As you bundle up and head to your first classes of the semester, catch up on news around campus that you might have missed over break. Aside from experiencing New York City’s chilliest week on record since February 2023, NYU has also seen thousands sign letters criticizing the administration for its handling of on-campus protests and created an AI model to answer housing-related legal inquiries.
NYU LA to proceed as usual amid wildfires
NYU Los Angeles’ academic center and residence hall have not been directly damaged by the greater LA wildfires, which have demolished more than 16,000 buildings in and around the city. This semester’s classes at the study away site will continue as scheduled.
The largest of the wildfires, the Palisades fire and the Eaton fire, have killed at least 27 people and each stands around 21 miles away from NYU LA’s academic center. Both the Palisades and Eaton fires are mostly contained.
NYU spokesperson John Beckman told WSN that of the two NYU student groups at the LA campus during January term, one group completed its program in LA and the other transitioned to finish its program remotely.
“As a matter of precaution, we did move students to a hotel farther away from the evacuation zone for a period,” Beckman said. “We also deployed air purifiers in the rooms in the student residence.”
Beckman said that NYU is also offering resources, including financial assistance and mental health support, to students and families who have been affected by the fires in LA.
Tandon awarded $10 million to advance wireless technology research
The Tandon School of Engineering received $10 million from the National Telecommunications and Information Administration to advance wireless systems in unused frequencies, strengthening their potential for coverage and data capacity.
The project, titled SALSA — Spectrally Agile Large-Scale Arrays — focuses on expanding high-speed cellular connection in these new regions, known as upper mid-band frequencies or the FR3 spectrum. In an interview with WSN, Hamed Rahmani, an assistant professor at Tandon, said the project could improve connectivity for billions of devices, creating faster and more reliable communication systems.
“This is a grant not just for fundamental research, but also for technology transition,” said Sundeep Rangan, the lead investigator of the project and associate director of NYU Wireless. “The ultimate hope is that some of this technology will somehow get into a product, or some version of it, that consumers would use.”
The SALSA project brings together academic and industry partners, including Rutgers University, Princeton University, Nokia Bell Laboratories and the NYU-affiliated startup Pi-Radio. Rahmani told WSN that forming a prominent team with assistance from the NTIA scaled the project and its potential impact.
“A lot of some of the core research came out of NYU Tandon, and that’s very special,” Rangan said. “This particular grant really reinforces Tandon’s position, allowing it to maintain leadership by working in this next set of frequencies.”
More than 2,000 faculty, staff and community members condemn student suspensions
More than 1,800 higher education community members and 415 faculty and staff signed letters to NYU administrators criticizing a recent onslaught of student and professor suspensions following a Dec. 11 pro-Palestinian protest inside Bobst Library.
The letters, which were released by the People’s Solidarity Coalition on Dec. 16 and circulated online for around a week, demanded that the university rescind persona non grata statuses for more than 20 students and drop charges against two professors who were arrested at a subsequent demonstration outside the library. Since the letters were released, faculty charges have been lifted and 13 students have been notified of suspensions.
The group said administrators did not specify reasons for the sanctions — and that one professor deemed persona non grata was not present at the demonstration — and cited a statement from the American Association of University Professors also criticizing the decision. The statement argues that decisions limiting faculty members’ teaching and research require a formal hearing process.
“The PNG measures at NYU mark a new escalation of this repression; they trample on basic academic rights,” PSC wrote in the open letter. “The prospect of other administrations following this precedent is a threat to all who depend on academic freedom as a core principle of public speech and education, both on campus and in society at large.”
NYU did not publicly address the letters. When asked for comment, Beckman told WSN that “sanctions reflect such issues as the seriousness of these events involved, prior student conduct records, existing warning or probationary status, truthfulness of testimony, among other matters.”
NYU Law develops AI assistant for New York City tenants
The School of Law helped create an artificial intelligence assistant that can help New York City tenants understand New York housing law and request housing repairs. The AI chatbot, named Roxanne, launched on Jan. 7 and has since been used by thousands of tenants in the city.
NYU Law professor Sateesh Nori said that he collaborated with Josef, an AI-powered legal assistance system, and the nonprofit Housing Court Answers to lead the development of the technology. Roxanne can answer users’ specific questions about communicating with landlords and filing formal housing complaints.
“We’re never going to have enough lawyers to help everyone who has a legal problem, and those who have legal problems can never afford to hire lawyers,” Nori said in an interview with WSN. “So how do you solve that problem? One way is technology.”
Nori said that Roxanne uses retrieval-augmented generation technology, a model that only uses sources that were initially fed into it rather than aggregating information across the internet. He said that he and a group of NYU Law students compiled information about New York City tenant law rights to input into Roxanne. If a user asks Roxanne a question that is not related to New York housing law and the information it was given access to, the AI will inform the user that it is unable to respond rather than fabricating a baseless response.
“80% of Americans can’t find or afford legal services, even for crucial life events,” Sam Flynn, the co-founder of Josef, said in a statement to WSN. “Tools like these have the ability to turn the tide on this gap by providing free, convenient and reliable legal information and help.”
Contact Aashna Miharia, Amanda Chen, Amelia Gioia, Dharma Niles and Lekhya Kantheti at [email protected].
