By Nina Burleigh 4:11pm

The Bombshell

Abu Dhabi illustration

Louvre, Guggenheim and NYU Accept Millions From Abu Dhabi but Remain Silent on Human Rights

Three of the Western world’s premier cultural institutions—New York University, the Guggenheim and the Louvre—are in various stages of setting up shop on Sa’adiyat (“Happiness”) Island in Abu Dhabi, forming what has been described as a “highbrow cultural theme park” in the desert city-state. The deals that the Guggenheim and NYU cut with the emir are not news. Petro-potentates started collecting liberal institutions as the latest Western must-have a decade ago.  Read More

By The Editors 4/24/12 8:11pm

opinion

Good Deal for NYU and N.Y.C.

When Mayor Bloomberg announced the other day that the city would, in essence, provide New York University and its partners with a rent-free building for a new school of applied science in Brooklyn, a reporter asked why an elite school with a large endowment deserved such a sweet-sounding deal.

If Mr. Bloomberg was prepped for such a question, it showed. NYU, the mayor quickly noted, planned to spend $60 million of its own money to move Transit Authority equipment and city personnel out of the building it intends to occupy. “We should be saying thank you to them,” Mr. Bloomberg said.

Truth be told, NYU doesn’t need public expressions of gratitude. Read More

By Michael Ewing 4/17/12 10:34am

It Takes a Village

Is that someone wearing a purple shirt in the window? (Courtesy of Wikipedia)

Cooper Union Junior Pranks Gothamist With News of School’s Sale to NYU—Which Is Actually Pretty Believable

Buzz on the street about New York University’s latest purchase turns out to be false!

If big purple already didn’t own most of Manhattan, it wasn’t much a shock to have learned from Gothamist that the school/corporation bought Cooper Union yesterday morning. A press release from a @cooper.edu rolled int Gothamist’s inbox and linked Read More

By Emily Witt 11/29/11 8:29am

Birds

Violet and Pip in happier days.

Prognosis Bleak for Violet the Hawk

Today The New York Times reports on the sad fate of Violet the red-tailed hawk, who nested on a window ledge at New York University last spring and raised a chick named Pip. The hawk cam is no longer active, but things have gotten bad for Violet, whose leg was previously infected by a wildlife band that appeared to cut off circulation (the band had been on her leg since 2006). Read More

By Anna Sanders 10/06/11 1:21pm

Faking it

Screen Shot 2011-09-29 at 11.24.49 PM

@FakeNYULocal Brings Media Mockery to the Dorms

The media maxim that you haven’t made it until you have a Twitter doppelganger now applies to the stars of New York University campus journalism.

NYU Local, the student-produced news blog founded in 2008, acquired lively fake Twitter and Tumblr accounts this summer.

As far as social media satire goes, Fake NYU Local is less interested in mocking NYU Local than it is in stirring up trouble across campus. Read More

By Laura Gilbert 7:20pm

Exhibit

Ceiling Tile with Female Face, from the Synagogue, Dura-Europos, ca. 245 CE

Earliest Known Images of Christ on Display at NYU

This Friday, the earliest known images of Christ, from the year 240, go on view in New York for the first time, and they aren’t where you might expect them to be. They are part of a remarkable exhibition at the relatively obscure N.Y.U. Institute for the Study of the Ancient World, a jewel-box of a museum on East 84th Street whose mission, according to exhibitions director Dr. Jennifer Chi, is “to break down preconceived notions of antiquity.” Read More

By Azi Paybarah 3/04/11 7:07pm

Schooling

Brodsky Lands at N.Y.U.

Richard Brodsky, a long-time Assemblyman who never hesitated to tell reporters how to cover the state capital, gets to shape the discussion at N.Y.U., as a senior fellow.

Brodsky gave up his seat to run, unsuccessfully for attorney general last year. The notably anti-Albany sentiment on the campaign trail made his bid particularly challenging. But Read More

By Laura Kusisto 2/02/11 12:50am

Features

The World’s Biggest College Town

On a gray Friday in January, a largely empty church on 121st Street and Broadway was immaculate in the way of a rarely used living room. Even on a slushy winter morning, Corpus Christi’s floors gleamed.

At noon sharp, in the rectory next door, the Rev. Raymond Rafferty, the church’s pastor, leaned forward, checked his Read More