How will you spend your Thanksgiving break?
NYU's recent $35 million project to renovate Tisch Hall — the primary enclave of the Stern School of Business and rumored site of an underground gargoyle assembly plant — certainly had its heart in the right place. Culling generous donations from what the Stern Concourse Project has officially referred to as "alumni, corporate partners and friends" (though not, to Stern's eternal regret, from "good acquaintances"), NYU's big, bad b-school used the money to convert Tisch Hall into mega-modern academic headquarters. The Stern Concourse Project's website boasts of Tisch Hall's new skylights, lounges and "state-of-the-art classrooms" among other space-age amenities.
And though that's all well and good, I can't help but think to myself that, upon entering the upgraded Tisch Hall, I will probably die 40 minutes later if the building is set ablaze and thousands upon thousands of panicked undergrads funnel onto the building's main staircase, which measures approximately two inches across.
Tisch Hall's botched stairway may not be, for all of NYU's student body, completely "new" news; some might recall that WSN ran a story in November about how Stern students were plummeting down the glass stairs on rainy days.
But the issue remains worth scrutiny. The new staircase — composed of thin panels that basically float in business school airspace — doesn't leave much space for students to move about. Though work has been done to alleviate some concerns (when one of the glass stairs began to crack, it was replaced, and the staircase is no longer "shaky"), the stairway simply cannot safely accommodate the mass of students between class periods. Certainly not when combined with the fact that only one of Tisch Hall's two entrances has been open lately, meaning that the hundreds of students moving in and out of the building at any given moment have no choice but to jam themselves through the same revolving door and down that cramped staircase.
Security is a joke, too. With only one guard working at any given period there is absolutely no way to keep track of everyone gaining access to the building. God forbid NYU is ever subjected to a violent tragedy, because there is staggering potential for a lot of students to be in harm's way in Tisch Hall's entry and main staircase.
Hang around the building when class starts or ends to see for yourself. The $35 million, freshly renovated facility is more reminiscent of the Cincinnati Riverfront Coliseum, circa 1979, where 11 people were trampled to death trying to see The Who, than it is of the bright, shining future of higher education.
I recognize that people have had their qualms with Tisch Hall for a few months now. But if I can return to Manhattan well after the fact and still find myself stupefied by the new digs, then I think we can all truly worry about which higher-ups are plugging their ears and yammering on about "PLAZA SKYLIGHTS" rather than actually doing something. Doing something other than approving a $35 million glitzy death pit, anyway.
