NYU has reopened a section of the Kimmel Center for University Life’s Grand Staircase, according to a Tuesday email to the university community from executive vice president Martin Dorph. The memo was the first universitywide statement regarding the staircase since its closure in October, a move that has sparked criticism among the student body.
“We know there are a variety of views about the use of the steps,” Dorph wrote in the memo. “We will be gathering a full range of views with the goal of creating a new look and feel that helps maximize that space for community use.”
Dorph also said that the full reopening of the stairs will still take several weeks due to the addition of handrails and relocation of the building’s turnstiles — a new construction project which began over spring break. The handrails are expected to be completed in May, while the turnstiles will be finished over the summer. The administration said the changes will address concerns such as the stairs’ “steepness,” among other issues regarding accessibility and security.
“It doesn’t look amazing, but it’s better than nothing,” Tandon junior Saadat Rafin said. “It does make the whole way coming up a little bit easier.”
The university closed the stairs five days after the start of the Israel-Hamas war on Oct. 7, citing “the level of protest activity” near campus. In the memo, Dorph also said that Campus Safety officers are requiring students to show their NYU ID at the doors of the building.
“It definitely does make a difference in terms of safety,” Liberal Studies sophomore Laila Rehman said. “For the student experience, it doesn’t really make a difference having to tap in your ID to go up the main staircase, just because you have to tap in your IDs to get to the elevators and to the other staircase. I don’t think it makes that big of a difference, so I would say it’s worth it.”
NYU’s Student Government Assembly passed a resolution on March 7 requesting that the university reopen the stairs. The proposal stated that the staircase helps “bring a sense of community” to students and that alternatives are “overcrowded” and pose a “fire hazard and safety issue.”
SGA chair Ryan Carney told WSN that he consistently brought up concerns about the stairs in meetings with administration, and feels that uses for the stairs will continue to be an ongoing conversation between students and the administration.
“They finally had that conversation that students have been asking for for a while,” Carney said in an interview with WSN. “SGA has been advocating for this for months, and I think they finally listened to student voices.”
When asked for comment, a university spokesperson referred WSN to Dorph’s memo.
Contact Aashna Miharia and Dharma Niles at [email protected].
