Vol. 41, No. 105 TUESDAY, DECEMBER 10, 2013 nyunews.com

WASHINGTON SQUARE NEWSNYU’s Daily Student Newspaper

NYU professors create robotic jellyfishTwo mathematics professors at the NYU Courant Institute worked together to build a motorized, robotic jellyfish, which differs from traditional robot models, with stable flying capabilities.

STORY ON PAGE 5

Kimmel to house commuters during finals

Students reimagine

digital classroom

COMMUTERS cont’d on PG. 4

Fall in love with ‘Her’ for cast, story, cinematography KIPIN continued on PG. 3

HANNAH LUU/WSN

STORY on PG. 8

Exhibit tracks fashion trends FIT’s “Trend-ology” exhibit uncovers the sociopolitical roots of style.

RACHEL LIQUINDOLI/WSN

INSIDE THIS ISSUE

By BEN MARQUES

To put it simply, “Her” is the best film of the year. Spike Jonze’s not-so-futuristic tale of the love between a lonely man and his computer’s operating system is one of the most gen-uine and authentic romances ever made.

Joaquin Phoenix plays Theo-dore Twombly, a writer at a company specializing in com-posing poetic, hand-written notes for all occasions. His divorce weighs heavily on his heart, and he struggles to con-nect with others in a seem-ingly utopian society. Then

he meets an operating system named Samantha, voiced with impeccable sincerity by Scar-lett Johansson, and proceeds to fall in love with her.

Every development in the story hits the right note. Working from his first entirely original screenplay, Jonze breaks free of his past work as a conduit for Charlie Kaufman. Their collaborations on “Being John Malkovich” and “Adaptation” were wildly successful and noteworthy, but something al-ways felt missing. With “Her,” a notion of cohesion and indi-vidual artistic expression sig-nals the solidification of Jonze

as a titan in cinema, and not just in the realms of skate and music videos.

After appearing in Paul Thom-as Anderson’s “The Master” last year, Phoenix and Amy Adams again display unbelievable nu-ance and authenticity that is uncommon in science fiction. As Theodore’s friend from college, Adams plays a mutually respect-ful and understanding confi-dante for the fragile protagonist. Both display a versatility refresh-ing versatility, reminding audi-ences of their standing as two of the most valuable actors work-ing today.

The performances are out-

standing from beginning to end, regardless of screen time — Ol-ivia Wilde shines as an eccentric date, Chris Pratt is grounded as the goofy boss and Rooney Mara is devastating as Theodore’s bit-ter ex-wife. And then, there is Johansson, who has a voice that is easy to love. She com-mands attention scene after scene with the nuanced inflec-tions of her voice.

Samantha Morton was origi-nally cast as Samantha and was on set throughout production in an isolated sound booth as well as working with Phoe-

HER continued on PG. 7

STORY on PG. 9

World Cup predictionsGermany and Argentina will most likely meet for a rematch in Rio de Janeiro this year.

VIA WIKIPEDIA.ORG STORY on PG. 11

‘Christmas Law’ singles out holidays Legislation in Texas is biased against other smaller religions.

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By PATRICK ANKER

Next semester, an indepen-dent digital classroom interface founded by a group of NYU stu-dents will provide an alternative to the NYU Classes system.

The program, dubbed Kipin Hall, was only open to 2,000 stu-dents and 17 professors this se-mester in a closed beta, but will be accessbile by the community this spring. The website will pull information from the Albert da-tabase to create student sched-ules. All students will be able to connect to Kipin Hall by using their NYU email addresses.

“Kipin Hall is a platform where students can connect with stu-dents, with professors and with clubs,” Kipin Hall co-founder and CAS sophomore Abhinay Ashutosh said.

The founders said the interface will be more user-friendly to use than the current system. When a student logs into the site, he is met with a wall of posts, similar to

By TONY CHAU

Registration for an on-campus overnight accommodation pro-gram for commuters during finals week opened online last night, Dec. 9.

The program, which will take place Dec. 15 to 20, will provide a maximum of 30 cots per night to students in the Commuter Lounge at the Kimmel Center for University Life.

Reservations, which can be ar-ranged free of charge on a Stu-dent Resource Center webpage, will be made on a first-come, first-serve basis and can only be made for the night before a student’s exam. Commuters are able to register online until Dec. 13 at 10 a.m.

Because there will not be an of-ficial verification of a student’s exam schedule at the time of reg-istration, the reservations will be made on an honor system.

In the past, commuters were able to stay on campus during

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Facebook. Students can post questions for their professors or classmates to answer. The student postings can be sorted using hashtags.

“This is a quick way for the professor to answer questions to students in a very public way,” Ashutosh said. “The ad-vantage for professors is that they can answer a question just once, forever. If someone next year asks the same ques-tion, [the professor] doesn’t need to keep answering that question. They can just refer to the original.”

The students can also choose to post questions anonymously.

“It’s [hard] for the quiet kids to stand up and ask a

question they think is stu-pid,” Ashutosh said.

Similar to NYU Classes, the page retains a navigation bar that lists the student’s classes and group pages. The page also includes a full roster, assign-ments and calendar of events.

While the NYU Information Technology Services welcomed the Kipin Hall interface, the university has no immediate plans to intergrate the system with NYU Classes.

“The group determined, with concurring input from the Student Technology and Research Committee of the Student Senators Council, that it is not presently a priority for ITS to integrate Kipin Hall into

NYU Classes,” said Marilyn Mc-Millan, ITS Chief Information Technology Officer.

Tech@NYU president and Stern senior Emanuel Hahn is familiar with the site and said he looks forward to the launch of Kipin Hall.

“NYU Classes is very inef-ficient and does a poor job of meeting students’ needs,” Hahn said. “Kipin Hall can improve that tremendously because they are not bogged down by bureaucracy, but in-stead can adapt rapidly to what students want [or] need.”

Patrick Anker is a staff writer. Email him at news@nyunews.com.

NYU students to launch alternative to NYU Classes online system in spring semester

KIPIN continued from PG. 1

CAS sophomore Abhinay Ashutosh co-founded Kipin Hall with several other students.JUSTIN LANIER/WSN

Langone vice president joins de Blasio staffBy MICHAEL DOMANICO

Anthony Shorris, NYU Langone Medical Center’s chief of staff, senior vice president and vice dean, was selected to be New York City Mayor-elect Bill de Blasio’s deputy mayor.

“I am profoundly excited about the chance to support this mayor,” Shorris said when the announcement was made on Dec. 4.

As deputy mayor, de Blasio said, Shorris will be charged with the day-to-day operations of the city.

“This will be the person who will have my imprimatur to help make sure that our agenda is implemented each and every day in the government,” de Blasio said at the public announcement.

Shorris’ resume includes work-ing as the executive director of the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, the director of NYU’s Rudin Center for Transportation Policy and Management and a professor at the Wagner Graduate School of Public Service. Even though Shorris is leav-ing three positions at Langone, there has been no update on who will suc-ceed him in these positions.

Several of his colleagues wished him well on his new role in city government.

“Tony is a great colleague, mentor and friend. He will be sorely missed,” Langone CFO Michael Burke said. “Our loss is the city’s gain.”

Richard Donoghue, Langone’s se-nior vice president for strategy, plan-ning and business development, said he worked closely with Shorris as a member of the executive leadership.

“[Shorris] has a long history of

leadership roles in New York City government, which were beneficial in his role at NYU Langone,” Dono-ghue said. “His time at NYU Langone will have provided him with new ex-periences that will make him very effective as a deputy mayor.”

Shorris, who has known de Blasio for 20 years, said he trusted de Bla-sio’s left-of-center politics and was optimistic about his plans.

“I do think there are people who worried about it because they don’t know Bill as well as I did or have as much exposure to him over those years,” Shorris said at the event. “I think once they understand that our agenda is about a better, fairer, stron-ger city, they’ll be signing on with this mayor as they have with mayors past.”

Michael Domanico is anews editor. Email him at mdomanico@nyunews.com.

Hackathon yields creative, user-friendly appsBy WARD PETTIBONE

The Kimmel Center Market Place was taken over by hackers for 24 hours beginning on Dec. 6.

The Student Senators Council hosted the first Create a Bet-ter NYU Hackathon, a daylong event to encourage students, faculty and alumni to create apps, websites and data visual-izations from public datasets to improve student life.

“It’s a collaborative competi-tion,” said Griffin Dooling, Stern senior and chair of the SSC’s Stu-dent Technology and Research Committee. “We’ve got a very passionate group of students.”

Around 4 p.m., participants were allowed to access datas-ets from NYU dining, athletics, safety and others.

Mike Jaoudi, a CAS junior com-puter science major, worked on a template app called NYU Clubs, which would provide club offi-cers with a simpler way to create their own club apps.

“Most club presidents don’t really code,” Jaoudi said. “So I’ll make it very easy, very simple to customize it and make it your own.”

Although the rules of the hackathon allowed participants to work remotely, about 15 stu-

dents spent the night at Kim-mel Center for University Life to keep working. Hackers were provided with dinner, a mid-night snack and cots.

The teams continued to work until the 3 p.m. submission deadline on Dec. 7.

Juan Felipe Beltran, a senior visiting from NYU Abu Dhabi who spearheaded the hack-athon, announced the winners.

“What I keep forgetting is that a very small number of pro-grammers can have such a hu-mongous impact,” Beltran said. “The data is out there, the pro-grammers want to do it. We just [needed] to bridge that gap.”

CAS seniors Benjamin Xie, Chris Williams and Daniel

Padawer, won first place for Bob-Street, an app that helps locate books in Bobst Library based on their call number. Padawer said they hope to continue working on the app in the future.

Williams said the process of finding a book in Bobst was dif-ficult, requiring multiple steps and the use of a physical map to determine where the book was supposed to be.

“What we decided to do was to do that once and for all, for all of you, so you guys never ever have to do that again,” Williams said.

Wayne Jones, an NYU-Poly alumnus, received second place for NYU Safe Walk, a map show-ing crimes that have occurred along a given route between

places at and near NYU. Jaoudi’s NYU Clubs app won third place.

Nick Jensen, an NYU alumnus who helped run the hackathon and who now works at Hashtag NYU, said he was amazed by the projects created at the event.

“This has been such an inspir-ing night and day, and morn-ing,” Jensen said.

Ward Pettibone is a contributing writer. Email him at news@nyunews.com.

Anthony Shorris was selected to be Bill de Blasio’s deputy mayor.

VIA WIKIPEDIA.ORG

Students take over Kimmel for the Create a Better NYU Hackathon.

DANIEL COLE/WSN

4 WASHINGTON SQUARE NEWS | TUESDAY, DECEMBER 10, 2013 | NYUNEWS.COM

Greenwich Hotel offers no vacancies for commuters, seek shelter in Kimmel

COMMUTERS continued from PG. 1

By NICOLE BROWN

The death of former South African president Nelson Mandela on Dec. 5 sparked a global discussion from TV network segments and newspapers to personal re-actions on social media.

Members of the NYU com-munity mourned the lead-er’s death as well.

NYU President John Sex-ton sent an email to the NYU community and attached his letter of condolence to current South African presi-dent Jacob Zuma.

“His courageous struggle to bring rights, democracy, and human dignity to his fellow black South Africans made him one of the titans of our times,” Sexton wrote in the email. “He belonged to the world, to the people of Africa, and, as a recipient of NYU’s Presidential Medal in 2002, to the NYU commu-nity, too.”

The Center for Multicultu-ral Education and Programs also sent an email to students the following day, mourning the loss of Mandela.

Steinhardt freshman Ca-itlin Venter, who is from South Africa, said she was pleased to see people around the world recogniz-

ing him, the challenges he faced and his achievements.

“A few nights ago I saw the Empire State Building lit up with the colours of the South African flag in remem-brance,” Venter said. “That was amazing.”

Marcella Runell Hall, a fac-ulty affiliate of CMEP, visited the prison cell at Robben Island, South Africa where Mandela spent 27 years.

“Few things in my life were as inspiring and eye-opening for me as going to Robben Island,” Hall said. “I can only hope to honor Mandela’s legacy in some small way by working in the realm of social justice and multi-faith leadership.”

Tisch sophomore Bill Chen, who lived in South Africa his whole life, said while it is good that people have reacted international-ly to Mandela’s death, truly understanding his influence is unique to the people in South Africa.

“I wouldn’t have been able to go to school there or live there [without Mandela],” Chen said. “I definitely would not be here if not for Nelson Mandela.”

Additional reporting by Klein Aleardi, Kavish Harjai and Ann Schmidt. Nicole Brown is a news editor. Email them at news@nyunews.com.

Students, university respond to Mandela’s death

Nelson Mandela is known as a South African leader.VIA FACEBOOK.COM

finals week by booking a room in Greenwich Hotel residence hall. However, as vacancies in residence halls became scarce, that offer be-came unavailable starting in the fall 2012 semester, prompting the Commuter Student Council to seek an alternative.

“When the facility continued to be unavailable, I wanted to do something about it,” said Nischala Meni, the vice president of advocacy of the Commu-ter Student Council who spearheaded the initiative. “Several commuter stu-dents who were aware of this facility also voiced their concerns, which only supported my decision.”

LS freshman Kendi Tang said he ap-preciated CSC’s and university’s effort to provide an alternative.

“I think it’s good that they’re even attempting to try to make up for it because they can see that it’s a strug-gle for commuters to be around, try to study and do well on their finals without having to worrying about commuting,” Tang said.

Kimmel, which usually closes at 11 p.m. Monday through Wednesday and

1 a.m. on weekends, will stay open 24 hours for the overnight guests.

Kimmel director Jonathan Ross said NYU Public Safety will staff the front desk with a security officer overnight, with a patrol officer mak-ing regular tours of the building.

Associate director of the Student Resource Center Paulina Abaunza said two Commuter Assistants will be present in the Commuter Lounge each night to ensure cots are put away in the morning and students remain on the second floor through-out the night.

CAS freshman Abdii Kassa, who commutes two-hour round-trip from Secaucus, N.J., said the program would ease the strain of commuting.

“This is a good initiative to help commuters get on even footing with people who dorm,” Kassa said. “This [Commuter Lounge] is our home anyways, more than Green-wich Hotel. I feel we’re more at ease here.”

Tony Chau is a senior editor. Email him at tchau@nyunews.com.

The Commuter Lounge will host students overnight during finals week.FILE PHOTO BY RACHEL KAPLAN/WSN

College of Dentistry speeds up teeth movement, braces process

By AFEEFA TARIQ

A team at NYU’s College of Dentistry has developed a proce-dure that decreases the amount of time required to wear braces.

The process is called mi-cro-osteoperforation, which involves poking small holes into the patient’s gums using a special plastic drill called a Propel. The controlled injury allows porous bone tissue to form, and as a result, braces can move the teeth faster.

“It is based on biology of bone,” said Cristina Teixeira, the department chair of or-thodontics at the dentistry school. “It shows that minor injuries to the bone can facil-itate bone turnover and can facilitate swift movement.”

Teixeira led the team of 10 that developed the procedure, along with Mani Alikhani, di-rector of the Consortium for Translational Orthodontic Re-search, a center for orthodon-tic scientists and clinicians.

According to an article the team published in 2010 in the Journal of Dental Research titled “Cytokine Expression and Accelerated Tooth Move-ment,” the test study was first

conducted on 48 rats. The team’s research confirmed the process, which causes inflam-mation of gums, increases the rate of tooth movement.

“This research started as an animal study two years ago,” Teixeira said. “So it’s actually very different from a lot of things that are happening in the clinic. We first did the ani-mal study and then we start do-ing it in the clinic, and now we completed the clinical trial.”

The article also addressed the possible side effects of the procedure. While micro-osteoperforation can accel-erate bone remodeling and tooth movement, it can dam-age tooth and gum structure if not carefully performed.

“It is important to mention that inflammation is a two-sided sword,” the article said.

But Teixeira said the proce-dure has worked successfully on several patients, which the team showed in “Effect of mi-cro-osteoperforations on the rate of tooth movement,” an article published in the Amer-ican Journal of Orthodontics and Dentofacial Orthopedics in November of this year.

“We finally published the

results of the clinical trial,” Teixeira said. “It was a con-trolled clinical trial [in which] we showed the accelerated movement. We’ve been doing this in the clinic for almost two years in our patients.”

Orthodontics professor Rebecca Poling said she be-lieves patients will respond well to this procedure.

“One of the main concerns of patients is how long orthodon-tic treatment will take,” Pol-ing said. “So doing accelerated treatment can reduce this treat-ment time by about half, which is significant. I think patients will want to have it done.”

Stern freshman Joyce Wang, who currently uses Invisalign teeth aligners in-stead of traditional braces, said she sees the benefit of teeth being fixed faster.

“If it is proven to be safe and healthy for the gums with no other risks, I think it is always good to have more products for consumers to choose from,” Wang said.

Additional reporting by Klein Aleardi. Afeefa Tariq is a staff writer. Email her at news@nyunews.com.

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Courant professors create flying robotBy NICOLE DEL MAURO

Most flying robot models currently

base their design on insect-like wing motions, like those of bees, hum-mingbirds and moths. Instead of flapping up and down, insects sweep their wings forward, flip them over and bring them back the other way.

Leif Ristroph, assistant professor of Mathematics at NYU’s Courant Insti-tute, has designed and created a jelly-fish-like robot with flying capabilities, along with Steve Childress, retired NYU Professor Emeritus of Mathematics, and the assistance of other professors in the Department of Mathematics.

The robot, which Ristroph began building after receiving a postdoctoral fellowship from the National Science Foundation, consists of four Mylar plastic wings and is framed by carbon fiber rods. A tiny direct current elec-tric motor spins a crankshaft around, pulls the wings in and out to make the robot fly. A part of the motor is the gearbox, which slows down power to flap wings 20 times per second, a frequency suitable for flight.

Ristroph started the project about two years ago in the Courant Insti-tute’s Applied Mathematics lab. He and Childress iterated many varying ideas and tested them in a trial and error process. Jun Zhang, professor of physics and math, and Mike Shel-ley, professor of math and neurosci-ence, contributed their ideas to as-sist the process. Zhang and Shelley are co-directors of the lab and Chil-dress is a co-founder.

Ristroph’s flying robot is the first to differ from insect-like models, instead using a closing and opening motion to move itself.

Flight stability is a main advantage of the jellyfish design. From studying

their product, Ristroph discovered if their model is knocked over while in flight, perhaps from a gust of wind, it tends to come back upright.

“[Our model] is a much simpler way to fly, where keeping upright is automatically taken care of by the aerodynamics and doesn’t need any sensors or any neural circuits or any-thing like that,” Ristroph said.

Zhang explained how the robot’s method of flying differs from cur-rent flight technology.

“Swimming and flying is a natural phenomenon, and we always find them fascinating. But real-world fliers like an airplane or a ship that involve a steady state approach, they don’t have many moving parts,” Zhang said. “[The model] is important in sense be-cause we better understand nature.”

The robot’s flight was filmed using two high-speed cameras to capture all of its wing motions The team can reconstruct the robot’s 3-D flight path based on the two camera views of its flight.

In the future, miniature fliers could be used for search and rescue, air quality monitoring or surveillance.

Ristroph and Childress continue to analyze the experiment even though they built a functioning flying model.

“Where we’d like to go next is actually understanding how it works. We don’t really understand the aerodynamics of it,” Ristroph said. “We got it to work, we don’t really know why in terms of the physics, so we’re still after that.”

Nicole Del Mauro is a staff writer. Email her at features@nyunews.com.

Student Internet Alliance fosters activism for freedomBy BAILEY EVANS

With so many news headlines

revolving around how much privacy the Internet offers us-ers, some students are prepar-ing to defend online privacy.

Steinhardt and NYU-Poly se-nior Alec Foster has created an organization called the Stu-dent Internet Alliance, which seeks to advance the digital rights of students.

“There are many ways in which Internet policy directly affects students,” Foster said. “Internet policy has been in the news in the past year more than ever before. It has dire needs for reform.”

The Net Alliance, whose board of directors currently includes Foster, Steinhardt senior Eli Kurland and Gallatin sopho-more John Curran, received a Google Grant on Oct. 11 to help finance the organization.

Foster applied for the #free-andopen micro-grant, which was a competition among Google student ambassadors to

submit proposals for a project that shows why a free and open Internet matters to students.

At NYU, the Net Alliance seeks to address some of issues stu-dents feel the Internet faces to-day as well as to create a template for other schools as they address student Internet concerns.

“There are very few instances where you could identify the problems a demographic faces better than that demographic could identify it themselves,” Kurland said. “To give the de-mographic the resources to identify and articulate and actually solve their own prob-lems is a main component of what [the Net Alliance] does.”

Foster, who is also a member of the Student Senators’ Coun-cil Research and Development Committee, helped co-found the 24-Hour Hackathon held on Dec. 6. The Hackathon was a contest among NYU student de-velopers to create an app that would benefit the university community.

The Net Alliance is currently

creating an activist dashboard to facilitate some of the alli-ance’s larger goals by building a platform for activists to create campaigns for specific causes.

“All of the issues that we’ll prioritize for the year will be chosen by students,” Foster said. “Through our activist

dashboard platform, students will be able to vote on what issues matter to them most in their community.”

Although the Net Alliance has developed quickly, its goal is to create an enduring organization.

“We’re hoping to create an organization and a movement

that lasts much longer than our time here because these issues will keep coming up,” Curran said. “We’re hoping to create an organization that will continue to fight for the digital rights of students, so they can continue to maximize their potential for education.”

Foster and the rest of the group do not just seek to aid students in the United States, but they also aim to address censorship issues students in foreign countries face when using the Internet.

“When we had the idea for this organization, it was be-cause it could adapt to the is-sues that have the most trac-tion at any university or in any country,” Foster said. “Internet policy issues that affect us [in the United States] are different than those that affect students in Syria … We want to use the Internet to save it.”

Bailey Evans is a staff writer. Email her at features@nyunews.com.

Leif Ristroph’s robot looks like a jellyfish, but it has wings and can fly.HANNAH LUU/WSN

Senior Alex Foster founded the Student Internet Alliance.FILE PHOTO BY DAVID LIN/WSN

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Christmas album comes with Grande promise

By ERICA GONZALES

‘Tis the season for Christ-mas albums. Kelly Clarkson, Mary J. Blige and Jewel are just a few to release their spins on seasonal songs this year, but, unexpectedly, 20-year-old Ariana Grande seems to be receiving the most hype for her EP, “Christ-mas Kisses,” scheduled for re-lease on Dec. 24. What is it that makes Grande’s EP such an anticipated hit?

1. She keeps listeners engaged with weekly singles.

The bright-eyed songstress released the first track, “Last Christmas,” on Nov. 19, and has debuted a new song every Tuesday since — a la Justin Bieber’s “Music Mondays.” Grande has also debuted “Love is Everything” and “Snow in California,” both original songs. The fourth and final track, “Santa Baby,” is a duet with former “Victorious” co-star Elizabeth Gillies.

2. She translated an 80’s classic into a hip-hop number.

Many a young artist has covered Wham!’s “Last Christ-mas” but none have done it quite like Grande. Her form-ula — add a soulfully melodic intro, write original verses and collaborate with “Victo-rious” co-star Leon Thomas III, who is credited as part of his producer group “The Ras-

cals.” Thomas gives the ‘80s hit a contemporary hip-hop vibe, with bouncy beats and background shouts of “hey” included. The result? One of the catchiest “Last Christmas” covers to date.

3. She keeps things warm and fuzzy.

“Love is Everything” is Grande’s call to action to give love on Christmas. “It’s time for us to all give something,” she begins over jingle bells and marching percussion, and is soon echoed line-per-line by a choir of children. By the bridge, she shows off her sig-nature high notes and is later joined — after an emphatic key-change, of course — by a full, rich choir.

4. She knows how to slow it down (and kills it).

Grande’s “Snow in Califor-nia” is a heartfelt R&B ser-enade to Santa, a plea to let it snow in California so her love, who is only staying for the hol-idays, can stay a little longer. This sweet, riff-laden ballad is sung over steady snapping beats — think of her Ameri-can Music Award performance of “Tattooed Heart” — and bluesy harmonies.

5. She channels her inner Mariah.

Comparisons to Mariah Carey may be reinforced with this Christmas album. Besides

the two singers’ nearly identi-cal range — whistle tones and all — they’ve also released Christmas albums, both con-sisting of original and tradi-tional songs, at similar points in their careers.

If Grande’s similarities to the “All I Want for Christmas Is You” singer stay true, per-haps one of the singles from “Christmas Kisses” will some-day become a holiday classic.

Erica Gonzales is a staff writer. Email her at music@nyunews.com.

Musician JD Samson discusses career, creation of MENBy MALINA GULINO

JD Samson is considered an icon among feminists and in the queer community, but she has mixed feelings about the esteem she receives.

“I was in the right place at the right time,” she said of her involvement with feminist elec-troclash band Le Tigre, which achieved considerable success before deciding to take an ex-tended break in 2006.

“I was this genderqueer per-former and artist that kind of helped push along a new … revo-lution in identity,” Samson said.

In an interview with WSN, Sam-son discussed her current project, the band MEN, which is perform-ing in Brooklyn on Saturday, Dec. 14. Since forming in 2007, the band has addressed issues like trans rep-resentation, feminism and the ar-rest of Pussy Riot.

“We think it’s so awesome that people can define themselves as whatever they want,” Sam-

son said about the band’s name. “And anyone can be a man if they want to be, and anyone can be anything … that’s really what MEN speaks to.”

Samson calls herself a gender outlaw, someone whose gender expression or identity doesn’t fit with the traditional concepts of feminine or masculine.

“Since I was a kid, I was kind of … outside the regular gender binary,” she recounted. “[My gen-der expression] was something that in the past I had to explain a lot to the press and just in my everyday life.”

With the rise of Le Tigre, Sam-son became a hero to many peo-ple grappling with their gender identities. But in MEN’s second album, “Labor,” Samson at-tempted to focus on a different side of herself.

“Part of the process in writing this last record was definitely about trying to think of myself more as a person and less as an object in this political moment,” she said.

“Labor,” a catchy, upbeat record Samson described as “juxtapos-ing dance music with intellectual lyrics,” proved a more personal album than MEN’s debut album, “Talk About Body.” The feminist activism present in all of Sam-son’s work is still there. But its approach is more grounded in Samson’s own self-identity.

“I wrote a song about Caster Semenya,” Samson said refer-ring to the South African Olym-pic runner who was subjected to gender testing. “But I wrote it in first person. It was interesting to force myself to write from the first person, even though I was writing about other people or other political ideas.”

For Samson, who has spent much of her career with an activ-ist identity, separating that per-sona from her artistic identity proved tough.

“It was difficult for me, to find myself through writing because I was so used to writing for a com-munity,” she said.

The figure on the album co-ver for “Labor” is a depiction of Samson. But in representing herself, Samson still wanted to retain a part of her identity as privately hers.

“It’s hard to figure out how

to write a record that speaks to yourself but doesn’t give too much away,” she said.

Malina Gulino is a contributing writer. Email her at music@nyunews.com.

JD Samson’s MEN released their album “Labor” earlier this fall.VIA MENMAKEMUSIC.COM

Ariana Grande will release a Christmas album on Dec. 24.

VIA WIKIPEDIA.ORG

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ARTS

Spend winter break binge-watching on classic TV

By ISABEL JONES

Winter break is only a few stressful days away, and so too is the freedom to binge on Netflix. Depending on moods and interests, Netflix Instant’s offer-ings can please even the most discern-ing of customers.

For a soapy departure from reality, check in with campy fan-favorite “Scan-dal.” Both the series’ plot and its bur-geoning star, Kerry Washington, are responsible for carrying a massive and loyal audience. The show’s fans, self-proclaimed “Gladiators,” dominate the Twittersphere, live-tweeting every twist and turn. In the show’s short run it has inspired catchphrases, garnered an im-pressively increasing viewership and at-tached Washington’s face to the cover of every major magazine in the country. With the first two seasons available on Netflix, newcomers can easily see what all the hubbub is about. And if a passion for creator Shonda Rhimes comes as a result, there’s always nine seasons of “Grey’s Anatomy” to stream, too.

A darker and much shorter binge-watch, the critically acclaimed miniseries “Top of the Lake” may be an unexpected favorite. In this New Zealand-set Sundance Origi-nal, “Mad Men’s” Elisabeth Moss stars as steadfast detective Robin Griffin. The performance has earned Moss countless accolades, including an Emmy nomina-tion. “Lake” has also received recognition for its impressive supporting cast, which

includes Peter Mullan and Holly Hunter.On a lighter note, Netflix also carries

many of TV’s best comedies. The service now carries every episode of “30 Rock.” For a good post-finals laugh, Tina Fey and Alec Baldwin deliver in spades. The Liz Lemon train may have departed last May, but the entirety of “30 Rock” is still worth watching, and with all seven seasons only a click away, who doesn’t “want to go to there?” Cult series “Chuck” is also available in its entirety. While it lasted for an impressive five seasons on NBC, “Chuck” never garnered a massive audi-ence. But with plenty of charm thanks to a likable cast, pop culture references galore and an engaging central romance, this spy comedy with plenty of heart is well worth checking out.

Of course, Netflix Original series are also a requisite watch. Audiences and critics alike have been sent into a fre-nzy by the unique and commercial-free shows. “House of Cards” and “Orange is the New Black” were released in Febru-ary and July, respectively, but this hasn’t impacted their current popularity. With the many great series Netflix offers, a snowed-in Saturday shouldn’t be too harrowing. The break provides ample time to unwind and catch up, so bust out your prison slang or best suit and prepare to binge-watch.

Isabel Jones is entertainment editor. Email her at entertainment@nyunews.com.

Documentary examines effects of nuclear impact

By J.R. HAMMERER

The Atomic Age was launched into existence with the twin strikes at Hiroshima and Nagasaki, which makes it ironic be-cause today Japan is one of the leading users of nuclear power. The tiny island has the third largest number of reactors in the world.

Despite the trauma nu-clear weapons wrought upon the nation, the last 40 years led to a frenzy of nuclear plant construction, bolstered by federal subsi-dies handed to tiny villa-ges. The 2011 Japanese tsu-nami caused a meltdown at the Fukushima plant, resulting in a nuclear ac-cident that reached the top level of the International Nuclear Event Scale. The meltdown leaft panic and mass evacuations in its wake. The only other ac-cident to reach this level of international attention was Chernobyl.

“Nuclear Nation,” a doc-umentary by Atsushi Fu-nahashi, focuses on the refugees forced to flee their homes in the town of Fut-aba following the 2011 meltdown. Abandoned by the Japanese government and torn up from the roots they planted, they were confined within the walls of an abandoned high school — most have been unable to return to their homes.

The refugees recreated the town within the walls of the building, living on packaged sushi, and sleep-ing in sleeping bags on the floor. By the time the audi-ence meets them, they’ve set up a hospital, welfare center and even a may-or’s office at the school.

Months have passed since the meltdown, but they are living in a stasis. Pub-lic officials visit the refu-gees and military march-ing bands perform, but nowhere is there a sense that help is arriving.

Even if they receive per-mits to go home, there’s nothing there. The tsun-ami leveled the town be-fore the nuclear disaster, and rescuers could not search for missing fam-ily members before the evacuation was enforced. and the film shows this slow destruction of liveli-hoods. For instance, one local dairy farmer has the unenviable position of being forced to care for cows that will die of ra-diation instead of simply euthanizing them.

The town soon rallies into a force to fight against nuclear power but, during the mobilization, they for-get how they previously needed the plant to sur-vive. One of Funahashi’s gently expressed ironies is that Futaba needed the

government subsidies from building more reac-tors to avoid bankruptcy.

“Nation” sometimes di-verges from this focus to examine the political factors swirling around nuclear power in Japan. Funahashi doesn’t edi-torialize, gloomy music notwithstanding. He just turns on his camera and records the strange tone of his environment, with cows roaming the roads and families living in school cafeterias.

The wake of catastrophe is full of wreckage and the temporary forging of new lives. But with the wide presence of nuclear plants in Japan, it’s not unlikely such a disaster will happen again — potentially on a worse scale. As a warning, “Nuclear Nation” is un-usually contemplative and asks the audience what happens after you’ve been uprooted once already?

J.R. Hammerer is a staff writer. Email him at film@nyunews.com.Tina Fey’s “30 Rock” is one of many great shows to watch on Netflix.

VIA FACEBOOK.COM

A cleanup crew observes the aftermath of a metldown.VIA WIDEHOUSE.ORG

Spike Jonze astounds audiences with visual, aural masterpiece ‘Her’ HER continued from PG. 1

nix throughout the shoot. While edit-ing, Jonze decided the performance was not what he had en-visioned and decided Johansson would be better suited to the role. Morton still receives credit as a producer, but Jonze certainly made the right decision to switch actresses.

In certain respects, “Her” is also one of the scariest films ever

made. Sitting in a theater and watching this film is a marvel, and it feels as though everyone is trying to laugh off the notion something like this could happen to him or herself. “Her” feels all too familiar, which is both terrifying and heartbreaking.

The entire film is a technical and visual marvel. The subtlety and detail behind the production de-

sign, art direction and costuming is de-lightful, and Hoyte van Hoytema’s cine-matography is crisp and funky. With humor and heart at every turn, it is safe to say nothing more satisfying than “Her” has been re-leased this year.

Ben Marques is a contributing writer. Email him at film@nyunews.com. Joaquin Phoenix gives a stunning performance as the lead character Theodore Twombly.

VIA FACEBOOK.COM

8 WASHINGTON SQUARE NEWS | TUESDAY, DECEMBER 10, 2013 | NYUNEWS.COM

BEAUTY & STYLE EDITED BY ARIANA DIVALENTINOBSTYLE@NYUNEWS.COM

Exhibit traces trend origins of past two centuries

Warm winter looks suit everyholiday party occasion

By GIANNA COLLIER-PITTS

Before the year comes to a close, there is one thing left to be done — party. Whether with close family or dozens of friends, the party season has arrived in full force, and you’ll want to prepare for whatever the holiday calendar throws your way. The key features for any winter party look should be warmth and weather-resis-tance. Thankfully the trends this season will endure long nights out on the town or wherever you find yourself during the break.

Fur and leather have re-mained integral staples of the Fall/Winter fashion season and can be implemented in more ways than simply donning a nice coat. Leather dresses and skirts have been featured in several collections including Saint Laurent and Alice + Ol-ivia, and fur or faux-fur scarves are sure to add a cozy touch to a holiday outfit. Velvet and wool have also had a big presence this past season and can be made party-friendly by incor-porating accessories that bring life to the signature fabrics. To complement the richness of velvet fabric, pair it with shim-mery jewelry for a Hollywood glam look. With wool, add some glamour to its heat factor by spicing up a monochrome knit swing dress ($24.95, H&M) with berry-colored platforms and patterned tights.

With regards to work- and school-related events, it’s im-

portant to maintain a level of professional conservativism in any ensemble, but keep it fun and youthful as well. Play around with lower hemline wool or leather pencil skirts of varying colors, which can be paired easily with a loose-fitting blouse and metallic pumps to bring the holidays into a professional setting.

For attending a more formal party, look for dresses that allow for movement and aren’t likely to weigh you down during the night’s events. Styles popular this season range from bright glitter and sequined frocks to sheer pan-eled A-line dresses, and almost nothing is off-limits in terms of cut and fit. A retail favorite for this holiday season is the slip dress, and the look can be amped up with a structured jacket and ankle booties with socks and sheer tights, or made casual via

layering with chunky knit sweat-ers. For those looking for a classic, seasonal party look, a black body-con dress with sequins ($29.80, Forever 21) is the perfect mix of wintertime elegance and can be dressed up or down depending on the occasion.

Keep in mind that following the trends is less important than dressing for your specific body type, so pick party looks that fit the season while also high-lighting personal assets. Also, it is easy for holiday ensembles to take over their wearers, so remember to wear dresses and ensembles that showcase you as the statement and not just the clothes. After all, holiday fash-ion is about having fun, letting loose and transform your daily look into yuletide chic.

Gianna Collier-Pitts is a staff writer. Email her at bstyle@nyunews.com.

By HANNAH TREASURE

From Rodarte’s clothing collaboration with Target to Maison Martin Margie-la’s debut line for H&M, the phenomenon of what is trendy permeates stores and streets despite different socioeconomic standpoints. However, the visibility of trends is not just a modern concept — Fashion Institute of Technology’s new “Trend-ology” exhibit allows view-ers to venture through over 250 years of trends, aiming to answer not only what is in style but, more impor-tantly, why.

The exhibit itself, cura-ted by Emma McClendon and Ariele Elias, offers a visual experience like that of a runway — a long, nar-row, dark hallway with the fashions illuminated on both sides. The displayed

clothing is arranged chron-ologically, beginning with the 1700s trend of incor-porating the color yellow, sets an example for the globally minded motif of the exhibit. The exhibit explains how yellow was previously associated with heretics in Europe, but it became identified with the Emperor of China as trade expanded. By transform-ing the cultural meaning, wearers embodied this high-low adaptation — ta-king a specific high-class or designer trend and mak-ing it more accessible for the everyday consumer. The same frenzied expan-sion is explained through-out many of the exhibit’s examples, such as tartan print from King George IV’s visit to Scotland as well as 1920s embellish-ments and silk in Holly-

wood dresses reflecting Art Deco in France.

In addition to cultural collaboration, “Trend-ology” provides insight to the political undertones of certain fashions. The

1930s representation, a structured black suit, shows how clothing of the Great Depression aimed to provide working women with two uses for an out-fit — professional enough

for work but sleek enough for evening outings. In the representations for the late 1960s and early 1970s, as a backlash to capitalism and mass-produced indus-tries, clothing began to incorporate tie-dye, folk art and hand-sewn patches — allowing even a counter-culture to become trendy.

“I think political conno-tations of clothing should be discussed more,” Gall-atin freshman Felix Chan said after viewing this section of the exhibit. “There are such strong messages behind all of these fashions, even on streets today.”

In the final section of the exhibit, picks from Rad Hourani’s 2013 collection, illustrated the current trend of unisex clothing.

“I personally only wear men’s clothing, but I think

the meaning behind cur-rent, unisex apparel shows how we’re progressing,” said Justin Pituch, a Galla-tin freshman who attended the exhibit. “If styles can intermix between sexes, maybe gendered roles in society can be interchange-able as well.”

“Trend-ology” brings the real meaning behind our choice of cuts and colors of fabrics, proving the power behind trends. The exhibit shows how popularization of certain fashions brings to life a reflection of our society, a way to convey our messages without say-ing a word.

The exhibit runs from Dec. 3 to April 30, and admission is free.

Hannah Treasure is a staff writer. Email her at bstyle@nyunews.com.

Trend pieces were displayed in chronological order.RACHEL LIQUINDOLI/WSN

Fur items and shimmering dresses are perfect winter party attire.VIA FOREVER21.COM

NYUNEWS.COM

NYUNEWS.COM | TUESDAY, DECEMBER 10, 2013 | WASHINGTON SQUARE NEWS 9

SPORTSEDITED BY FRANCISCO NAVASSPORTS@NYUNEWS.COM

Predicting World Cup results: Who will come out on top?

Wrestling tightens hold on New York City area

By SEAN BILLINGS Until recently a stigma against

inner-city wrestling has plagued the sport. But organizations have been working to improve its public image.

Where once a void existed in the youth sports department of the New York City area, orga-nizations like Beat the Streets stepped up to the challenge of providing positive opportuni-ties for kids from a young age through high school to become involved in a sport and compete at a high level.

“For a long time you had coac-hes in the city who were just collecting paychecks, now there has been a shift and people are really pushing to emphasize city wrestling,” said Mike Torriero, a coach at Beat the Streets, an or-ganization started to revive the wrestling culture in and around the New York City area.

There has even been an in-crease in the coverage of wres-tling in the city. The organiza-tion Gotham City Wrestling looks to be the authority on all things wrestling in the city, cer-tainly a boost to the culture of wrestling in the city.

The increased attention on-wrestling in New York City has occurred on nearly all levels. The college programs in the area in-

cluding Columbia University, Hoftstra University, Hunter Col-lege and NYU have all gained prominence on the national level for their competitive programs.

Most recently, the second annual Grapple at the Garden took place, a college dual meet event that hosted some of the top college programs in the country including Cornell Uni-versity and Illinois University, who are each currently in the top 10 in the country.

Events such as this bring the spotlight to New York City for wrestling, and officials of Mad-ison Square Garden have gone as far to say they are looking to host the Division I NCAA Championships in the near future. And this past May, a huge international event was held at Grand Central Station, dubbed The Rumble on the Rails, where the United States squared off against two worthy opponents from Team Russia and Team Iran.

With such high-profile events on all levels, and with organi-zations looking to support the sport, New York can expect to become a hub for big-time wres-tling in the near future.

Sean Billings is a contributing writer. Emailhim at sports@nyunews.com.

By FRANCISCO NAVAS

This draw for the World Cup is quite conservative by most standards, leaving the teams with the four best odds in the semifinals. Selecting two finalists is never easy. Odds put Brazil (4-1) and Argentina (5-2) in the finals in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil on July 13. I see Germany and Argentina instead, a rematch of multiple cups past.

Brazil has the strongest back line of the four — Dani Alves, Thiago Silva, David Luiz, Marcelo. But the team as a whole is too young and inexpe-rienced. Argentina has Lionel Messi and the rest of the world’s best for-wards, but they suffer from a weak defense. Javier Mascherano cannot possibly carry that weight himself. The Argentines will have a relatively easy track until they meet Spain.

But Spain is old, plain and simple. They insist on continuing their tiki-ta-ka futbol, but Xavi Hernández, Andrés Iniesta and Xabi Alonso can no longer keep up. The team has the potential to play fast counterattack soccer with Jesús Navas and David Silva at the wings and Juan Mata and Santi Cazorla in the middle, but it seems like head coach Vi-cente del Bosque does not understand the need to alter the style of play.

Of the four expected semifinalists, Germany boasts the best all-around

team. Graced with some of the best play-ers from Bayern Munich and Borussia Dortmund, their counterattack, like a freight train, has torn through every de-fense they have faced. With speed and crisp passing, they will cruise straight to the final and possibly win the cup.

Although ESPN’s Nate Silver projec-ted Portugal and the United States to be within only one percentage point of a chance to book a place into the round of 16 (40 percent and 39 per-cent, respectively), this possibility re-lies on many unlikely variables. Logic puts Germany and Portugal through.

Two other unpopular possibilities include Ecuador placing first in their group and Colombia eliminating Uru-guay in the round of 16.

Although Uruguay recently beat Colombia 2-0 in qualifying, Uruguay is inconsistent, and the match was closer than the score represented. With a whole six months to im-prove, Falcao and James Rodriguez’s chemistry will peak while Uruguay continues to age.

As for Ecuador, speed kills. With Manchester United’s Antonio Valen-cia, their leading wing, they outrun most teams, and will outrun the lackluster defenders in Group E.

Francisco Navas is sports editor. Email him at sports@nyunews.com.

BRAZIL

BRAZIL

BRAZIL

CHILE COLOMBIA

COLOMBIA

ECUADOR

ECUADOR

URUGUAY NIGERIA GERMANY

GERMANY

RUSSIA

GERMANY

GERMANY

ARGENTINA

ARGENTINASPAIN

ITALY

PORTUGAL

ARGENTINA

SPAIN CROATIA BELGIUM

BELGIUM

FRANCEARGENTINAJAPANITALY

SPAIN

GERMANY

10 WASHINGTON SQUARE NEWS | TUESDAY, DECEMBER 10, 2013 | NYUNEWS.COM

THE NEW YORK TIMES CROSSWORD & DAILY SUDOKU

ACROSS 1 Fed.

procurement overseer

4 Boito’s “Mefistofele,” e.g.

9 “Delta of Venus” author Nin

14 Giver of a hoot15 Remove, as a

spill16 Bendel of

fashion17 *Migratory flock19 Couldn’t stand20 Small French

case21 Appear22 Plenteous23 Cuckoo in the

head25 Dada pioneer28 Heart29 Greek letter

traditionally associated with Earth Day

30 *Singer Amy with six Grammys

33 Drought ender35 Group of papers

36 *Pegasus, notably

39 Asian capital that was from 2004-07 home of the world’s tallest building

41 ___ Minor42 *“Regardless

of the outcome …”

44 News items often written years in advance

49 Directional suffix

50 D.C. V.I.P.51 Dim sum dish52 Yale Whale

players54 Blarney Stone

home57 Stat for A-Rod58 Take care of a

fly?60 Witticism …

or, literally, a description of the answer to each of the four starred clues?

62 Año’s start

63 Facing the pitcher

64 Who said “The revolution is not an apple that falls when it is ripe. You have to make it fall”

65 “Hollywood Nights” singer Bob

66 Bronx Bombers67 Le Mans race

unit: Abbr.

DOWN 1 Head toward

the setting sun 2 Trade, as places 3 Attraction 4 “Yipe!,” online 5 Wordsworth

words 6 Sporting

weapon 7 Artifice 8 Hypothetical

primate 9 “Yes … that’s

the spot … yes!”

10 Approaching11 Like a “Better

active today than radioactive tomorrow” sentiment

12 “You can’t make me!”

13 Not the main action

18 Course-altering plan?

24 Brothers of old Hollywood

26 Auto take-backs27 Mummy, maybe30 Golfer Michelle31 River through

Pakistan32 Training acad.34 Like a ballerina36 Manitoba’s

capital

37 Big W.S.J. news38 Charlemagne’s

domain: Abbr.39 Plucks, as

brows40 Fleet operator43 Like a

relationship with a narcissist

45 Historical subject for Gore Vidal

46 “It’s me again”

47 Chinese martial art

48 Onetime colleague of Ebert

51 “___ Previews” (onetime show of 48-Down)

53 Not doubting

55 Journalist Skeeter of the Harry Potter books

56 Amazon.com ID

59 ___ favor

61 Amt. to the right of a decimal point

PUZZLE BY PAULA GAMACHE

For answers, call 1-900-285-5656, $1.49 a minute; or, with a credit card, 1-800-814-5554.Annual subscriptions are available for the best of Sunday crosswords from the last 50 years: 1-888-7-ACROSS.AT&T users: Text NYTX to 386 to download puzzles, or visit nytimes.com/mobilexword for more information.Online subscriptions: Today’s puzzle and more than 2,000 past puzzles, nytimes.com/crosswords ($39.95 a year).Share tips: nytimes.com/wordplay. Crosswords for young solvers: nytimes.com/learning/xwords.

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Edited by Will Shortz No. 1105Crossword

Texas law discriminates against religious minorities

STAFF EDITORIAL

WSN welcomes letters to the editor, opinion pieces and articles rel-evant to the NYU community, or in response to articles. Letters should be less than 450 words. All submissions must be typed or emailed and must include the author’s name, address and phone number. Members of the NYU community must include a year and school or job title.

WSN does not print unsigned letters or editorials. WSN reserves the right to reject any submission and edit accepted submissions in any and all ways. With the exception of the staff editorial, opinions ex-pressed on the editorial pages are not necessarily those of WSN, and our publication of opinions is not an endorsement of them.

Send mail to: 838 Broadway, Fifth Floor New York, N.Y. 10003 or email: opinion@nyunews.comSUBMITTING TO

EDUCATION

Humanities should not be undervalued

Old, tenured professors impair Core programUNIVERSITY

NYUNEWS.COM | TUESDAY, DECEMBER 10, 2013 | WASHINGTON SQUARE NEWS 11

OPINIONEDITED BY RAQUEL WOODRUFFOPINION@NYUNEWS.COM

EDITORIAL BOARD: Raquel Woodruff (Chair),

Edward Radzivilovskiy (Co-chair), Peter Keffer (Co-chair),Harry Brown, Marcelo Cicconet, Christina Coleburn, Omar Etman,

Adam Fazlibegu, Nina Golshan, Nickhil Sethi

Email the WSN Editorial Board at editboard@nyunews.com.

By CHRISTINA COLEBURN

An article published in the Dec. 2 edition of The International New York Times has rejuvenated discussions about the value of the humanities in the landscape of higher education. Ac-cording to the piece, funding for hu-manities research in the United States has declined since 2009 and accounted for less than 0.5 percent of financing for science and engineering research developments in 2011.

These austere statistics are not the only indicators of the perceived in-consequence of the humanities. Pro-posed political interference suggests some elected officials find such stud-ies unimportant. Earlier in March, the senator from Oklahoma, Tom Coburn, submitted an amendment to the Continuing Appropriations Act of 2013 that forbade the National Science Foundation from funding political science research unless the project promoted economic or na-tional security interests. Last year, a task force assembled by Florida Gov.Rick Scott said students majoring in the social sciences and humanities should pay higher tuition than those concentrating in the STEM — sci-ence, technology, engineering and

mathematics — fields. Although corporations, governmen-

tal entities and news media have lau-ded the STEM fields as the future of the U.S. economy, students can also stand to benefit from an education founded on the humanities. Subjects like litera-ture, history and philosophy can teach cultural insight, social intelligence, ethical reasoning and historical clarity. These skills involve both analytical rea-soning and critical thinking skills that, frankly, cannot be taught from STEM training alone. This is not to suggest extensive scientific or mathematical training is inherently detrimental. On the contrary, receiving an education with a STEM background can be both academically and economically worth-while. Adopting this notion simply maintains that the humanities should be respected for their intrinsic quali-ties rather than be subjected to system-atic devaluation.

A governmental task force recom-

mending a comparative literature major should pay higher tuition fees than a chemistry major — for atten-dance at the same university — speaks to the one-dimensional, and often pa-tronizing, shift the narrative about the humanities has taken. Rather than sustaining this tone of condescen-sion, the dialogue should shift to one of respect. Despite innate differences, proponents of STEM could learn a great deal from the lessons offered by the humanities. By studying these al-legedly soft subjects, STEM students could integrate insight about the hu-man experience to complement their hard disciplines.

While certain outlets have held that STEM fields are the future of the U.S. economy, they have failed to grasp a critical point. What America truly needs are talented, diligent and in-dependent-thinking individuals who can find creative solutions in the 21st century. These students may originate from STEM fields, but others may eas-ily be comparative literature majors. A humanities education has immense value in these respects, and it should be celebrated, not devalued.

Christina Coleburn is a staff columnist. Email her at opinion@nyunews.com.

Just in time for the holidays, Texas is reminding public schools and their teachers that wishing someone a “Merry Christmas” is protected under state law. The bill, also known as the “Merry Christmas law,” was signed by Gov. Rick Perry in June. The bill also safeguards “winter celebrations” from legal challenges, specifically naming Christmas and Hanuk-kah. Last summer, Perry stated “religious freedom does not mean freedom from religion” when explaining the motive of the legislation last summer. But he failed to recognize that religious freedom does not allow for the promotion of any certain religion.

The law is often self-contradictory and highly vague, perhaps reflecting an intent to create a law that fits different inter-pretations. For instance, the law states that “school districts may educate students about the history of traditional winter celebrations,” yet it insists it “may not include a message that encourages adherence to a specific religious belief.” But, any historical account of traditional winter celebrations is neces-sarily steeped in religion. Worse still, the inclusion of specific religions in an educational context gives the beliefs credence and encourages adherence.

In 1971, the Supreme Court of the United States introduced what is commonly referred to as the Lemon Test — a judicial tool detailing the requirements for legislation concerning re-ligion. Within the test, the court held that “the government’s action must not have the primary effect of either advancing or inhibiting religion.” This requirement is clearly at odds with Texas legislation. In signaling a specific religious group as be-ing in the possession of any right, lawmakers necessarily ex-clude members who are not part of that group.

The bill allows school districts to display religious scenes such as “a menorah or ... nativity” as long as they do not “encourage adherence to a particular religious belief.” These scenes would have to represent either more than one religion or include one religion and at least one secular scene. Essentially, a school could have scenes and symbols from only one religion as long as they have the occasional snowman included. However, the bill explicitly protects Christmas and Hanukkah while ignor-ing other religious holidays.

The Merry Christmas law, which at face value is meant to protect religious expression in schools, is inherently predi-cated on a bias against other religious groups. The bill awards special privileges to Judeo-Christian practices under vague and deceiving language like “winter celebrations,” extending pref-erential treatment to two specific religions in public schools and leaving other minority groups to identify their rights through the bill’s muddled logic. The selective endorsement of religious freedom is discriminatory and has no place inside the Texas public school system.

By RAQUEL WOODRUFF

I still vividly remember my first day of classes at NYU four years ago. My first class was a physics lec-ture that fulfilled a science require-ment. I sat down in a large raked lecture theater filled with hundreds of other students, curious to meet the professor who would be navigat-ing the ominous course material for the next 15 weeks. I couldn’t believe what happened next. A professor shy of 90 years old descended down the aisle, managing six steps in six pain-ful minutes.

Over the course of my four years at NYU, I’ve encountered the same prob-lem time and again with the Core Cur-riculum program — a professor who is too old, but tenured. While tenure provides benefits and stability to hard working educators, it also creates a costly and difficult hurdle for schools to remove underperforming teachers because of the lengthy legal process in-volved. It costs an average of $250,000 to fire a teacher in New York City.

A study at Northwestern University found that non-tenure track faculty were more effective teachers than ten-

ured ones. This is not to say that all ten-ured professors are not great teachers. The problem is that tenured faculty are not required to retire because of their age. The median age of tenured faculty is approximately 55. And a Fi-delity Investments survey found that “some 74 percent of professors aged 49 [to] 67 plan to delay retirement past age 65 or never retire at all.” When you put a professor well past 65 in front of a hundred students to instruct a course as broad and material-heavy as a Core Curriculum class, the results will likely not be overwhelmingly positive.

The purpose of the Core is to pro-vide a foundational, well-rounded academic experience to enrich and broaden a student’s overall intellec-tual outlook. Ideally, the Core offers a canon of essential skills to students’ personal and professional develop-ment. However, these merits cannot

be realized if teachers are unable to steer through a wide range of mate-rial with energy and clarity.

The strongest parts of my educa-tion at NYU have been shaped by the courses with engaging professors — all of which fall within my field of study or my minor. In these areas, NYU has opened many intellectual and professional doors for me. On the other hand, the Core Curriculum program, exceptions notwithstand-ing, has largely been unprofitable in my experience. Many classes lack organization and structure, and they are led by professors who, while cer-tainly intelligent and knowledgeable of the material, are too old to teach.

I applaud the university for empha-sizing a well-rounded education, but also ask that it reflects on the current state of professors in its Core Curricu-lum program. Keeping professors who are unable to educate detracts from a students’ academic discipline and is dishonest to NYU’s commitment to provide a balanced, quality education.

Raquel Woodruff is opinion editor. Email her at rwoodruff@nyunews.com.