i finally made it to nyu.

i go to the new school. it used to be called 'new school university' but a year or so ago, the powers that be met with a pr agency and decided that in addition to 'jazzing up' their logo, they also need to completely change the name of the whole place so as to encompass the many disparate parts under its orange umbrella.

see, the new school isn't really new, as the name would imply. it was founded in the 1920's by two renegade professors at columbia university who wanted to actually teach the material they were researching in their fields. columbia rejected them, insisting they stick to the usual, so they moved downtown where it's hipper (hipper? did i really say that?) and birthed the new school for social research.

and it grew.

after world war 2, the new school once again trail blazed, being the first university to offer continuing education courses for newly minted adults returning from war with a world of experience--so they didn't have to take classes with the pipsqueaks straight out of high school. now there's euguene lang--the undergraduate division, mannes school of music, and the oh-so prestigious parsons school of design.

a pretty cool place, it turns out.

yet still. still. when people ask me, where do you go to school? they reply, "oh, you mean nyu?" no, not nyu. nyu is our neighbor. nyu is the second largest landowner in new york city (after the catholic church). nyu is where the well to do kids supported by their parents go to school. i do not go to nyu. and i do not feel inferior. i go to the new school. or the new school university.

but things are changing around here (you're lucky i didn't have a blog three years ago--you would have heard some ranting...) and apparently the new school wants to be more like nyu. hence, the rainforest-scale slashing of the art department to accomodate more liberal arts curriculum. hence the re-design of the logo. but a logo wasn't enough--so ultra hip and urban that it is (um)--the powers that be didn't stop there. now, as i may or may not have conceded, i understand the need to update the name, i guess. it's not like i'm conducting social research. but really? this is the best they could do? a university? A UNIVERSITY?! they probably paid the million dollars i've given them toward my degree to come up with this doozy.

nyu, be very afraid. A UNIVERSITY is knocking on your door. i won't say which one. it should just be enough to say A UNIVERSITY. if we had a mascot, it's tail would be between its legs.

okay, but it turns out i had absolutely no intention of reading my school for filth. just got a little sidetracked. what i was going to say was, i finally made it to nyu. (their local, online newspaper, that is).