COLLEGE NEWS
The Newsletter of NYU College of Arts and Science/WINTER 2022 EDITION
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What’s inside 01 | Dean’s Letter
02 | College Cohort Program
03 | Proud to Be First
04 | Academic Support/Undergraduate Learning Center
05 | Academic Achievement Program
06 | Pre-Professional Advising
07 | Research and Scholarship at CAS/Scholars Lecture Series
08 | CAS Alumni Relations
09 | CAS Student Council
10 | CAS International Student Programs
11 | College Events
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MESSAGE FROM DEAN SANTIROCCO With the spring semester successfully underway for a few weeks now, I still feel elated when I see students, faculty and administrative colleagues back together on campus. Yet even as loosening restrictions and the promise of spring fuel our optimism and energy for the robust intellectual exploration in which we are actively engaged, the appalling events in Ukraine turn our reflections to the world around us. With renewed purpose, let us carry on forging the roles we will play in creating a just, free, and thriving future for all.
In excellent news for CAS’s future, Wendy Suzuki has been appointed the permanent Seryl Kushner Dean of the College of Arts & Science, effective September 1st! Scroll down to learn more about our incoming dean – a renowned neuroscientist, bestselling author, and popular professor here at the College.
There is more good news: we are busy planning our first in-person commencement ceremonies since 2019! We are very excited to gather in celebration of the impressive accomplishments of our 2022, 2021 and 2020 classes. Scroll down for details.
As always, please don’t hesitate to be in touch with me if you have any questions or suggestions, or if there is anything that I can do to assist you. I am reachable by email at cas.dean@nyu.edu.
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| Wendy Suzuki Announced Incoming CAS Dean
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| CAS congratulates Wendy Suzuki, who will begin her tenure as the Seryl Kushner Dean of the College of Arts & Science on September 1, 2022! Wendy is one of our own: a professor of neural science and psychology on the Arts & Science faculty since 1998, she teaches popular CAS classes including “Can Exercise Change Your Brain?” An internationally renowned neuroscientist and mental health expert who is passionate about teaching and the undergraduate experience, Wendy plans to make students’ emotional health a priority of her deanship. Her talent for disseminating science to the public is evident in bestselling books including Good Anxiety: Harnessing the Power of the Most Misunderstood Emotion, and a TED Talk on the brain-changing power of exercise that has been viewed over 55 million times. Read more about Wendy and her plans for the deanship here.
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02 | College Cohort Program
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Unique to CAS, the College Cohort Program offers all CAS first-year students the opportunity to build a small community within CAS that is diverse in intellectual interests, serves as a place for debate and scholarship, and fosters a welcoming and supportive home. Across its four years, the Cohort Program focuses on four overarching themes: academic success, personal and career development, community engagement, and leadership experience.
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The Class of ‘24 Cohort Presidents hosted a neighborhood scavenger hunt on Halloween. Students went on a path that took them through Washington Square, the Village, and Astor Place in search of clues, candy, and games at each stop. The event was put on by the elected members representing the 49 cohorts of the class as part of their responsibilities in the Cohort President program and proved to be a fun day for everyone involved.
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Fall 2021 External Transfer Orientation
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A true group of rockstars! Our Transfer Orientation Leaders (TOLs) welcomed nearly 270 new external transfers to the CAS community.
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| A well-deserved coffee break for this group of transfer students during day one of CAS External Transfer Orientation. To start the semester strong, you have to know where your classes are and where to get your caffeine fix between them!
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| College Leaders participate in weekly staff meetings to share best practices for supporting first-year students and strengthening the College Leader community. This staff meeting was Halloween-themed, where College Leaders designed costumes using the materials presented to them in the meeting!
| | At these weekly meetings, the College Leaders share best practices for supporting first-year students and strengthen the College Leader community. This meeting consisted of trust building activities!
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Proud to Be First couldn’t be more excited to welcome you to an exciting new spring semester!
This fall, Proud to Be First Mentors held their first social event of the 2021-2022 academic year on the evening of Friday, October 22, 2021. This Halloween-themed event was held at the Silverstein Lounge and Jurow Hall at the Silver Center. Sixty students attended the event - a record-breaking attendance for peer-led social events in program history. This event was particularly special as it was Proud to Be First’s first in-person event since students returned to campus this fall.
The event consisted of various stations, including carnival games, pumpkin painting, and a movie screening. “Nobody was on their phones. People were interacting with each other at different stations,” one of the mentors recalled of the evening. The Proud to be First team looks forward to connecting with you at our upcoming events.
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04 | Academic Support/Undergraduate Learning Center
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| We’re Here to Help! Check out just some of our offerings in this short video!
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05 | Academic Achievement Program
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Our AAP community held its Fall 2021 Welcome Mixer in September and followed University COVID protocols, welcoming about 200 students to AAP and CAS through social activities and a presentation on AAP. This event included 54 mentors in our AAP Mentorship Program and 217 mentees (126 of those mentees are in CAS). This program offers peer-to-peer support for newly admitted first-year student mentees as they transition to college life in CAS and at NYU.
AAP continues to offer weekly Games Days and Rap Sessions for members of the AAP community to come together and socialize and discuss topics that impact our community.
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In addition to collaborating with student clubs on topics for our weekly Rap Sessions, we hosted a business internship information session with the Stern’s Supporting Excellence and Advocating Diversity (SEAD) organization. We also hosted three successful academic panels for the AAP community presenting on our pre-health and pre-law programs, attended by 80 participants. Our pre-health panels were student-led and our very own Christopher Holiman, Assistant Director of Diversity Advising, was the key panelist for our pre-law session.
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Our Community Service committee participated in the American Cancer Society - Making Strides Against Breast Cancer 5K walk in October. They also continued their partnership with Pharos Academy to offer mentorship and community service to their students.
The first AAP Leadership conference, held in November, served as an opportunity for NYU faculty, staff, and graduate students to engage with our current AAP members. This was a first professional conference for many of our members.
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We also welcomed our new 2021-2022 students of the Pipeline Opportunities for Inter-Collegiate STEM Education (POISE) program. Lead by Héctor Perea, Academic Advisor - Diversity Advising, admitted students from BMCC were introduced to NYU, AAP and the academic resources and general support to help their transition as NYU scholars.
Members of our Gentlemen of Quality (GQ) program participated in a week of mentorship and fellowship during their Brotherhood week, as well as other programming aimed to support the male-identifying members of our AAP community. An alumni networking event was also held, allowing almost 40 alumni to connect with about 50 of our GQ members.
In partnership with NYU Opportunity Programs and MLK Scholars, AAP hosted a Fall Wellness Retreat in November. The Academic Resource Center was divided into stations where 130 students had the opportunity to engage in activities such as facial mask making, painting, vision board creating, meditation, journaling, games, and general socializing.
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| Last month, MLK Week 2022/The Beautiful Struggle for a New World featured a robust variety of opportunities for engagement for all of our students to celebrate and continue to learn from the legacy of Dr. King. A roster of important events, both virtual and in-person were offered at our NYU global centers. Additionally, the Division of Libraries offered a reading list, and there are still plenty of ways to be engaged across social media platforms. A number of exciting virtual events are featured this year, including a special pre-week event that was held on Wednesday, February 2: Black Global Consciousness feat. Dr. Angela Davis (hosted by our partners at NYU Abu Dhabi).
The highlight of the week was the NYU MLK Week University-Wide Event on Thursday, February 10, an intergenerational conversation between Yara Shahidi ( actress, producer, and change agent) and her mother, Keri Shahidi ( executive producer, and co-principal of 7th Sun Productions); and moderated by Dr. Lisa Coleman.
Along with the University-Wide Event, six other programs were featured, with some recorded that will be uploaded to the MLK Week YouTube channel in the following weeks.
- February 2 - Black Global Consciousness feat. Dr. Angela Davis*: Event Page
- Event will be recorded and made available to NYU community members only via NYU Stream. A link will be posted to the MLK Week Calendar of Events page (download a copy) when it’s captioned, etc.
- February 7 - The Promised Land: Our New World: Event Page
- Event will be recorded and made available on YouTube soon after MLK Week has concluded
- February 8 - Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Faculty Award Ceremony: Event Page
- Recording details and post-event availability are TBA
- February 8 - Steinhardt GSO MLK Oratorical Contest: Event Page
- Recording details and post-event availability are TBA
- February 11 - Friday with RAPtivist Aisha Fukushima: Event Page
- Workshop will not be recorded or posted after the event
- February 12 - Zoom In on Food Activism: Event Page
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06 | Pre-Professional Advising
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Prelaw In its second year, recipients of the CAS X LAW Pathway Scholarship Program (CLPS) secured a guaranteed admission to NYU LAW upon their graduation and will receive a full tuition scholarship. The next CLPS application cycle, for students in their sixth semester of academic study, will start in March, 2022.
To receive more details on this and other services available to our students interested in pursuing a legal career, students should subscribe to and read The Legal Brief.
The CAS Lawyer Alumni Mentoring Program, which pairs current undergraduate CAS students with CAS alumni who are now practicing attorneys, held its annual reception on September 28. During this event, which was held virtually, mentors and mentees had an opportunity to meet for the first time and mentors were able to share some insightful anecdotes about the legal profession.
Prehealth The Prehealth team has a variety of events planned for new students in the spring term. For more details, we encourage folks to subscribe to The Medical Record and read it every Thursday.
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07 | Research and Scholarship at CAS/Scholars Lecture Series
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All lectures are scheduled from 5:00–6:00 PM (Eastern)
Irving H. Jurow Lecture Hall
Silver Center for Arts and Science
31 Washington Place
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Date: Wednesday, February 2
Lecturer: Joshua Tucker, Professor of Politics and Affiliated Professor of Russian and Slavic Studies, and Affiliated Professor Data Science
Lecture: Social Media and Democracy
Join Professor Joshua Tucker, the Co-Director of NYU’s Center for Social Media and Democracy ( csmapnyu.org) and the co-editor of the recently published Social Media and Democracy: The State of the Field and Prospects for Reform (Cambridge, 2020) for a presentation of recent research on fake news, foreign influence campaigns, hate speech on Twitter, and the impact of Facebook on ethnic polarization, much of which will challenge what you thought you knew about social media’s complicated relationship with the political sphere.
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Date: Thursday, February 10
Lecturer: Linsey Edwards, Assistant Professor of Sociology
Lecture: The Time Trap: How the Urban Poor Experience Time and the Role of Neighborhoods
In this lecture, Prof. Edwards presents a portrait of everyday life for poor households in Philadelphia, challenging attendees to reexamine their assumptions about time and consider how time is different for those struggling to get by in America. She demonstrates that understanding the unique temporal experience of poverty is not just that time scarcity is altogether different, but also that the experience and distribution of time in daily life is attributed to or exacerbated by the neighborhoods poor households live in. This matters because place-based constraints on time further exacerbate the fragility of poverty—leaving many of the urban poor in a time trap.
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Date: Tuesday, February 22
Lecturer: Cristina M. Alberini, Professor of Neural Science
Lecture: Uncovering the Biological Bases of Memory to Help Neuropsychiatric Diseases
The ability to form long lasting memories is critical for all brain functions. We are who we are because of our memories. Understanding the biological mechanisms underlying memory formation has been the passion of my team for the last 30 years. I will discuss our studies, which uncovered some of the key biological bases of long-term memory formation. One of these mechanisms, the small protein insulin-like growth factor 2 (IGF-2 or IGF-II), emerged as a critical regulator of long-term memories. IGF-2 is not only necessary for making long-term memories but also can strengthen memories and prevent forgetting and memory loss. In many neuropsychiatric diseases, including neurodevelopmental disorders and neurodegenerative diseases, it significantly reverses several core deficits. I will discuss recent data revealing the underlying mechanisms of these beneficial effects. These findings provide important novel understanding for developing new therapies for several brain diseases.
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Date: Tuesday, March 22
Lecturer: Ismail Fajrie Alatas, Assistant Professor of Middle Eastern and Islamic Studies
Lecture: The Way and the Community: Religious Authority and the Cultivation of Islam in Yemen and Indonesia
This talk traces the historical and contemporary labor of Yemeni saints and scholars in cultivating Islamic communities in Yemen and Indonesia. These mobile actors traversed complex cultural fields and built channels for the transmission and social realization of Islamic teachings. The central question that will be explored in this talk is: what is Islamic religious authority? How does an actor become recognized by others as religiously authoritative to the extent that they can cultivate followings and how is this recognition maintained?
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Date: Tuesday, March 29
Lecturer: James C. Hsiung, Professor of Politics and International Law
Lecture: The U.S.- China Duel for Hegemonic Power: Risk of the Thucydides Trap (?)
Two reasons underscore the belief that a war is inevitable between the United States and China. One is the Neorealist IR theory, empirically backed by past cases, that unbalanced power, such as wielded by an emergent superpower (like the post-2010 China), is to be feared. And this is known as a Thucydides Trap. The second reason is supported by studies of the long-tested U.S. foreign policy goal, which would not tolerate any other power establishing exclusive hegemonic control over Asia or the Pacific ever since 1783. This lecture will question whether these reasons apply to the rising China in the prevailing international environment. Ultimately, it will examine if the rising China will turn out to be an exception.
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Date: Monday, April 4
Lecturer: Jenny C. Mann, Associate Professor of English in the College of Arts and Science and the Gallatin School of Individualized Study
Lecture: What Is a Fiction?: Utopia and the Liar’s Paradox
If I lie and I say that I am lying, am I lying or telling the truth? This ancient riddle, known as the Liar’s Paradox, is at the heart of one of the most confounding and significant English literary texts, Thomas More’s Utopia (1516). Utopia is a fictional traveler’s tale about an idealized island nation that pretends to be true. In this lecture, Jenny Mann will introduce the games that utopian fiction plays with ideas of truth and falsehood. In so doing, she will show how such games shape our understandings of “fiction”—what it is, how it works, and why it matters.
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| The Scholars program also provides unique co-curricular opportunities. As just one example above, Professor Anasse Bari's first-year scholar group attended “Caroline, or Change” on Broadway.
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08 | CAS Alumni Relations
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Mariella Paulino (CAS ‘12), Founder of Project Hearing and Director for Marketing and Communications at Knowbility
What is your favorite memory of your time at NYU?
One of my favorite memories was during my very first week at NYU. My family lives in the Bronx, and my mother came with me for orientation week. Since I was a student with a disability, we were informed about the disability office - now called the Moses Center for Student Accessibility - and we were introduced to Maria Schiano, the Coordinator for Deaf and Hard of Hearing Services. Following our first meeting, Maria set up services I had never received before and didn't know existed! These services included real-time captioning, notetakers, preferential seating, and hearing equipment upgrades like the newest state-of-the-art personal microphones - which came in handy during the freshman year lecture halls which had over 150+ students! These services were set up almost immediately for all my orientation week activities and summer and fall classes. I started having access to classroom conversations that allowed me to engage with my peers and professors with a new sense of independence and access I never had before.
I remember looking at my mom during that meeting and knowing that we had made the right decision in choosing NYU. After our first meeting, Maria made a comment along the lines of, “She is going to get everything she needs to be successful here.” I finally felt a sense of being seen as a person with a disability who needed accommodations to facilitate equal access and being in a space where I knew I would be supported with tools that met only the highest standards.
You are the founder of Project Hearing. Can you tell us about the platform and why you created it?
I began Project Hearing because I experienced a lack of community after leaving the bubble of academia and entering the workplace. Unlike someone with a cane or a wheelchair, hearing loss is often an invisible disability as most people with hearing disabilities speak orally and live and engage with the hearing world. The disability community is also often fragmented, and stigma around hearing disability prevents many of us from identifying our disability and seeking community and support in the workplace.
My mission is centered on educating and building partnerships with allies committed to inclusion efforts, engaging with others in the community to learn about tools and resources, and advocating for the full inclusion of people with hearing disabilities in society. I've done speaking engagements for organizations like the United Nations, Harvard University, and the City University of New York. I also finished writing a book with a fellow Latina disability advocate and had the tremendous honor of having the foreword written by none other than fellow NYU alum and the current First All-Agency Chief Accessibility Officer for the MTA: Quemuel Arroyo (CAS '12, WAG '20)!
What advice do you have for current students?
Don’t self-reject!
For our first college planning meeting, my high school guidance counselor created limitations for what I could achieve before even giving me a chance to decide that for myself. She perceived me, first and foremost, as a person with a disability. She did not see the drive and determination that allowed me to learn English as a second language after losing my hearing, she ignored how my SAT scores placed me in the 90th nationwide percentile, she overlooked the fact I had been on the honor roll since my first semester in high school in a mainstream school as the only student with hearing loss. She saw the disability and not the person, and she saw the disability as something that limited the person. The rest of the semester she made my life difficult, going as far as refusing to write me a letter of recommendation, but I applied anyway and found support elsewhere.
And I got in!
And the four years that followed were the most incredible experiences because the University exposed me to a new world that completely transformed my worldview and my role in it because NYU was designed with people like me in mind, I was included from the beginning and set up to succeed. The rest of the world has not yet caught on, and because of this, long after my graduation, I realize that it’s my responsibility to share the discoveries I made within the halls of the University.
Dream big and don’t self-reject the possibilities of the future because if you don’t create the things you want, you must endure the things you get!
Keep in touch and stay connected with CAS Alumni Relations! Email: cas.alumni@nyu.edu. Follow us on Twitter ( @ArtsandScience) and Instagram ( nyuartsandsciencealumni). Interested in participating as an alumni mentor? Please fill out this form.
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CAS Student Council’s two-fold mission of Student Advocacy and Programming is geared toward establishing new college traditions and fostering community among our diverse student body.
The CAS Student Council is looking forward to seeing new faces at our weekly General Assembly meetings on Tuesday nights this semester!
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| CAS Student Council Bonding! The group of student leaders spent the day engaging in conflict resolution, anti-racism and identity training and put their conflict resolution skills to good work at the end of the day at an Escape Room!
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| CAS Student Council E-Board shows their CAS StuCo pride at their weekly meeting!
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10 | CAS International Student Programs
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The CAS Advising International Team enjoyed welcoming to the Washington Square campus such a large and enthusiastic group of international students for the Fall 2021 semester, including many students who had been studying remotely last year. The team also continues to support international students studying remotely this academic year and we look forward to seeing these students in person in New York soon!
This past fall, the team hosted a full roster of lively events, while also being mindful of pandemic protocols. Events included: a visit to Central Park for snacks and a walk; appreciating outstanding art via a docent-led Museum Highlights tour at the Metropolitan Museum of Art; a Halloween pumpkin give-away; browsing the artisanal pop-up shops at the Union Square Holiday Market while sampling decadent hot chocolate; coordinating a social hour in collaboration with the CAS Student Council; leading an ice-skating excursion in Bryant Park. The team also collaborated with colleagues from the Office of Global Services (OGS) to offer workshops on work authorization for international students and co-hosted with advising colleagues from Go Local Shanghai a spring course registration information session for Shanghai-based students.
The International Team has also been thrilled to welcome such an active, committed group of participants in the CAS International Student Mentor Program. The program pairs new international student “mentees” with returning international students “mentors,” who welcome the new members of our community and provide guidance and support throughout the fall term. The program includes discussion-oriented monthly meetings that create a social space for all participating members of the program. This year, to accommodate as many participants as possible, the monthly meetings have been offered in both in-person and online formats. Some of the topics covered in these sessions have included: welcome to New York, definitions of culture, cultural traditions and norms, campus involvement, and more.
In the Spring 2022 term, the International Team looks forward to offering another semester of varied, fun events, starting with professional development workshops, social “coffee hour” hangouts, additional Mentor Program sessions, and more opportunities for NYC cultural exploration. Furthermore, the team will continue to co-host important work authorization workshops with colleagues from the OGS as our students consider professional opportunities, whether for after graduation or for summer internships
In addition, the team is eager to collaborate with the newly constituted Elected Board of the CAS International Student Club (CAS ISC), a student club that has a long history of celebrating the diversity within the international student community in CAS by hosting community-building events and engaging in campus advocacy. A fantastic group of students is joining the CAS ISC for the spring term and we know they’ll offer a range of great, valuable events for our international student community!
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| Students at their first mentor meeting event, a featured gathering for the International Mentor Program
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| Students won prizes for their outstanding performance in a fun Icebreaker at the mentor meeting event
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| Students at the discussion of cultural differences at the mentor meeting event
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| Our students got to visit the MET Museum in person again to learn about the history of various art masterpieces.
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We are so proud of our students and everyone in our academic community for their creative team effort to accomplish fun endeavors that capture the unique essence of CAS life.
Declaration Day, the College's newest beloved tradition, took place this year on Wednesday, March 9, and capped off over a month of informaional Academic Spotlights that showcase each department at CAS, produced by the department itself to answer questions and feed curiosity for students considering a major in that field. Declaration Season affords each student that special moment of identifying exactly which field of study they will spend the rest of their collegiate career to pursue. #CASDecDay is fun! With balloons, candy, and unique celebrations offered by every single CAS Department and special virtual filters and games. AND, after a hiatus last year because of remote study, each student this year received the much-coveted enamel pin keepsake to commemorate the occasion!
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SAVE THE DATE!
TUESDAY, MAY 17, 2022
CELEBRATING OUR CAS GRADUATES—IN PERSON!
RADIO CITY MUSIC HALL, NEW YORK CITY
Class of 2022: 10:00 AM Eastern Time, Graduates Call at 8:00 AM, Guest Doors Open at 9:00 AM
Classes of 2020 & 2021: 3:00 PM Eastern Time, Graduates Call at 1:00 PM, Guest Doors Open at 2:00 PM
We are thrilled to announce that, pending prevailing Federal, State, City, and University guidelines in effect at that time, we are proceeding with plans for in-person graduation celebrations for the NYU College of Arts & Science Classes of 2020, 2021, and 2022. While the celebrations will, of necessity, have to look a bit different than those in the recent pre-COVID past, rest assured that we are planning these graduation events with just as much enthusiasm, thoughtfulness, and care as we have done in previous years. Mark your calendars now and stay tuned for more information!
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