“Some things need fixing. ... We need community — or at least we need to try.” — Life of Alvin, Feb. 13, 2008
“NYU's community has fallen apart to such an extent that even the NYU Bun has lost its glamour. Now, it's no better than a Palladium brunch roll.” — Life of Alvin, March 26, 2008
I’ve often been critical of NYU’s lack of community, and my whining has been fueled by the administration’s apathetic attitude toward the topic; money is being poured into expansion but not into building community.
But an old foe came back to correct me in my ways.
The NYU Ghost returns
It was Aug. 23, the final night of the annual OutReach program, a four-day stint where new students are introduced to service projects in the city. I was a leader helping out students.
And each year, at the end of the program, we play a game:
Everyone sits in a massive circle and closes their eyes. If your birthday is in the months of May or June, you open your eyes and get up. Then you walk around the circle, looking for people who have inspired you during the week. You tap them on the head, sit back down, close your eyes, then other people get their chance to walk the circle.
Even my cold black heart sheds a few tears during this game. But between my girlish sobs, the NYU Ghost interrupted me:
Ghost: Hey, crybaby, man up and focus. I’m back!
Me: Leave me alone. I’m not in the mood for fictitious characters personifying NYU. I wrote about you last spring. Isn’t that enough?
Ghost: No, I’m pissed. All you do is complain about me? What kind of crap is that?
Me: Well, all you do is build buildings and hope that NYU will be a good place to go to school.
Ghost: Well what else do you want from me?
Me: You need to build community.
Ghost: I would expect better from you. That’s such a cliché. You should stop drinking the Kool-Aid. Nothing I do is going to build community here.
Me: So you give up on community?
Ghost: Look around you. Look at this circle of people who act as if they are family. This didn’t take any of my money.
Me: Yeah, but ...
Then the NYU Ghost disappeared again.
The power of suggestion
When I arrived at NYU, people told me this school had a weak community. I bought into it. And when other people came here, I told them the same.
I accepted that NYU’s community was lacking. I accepted that NYU was a place where people get lost in the shuffle. And worst of all, I accepted that this school was nothing more than an educational institution. I did not believe there could be such a thing as an NYU family.
The power of suggestion is the idea that humans act upon what our subconscious accepts to be true. For example, if you repeat a certain goal every night before you sleep, it will help you achieve it.
At NYU, one idea is repeated often: There is no community. So we act like there isn’t one. And then there isn’t. And the cycle continues.
But we can change.
Leadership
When I saw there wasn’t a tightly-knit community at NYU, I criticized the old people in suits who run this place.
But I failed to see our role in this.
Student leaders, anyone from club presidents to talkative upperclassmen, can inspire a change by treating everyone as if they are part of the NYU family. By merely talking and acting as if the culture is different, this anti-community attitude will change.
And we need to stop saying there isn’t community at NYU. Because when we do, it’s like saying we’re poor as we throw money off a bridge.
In the end, this isn’t about building relationships within micro communities because those already exist. It’s about inspiring a different attitude toward interaction on campus. It’s about making NYU feel like home.
Like you're family
OutReach is one of the few organizations on campus that tells you, from day one, that strong communities do exist at NYU. They treat you like you’re part of their family.
I’m a senior now, and most groups I’ve been a part of — even some I’ve led — treat you like a member, not family. That needs to change.
On the final day of OutReach, you sit in that circle with people who were virtually strangers just four days ago. Before that, you were someone who was just treated like family. But at some point, you look back and realize you are now part of the family, that you belong.
And it turns out we didn’t need money or old people in suits to build this. Just us.
Alvin Chang is a columnist. E-mail him at achang@nyunews.com.
Washington Square News > etcetera > Life of Alvin
Making NYU feel like home
The NYU Ghost returns to teach about community and family
Published: Wednesday, September 3, 2008
Updated: Wednesday, September 3, 2008
Isabel Castro
1 comments
2009
That was really nice and all but it was largely off. Some of the big community stuff like homecoming, major athletic event attendance, pep rallies, tailgating, etc. (you know, those mindless things where you drop your "self" and root for the bigger group or institution), well they aren't coming anytime soon. Still you are wrong. We still need money and old people in suits.You can find out where everything is but you really benefit from compulsory orientation. You can figure out how to chose your classes but you do better with advisement. You could figure out thing in lab or a big intro class but eventually but it is better with a lab assistant or teaching assistants and sections. You could learn the tradition, history, mission and vision of your school but it helps when someone explains it to you. (Okay, no one does that at NYU.) The same thing goes for community building, i.e., It is goes better when the university is supporting it. You do need money and resources. You need rooms to meet and a bureaucracy that will at least get out of the way when you are planning things. Small things like limited publication budgets, websites, banners, basic event set up don't take much but they do require money. Fraternities struggle with arranging housing options. Clubs struggle to gain recognition or have time to recruit (hint: a few hours in the first full week of school is not the best time.) Autonomy in the chance to work towards things that we are interested in and that are beneficial to us is good. But it also good when there are interested mentors, people who want to promote institutions that they themselves participated in such as fraternities and sororities, professional and academic organizations, community organizations, social organizations. After all, the faculty and administrators have continuity whereas we are only here for a few years. We benefit when some of the old people in suits are available not as watchdogs but to give advice and the benefit of their experience.
