It's All Fun and Games...

Summer officially began on June 21, but for most of us the summer started long before. Summer is a good time to explore this great city, prepare for new adventures and take new risks in life. All while embarking on the NEW YORK CITY Chapter in your book of life, ALWAYS remember to PLAY IT SAFE.

Here are a few tips on how to stay safe during YOUR NEW YORK SUMMER!

• Avoid drawing attention to yourself as a tourist: don't stand on street corners looking at maps and do your best to walk confidently, as this will deter many criminals.
• Be aware of your surroundings.
• In crowded subways, keep your wallet in your front pocket, rather than the rear, and keep your purse closed and held in front of you or on the side.
• Don't flaunt jewelery, cameras or cash in public. If you need to organize your wallet, duck into a store.
• Use caution when using ATMs and don't carry too much cash around with you -- most places accept credit cards and there are ATMs everywhere.
• After dark, stick to main streets if you don't know where you are going.If you feel uncomfortable or lost, approach a police officer or a friendly store owner to get your bearings or directions.
• When in doubt of your destination or the safety of a neighborhood, take a cab, especially late at night.
• Many business districts are desolate at night -- keep this in mind when deciding whether to walk or take a cab.
• If taking the subway late at night, stand near the "During off hours trains stop here" sign or in view of the Metro-Card booth. Ride in cars with more people and preferably in the conductor's car (you will see him look out the window of the train when it stops).

Tips Courtesy of GoNYC: http://gonyc.about.com/od/planyourtriptonyc/a/is_nyc_safe.htm

Images Courtesy of Tree Hugger: http://www.treehugger.com/files/2009/07/2009-summer-streets-new-york-city-nyc-august-car-free-roads.php

--Submitted by Mia Wright-Ross, William Street RA

Strong Programming to the End

As we slowly moved toward the end of the semester in April and May, the RAs in Student Housing and Residence Life were still working hard to provide opportunities for students to engage and learn from one another. In this post we highlight three of those programs and fill you in on how they made such a necessary impact.

On Saturday, April 30^th, the 20^th Street Residence Hall hosted a program that they called "The Garden Launch Party". This event was held on the 2nd floor outdoor patio as a celebration of the year-long efforts that date back to the spring of 2010. At that time, the members of Hall Council had the idea of starting a garden on that same patio and drafted a proposal to secure funds from the University's Green Fund overseen by the Office of Sustainability. The garden began with a few small temporary buckets of herbs and vegetables and has now grown into a permanent garden which is grown in a large wooden garden box. 20th Street is proud to be the first residence hall with a community garden and compost.

The garden party not only celebrate the start of the new garden but also served as the unofficial start of the Green Community. The Green Community is one of five special interest communities within the halls and is located on the 2nd floor so that members may participate in helping the garden flourish. Many members of the 20th Street community attended the garbd party including RAs,Hall Council members and The New School’s President, David Van Zandt. Mr. Van Zandt spoke about the importance of projects like these and how the university is truly committed to sustainability efforts. Organic food and drinks were served on compostable plates and students enjoyed the opportunity to mingle with one other. It was a great event and a huge success for the 20^th Street community.

Meanwhile, at the 13th Street Residence Hall Lang students were seizing the opportunity to learn more about all that Lang has to offer them during their time at The New School. For many residents, the end of the year is a time for reflection, as well as thoughts about the future. Lang freshman may begin to seriously consider different major options, and many have questions about course selection, registration, and academic planning. To help address these questions, 13th Street RA Malia Okusi invited two staff members from the Lang Advising Office to the 13th Street patio for lunch. On April 21st, Leah Weich, Associate Director of Academic Advising, and Shannon-A'lyce Jones, Academic Advisor for Freshmen and Sophomores, joined a group of residents to enjoy sandwiches and soda, and answer questions. Over lunch, residents were able to gain greater insight into the advising and academic planning processes, and get to know advising staff in a more informal environment. Students commented that they appreciated the informal opportunity to ask appropriate questions and gain new insights to all of the options available at Lang.

Finally, over at Stuyvesant Park, an annual tradition was underway. Recycled Runway is in its third year and is the New School’s first sustainable fashion show, where designers use old clothing or recyclable materials to make new garments. The goal for the show was to bring sustainable thinking to fashion and show that we do not have to be wasteful to create beautiful clothing. A sustainable lifestyle has become prevalent in many people’s lives, but usually only in the ways of recycling or reducing material intake. The creators of the Recycled Runway, Hannah Olpp and Eloise Lennen-Rodriguez both student at Parsons, The New School for Design, wanted to bring these ideas to the fashion industry and push the boundaries. Since there is so much excess in manufacturing clothes, using leftover materials and deconstructed fashion can be in our future of fashion. This show not only brings fashion into our sustainable future, but also informs people how to alter old clothing to make them feel like new. After three years, we are just getting bigger and better!

The Office of Student Housing and Residence Life wants to thank the Resident Assistant staff for dedicating so much time to creating these opportunities for students and hopes that if you missed any of these events, you'll stay tuned to more exciting programs in the fall.

Black History Never Ends

To recognize Black History Month at William Street, the RA team decided to get together and plan one meaningful event that would pulse through their community and get conversations started. As the they discussed it and began planning the event they decided to make a statement about how black history should not be confined to just one month. So this particular event was purposely held in the month of March.

The program centered around the viewing of a PBS documentary, "A Class Divided". This story was about a school teacher in Iowa who separated her all white elementary school class into brown eyed and blue eyed students, beginning the day after the assassination of Martin Luther King, Jr. Treating each group of students either positively or negatively based on eye color, the experiment had a profound affect on the way her students viewed prejudice in America.

The William Street community viewed the documentary together and three of the RAs took the lead in facilitating a discussion on racism and prejudice throughout our country. The discussion was quite productive and examined feelings, thoughts and identities in America. The conversation was supported by thought-provoking images that decorated the space as well a community of open-minded residents with a great dedication to the true history of America. This event was such a success that plans to develop additional black history programs were immediately discussed and have since been implemented to keep black history alive.

20th Street's Civic Duty

At 20th Street, we have been working really hard to encourage community involvement. When it was warmer out, we had a great time volunteering at the nearby Hudson River Park, where we helped clear out weeds. However, during February and March, once it got colder, we had to find a new way to get involved locally. We decided to contact St. Peter’s, a church a few doors down from us, to see how we could help out. We knew that they ran a food pantry so we decided to contact them to get involved. After arranging the date, we put up flyers and a sign-up sheet in the lobby and on a lovely Friday in February, a small group from 20th Street went over to work at the pantry.

At the food pantry, along with a couple other small groups, we worked on boxing up a bunch of food for the delivery the Church does on Saturdays. It was a really great opportunity to get involved locally. Our residents had a great time going to the food pantry and we returned in March to volunteer again. We’ve had a really amazing time working there and our residents have loved getting involved with the community in Chelsea.

Live On!

In case you haven't already seen the many flyers posted around your building about housing selection ... here's one more. Housing Selection is right around the corner and you will want to know as much as possible about choosing your home for the next academic year.

What you need to know:

• Check your mailbox for the 2011-2012 Housing Selection pamphlet- this has answers to all of your questions!
• Go to your MyNewSchool account to apply and pay your deposit by April 1.
• Check your email for your lottery number (this will tell you when you get to choose your room)
• Choose Your room! Selection begins April 11th and will take place in the Stuyvesant Park Residence Hall.

In addition to choosing your room, you'll have a choice to live in one of our Special Interest Communities if you think it's a good fit. These are communities of students who have similar interests in the areas of Green Living, Global Affairs, Honors, Healthly Living and Music. For more information on these and all questions related to the Housing Selection process please visit our website or visit your residence hall office.

We'll see you next year!