Few students show pride at GMA, NYU pep rally

via abcnews.go.com

Despite a low turnout at the NYU pep rally on Good Morning America yesterday morning, the students there were happy to show their school spirit. Three NYU students, dressed in purple, stood in line behind the fence outside the GMA set in hopes to get on camera and wave to their families.

Tisch graduate student Taylor McCausland said she came to the rally because she wanted to make the best of her limited time at NYU.

“I’m trying to get the best bang for my buck at NYU,” Mccausland said. “I figured being involved and doing stuff like this would be great.”

GMA is airing features this week about the universities that the anchors attended. NYU spokesman Philip Lentz said a producer from GMA reached out to NYU to ask if they could organize a pep rally because they had hoped to have them each morning this week to accompany the features.

NYU advertised the pep rally in the NYU Minute email and made a flyer, but Lentz said the timing of the rally made it difficult to get students to attend.

“Obviously it was a tough week, so that’s why we didn’t get as much of a turnout as we had hoped,” Lentz said.

CAS senior Billie Gallagher said if she had known about the pep rally she would have attended and said NYU should have broadcasted it on social media.

“Pretty much everyone I know ignores emails from NYU but definitely stays up to date with the NYU Facebook page and NYU-affiliated Facebook pages and Twitter accounts,” Gallagher said. “It sounds like NYU really missed out on an opportunity to not only increase school spirit but also to show the rest of the country how awesome NYU is.”

While there were very few NYU students present, Tisch graduate student Anila Gill said she is glad she went and met a few new people.

“Even if it wasn’t the big crowd we were expecting, it was still a good time,” Gill said.

Lentz said any demonstration of school spirit is good for the university and the students and if GMA did this again, NYU would try to participe.

A version of this article appeared in the Tuesday, Sept. 10 print edition. Nicole Brown is a news editor. Additional reporting by Michael Domanico. Email them at [email protected].