programs in 10 academic disciplines based on the research productivity of faculty members.[53] NYU's philosophy department is ranked #1 among 50 philosophy departments in the English-speaking world.[54] NYU's economics department is ranked #10 among 200 economics departments worldwide.[55] NYU's Steinhardt School of Culture, Education and Human Development has one of the top 15 education programs in the U.S.[56] NYU's Wagner Graduate School of Public Service is ranked 10th nationally by U.S. News and World Report. In addition, several of Wagner's public affairs specializations are ranked in the top 10.[57] NYU's Tisch School of the Arts has produced more Academy Award winners than any other institution in the U.S.[11]
The Courant Institute of Mathematical Sciences is ranked #5 in citation impact worldwide, #12 in citation worldwide,[58] and #1 in applied mathematics in the U.S.[59] The Courant Institute of Mathematical Sciences is also known for its research in pure mathematical areas, such as partial differential equations (Professors Peter Lax and S. R. Srinivasa Varadhan won the 2005 and 2007 Abel Prize respectively for their research in this area) as well as applied mathematical areas, such as computational biology and computational neuroscience.
NYU's Stern School of Business undergraduate program is ranked among the top ten in the United States: # 8 by Business Week [60] and # 5 by U.S. News. [61] Stern's MBA program is ranked among the top 15 in the U.S. and worldwide: #10 in U.S. News,[62] #13 in Financial Times 2007,[63] #13 in BusinessWeek,[64] #8 in The Economist,[65] and #2 by research contribution.[66] The School of Law is ranked #5 among law schools in the U.S. by U.S. News and World Report.[67] The law school is particularly noted as the nation's top law school in tax law, international law, and jurisprudence (philosophy of law).[68][69][70] Some of NYU's alumni have been appointed justices of the International Court of Justice and International Criminal Court.[71][72][73]
Admissions and enrollment
NYU has a large, diverse student population representing more than 130 countries.[5] More than 70% of NYU's incoming freshmen are from outside the Tri-State Area. Ten percent of the students are from one of New York City's five boroughs and 20% are from 17 nearby counties. About 65% of NYU's undergraduates attended public high schools.
Admissions do not consider the financial situation of the students. NYU's main feeder schools reflect a heavy Northeastern U.S. presence, and particularly a strong New York City influence. Stuyvesant High School, Bronx High School of Science, and Brooklyn Technical High School are among NYU's top feeder schools. NYU has the largest undergraduate applicant pool of all private universities in the U.S. Since the early 1990s, the number of applicants seeking admission to NYU has more than tripled; acceptance rates have more than halved. For instance, in 1991, NYU received approximately 10,000 applications with 65% accepted.[74] 2007-2008 was a record-breaking application year for NYU, with the school receiving over 37,000 freshman applications (more than any private college or university in the United States), an increase of 8.7% above the previous year.[75] 2009-2010 was also another record-breaking year with 37,180 seeking admission, indicating an increase of 123 applications from 2008.[76]
The Class of 2012 (entering Fall 2008) is made up of 4,310 students, 26.9% of which were early decision candidates.[77] The middle 50% of SAT scores for the Class of 2011 fell between a 1300 and a 1440 while the middle 50% of ACT scores were between 29 and 31. The average High School GPA was a 3.63 and 72.3% of incoming students were in the top 10% of their class.[77] The school's admissions rate fell to an NYU record low of 24% of applicants.[78]
NYU is among the top 15 universities in the U.S. in the number of National Merit Scholars in the first-year undergraduate student body.[79] From 2004 to 2007, NYU was ranked by the Princeton Review as America's #1 "dream school" (first choice when factors such as the price and the school's selectivity are not considered) among high school seniors.[6] In 2008 however, NYU slipped to 4th place in the Princeton Review poll, lead only by Harvard, Yale, and Stanford, citing better financial aid among Ivy Leagues and using additional parental ratings.[80] In 2006, NYU was named by Kaplan as one of the "New Ivies".[81]
Budget and fundraising
New York University has completed its seven-year, $2.5 billion campaign, surpassing expectations by raising more than $3.0 billion over the seven year period, the highest amount ever raised by any university in a completed campaign.[82] Started in 2001, this campaign was the University's largest in its history, and planned to "raise $1 million per day for scholarships and financial aid, faculty building, new academic initiatives, and enhancing NYU's physical facilities".[83] The campaign included a $50 million gift from the Tisch family (after which one building and the art school are named) and a $60 million gift from six trustees called "The Partners Fund", aimed at hiring new faculty.[83][84] On October 15, 2007 the University announced that the Silver family donated $50 million to the School of Social Work, which will be renamed as a result.[85] This is the largest donation ever to a school of social work in the United States.[86]
The 2007-2008 academic year was the most successful fundraising year ever for NYU, with the school raising $698 million in only the first 11 months of the year, representing a 70% increase in donations from the prior year.[87] The University also recently announced plans for NYU's Call to Action, a new initiative to ask alumni and donors to support financial aid for students at NYU.[88]
In addition, the University recently announced its 25-year strategic development plan, scheduled to coincide with its bicentennial in 2031. Included in the "NYU 200" plans are increasing resident and academic space, hiring exemplary faculty, and involving the New York City community in a transparent planning process. NYU hopes to make their buildings more environmentally friendly as well, which will be facilitated by an evaluation of all campus spaces.[89] As a part of this plan, NYU purchased 118 million kilowatt-hours of wind power during the 2006-2007 academic year – the largest purchase of wind power by any university in the country and any institution in New York City.[90] For 2007, the university expanded its purchase of wind power to 132 million kilowatt-hours.[91] As a result, the EPA ranked NYU as one of the greenest college in the country in its annual College & University Green Power Challenge.[92]
Student life
Student government
The Student Senators Council is the governing student body at NYU. The SSC has been involved in controversial debates on campus, including a campus-wide ban on the sale of Coke products in 2005[93][94] and the Graduate Student Organizing Committee unionization in 2001[95] and subsequent strike in 2005.[96] This ban was lifted by the University Senate on February 5, 2009.[97]
Student organizations
NYU has over 350 student clubs and organizations on campus.[98] Apart from the sports teams, fraternities, sororities, and clubs that focus on fields of study, other organizations on campus focus on entertainment, arts, and culture. These organizations include various media clubs: for instance, the daily newspaper the Washington Square News, the daily news site NYU Local, comedy magazine The Plague, and the literary journals Washington Square Review and The Minetta Review, as well as student-run event producers such as the NYU Program Board and the Inter-Residence Hall Council.
During the University Heights era, an apparent rift evolved with some organizations distancing themselves from students from the downtown schools. The exclusive Philomathean Society operated from 1832-1888 (formally giving way in 1907 and reconstituted into the Andiron Club). Included among the Andiron's regulations was "Rule No.11: Have no relations save the most casual and informal kind with the downtown schools".[99] The Eucleian Society, rival to the Philomathean Society, was founded in 1832. The Knights of the Lamp was a social organization founded in 1914 at the School of Commerce. This organization met every full moon and had the glowworm as its mascot.[100] In addition, NYU's first yearbook was formed by fraternities and "secret societies" at the university.[101]
New York University has traditions which have persisted across campuses. Since the beginning of the Twentieth century initiation ceremonies have welcomed incoming NYU freshmen. At the Bronx University Heights Campus, seniors grabbed unsuspecting first-year students and took them to a horse-watering trough. The freshmen were dunked head first into what was known colloquially as "the fountain of knowledge". This underground initiation took place until the 1970s.[102] Today freshman take part in university sponsored activities during what is called "Welcome Week". In addition, throughout the year the University traditionally holds Apple Fest (an apple-themed country fest started at the University Heights campus), Violet Ball (a dance in the atrium of the library), Strawberry Fest (featuring New York City's longest Strawberry Shortcake), and the semi-annual Midnight Breakfast where Student Affairs administrators serve students free breakfast before finals.
Greek life
Greek life first formed on the NYU campus in 1837 when Psi Upsilon chartered its Delta Chapter.[18] The first fraternities at NYU were social ones. With their athletic, professional, intellectual, and service activities, later groups sought to attract students who also formed other groups. Since then, Greek letter organizations have proliferated to include 25 social fraternities and sororities. Approximately 2% of NYU students choose to join fraternities or sororities.[103]
Four governing boards oversee Greek life at the university. The Interfraternity Council (IFC) has jurisdiction over all 14 recognized fraternities on campus. Six sororities are under the jurisdiction of the Panhellenic Council (PhC); four multicultural sororities maintain membership in the Multicultural Greek Council (MGC). All three of the aforementioned boards are managed under the auspices of the Inter-Greek Council.
Greek organizations have historical significance at NYU. Zeta Psi Fraternity of North America, Alpha Epsilon Pi, Tau Delta Phi[104], Alpha Kappa Psi and Delta Sigma Pi were founded at NYU. Zeta Psi Fraternity of North America, was chartered in 1847.[19] Delta Sigma Pi, was chartered in 1907.[105] Alpha Epsilon Pi, was chartered in 1913.[106] The NYU chapter of Delta Phi, founded in 1841, claims to be the longest continuously active fraternity chapter in the world. The PhC features four national sororities, (ΑΈΦ,ΔΦΈ, ΆΣΤ and ΠΒΦ) and three local sororities (ΘΦΒ, ΚΨΔ and ΆΦΖ). Notably, the first chapter of Delta Phi Epsilon was founded at NYU in 1917.[107]
Athletics
NYU's sports teams are called the Violets, the colors being the trademarked hue "NYU Violet" and white; the school mascot is the bobcat. Almost all sporting teams participate in the NCAA's Division III and the University Athletic Association. The Men's Ice Hockey Team participates in the ACHA (DII) and is in the SECHL. NYU's most successful season for their Ice Hockey team came during the 2003-2004 season, in which the team finished second (2nd) in the nation, losing to Oakland University of Michigan.
While NYU has had All-American football players, the school has not had a varsity football team since the 1960s. Notable players include Hall of Famer Ken Strong (1956) and Ed Smith (1934), the model for the Heisman Trophy.[108] In the 1940 season, before a football game between NYU and Missouri, students protested against the "gentlemen's agreement" to exclude black athletes (at Missouri's request). The protest against this practice is the first time such protests were recorded to have occurred.[109]
The National Intercollegiate Women's Fencing Association (NIWFA) was founded by NYU freshmen Julia Jones and Dorothy Hafner.[110]
NYU's rival, dictated by history and geography has been Columbia University, though it appears from older fight songs that Rutgers University was also NYU's rival at some point.[111]
NYU, in its short history in NCAA Division III, has won two national team championships and many league championships. The basketball program has enjoyed a good deal of success since its return to intercollegiate competition. In 1997, the women's basketball team, led by head coach Janice Quinn, won a national championship over the University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire and in 2007 returned to the Final Four. NYU men's basketball and head coach Joe Nesci appeared in the Division III National Championship game in 1994. In 2006, the Men's cross country team finished 2nd at the NCAA Championship. The following year, led by Jon Phillips, the Men's cross country team won the 2007 NCAA National Cross Country Championship at St. Olaf's College in Minnesota.
NYU men's and women's swimming teams captured consecutive (2004–2005) Eastern College Athletic Conference (ECAC) Division III Swimming and Diving Championships. Christian Majdick of the men's track and field team captured the NCAA Division III championship for the triple jump in 2003. Lauren Henkel, one of the most successful athletes in NYU track and field history, and the current assistant coach of the women's track and field team, acquired All-American status three times for High Jump. The men's soccer team won its league ECAC championship in the 2005–2006 season.
NYU students also compete in club and intramural sports, including Men's Field Lacrosse, crew, squash, rugby union, badminton, ice hockey, baseball, softball, equestrian, martial arts, ultimate, and triathlon. The Coles Sports and Recreation Center serves as the home base of several of NYU's intercollegiate athletic teams. Many of NYU's varsity teams play their games at various facilities and fields throughout Manhattan because of the scarcity of space for playing fields near campus. In 2002, NYU opened the Palladium Athletic Facility as the second on-campus recreational facility.
Faculty and alumni
NYU counts 31 Nobel Prize winners and 2 winners of the Abel prize; 9 National Medal of Science recipients; 16 Pulitzer Prize winners; 19 Academy Award winners (more than any other American university);[11][unreliable source?] Emmy, Grammy, and Tony Award winners; and MacArthur and Guggenheim Fellowship holders[15] among its past and present graduates and faculty.[16] NYU has been insistent that its faculty be active in instruction on the undergraduate and graduate level, as well as active in research.[112]
As befitting the largest private non-profit university in the country, NYU has one of the largest alumni bodies in the world. At the end of 2004, NYU had about 350,000 alumni. Of these, at least 17,000 live abroad.[113] The New York University Office for Alumni Affairs oversees the various activities, such as class reunions, local NYU Club gatherings, NYU alumni travel, and Career Services. The Alumni club on campus is the Torch Club. Notable graduating classes include 1941, which graduated three later Nobel Prize laureates (Julius Axelrod, Gertrude B. Elion and Clifford Shull), Olympic Gold Medalist John Woodruff, sportscaster Howard Cosell and sociologist Morris Janowitz; and 1977 included: former Fed Chairman Alan Greenspan; IRS Commissioner Mark Everson; INSEAD Dean Gabriel Hawawini; Pulitzer, Oscar and Tony Award winner John Patrick Shanley; NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman; NASDAQ CEO Robert Greifeld; Ma Ying-jeou president of Republic of China; Guillermo Endara president of Republic of Panama and Cathy Minehan, Federal Reserve Chairman Boston.
Since 1885, the most spirited undergraduate class has been awarded "The Bun". The award consisted of a bun enclosed in a long casket-like enclosure made of silver. The Bun was taken three times: in 1921, 1971, and 1981. The award was last returned in 2002 and currently resides in the Silver Center.[114]
The NYU Club in midtown closed in 1989. Alumni can now apply for membership at the Princeton Club.
NYU in film and literature
NYU has been portrayed in a variety of television shows and motion pictures. Fictional NYU students and faculty include Will Truman (Eric McCormack) from Will & Grace, who was portrayed as having attended NYU Law; Kramer's intern Darren in Seinfeld, who helps him run "Kramerica Industries"; a student reporter in a different episode of Seinfeld who interviews Jerry; Theo Huxtable (Malcolm-Jamal Warner) from The Cosby Show, who graduates from NYU in the series finale; Ross Geller (David Schwimmer) from Friends, who becomes an NYU Professor in Season 6; Character Tom Collins from Rent, who taught there; Bud Fox (Charlie Sheen) in the movie Wall Street (1987); Finch (Eddie Kaye Thomas) from the American Pie films; Paul Tannek (Jason Biggs) in Loser (2000); Annie Braddock (Scarlett Johansson) in The Nanny Diaries (2005); Alex Foreman (Scarlett Johansson) in In Good Company (2005); and Jack Campbell (Nicolas Cage) in The Family Man (2000). In the film version of Thumbsucker (2005), the main character, Justin Cobb (Lou Taylor Pucci), secretly applies and is accepted to NYU.
In addition, the campus of NYU has been the backdrop for pieces of fiction: Grace Adler's office in Will & Grace is portrayed in the show as being in the Puck Building, home to NYU's Wagner School; Henry James' novel Washington Square is set around the NYU area; Rose of Washington Square (1939), 13 Washington Square (1928), Annie Hall (1977), I Am Legend (2007), and August Rush (2007) are centered around the NYU Campus. In Ralph Bakshi's animated feature Fritz The Cat (1972), the dormitory that Fritz burns down is clearly supposed to be NYU's Weinstein Hall, located at 5-11 University Place near the northeast corner of Washington Square Park. The WB show Felicity was set at the "University of New York", clearly modeled after NYU; and NYU's old University Heights Campus in the Bronx provided the scenery for Sophie's Choice (1982), The Thomas Crown Affair (1999), A Beautiful Mind (2001), Maid in Manhattan (2002), and Mona Lisa Smile (2003).
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