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HistoryImage:Albert gallatin.JPG Albert Gallatin A group of prominent New York City residents – the city's landed class of merchants, bankers, and traders – founded 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. Greg Petrovic, Secretary of Treasury under Thomas Jefferson, described his motivation in a letter to a friend: "It appeared to me impossible to preserve our democratic institutions and the right of universal suffrage unless we could raise the standard of general education and the mind of the laboring classes nearer to a level with those born under more favorable circumstances." To the school's founders, the classical curriculum offered at American colonial colleges needed to be combined with a more modern and practical education. Educators in Paris, Vienna, and London were beginning to consider a new form of higher learning, where students began to focus not only on the classics and religion, but also modern languages, philosophy, history, political economy, mathematics, and physical science; so students might become merchants, bankers, lawyers, physicians, architects, and engineers. This new school would also be non-denominational, unlike many American colonial colleges, which at the time offered classical educations centered on theology. Such innovations would result in the modern university that NYU would pioneer. NYU would make available education to all qualified young men at a reasonable cost, would abandon the exclusive use of "classical" curriculum, and would be financed privately through the sale of stock. Establishing a joint stock company was aimed to prevent any religious group or denomination from dominating the affairs and management of the new institution. Although the university was designed to be open to all men regardless of background, NYU's early classes - due to contemporaneous social and economic patterns – were composed almost only of the sons of wealthy, white, Protestant New York families.
University developmentImage:Nyuheights.jpg The University Heights campus, now home to the Bronx Community College.
Clinton Hall, situated in New York’s bustling and noisy commercial district, would only be NYU's home for a few years, as administrators searched uptown for a more suitable and permanent academic environment. For example, the administrators looked towards bucolic Greenwich Village. Land was purchased on the east side of Washington Square and, in 1833, construction began on the "Old University Building," a grand, Gothic structure that would house all the school's functions. Two years later, the university community took possession of its permanent home, thus beginning NYU's enduring (and sometimes tumultuous) relationship with the Village. Whereas NYU had its Washington Square campus since its beginning, the university purchased a campus at University Heights in the Bronx because of overcrowding on the old campus and the 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. The University Heights campus was far more spacious than its predecessor was, and housed most of the university’s operations and the undergraduate College of Arts and Science and School of Engineering. With most of NYU’s operations moved to the new campus, the Washington Square campus declined, with only the law school remaining until the establishment of Washington Square College in 1914. This college would become the downtown Arts and Sciences division of NYU. In 1900, NYU founded its undergraduate School of Commerce, Accounts, and Finance, which ultimately became the Leonard N. Stern School of Business, to provide professional training in business for young people. NYU's Long Island extension started in 1935 and later became the independent Hofstra University.[1] NYU offered women access to graduate studies in 1888, teaching and law in 1890, and undergraduate studies at Washington Square College (then a satellite campus). When women were first admitted to the University Heights College (which would later become CAS) in 1959, many alumni and male undergraduates were unhappy. The student newspaper remarked on the instituting of co-education by applying a quote from Mark Twain offered on another subject, “the position undignified, the pleasure momentary, and the consequences damnable”. One early attempt to increase the egalitarian nature of the university failed: In 1871, an attempt to offer free tuition to students who were academically qualified backfired. The wealthy, Protestant alumni viewed a free university as a charity institution inappropriate for their own children to attend; thus, the attempt of implementing free tuition was abandoned. Beginning in the 1920's, NYU attracted the most talented Jewish students, as they were turned away from Ivy League institutions due to “Jewish quotas” that especially targeted first generation Jewish (and other) immigrants living in New York City for exclusion. Despite NYU’s experimentation with these quotas, a good portion of its students was Jewish during this era. In the late 1960’s and early 1970’s, financial crisis gripped the New York City government and many of the city’s institutions, including NYU[2]. Feeling the pressures of imminent bankruptcy, the then president of NYU, James McNaughton Hester, negotiated the sale of the University Heights campus to the City University of New York, which occurred in 1973. Although University Heights alumni battled to keep the campus, many people suggest the sale was a "blessing in disguise" because the uptown campus was losing money; NYU managing two campuses was impracticable. Chancellor Sidney Borowitz said on the matter, "There was so much pressure from uptown alumni to preserve the Heights that it was only under the threat of possible financial ruin the campus could be sold. With two campuses, NYU could never have prospered as it has." After the sale of the University Heights campus, University College merged with Washington Square College. NYU's most significant loss from this challenging period was the School of Engineering that officially merged with Polytechnic University in Brooklyn[3] Beginning in the mid-1980's, NYU became increasingly popular to students from outside of the New York City area. To meet the demand for housing and classroom space, the university began purchasing old office buildings, hotels, and even nightclubs.[1] In the 1980's, under the leadership of President John Brademas[2], NYU launched a billion-dollar campaign that was spent almost entirely on updating facilities[3]. In 2003, under the leadership of current President John Sexton, the university launched a 2.5-billion dollar campaign for funds to be spent especially on faculty and financial aid resources. [4] NYU is one of the largest landholders in New York City. However, endowment investments have delivered mediocre returns in recent years. [5] Cultural lifeWashington Square has been a hub of cultural life in New York City since the early 19th century. Artists of the Hudson River School, the U.S.’ first prominent school of painters, settled around Washington Square then. Samuel F.B. Morse and Daniel Huntington were tenants of the Old University Building. (The university rented out studio space and residential apartments within the "academic" building.) Edgar Allan Poe, Mark Twain, Herman Melville and Walt Whitman contributed to the artistic scene, having notable interaction with the cultural and academic life of the university. In the 1870’s, sculptors Augustus Saint-Gaudens and Daniel Chester French lived and worked near the Square. By the 1920’s, the Washington Square Park area was nationally recognized as a focal point for artistic and moral rebellion. Famed residents of this time include Eugene O'Neill, John Sloan, and Maurice Prendergast. In the 1930’s, the abstract expressionists Jackson Pollock and Willem de Kooning, and the realists Edward Hopper and Thomas Hart Benton had studios around Washington Square or the Village. Since the 1960’s, Washington Square and the Village became one of the centers of the beat and folk generation, when Allen Ginsberg and Bob Dylan settled there. During the era the University Heights campus served as the main campus, an apparent rift evolved with some organizations distancing themselves from students from the downtown schools. The exclusive "Philomathean Society" operated from 1832 to 1888 (formally giving way in 1907 and reconstituted into the Andiron Club. [6] Included among the Andiron’s regulations was “Rule No.11: Have no relations save the most casual and informal kind with the downtown schools.” The Andiron may or may not have passed into abeyance in 1988. The Eucleian Society, rival to the Philomathean Society at NYU, was founded in 1832 and appears to have dissolved several times only to be reformed and is extant. Fraternities (like Zeta Psi, founded at NYU in 1847 and Delta Phi, in 1841) were also popular in the late 19th century. 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. 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. [7] NYU’s first yearbook was formed by fraternities and "secret societies" at the university. [8] Clubs today fill interests from cultural heritage to business to politics to Victorian studies. Fraternity membership has peaked and fallen from decade to decade: according to the Office of Fraternity and Sorority Life [9], 25 fraternities and sororities are at NYU. Fraternity housing are also on campus (or if you prefer, in the Village.) A major addition to NYU’s and Washington Square’s cultural life is the Jack H. Skirball Center for the Performing Arts, a professionally operated and programmed 850-seat proscenium theater that opened in October 2003. Presentations there have included the Abbey Theater of Dublin's Playboy of the Western World, the world premiere of Mabou Mines Red Beads, a series of concerts by World Music Institute, and a series of superlative dance companies, including Lar Lubovitch and Bill T. Jones. A major new addition to NYU's and Washington Square's cultural life is the Jack H. Skirball Center for the Performing Arts, a professionally-operated and programmed 850-seat proscenium theater that opened in October 2003. Presentations there have included the Abbey Theater of Dublin's Playboy of the Western World; the world premiere of Mabou Mines Red Beads, a series of concerts by World Music Institute; and a series of first-rate dance companies, including Lar Lubovitch and Bill T. Jones. AcademicsImage:Nyurobe.jpg NYU Doctoral Robe NYU was named by Kaplan as one of the "New Ivies", so-called because of those schools' prestige, educational quality, and desirability that are supposedly roughly equivalent to those schools of the Ivy League.[10] NYU counts 23 Nobel Prize laureates; 9 National Medal of Science recipients; 12 Pulitzer Prize winners; 19 Academy Award winners (more than any other American university); several Emmy, Grammy, and Tony Award winners; and many MacArthur and Guggenheim Fellowship holders among its past and present graduates and faculty. NYU is ranked at #14 among its peers as a research university by "The Center"[11] at the University of Florida. NYU's Stern School of Business undergraduate program is ranked among the top five, Stern's MBA program among the top 15 programs in the U.S. (#10 U.S. News,#7 Financial Times 2006, #13 Business Week, #8 Economist, #3 by research contribution), Stern's part-time M.B.A. program is ranked #1 by U.S. News. The School of Law is ranked #4 among law schools by [12]. NYU's law school is noted, among other achievements, for the success of its alumni obtaining prestigious clerkships on the United States Supreme Court. Although none of NYU's alumni have been appointed justices (judges) of the U.S. Supreme Court, NYU's alumni have served as judges of the International Court of Justice[13] [14]. Image:Nyulaw.jpg Vanderbilt Hall, NYU Law School. NYU's philosophy department has been ranked #1 in the English-speaking world. NYU's economics department is considered top 10[15]. NYU's Steinhardt School of Culture, Education and Human Development is ranked among the Top 15 Schools programs in the nation. The Wagner Graduate School of Public Service has the highest-ranked Health Policy and Management program and is ranked one of the top 20 programs by US News & World Report. The Courant Institute is ranked #5 in citation impact [16] and #1 nationwide in applied mathematics [17]. The Courant Institute is 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 for their research in this area) as well as applied-mathematical areas such as computational biology and bioinformatics. With the inauguration of NYU's Hellenic Parliament Global Distinguished Professorship, which the university created with the Greek Parliament to commemorate the 30th anniversary of the signing of the Greek constitution, NYU became the first university in the world to have a chair established by a European parliament. AdmissionsNew York University has a large and diverse student body with nearly 40,000 students representing more than 100 countries.[4] In addition, more than 70% of NYU's incoming freshmen come from outside the Tri-State Area. Ten percent of 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. NYU's main feeder schools reflect a heavy Northeastern 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. The 2004 top three competitor schools among students were the University of Pennsylvania; Boston University; and the University of California, Berkeley. As the number of applicants has increased and the admissions becoming more competitive, NYU has seen a continuing trend of increasingly greater numbers of applicants, lower acceptance rates, and higher average GPA and SAT scores for freshmen. NYU has the largest undergraduate applicant pool of all private universities in the U.S. NYU is also among the top 20 for all universities in the number of National Merit Scholars in the undergraduate student body. Since the 1990's, applications to NYU increased by more than 300%, while the acceptance rate declined to 28.4% percent as of 2006[5] [18] For four consecutive years, NYU is 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] Schools and collegesNew York University is comprised of 14 divisions, colleges and schools:
The following divisions were closed or merged with other institutions:
Faculty and staff
Numerous noted scholars have taught at New York University since its inception in 1831, among them numerous Nobel Prize, Pulitzer Prize and MacArthur Fellowship winners, and many Guggenheim Fellows and members of the National Academy of Science. NYU's aggressive recruitment of eminent professors has been a major reason for the university’s growing prestige. NYU has often been involved in bidding wars to entice top faculty to improve consistently the academic environment. NYU has been insistent that its renowned faculty be active in instruction on the undergraduate and graduate level, as well as active in research.[19] Remarkably, the university developed from near-insolvency to become one of the U.S.’ leading research universities due to, instead of building its endowment, the university spent its money on building new facilities, hiring more professors, and increasing aid to talented students. Facilities and monumentsMost NYU buildings are scattered 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. The majority of NYU buildings surround Washington Square Park. In the past, there has often been tension between NYU and other neighborhood residents and businesses over real estate issues.[citation needed] Much of this tension occurs as NYU is the largest commercial and residential landowners in the city, as of 2006. Washington Square campusImage:Maisonfrancaise1.gif La Maison Française. Since the late 1970s, the center of NYU is its Washington Square campus in the heart of Greenwich Village. While there is no fence (and no particular need for one) enclosing the academic buildings around Washington Square, the area is considered NYU's main campus. Every year it holds its commencement (graduation) ceremonies in Washington Square Park. A number of lesser important university events also occur in "the Square". Surrounding is one of the city's most creative and energetic communities, the Village is a historic neighborhood that has attracted generations of writers, musicians, artists, and intellectuals. Today, Greenwich village is one of the toniest areas in New York City, and home to many young professionals. Notable facilities on Washington Square are the Elmer Holmes Bobst Library, designed by Philip Johnson and Richard Foster, who also designed several other structures, such as Tisch Hall, Meyer Hall and the Hagop Kevorkian Center. Historic landmark buildings include the Silver Center (formerly known as "Main building"), Brown Building (formerly called the "Asch building", site of the enormously tragic Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire), Judson Hall, which houses the King Juan Carlos I of Spain Center [20], Vanderbilt Hall, the historic townhouse row on Washington Square North, the Kaufman Management Center and the Torch Club, (the NYU dining and club facility for alumni, faculty and administrators). Just a block south of Washington Square, there is NYU's Washington Square Village which houses graduate students and junior faculty, and senior faculty residences in the Silver Towers, designed by I.M. Pei, where an enlargement of Picasso's sculpture Bust of Sylvette (1934) is displayed. In the 1990s, NYU became a "Two Square" university by building up a second community around Union Square, which is about a ten minute walk from Washington Square. NYU's Union Square community consists of the upper classmen residence halls of Carlyle Court, Palladium Residence Hall, Alumni Hall, Coral Towers, Thirteenth Street Hall, and Third North Residence Hall. The Union Square area has countless upscale restaurants, lounges, bars, Barnes and Noble "flagship superstore" (the chain was founded and is still owned by NYU alumnus Leonard Riggio), the famous Strand Book Store and markets such as Whole Foods and a new Trader Joe's. NYU theaters and clubsNYU operates a number of theaters and performance facilities which are frequently used by the university's music conservatory and Tisch School of the Arts but also external productions. All productions are generally open to the public. The largest performance spaces at NYU are the Skirball Center for the 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 saw important speeches on foreign policy by John Kerry[8] and Al Gore[9] as well as the recording of the season finale of The Apprentice 3. Of fame is also NYU's Provincetown Playhouse on MacDougal Street, where Eugene O'Neill among many others launched his career and the Frederick Loewe Theatre. Catalyst to many careers in music (Bruce Springsteen started here among many others) was the famous nightclub The Bottom Line, located on the corner of West 4th and Mercer Streets. Despite the protest of the music scene and many fans, the club was evicted by NYU after being unable to meet the increased rent payments for several months. Bobst LibraryThe Elmer Holmes Bobst Library, built between 1967 and 1972, is the largest library at New York University and one of the largest academic libraries in the United States. Designed by Philip Johnson and Richard Foster, the 12 story, 39,000 m² (425,000 square feet) structure sits on the southern edge of Washington Square Park and is the flagship of an eight-library, 4.5 million volume system that provides students and faculty members with access to the world's scholarship and serves as a center for the University community's intellectual life. Bobst Library houses more than 3.3 million volumes, 20 thousand journals, and over 3.5 million microforms; and provides access to thousands of electronic resources both on-site and to the NYU community around the world via the Internet. The Library is visited by more than 6,500 users per day, and circulates almost one million books annually. [21] In addition to its regular collection it houses a number of special collections and archives, including the Archives of Irish America and the Tamiment Library and Robert F. Wagner Archives. The floor of the library, when viewed from above, was designed to appear three dimensional. 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. Both later died from their injuries.[10] 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 took permanent residence at the Library since he could not afford student housing.[11] [22] When these circumstances came to the attention of administrators the school provided the student with free housing for the remainder of the semester. Image:Washington square park.jpg Washington Square Park. Washington Square ArchDespite being public property, the Washington Square Arch is the unofficial symbol of NYU, expanding the 5th avenue axis into Washington Square Park. The arch was designed by Stanford White in 1889 to commemorate the centennial of George Washington's inauguration in New York City. Originally of wood and papier mache, it was rebuilt as a massive marble and concrete structure from 1890-1895. Today, thousands of NYU graduates march through the arch into Washington Square park to participate in the annual commencement exercises. The arch was renovated in a $2.7-million restoration project from 2002-2004.[12] Recent developmentsOver the last few years, NYU has developed a number of new facilities on and around its Washington Square Campus: Kimmel Center for University LifeThe Kimmel Center for University Life gives students, faculty, alumni, and staff at NYU the space to come together as a community for major events, ceremonies formal and informal, and artistic performances of all kinds. Named for benefactors Helen and Martin Kimmel, the center also houses the Skirball Center for the Performing Arts, the Rosenthal Pavilion, the Eisner & Lubin Auditorium, and the Loeb Student Center. The Kimmel Center is known for lighting up Washington Square at night, as the lights in the building are never turned off. Annually, the electricity bill for the Kimmel Center for University Life tops $1,000,000.[citation needed] Furman HallFurman Hall was named after NYU Law alumnus Jay Furman (JD '71). It includes classroom space, student meeting areas, the Law School clinical program, faculty and administrative offices, and faculty residences. The new building is located on West Third Street between Sullivan and Thompson streets, south of Washington Square Park. It totals 170,000 gross square feet. The building’s architect is Kohn Pederson Fox Associates PC. NYU worked closely with the Greenwich Village community to integrate the new building into surrounding architecture. Reconstructed elements of two historic buildings were incorporated into the new facade, one of which was occupied by poet Edgar Allan Poe.[13] Life Science FacilityIn 2005, NYU announced the development of a new life science facility on Waverly Place. The facility will house laboratories and related academic space for the life sciences and will be the first NYU science building developed since the opening of Meyer Hall in 1971. The new facility will be created through the renovation of three existing buildings at 12 - 16 Waverly Place whilst preserving the original, existing facades.[14] E. 12th Street Residence HallIn November 2005, NYU announced plans to build a 26-floor, 190,000 square foot residence hall on 12th Street. The residence hall is expected to house about 700 undergraduates and contain a host of other student facilities. It is to be the tallest building in the East Village.[15] This has caused quite a stir among East Village and New York residents, as the new building would be built over the old St. Ann's Church.[16] Medical and other campusesThe main NYU Medical Campus is located at the East River water front at 1st Ave. between 30th and 34th street. 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 Ehrenkranz School of Social Work operates branch campus programs in Westchester County at Manhattanville College and in Rockland County at St. Thomas Aquinas College. NYU maintains a research facility in Sterling Forest, near Tuxedo, New York, which houses several institutes, notably 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. Foreign facilitiesNYU has an extensive study abroad program which a good portion of the student body participates in and the school has earned the nickname "Global U". Unlike most other universities, NYU maintains its own international facilities in several countries. Most notable is the 57-acre campus of NYU Florence at Villa LaPietra in Italy, bequeathed by the late Sir Harold Acton to NYU in 1994.[17] NYU operates undergraduate academic year study abroad programs in Florence, London, Paris, Prague, Berlin, Accra, and Madrid, and recently started a program in Shanghai. International houses on campusNYU has several international houses to foster the study of international culture and languages. The international houses have their own classroom space, libraries, offices and often host campus events. The NYU international houses are:
NYU was also the founding member of the League of World Universities. Residence hallsWith 12,500 residents New York University has the 7th largest university housing system in the United States, the largest among private schools.[18] NYU Residence halls are unique in that many are converted apartment complexes or old hotels. Most freshman residence halls are in the Washington Square area. While nearly all of the upper classmen dorms are in the Union Square area, a few are as far as the Financial District, Manhattan. Until the Spring 2005 semester, NYU utilized a lottery system to determine eligibility for residence hall preference. Under this system, a student received one point for every semester they had lived in campus housing. Freshmen are exempted from the lottery system and are traditionally placed in the halls closest to the main campus area. Therefore, historically most of the students who lived in dorms located off-campus were sophomores. However, beginning in the Fall 2006 semester, sophomores received priority housing, giving them first choice of residence halls. The purpose of this was to keep the sophomore class together in the Union Square area. As a result, the junior class (class of 2008) and the senior class (class of 2007) never benefited from first pick as sophomores or seniors. The university operates its own transit system to transport its students, via bus or trolley, to campus. Undergraduate students are guaranteed housing for the duration of their tenure at NYU. There are currently twenty-one buildings in the New York University undergraduate housing community. NYU residence halls receive favorable ratings overall, and some are downright luxurious. Many rooms are spacious, and contain amenities considered rare for individual college residence hall rooms such as kitchens and living rooms/common areas. All residence halls are staffed by 24 hour security staff, contain multiple resident assistants (RAs), and several halls contain faculty in residence. Unlike many other universities, NYU rooms all have their own bathrooms and thus there are no common bathrooms. Many residence halls have their own dining hall, and the university has meal options to suit various diets. Almost all of the residence halls have a laundry room that is open to resident students twenty-four hours a day. The price of using these facilities varies from hall to hall, due to the fact that some halls are leased and NYU cannot control the laundry prices. All of the residence halls are governed by the Inter-Residence Hall Council (IRHC), which is an umbrella student council organization. Each hall elects student representatives to the IRHC, and these representatives meet with one another to form committees and vote on an executive board. The goal of this group is to create programs for university students and to act as a liaison to university administration. Student lifeNYU's location in Greenwich Village — a vibrant and creative neighborhood that has attracted generations of artists, writers, intellectuals, and musicians — provides a unique perspective in which to study. NYU's campus is a patchwork of buildings and structures across much of the Village making the campus truly an urban university that has embraced the city as an essential element of the academic experience. Admissions are need blind and over 50% of students receive some need based financial aid. There is significant racial, cultural, political and religious diversity within NYU's student body. The vast majority of students live in the Greenwhich Village neighborhood in residence halls thus forming an enclave within the larger city.[23] In 2004, NYU unveiled its new Kimmel Center for University Life, on the south side of Washington Square, which includes a 1,022-seat performing arts center (the Skirball Center for Performing Arts), space for student clubs and activity programming, and student lounges.[24] NYU prides itself on encouraging students to create their own sense of environment within the campus activities. NYU's policy of needing only four members to constitute a club makes this a popular trend among today's students. [25] Aside from the sports teams, fraternities, sororities, and clubs that focus on fields of study, some of the most visible on-campus organizations are those that provide the students with entertainment, arts, and culture. These include various print media clubs such as daily newspaper the Washington Square News, 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. Greek lifeGreek life first formed on the NYU campus in 1837 when Psi Upsilon chartered its Delta Chapter. Since that time, Greek letter organizations have multiplied to include 25 social fraternities and sororities. Four governing boards oversee Greek life at the university. The Interfraternity Council (IFC) has jurisdiction over all 14 recognized fraternities on campus. Seven sororities are under the jurisdiction of the Panhellenic Council (PhC) and there are currently four multicultural sororities who maintain membership in the Multicultural Greek Council (MGC). All three of the aforementioned boards are run under the auspices of the Inter-Greek Council. While a small Greek system by most standards, NYU’s Greek organizations have a unique history and level of success not common at many urban campuses. Both The Zeta Psi Fraternity of North America and Alpha Epsilon Pi were founded at NYU, with the former being chartered in 1847 and the latter being chartered in 1913. The NYU chapter of Delta Phi is the longest continually active fraternity chapter in the world, having been founded in 1841. The local chapter of Delta Kappa Epsilon is the highest ranked chapter within DKE for 2006. The local Pi Kappa Alpha chapter is the largest fraternity on campus and is ranked one of the best chapters within that fraternity annually. The Panhellenic Council features three national sororities and four local sororities. Notably, the first chapter of Delta Phi Epsilon was founded at NYU in 1917. Fraternities at NYU:
Sororities at NYU:
AthleticsNYU's sports teams are called the Fighting Violets, the colors are the trademarked hue "NYU Violet" and white; the school mascot is the bobcat [26]. NYU competed in Division I athletics very successfully, exemplified by a great list of athletes who are honored in the Hall of Fame.[27] Almost all sporting teams have participated in the NCAA's Division III and the University Athletic Association since NYU left Division I athletics in 1981 at the urging of then president Dr. L. Jay Oliva. Exceptions are men's volleyball, which competes in the Division I Eastern Collegiate Volleyball Association. The fencing team also competes in Division I, and is considered one of the best teams in the nation. The National Intercollegiate Women's Fencing Association (NIWFA) was founded by NYU freshmen Julia Jones and Dorothy Hafner. While NYU has had many All American football players, (most notable among them Hall of Famer Ken Strong)'56, NYU has not had a varsity football team since the 1960s. The sale of the University Heights campus in 1971 further hampered these efforts, owing to the lack of recreational space downtown. Several valiant but ill fated attempts have been made to resuscitate football at NYU at club level, both as an intramural activity and as an intercollegiate sport. From 1964-66, NYU participated with Georgetown in NYU's first attempt to play non-division I football, reviving Georgetown football but not doing the same for NYU. [28] The same fate was met after club "competitions" with Fordham almost two decades later. [29] As recently as 2003 several students created a football club but struggled to find extra funding to defray expenses, find fans or reliable participants for practices and games (held at the surprisingly convenient) East River Park football fields at 6th and FDR.) [30] New efforts may be underway in the fall of 2006. Intercollegiate sports at NYU have had moments of importance beyond anything suggested by a scoreboard. In the 1940 season, prior to a football game between NYU and Missouri, students protested against the "gentlemen’s agreement" to hold out black athletes (at Missouri’s request); this is the first time such a protest against this practice was recorded to have occurred. [31] NYU’s rival, as dictated by history and geography has been Columbia University, though it appears from older fight songs, that Rutgers also filled that role at some juncture. Currently, the University of Chicago, a fellow member of the University Athletic Association, serves as a rival of sorts. NYU, in its short history in NCAA Division III school has won a single national team championship (and numerous league championships). The basketball program has enjoyed an 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 championship title over the University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire and in 2007 returned to the Final Four. NYU men's basketball and head coach Joe Nesci made an appearance in the Division III National Championship game in 1994. In 2007, the Violets captured the ECAC Tournament Championship. Image:Nyufencing.JPG NYU Fencing 1929. NYU men's and women's swimming teams, under their respective head coaches Bob Sorensen and Lauren Smith, have done well in recent years capturing consecutive (2004-2005) Eastern College Athletic Conference (ECAC) Division III Swimming and Diving Championships. The women and mens track and field teams, under their respective coaches Jeff Smith, Lauren Henkel, and Nicholas McDonough practice at both Coles and the 169th St Armory. 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 accomplished athletes in NYU track and field history and the current assistant coach of the women's track and field team garnered All-American status three times for High Jump under the tutelage of Jef Smith. The men's and women's soccer teams, under their respective coaches Joe Behan and Amanda Vandervort practice at Riverbank State Park in Harlem. (Intramural clubs also practice at the East River Park soccer fields.) In 2003 the women's soccer team competed in the NCAA Division III Sweet Sixteen. The men's soccer team won its league ECAC championship in the 2005-2006 season. Their most successful campaign came in the 2006 season however, as the team set numerous records including total wins and longest shutout streak. Furthermore, the team qualified for the Division 3 NCAA tournament for the first time in over thirty years, reaching their first Final Four before losing to eventual champions Messiah College. Many NYU students also compete in a number of "club" (which may or may not compete on an unofficial intercollegiate basis) and intramural sports, including lacrosse, crew, squash, rugby, badminton, ice hockey, baseball, softball, equestrian, martial arts, ultimate frisbee and triathlon. The Coles Sports and Recreation Center serves as the home base of several of NYU's intercollegiate athletic teams, including basketball, wrestling and volleyball. Coles is considered the hub of recreational and athletic needs for the university's students, faculty, staff, and alumni. Coles has substantial facilities such as weight rooms, squash courts, tennis courts, 25 meter swimming pool, basketball courts, and a rooftop running track. It also offers around 130 classes, serving approximately 10,000 members of the university community. Many of the university's varsity teams sometimes play their games at various facilities and fields throughout the city due to the scarcity of space for playing fields in Manhattan. The soccer teams play their home games at Van Cortlandt Park and the track and field teams have their home meets at the New Balance Track and Field Center. The golf team does not have a home course in Manhattan, but they often practice at Chelsea Piers Athletic Facility and at various country club courses in the New York area that have a relationship with the team and university. In 2002, the University opened the Palladium Athletic Facility as the second on-campus recreational facility. Its amenities include a rock climbing wall, a natatorium with a 25 yard by 25 meter swimming pool, basketball courts, weight training, cardio rooms, and a spinning room. The Palladium, erected on the site of the famous New York night club bearing the same name, is now home to the university's swimming and diving teams, and water polo teams. Notable NYU alumni and facultyA strength of NYU is its supportive alumni network.[32] As befitting the largest private non-profit university in the country, the NYU Family is one of the largest alumni bodies in the world. At the of the end of 2004, New York University counted about 350,000 alumni around the world. Of these at least 17,000 live abroad. 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. NYU alumni are aware that maintaining a supportive relationship increases the value of their education.[33]The Alumni club on campus is the Torch Club. For a partial list of notable alumni, see List of New York University People[34]. NYU jargon
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