NYU Housing Guide 2022

HOUSING GUIDE 2022

WASHINGTON SQUARE NEWS STAFF

EDITOR-IN-CHIEF Alex Tey MANAGING EDITOR Trace Miller DEPUTY Arnav Binaykia Asha Ramachandran Sabrina Choudhary COPY CHIEF Gillian Blum Max Tiefer DEPUTY Ariana Wahab Sam Spray UNDER THE ARCH Publishing Editor Caitlin Hsu Sydney Barragan Senior Editor Ivy Zhu Staff Editor Jules Roscoe Sunny Sequeira Portraits Editor Kiersten Dugan Exposures Editor Julian Hammond Santander Voices Editor Aleksandra Goldberg

MULTIMEDIA Multimedia Editor Manasa Gudavalli Ryan Walker Photo Editor Camila Ceballos Sam Tu Social Media Editor Luca Richman Video Director Edward Franco Audio Director Vaishnavi Naidu DESIGN Creative Director Charitssa Stone Susan Behrends Valenzuela Illustration Editor Aaliya Luthra Illustration Staff Bridget Harshman Jae Jin Natalia Palacino

CONTENTS 02 Letter from the Editors 04 Dorm fast facts 08 What I wish I’d known: Students on residence halls

09 Surviving NYU’s housing accommodations

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I used to be an RA. Here’s why I quit.

12

The unpalatable reality of NYU dining

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LETTER FROM THE EDITORS

Camila Ceballos

Sleeping on a twin XL bed isn’t ideal, but anyone can make the best of it — or the worst of it.

We want to make the best of it. Living in a city as big as New York can be daunting, and as students ourselves, we know the importance of having a tiny slice of the city to call home. So we put together this issue to help Violets, Bobcats or whatever our mascot actually is find their next home.

We would’ve called it a Home Guide, but that doesn’t roll off the tongue as smoothly, does it?

As always, we begin with an introduction to all of the residence halls at NYU. This year, we wanted to add something extra for

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our incoming first-years, so we had WSN staff and other students speak about their experiences in each first-year dorm.

In this issue, we dive into the reality behind NYU‘s resident assistant job, the struggle to find housing accommodations and the pitfalls that students with dietary restrictions face at NYU’s dining halls. Huge shoutout to our writers — Voices Editor Aleksandra Goldberg and contributing writers Cat Howard and Aditi Sharma — for their amazing work on these articles.

Finally, we wanted to include feedback from students themselves. We asked students to share what they wish they had known before moving into NYU dorms, as well as the

reasons they chose to either stay in NYU housing or move into an apartment after their first year. We thought this would give a comprehensive look into the reality of housing options here in the city.

Special thanks to everyone who helped us out with this issue, from those who filled out our plethora of Google forms, to those who contributed first-year dorm blurbs, to our wonderful management, multimedia and design teams. And, of course, thank you to our Under the Arch staff, who never cease to amaze us.

So here it is. Grab some popcorn or Cup Noodles, turn on your non-halogen lamp, get cozy in your squeaky twin XL and enjoy UTA’s 2022 Housing Guide.

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DORM FAST FACTS

First-year residence halls

“I think Brittany is one of the most underrated dorms at NYU. The rooms are some of the nicest and most renovated I’ve seen in any dorm: wooden floors, motion-sensing lights and no popcorn ceiling. I lived on the 12th floor facing E. 10th St., so I woke up every morning to a lovely view of the city. Alec Baldwin even lives on the Farheen Khan same street, which could be a good Brittany Hall or bad thing depending on whether 55 E. 10th St. $7,913 for a double or $7,033 for a he has punched anyone in the face over a parking spot that week. On a triple more personal note, I met a wonderful Two themed floors: Black Violets community of people on my floor, and For All Musical Endeavors some of whom I’m still friends with, Five-minute walk to Washington even in my final year of college. My Square Park experience at Brittany definitely made Large lounges, performance my freshman year special. ” space, recreation room, music —— Caitlin Hsu, UTA Publishing Editor room, dance room, penthouse, study lounge and laundry room Shared microwaves and mini fridges Previously a Prohibition-era hotel Subway access: Astor Pl station , 8 St-NYU station , 14 St-Union Sq station

“Standing 26 floors tall on E. 12th St. is Founders Hall, the dorm I am proud to call my first-year home. I live in a suite with one roommate and two suitemates.

The rooms are spacious — and not just

by New York City standards. There is enough room in my dorm for me to pace around when I get bored or for my roommates to complete a jigsaw Farheen puzzle on the floor without taking up Founders Hall Khan all of our real estate. The views from 120 E. 12th St. the upper floors are breathtaking, $7,913 for a double so leaving our blinds open most of Ten-minute walk to Washington the time is a must-do. The distance Square Park from Washington Square Park and Two TV lounges and one study many NYU buildings is inconvenient lounge with computers at times, but the walk is manageable Microwave and fridge in each if you give yourself time before class. suite Plus, buildings near dining halls, such Water bottle filling stations on as Third Avenue North and University certain floors Hall, are only a short walk away. “ Beautiful exterior with old church —— Gillian Blum, Copy Chief front A Greek prince lived here 20192020 when he was a first-year Subway access: 14 St-Union Sq station

“Goddard is the perfect location for a student who is passionate about niche subjects. Since all floors are themed and you need to apply to get in, everyone there has an interest in something and has loads to talk about. My theme was “All the World’s a Stage,” and we were able to go to shows like La Bohème at the Met Opera for free. I still talk to a lot of my friends from Goddard, as we have a lot in common. That being said, Goddard is a small dorm. It’s basically six floors, so you’ll get an extremely close campus feel. Its reputation as a quiet and wholesome dorm, plus its location at the center of campus, make it a perfect place to live among the chaos. I still remember going to or coming back from Bobst at 2 a.m. — it’s really convenient! I lived on the side overlooking Washington Square Park, so I woke up to jazz music in the park on weekends.”

—— Aki Tan, CAS ‘23

“To me, Lipton Hall is the superior firstyear dorm. The best thing is definitely the location — I leave 10 minutes before my classes, and it’s such an amazing feeling. I met people in class who lived in my dorm and it was easy to do homework together. My very best friends live in the building, and we visit each other, get ready to go out together and eat lunch together in Joshua Becker Lipton Hall Washington Square Park. It’s easy and 33 Washington Square W. Ranges from $7,033 to $9,408 for comfortable. The Fellows in Residence also organize a lot of fun activities. I a single, double or triple went to Summit, the artsy observation Three exploration floors: NYU deck, as a dorm activity — it turned a Show, Vivir en Español and normal Wednesday into an incredible L’Étage Français Adjacent to Washington Square day. Overall, I think that part of having a great experience in your first includes Park living in Lipton Hall.”

Large common room with com—— Camila Ceballos, Photo Editor munal kitchen and game room, quiet study spaces, and dance and music practice rooms Spacious study lounges Vegan and vegetarian options at Lipton dining hall Cole and Dylan Sprouse lived here when they were first-years Subway access: W 4 St-Wash Sq , 8 Ststation NYU station

Goddard Hall

Sam Tu

79 Washington Square E. Ranges from $5,881 to $9,408 for a single, lower-cost double or lower-cost triple Has a specialized Writing the Essay course that is integrated with the stream programming experience — Engagement Streams: All the World’s a Stage, Creators and Innovators, Global New York and Inequality & Difference: A Tale of Two New York Cities Adjacent to Washington Square Park Smallest first-year residence hall The only Residential College open to first-years Subway access: W 4 St-Wash Sq station , Astor Pl station , 8 St-NYU station

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“While farther from campus than most first-year dorms, Rubin’s convenient four-minute walk to Washington Square Park and eight-minute walk to Union Square is unrivaled. Plus, not everyone can say they’ve lived on Fifth Avenue. Rubin is an old building, but that isn’t a huge problem — it just means chipping paint and low water Rachel Wu pressure. The rooms are surprisingly Rubin Hall spacious, especially if you’re lucky 35 Fifth Ave. Ranges from $4,466 to $7,913 for a enough to be in a corner room. But if you’re in a regular triple and chose to private studio, double or unbunk the bunk bed, it’ll be sort of a lower-cost triple tight fit. Rubin’s only flaw is its lack of Home to the Inequality and Justice themed engagement community on air conditioning — and it can get very hot — but it’s a decent temperature for the 16th floor most of the school year. You really only Five-minute walk to Washington need air conditioning for the beginning Square Park of fall and end of spring. Even then, I No air conditioning, but low-cost highly recommend obtaining a fan or options available Study lounges with air conditioning, portable air conditioner — it’ll save your life. “ theater, dance room, piano room —— Lorraine Olaya, Abroad Copy and billiards room Chief Citi Bike rack around the block on 11th Street Subway access: 14 St-Union Sq station ,W 4 St-Wash Sq station , Astor Pl station

“I met some of my best friends and some of my worst enemies here.

Third Avenue North‘s apartment-style housing really allows you to get to know the people you live with — for better or for worse. I did love living on Third Avenue and not having to deal with the Friday night noise pollution from Washington Square Park. Having Third Avenue North Manasa a kitchen was a big perk — and a flex Gudavalli — as a freshman. I was able to make 75 Third Ave. my stovetop oats before heading to my Ranges from $7,354 to $10,425 for 8 a.m. classes every morning and not a lower-cost single or lower-cost have to deal with dining hall breakfast. double The courtyard in the middle of the Two exploration floors: 3rd North Third North towers was an excellent Theatre Arts Company and Big late-night bonding session spot for my Apple, Big Screen friends and I. Overall, I wouldn’t do it Ten-minute walk to Washington again, but it wasn’t the worst first-year Square Park dorming experience and I’m grateful Dance and music practice rooms for some of the people I met along the and mini theater way.”

Game rooms, laundry rooms, TV —— Manasa Gudavalli, Multimedia lounge and computer lab Editor Each suite has a kitchen and common area Dining hall downstairs Home to the WSN office! Come check us out some time!

NYU Shuttle (Route C) Subway access: 14 St-Union Sq station

“While Weinstein’s interior design First-year and does mimic that of a cell, and kids may upperclass or may not have gotten stuck in an elevator when I lived there, the building residence halls still retains some good qualities. It’s the dorm that’s closest in proximity to campus, there are study areas, two dining halls and a mini grocery store to use your Campus Cash. It’s the dorm Rachel Wu choice with some of the best resources, Weinstein Hall but just know that it could be one of the 5 University Place Ranges from $7,033 to $9,408 for a more interesting living experiences.”

University Hall Pashmina Khan —— Isabella Armus, Deputy Arts 110 E. 14th St. single, double or triple Editor $8,954 for a double Two themed floors: Laughing Matters and Represent NYC: Expressions of Themed community: Geeks in the Social Justice City Adjacent to Washington Square Park Ten-minute walk to Washington Aside from Lipton and Goddard, Square Park one of the closest residence halls to Offers communal lounges with TVs, campus music practice rooms with pianos, Communal kitchen and communal conference room with printing stalounge with TV, foosball, ping pong tions, and study lounges and pool table University Learning Center located Music practice rooms with pianos in downstairs with tutoring opportunities the basement Fast casual dining option downstairs Two dining halls — Downstein and (UHall Commons and Dunkin Donuts) Upstein — and Sidestein Market Subway access: 14 St-Union Sq stalocated in the lobby tion Citi Bike rack right outside Subway access: W 4 St-Wash Sq station , 8 St-NYU station , Astor Pl station

“Moving away from home for the first time can be daunting; however, living at University Hall has made the transition fairly easy. I live in a two-bedroom suite that I share with one roommate and two suitemates. While the rooms aren’t the most spacious, they give you enough room to store your belongings and be comfortable. One of the pros of living in UHall is that all suites have a common space and a kitchen. I love the fact that we have a kitchen because I can cook my favorite meals.

Another thing I like about living in UHall is the Dunkin’ Donuts downstairs.

Whenever I’m rushing to class in the morning it’s really convenient having a place to get breakfast. I also enjoy the outdoor space we have on the main floor. When the weather is nice I love doing work out there — it feels like an escape from the rest of the city. Even though UHall is a bit farther away from campus, I don’t see that as a downside. As someone who is an avid reader and moviegoer, it’s great having a bookstore and movie theater just a quick walk away.”

— Ariana Wahab, Deputy Copy Chief

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Upperclass dorms Manhattan

Alumni Hall

Kiran Komanduri

Manaal Shareh

Carlyle Court

Camila Ceballos

33 Third Ave. $11,963 for a single with one to three suitemates Ten-minute walk to Washington Square Park Two renovated lounges with pool tables and study spaces Kitchen is located in the common area Next to H-Mart, Westside Market and The Bean NYU Shuttle (Route C) Subway access: Astor Pl station , 14 St-Union Sq station

400 Broome St. Ranges from $7,354 to $10,425 for a single, lower-cost double or a triple Two themed floors: Artistic Process and Global Impact Fifteen-minute walk to Washington Square Park NYU Shuttle (Route B) Subway access: Spring St station , 2 Av station , Bowery station

25 Union Square W. Ranges from $7,354 to $10,425 for a single or lower-cost double in suite Ten-minute walk to Washington Square Park Lounges available with printer services Beautiful courtyard for studying and relaxing in the fall and spring Subway access: 14 St-Union Sq station

Coral Tower

Sam Tu

Sam Tu

129 Third Ave. Ranges from $7,354 to $10,425 for a lower-cost single or lower-cost double One exploration floor: Geek NYC Fifteen-minute walk to Washington Square Park Right across from Palladium dining hall and athletic facility — as well as Trader Joe’s TV lounge, bike room and quiet study room Dance practice room NYU Shuttle (Route E) Subway access: 3 Av station , 14 St-Union Sq station

Gramercy Green

310 Third Ave. Ranges from $7,354 to $10,425 for an apartment-style single, double, lower-cost double or triple Two exploration floors: Spirituality in the City and Take Offs and Landings Twenty-minute walk to Washington Square Park NYU Shuttle (Routes E and F) Subway access: 23 St

Greenwich Hall

636 Greenwich St. Ranges from $7,354 to $10,425 for a single, double, triple or lower-cost double or triple Exploration floor: NYC in the ‘60s Ten-minute walk to Washington Square Park Study rooms, practice rooms, dance rooms, and lounges with pool table and TV Closest dining hall is Lipton Hall Subway access: Christopher St-Sheridan Sq station , W 4 St-Wash Sq Station

Lafayette Hall

Sam Tu

Palladium Hall

Sam Tu

Second Street

80 Lafayette St. Ranges from $6,219 to $10,425 for a single, double, triple or lower-cost double or triple Twenty-minute walk to Washington Square Park Study lounge in communal areas with TVs, pianos/music practice rooms, dance rooms and vending machines NYU Shuttle (Routes A, B and W) Houses many of the Fraternity and Sorority Life Communities in penthouse floor Subway access: Canal St station , Franklin St , Chambers St

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Broome Street

140 E. 14th St. Ranges from $8,954 to $11,963 for a single, double or private studio Ten-minute walk to Washington Square Park Music practice rooms Swimming pool located in the athletic facility Palladium dining hall, including Sunday brunch, and gym in the same building Wasserman Center for Career Development on the second floor Trader Joe’s next door Subway access: 14 St-Union Sq station

Sheridan Smith

Camila Ceballos

1 E. Second St. Located in East Village, close to Lower East Side, SoHo, Chinatown and Little Italy Ranges from $5,881 to $11,844 for a private studio, double, triple or lower-cost and efficient double Ten-minute walk to Washington Square Park Communal lounges with study spaces, music practice room, dance room, art room, bike room and study room with a computer lab Near Kimmel and Third North dining halls Subway access: Bleecker St station , Broadway-Lafayette St

The Senior House on 13th Street

Camila Ceballos

47 W. 13th St. Ranges from $7,354 to $8,954 for a double or lower-cost double Ten-minute walk to Washington Square Park Subway access: 14 St-Union Sq station

Seventh Street

Camila Ceballos

40 E. Seventh St. Ranges from $8,954 to $10,425 for a single, double, or quad Ten-minute walk to Washington Square Park Communal lounges with a kitchen, study lounge, and game room with table tennis and foosball Bike storage on the first floor and laundry in the basement Rooms have large closets and studying space Common areas have a fridge and kitchen No air conditioning or elevator Subway access: Astor Pl station , 8 St-NYU station and

Brooklyn

Clark Street

Ryan Kawahara

55 Clark St. Ranges from $6,219 to $10,425 for a private studio, double, triple or lower-cost double or triple Ten-minute walk to the MetroTech Center Located near Jasper Kane dining hall Large kitchen, study spaces and communal lounge with TV and pool table Each suite includes a fridge, microwave and TV Residents are eligible for a complimentary membership to the Eastern Athletic Club next door Subway access: Clark St station , High St station , Court St station

Othmer Hall

Sam Tu

101 Johnson St. Ranges from $5,170 to $9,533 for a single, lower-cost double or apartment-style suite Adjacent to the MetroTech Center Located near the Jasper Kane dining hall Communal lounge with study spaces available Residents are required to have a meal plan Subway access: Jay St-MetroTech station , Borough Hall , DeKalb Ave

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WHAT I WISH I’D KNOWN: STUDENTS ON RESIDENCE HALLS Before picking my dorm, I wish I’d known… …about Alumni “kitchens” …about noise in Lafayette “By ‘kitchens,’ they mean a crusty old stove and counter space the size “Sound insulation is awful, but your radiators are even louder than your of a laptop.” next-door neighbor. The ventilation gap on the ceiling doesn’t help —Yas Akdag, Music Editor, lived in Alumni Hall 2021-22 either.” …about Carlyle open rooms “Living in the open room — the room where the bedroom is open to the kitchen and common area — in a four-person suite utterly decimated my sleep schedule and mental health. Seriously, do not live in this kind of room if you are a light sleeper at all or if you’re sensitive to smells or noises.”

—Caitlin Hsu, UTA Publishing Editor, lived in Carlyle Court 2019-20

—Shing-Chen Tu, Photo Editor, lived in Lafayette Hall 2021-22 …about outdated appliances in Carlyle Court “There are large chunks of the building which haven’t been renovated since the ’80s. Many rooms don’t have overhead lights, so you can either bring your own lamp or live in darkness. Radiators will occasionally

turn biblical and flood your apartment.” …about temperature regulation in University Hall —Max Tiefer, Copy Chief, lived in Carlyle Court 2019-20 “I wish I knew the temperature in UHall dorms fluctuates a lot. Even though there’s a thermostat and I have the temperature set pretty high, it tends to spike and drop throughout the day, leaving me cold at some …about the Lipton elevators points and sweaty at others.”

“There are two elevators for floors two through eight of Lipton, and —Sunny Sequeira, UTA Staff Editor, lived in University Hall 2021-22 two for the upper floors. One elevator for the higher floors was always …that Seventh Street doesn’t have air conditioning “The temperature situation can be brutal. We have no air conditioning, and we rely on old radiators for heat, which aren’t the most reliable, so it’s boiling hot during early September and May, and it can get really cold in the winter.”

—Luc Giner, CAS junior, lived in Seventh Street 2021-22

out of order. It may not sound like a big deal, but when there’s a two-person maximum occupancy because of COVID-19 guidelines and you’re trying to get to class, it can be a really frustrating experience.”

—Sydney Barragan, UTA Publishing Editor, lived in Lipton Hall 2020-21

Jae Jin

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SURVIVING NYU’S HOUSING ACCOMMODATIONS

By Cat Howard CONTRIBUTING WRITER

“I feel like a whale at SeaWorld.”

Mariah Mendoza, who has severe scoliosis coupled with an internal right snapping hip and chronic pain, said they were “jumping through constant hoops” just to make their voice heard when it comes to housing accommodations at NYU. As a first-year at the School of Global Public Health, she lives in NYU housing, as all first-years are encouraged to do. The administration, however, has far from met her needs. Elevators frequently go unrepaired in dorms, and the lack of accessible ramps and bathrooms in academic buildings is disturbing.

She isn’t the only one who feels this way. It can be difficult to balance the pressure of completing assignments, searching for internships and studying for exams; fighting for accommodations should be the least of a student’s concerns. However, NYU is not allocating its abundant resources well enough for students’ comfort and well-being.

Mendoza has disabilities that require diligent planning for daily routines, such as determining how long it takes to get somewhere before the onset of pain, or deciding whether or not a social gathering is worth the exertion.

Mendoza was given an accessible dorm in a University Hall suite complete with an accessible bathroom. But this was only given to her after having “fought for it pretty hard” despite being in touch with her accessibility specialist.

The inadequacy of housing accommodations is not limited to the dorm room. Elevator breakdowns are a common occurrence in University Hall — a serious issue for residents with disabilities. Mendoza’s commute to class takes time because of her disability, which means leaving early. With elevator delays, her commute is even longer and more taxing.

“There’s no such thing as an accessible world,” Mendoza said. “I think it would’ve been more important for NYU to reach out to different people aboutwhetherornottheyneededaccessiblehousing instead of people having to reach out to them.”

Through the Moses Center for Student Accessibility, the Reasonable Housing Accommodation Committee reviews accommodations weekly — but some students do not receive responses to their accommodation requests for months on end.

NYU requires randomized housing assignments for first-years, which can be an additional source of stress for those who struggle with mental health. CAS first-year Danielle Strassberg found herself in this situation, so she requested to be moved to a single room in October 2021. She did not hear back for three months, until January 2022.

After finally receiving housing accommodations four months after her initial

Charitssa Stone

request, she was not offered any moving assistance. Instead, she was forced to move her belongings with the help of her friends in slushy snow from Weinstein Hall to the Third Avenue North residence hall — a distance of half a mile.

Tisch first-year Julia Gruen also requested an accommodation exempting her from a random housing assignment.

“I suffer from OCD, which makes it hard to live with someone,” she said, referring to her obsessive-compulsive disorder. Despite her efforts, she was unable to receive accommodations and had to adjust to living with someone who was essentially a stranger, all while managing her mental health in an entirely new environment.

For Anneliese Foltz, a CAS first-year, the biggest concern is the university’s lack of private therapy rooms. With three other roommates in her suite, therapy sessions drastically “lose productivity” due to a lack of confidentiality.

Improving mental health accommodations could start with addressing NYU’s lack of long-term therapy. NYU does offer short-term counseling, but it is inadequate for treating ongoing conditions.

In addition to mental health matters, NYU struggles to accommodate food allergies.

CAS first-year Scarlett Pigeaud has suffered from life-threatening food allergies to peanuts, tree nuts, soy, sesame, legumes and apples for nearly her entire life. She has since learned how to navigate restaurants, cafeterias and grocery stores, figuring out what she can and cannot eat along the way. But issues extend outside of the dining halls and into the dorms.

When Pigeaud came to NYU, she knew she wouldn’t be able to use the dining halls like other students. The university could not guarantee that certain foods would be entirely safe. The only solution NYU could offer was a single dorm room.

Pigeaud was eventually placed in a University Hall suite with a kitchen, and realized she had to navigate around another issue: roommates cookingwithfoodsshe’sallergicto.Perhapsasolution

could be placing students with similar allergies together to minimize the risk of allergic reactions.

Despite NYU being aware of her circumstances and even placing her in a single dorm, Pigeaud was still obligated to purchase a meal plan since she is a first-year.

“The safest thing for me are salad bars because I can see the food out in the open and they’re in separate containers,” Pigeaud said. “But I can’t just eat salad all the time.”

Due to her limited options, she has had to look elsewhere for her meals, leaving her with no options besides spending additional money on food outside university dining halls — which can quickly add up.

Pigeaud is certainly not the only firstyear student with food allergies, and certainly not the only student to find it financially draining to eat at New York restaurants. Perhaps NYU could provide students with a budget for offcampus eateries that are more accommodating to allergies — just as the university gave quarantining students Grubhub gift cards when NYU Eats failed to provide adequate meal service.

The Moses Center is in charge of student accommodations, for housing and elsewhere at the university. The center did not respond to requests for comment. Finding housing accommodations at NYU is no easy task. Everyone deserves the chance to persevere and excel. A lack of proper accommodations should not get in the way of that.

Contact Cat Howard at underthearch@nyunews.com.

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I USED TO BE AN RA. HERE’S WHY I QUIT.

Susan Behrends Valenzuela

By Aleksandra Goldberg UNDER THE ARCH VOICES EDITOR

When I applied to NYU, I knew I would be paying most of my tuition. I don’t come from a family that could afford a robust college savings account. My parents help me when they can, but my $250,000 in student loans does most of the heavy lifting.

I knew from the start that I would need to work as a resident assistant to help cover the costs. When NYU moved all classes online in response to COVID-19, the only way my parents were letting me leave home — and the only way I was making it through the rest of the pandemic — was with the free housing and meal plan that comes with being an RA. What I didn’t expect to come with being an RA was multiple encounters with the New York City Police Department, dismissive

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responses from our Building Leadership Team about our concerns, and the free office labor that would be expected of me.

It is financial circumstances, desperation and the deceptive appeal of RA benefits that lead people to become RAs — the reasons I found myself in an interview in the fall of my sophomore year. The Resident Assistant Leadership Institute is a lengthy tworound interview process that potential RAs go through. The other applicants and I sat in a stale Palladium conference room at 9 a.m. on a Saturday morning as the RALI staff told us that only about 100 of the 800 students who applied to be an RA would be hired.

The threat of being easily replaced was made clear from the start. We were told stories about students who applied because they were commuting from as far as Philadelphia and about students who would have to unenroll if they didn’t get financial help. This type of

desperation was presented as a driving reason behind the position’s competitiveness.

NYU’s Office of Residential Life and Housing Services describes the RA as “a paraprofessional who lives in an undergraduate or graduate residence hall” — as a “leader” and “resource for the residents in the community.” As an RA, I was expected to implement programming and respond to students’ concerns in exchange for housing and an NYU meal plan, effectively taking around $12,000 off of my tuition bill. It sounded like a good deal. I was offered the role in spring 2020 and moved into Lafayette Hall that fall.

The first couple of months were rocky, as was the nature of pandemic dorm life. It was hard to engage residents in programs, and I felt disconnected from the other RAs on my team as I hadn’t met most of them in person. It was impossible to overlook the lack of support for RAs from our BLT.

The biggest concerns came with several instances of police activity in the building in March 2021. We expressed these concerns to our resident hall director and assistant director, telling them that we were scared as were our residents. The dorm felt violated, and the RAs’ worries were met with a series of “I hear you”s followed by no action at all.

Audrey Becker ‘21 was on duty when the police arrived the night of March 19, 2021 — an overwhelming situation on its own. The aftermath, Becker said, was worse. The campus safety officers didn’t have a clear picture of where exactly the police were in the building.

“They kept telling me the wrong floor and they weren’t telling me what the police were doing, what they were looking for,” Becker said. “The story kept changing.”

We later learned that the police were responding to a call about a possible suicide attempt. A passerby had apparently seen a resident smoking on their balcony and made the call, but they didn’t know exactly what floor, so the police checked all floors from 11 and up. They knocked on every door and insisted on searching every room. Residents were ambushed, and RAs couldn’t even tell them what was going on. When Becker and the other RAs on duty called the residence hall director, he told them they could handle it and to call if they needed help. But that’s what they were doing — calling for help.

“It was so poorly handled to begin with,” Becker said. “The aftereffects with the residents and the student body was just awful and I had a lot of residents who were very, very upset. How am I supposed to help them?

I’m a student just like them. I’m not an activist or a mental health professional. I was already shouldering enough and then I was having to have these deep, heavy conversations with half of my residents and it was so overwhelming.”

In an attempt to hear our concerns, the Lafayette BLT dedicated one of our biweekly team Zoom meetings to a conversation between all of us and Shanelle Pendergrass, NYU Campus Safety’s director of support services. I and other Lafayette RAs expressed our frustration regarding the lack of information provided to us and our residents during and after the incident, the lack of support offered to both students and RAs, and the lack of assurance that this wouldn’t happen again.

In response, we got more of the same “I hear you”s from both Pendergrass and our BLT. As we told them we and our residents felt unsafe, our RHD told us the police was here to keep us safe and were “just doing their jobs.” I didn’t know police work entailed running around a college dorm with no real direction in sight and asking students to submit to an unwarranted search without even explaining what they were looking for.

Lafayette Hall has continued to have safety issues regarding who is in the building and where. Last semester, a nonNYU repeat intruder infiltrated the dorm

and harassed two students in their rooms.

“The BLT was very blase about about it,” said CAS senior and former RA Maxwell Freyre, who left the role between the fall 2021 and spring 2022 semesters. “It wasn’t even like they said, ‘Hey, it happened,’ and moved on from it. We were barely told about it, so it was all hearsay. I wasn’t there when it happened, so the only reason I knew … was because I saw Washington Square News publish about it. It just shows the corruption and how they don’t actually want to share anything with us. Because you’d think as RAs, they’d tell us something like that.”

In an attempt to lessen the stress RAs have experienced in dealing with emergency situations, NYU formed the Incident Response Team, a group of professionals with backgrounds in social work, student development and other assistive professions.

IRT members are stationed in each residence hall every night. Now, rather than calling the RA on duty in an emergency, campus safety officers are instructed to call the IRT member assigned to their hall. The IRT has changed the RA role significantly — the RAs now focus more on community development and making students feel at home. Freyre said that with the IRT in place, he didn’t have to write a single incident report for the entirety of the fall 2021 semester.

“The thought process, and, in turn, the effects we hope to see, is that rerouting those crisis-related responsibilities to a team of professionals will alleviate the unnecessary stress that RA’s were experiencing,” said Christopher Stipeck, the director of NYU residential staff and programs. “The RA role is a leadership position within a community, and sometimes leadership is stressful, I recognize that. My hope is that if somebody is stressed that they express this to their Building Leadership Team. Everyone manages stress differently, but the BLT is there to help however they can.”

Around the same time as the police incidents, we were in the process of renewing our RA contracts for the next academic year. NYU, however, had made a few crucial adjustments to the RA role. For one, the Lafayette RA staff was cut in half, doubling the responsibilities of every RA with no extra compensation. Each RA is now responsible for double the residents, double the programs, double the nights on duty.

Additionally, RA duties now include a minimum of working three hours a week in the residence hall’s resource center — receiving and sorting packages, assisting with dorm administration duties and acting as general administrative support for the hall. Previously, the only RAs who worked there were those already employed as office assistants at $15 an hour. NYU essentially turned that minimum-wage job into free office labor.

We weren’t even well prepared for the role to begin with. Because of COVID-19 restrictions, our training was held virtually in the form of various

slideshows and six-hour Zoom calls.

“The training was awful — are you kidding me?” Becker said. “Going through a slideshow for three days — what the heck was that? I understand the nature of the pandemic, but I felt so unprepared going into it. I really relied on my co-RA because she was a returning RA from the previous year. I didn’t even know the rules.”

As anyone who was a student at that time could tell you, Zoom is a challenging way to learn. Not only is it hard to focus on the material for such an extended period of time, it’s also completely hands-off.

As we watched from dorm rooms we weren’t allowed to leave while quarantining, the Lafayette Hall staff explained where we should direct students to go in case of an emergency evacuation. Those who didn’t need to quarantine hadn’t even moved in yet.

Unless you had lived in Lafayette Hall before, it was almost impossible to orient yourself within the vast 18-floor building. Even after our 14-day quarantine finished, the staff never tangibly showed us what to do or where to go, offering only a few how-to documents on a Google Drive for reference. During a false fire alarm at the start of the fall 2020 semester, I didn’t know where to tell my residents to go. Even I was never shown the way out.

Stipeck told me that over 90% of RAs say they’d recommend the role to other students.

But I’ve lost faith in the job. I was disheartened at the lack of turnout to virtual events, but I couldn’t blame residents — I didn’t really want to be on Zoom either. More than that, I was frustrated that when my coworkers, residents, friends and I asked for support, we were met with shallow condolences. I was dejected that the university asked for more work without additional compensation, especially when the majority of RAs are working because they need financial assistance.

“There is so much potential in the role,” Becker said. “It looks really good on a resume. There is significant financial help in free housing and a free meal plan. But you have to know what you’re getting into. And you have to be able to handle the stress, and the pure, utter frustration of being in situations where you have absolutely no control and you’re not trained or prepared at all.”

This is a job that asks you to work days, nights, weekends and holidays. Your bedroom is your office and you’re never off the clock. On the nights you’re on duty, you won’t be in bed until at least 1 a.m., and you spend the whole night dreading the startling ringtone of the duty phone. To ask for more and offer nothing in return sends a message that, outside of the work they provide, students who work as RAs just don’t matter to NYU. Contact Aleksandra Goldberg at agoldberg@nyunews.com.

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THE UNPALATABLE REALITY OF NYU DINING

Noma Mirny

By Aditi Sharma CONTRIBUTING WRITER

Googling the closest vegan restaurant near you and only getting two options in a five-mile radius. Eating your pre-portioned, well-balanced meal prep before lunch with friends just in case there’s nothing gluten-free on the menu. Constructing a dinner order that is as complicated as the latest trending TikTok Starbucks drink.

If you have a dietary restriction that requires you to cut certain foods out of your diet, these situations might be familiar to you.

On top of all the other pressures you have to juggle in college — academics, social life, well-being — the last thing you want to worry about is finding a proper meal.

On NYU’s Manhattan and Brooklyn campuses, dining halls provide various meal options for certain dietary restrictions. There are only two options available at Brooklyn: Jasper Kane Cafe and Bridgeview Market. If you live in Manhattan, there are more dining halls to choose from. A page on NYU’s website lists dining locations with various dietary options.

At first glance, it seems that NYU has a myriad of options. Each dining facility accommodates at least two dietary restrictions.

The Kosher Eatery at the Weinstein dining hall, for example, is a 100% KOF-K supervised kosher program and includes a Shabbat

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meal on Friday, while NYU Eats at Lipton is 100% certified through the Halal Food Standards Alliance of America. Jasper Kane Cafe and the Marketplace at Kimmel also feature halal meals for lunch and dinner.

NYU has the foundations of a strong selection of alternative dining options, but the reality of eating at an NYU dining hall leaves much to be desired. Anagha Menon, a pescetarian Tandon first-year, was not dazzled by the chart of NYU dining options.

“Vegetarian options are definitely available but are not the best,” Menon said. “The food will be bland or not cooked great. It’s usually just a repetition of the same dishes: rice, soup or cooked vegetables.

There’s also not a lot of seafood options.”

Those seafood options, she added, are often limited to sushi of dubious quality.

“The sushi that I tried was pretty… interesting,” Menon said. “There were saltine crackers with tuna, and that was marketed as the Chef’s Special sushi.”

Students at the Manhattan campus have similar feedback. Mossiah Smith, a vegan Tisch junior, used to frequent Downstein, Palladium and Lipton until this routine became unbearable. “‘Repetitive’ is the best word you could ever come up with, honestly,” Smith said. “Same food all the time with small variations that certainly needed some sort of seasoning each time. It simply wasn’t enough to feel passionate

or useful enough to visit the dining hall.”

Smith faced issues every time he wanted a meal at NYU, and ultimately turned to options outside of the dining halls to have meals that were satisfying and suited his dietary restrictions.

Recently, though, new options have been added to dining halls on both the Washington Square and Brooklyn campuses. New vegan and vegetarian sandwiches are available at Upstein and Palladium, and vegan dressings are available at salad bars. For protein options, NYU Eats has introduced PAOW — a soy-based meat replacement — across all dining halls.

“NYU Dining takes our students’ dietary restrictions very seriously and works hard to ensure that all students have healthy nutritious options in our dining halls,” said Ronni Mandell, a communications director for Campus Services. As for the issue of repetition, Mandell said that having rice, vegetables and legumes as an option every day means that students will have a balanced meal.

While recent measures like menu updates and new food stations are a step, students with dietary restrictions deserve truly diverse and fulfilling options. Allowing a greater degree of student input would go a long way toward improving the dining hall experience for all NYU students.

Contact Aditi Sharma at underthearch@nyunews.com.

HERE’S WHY I CHOSE TO LIVE IN… Apartments vs. Dorms

Susan Behrends Valenzuela

“I’m much happier in my apartment: It has a ton of space, I love my roommate, I love our neighborhood, and it’s about the same price as living in Coral. I feel like I actually have a home now, when before it was very obvious I lived at school. My only complaint is that financial aid is extremely insensitive and uncaring about off-campus students. They do not care if you get enough aid to cover your living costs if you’re not in a dorm … they do not care if you eat.

Please make sure you have enough money from somewhere and compare it to the cost of attendance, because they will take money away from you.”

—Grace Paschal, senior, Upper East Side two-bedroom “My roommates and I wanted to move to our own apartment so we could pay less and have more control over who enters our space. We wanted to be able to create a COVID-safe space with our own parameters for both who we let in and who we keep out. We moved into our apartment in May 2021, and though there are certainly challenges, we’re much happier.”

—Janie Nalbandian, junior, West Village two-bedroom “The response to COVID-19 at NYU was so poorly handled and rushed that I really didn’t want to be caught up in a similar situation, so I’m now off campus. Living in an apartment offers a different level of independence, and I was really looking for a place where I would feel comfortable staying for a bit after graduation. I’m currently living in an apartment in Crown Heights, pretty deep into Brooklyn — roughly a 45-minute train ride to campus — with two other roommates. The commute is pretty inconvenient, but it’s nice to be out of the city, and rent is much more affordable.”

—Jarrod Miller, senior, Crown Heights three-bedroom

“My family and I felt that it would be easier for me to live in the dorms and not have to buy my own furniture or pay for utilities and repairs. Additionally, I’m a senior, and I didn’t know whether I would be staying in New York after graduation, so it didn’t really make sense to commit to a year-long lease and have to buy new furniture just to move out again. Dorms are also safer because they have 24/7 security. I should note that I have a housing accommodation through the Moses Center for a single room in a low-occupancy suite, and I was lucky enough to get Alumni Hall, which was where I wanted to live. If I had not gotten this room, I probably would not have stayed at NYU housing.”

—UTA Publishing Editor Caitlin Hsu, senior, Alumni Hall “I was intimidated by finding an apartment in the city, and the process of getting another NYU dorm was easy enough. It’s much bigger than my previous dorm, though I think four residents is a bit too much for the space. I don’t love the location since there’s a lot of people around Union Square, but it’s closer to campus than other dorms, which I appreciate. I also like that the building and rooms are new and clean and my floor is quiet.”

—UTA Staff Editor Sunny Sequeira, sophomore, Carlyle Court “I made the decision to live in dorms in order to live with friends who are from out of state, and because my financial aid package covers the majority of housing costs, making it a cheaper option for me. I also wanted to live close to campus. I enjoy the programs put on in the dorms, but the administration, maintenance and spacing of the dorms are lacking. If there were a financially comparable apartment in close proximity to campus, I would definitely opt to be there rather than a dorm.”

—Enrique Colon, senior, Coral Tower

I think sophomores should live in…

“I recommend an apartment unless you’re planning to go abroad.

It’s much cheaper with more flexibility and a greater sense of independence. Living off campus and going apartment hunting are also great ways to jump start your financial literacy.”

—Customer Specialist Catherine Chen, junior, Upper East Side two-bedroom

“For sophomores, I would still recommend a dorm. I don’t think I would have been ready to live off campus as a sophomore. At that age, the alcohol restrictions aren’t troublesome, and you’re still very new to the city — especially this year’s incoming sophomores who have had their experiences impacted by COVID-19. If you really hated dorming freshman year, I’m sure you could figure an apartment out, but as a 19-to-20-year-old still unfamiliar with a lot of the city, dorming was better for me. I would recommend finding an apartment junior or senior year if you’re financially able.”

—Grace Paschal, senior, Upper East Side two-bedroom

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