NYU is implementing a “device-free environments and events” initiative across its degree-granting campuses in an effort to “further connect with one another,” President Linda Mills announced in her first universitywide email of the semester on Monday.
Mills said that NYU will establish device-free spaces across its Abu Dhabi, Shanghai and New York campuses to “further our ability to see the world beyond them” and “more compassionately connect with one another.” She cited “The Anxious Generation,” a book by Stern professor Jonathan Haidt arguing that smartphones are detrimentally isolating, as well as this year’s NYU Reads book — a story following astronauts as they orbit Earth more than 4,000 times.
“It seemed to me in many ways reflective of the relationships within our scholarly community: drawing together both a global faculty and student body as well as connecting with the broader world around us,” Mills said. “At NYU, connection is everywhere.”
In the Authoring Your NYU Story class, the curriculum is slowly eliminating its laptop use “in favor of a course notebook.” Student-led, phone-free activities such as “outdoor adventures, game nights, creative workshops and more” will also be encouraged this semester to learn “how devices can separate us from others.”
NYU will be the first major university to publicly initiate a schoolwide phone-free directive. Mills’ new policy follows a cellphone ban in New York State K-12 schools that began on Thursday, prohibiting students from using internet-enabled devices throughout the school day.
In an interview with WSN, Tisch sophomore Addison Zacharias said that although she understands the reason behind NYU’s initiatives, she is concerned about not being able to access her device in emergency situations if the no-phone policy took off.
“I do think that it’s important for us to at least have our phones on hand because school shootings and crimes are rising in schools,” Zacharias said. “But I understand that it can be hard when students don’t use their devices for the right reasons in class.”
Mills also announced a new Health and Wellbeing Corridor, which includes three spaces set to launch this semester on the newly installed gray seating pods at the Kimmel Center staircase. The Study Lofts will act as a quiet study space similar to the Bobst Sensory Spaces, while the lounge on top of the staircase will be turned into The Nest — a device-free zone with phone-charging lockers that will hold events with NYU’s Student Health Center, MindfulNYU and other campus organizations. The Café will expand upon the existing Peet’s Coffee and offer free snacks for students. Mills said that similar spaces will also be installed in Tandon School of Engineering.
“The year ahead will test us. It will also astonish, delight and inspire us. It will bring breakthroughs in research, friendships that last a lifetime, ideas that cross borders,” Mills said. “Together, we have the power to imagine the world as it could be — and to begin building it here, now, on our campuses, with one another.”
Eva Mundo and Jennifer Jesus contributed reporting.
Contact Amanda Chen at [email protected].
