NYU alumni secured best play and best new musical at this year’s Tony Awards — two of the night’s top honors, and just a couple of the 22 total awards won by former Violets for content, design and production. The Sunday ceremony named 18 alumni across five NYU schools. Among the big winners were Steinhardt alum Hue Park and Tisch alum Will Aronson, who wrote the musical “Maybe Happy Ending.” The pair was credited for three Tonys out of the show’s six total — which made it the most awarded production this season with best musical, original score and book.  “I met Hue when he was studying at NYU as…

NYU is withholding the diploma of a Gallatin graduate after he condemned “the atrocities currently happening in Palestine” during his speech at the school’s graduation ceremony on Wednesday. The university has faced significant pushback for its decision from several student, faculty, alumni and civil rights groups.  Logan Rozos, the student speaker at this year’s ceremony, said that his “moral and political commitments” guided him to speak on behalf of those affected by Israel’s ongoing siege in Gaza — which has prompted several demonstrations on campus in the last two academic years.  Shortly after his speech, NYU spokesperson John Beckman issued a public statement denouncing Rozos’ choice to “misuse his role”…

Dozens of graduates booed and some wearing keffiyehs walked out of Yankee Stadium during NYU President Linda Mills’ commencement address on Thursday, marking the second year in a row that students left the arena in protest of NYU’s continued crackdown on pro-Palestinian speech amid a federal attack on higher education. Mills, whose speech focused on a research-oriented review of happiness, said that its “best predictor” is “having close relationships.” She did not directly mention President Donald Trump’s onslaught against U.S. colleges, which in the last few months have included cuts to federal funding, threats against student visa holders and the dismantling of diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives across the country.…

Former “Saturday Night Live” star Molly Shannon told graduates to push through challenges and embrace their talents in a recount of her postgraduate years spent searching for work during her honorary address to tens of thousands of students and guests at NYU’s 192nd commencement exercises on Thursday.   Shannon, a three-time Primetime Emmy nominee and Screen Actors Guild Award recipient known for her six-year stint on SNL, was presented with a Doctor of Fine Arts and delivered the address on behalf of this year’s honorary degree recipients — New York Liberty CEO Keia Clarke, who received a Doctor of Humane Letters, and renowned physicist Walter Massey, who received a Doctor of…

A sea of violet robes flooded Yankee Stadium on Thursday morning as nearly 30,000 graduates and guests entered the arena in celebration of NYU’s class of 2025, amid what President Linda Mills called “times of intense change” in the wake of a federal crackdown on higher education.  The May 15 ceremony opened with a mashup performance of “Living for the City” by Stevie Wonder and Taylor Swift’s “Welcome to New York” from Tisch and Steinhardt students and was followed by a procession led by Tandon professor and faculty senate chair Ryan Hartman and deans from each of NYU’s 19 schools carry banners across the field.  After the processions, Provost Georgina…

For 60 years, the NYU Grossman School of Medicine invited students to join its Medical Scientist Training Program — a federally funded, dual-degree MD-Ph.D. program — and develop the specialized skillset of physician-scientists. However, the tradition came to a halt when administrators suddenly rescinded nine prospective students’ acceptances in January after losing the program’s federal grant amid an indefinite “pause” in admissions.  As dozens of medical schools opened applications earlier this month, Grossman kept its MSTP application closed — pointing to a second year with no students matriculating into the program. In conversations with WSN, four MSTP students, who requested to remain anonymous due to fear of retaliation, discussed how…

President Linda Mills and Provost Georgina Dopico appointed Kristina Rose as dean of NYU Libraries, closing an eight-month search and continuing Rose’s over two decades of service to the university.  Rose, who was announced as dean in a memo last Monday, formally assumed her position on May 1 after serving as the library’s interim dean since January. She was previously the associate dean for collections and content strategy at the library, after leading its Access, Delivery and Resource Sharing Services department.  “Each role has taught me something new about our mission, our people, and our potential,” Rose said in a statement to WSN. “My colleagues have been among my greatest…

NYU’s Robert F. Wagner Graduate School of Public Service ranked No.1 in urban policy in the U.S. News and World Report’s analysis of 268 graduate schools nationwide — marking its seventh consecutive year in the leading spot.  As a public affairs school, Wagner fell two spots to No. 11 and tied with Arizona State University, Princeton University, the University of Minnesota and the University of Texas, Austin. U.S. News’ rankings for all 12 speciality programs under public affairs — including urban policy, environmental policy and technology management — remained stagnant from last year, after the publication faced an “error” in curating the list of institutions to include on an updated…

Graduate Student Council member Danilo Trinidad Perez-Rivera staged a three-hour, one-person “sit-in” outside GSAS dean Lynne Kiorpes’ office on Wednesday, claiming he was unjustly denounced from his elected role as a student senator.  Perez-Rivera, a fifth-year Ph.D. candidate at the Graduate School of Arts & Science, said the GSC nullified his election result because more students abstained than voted in the most recent election. He said the GSC has not previously upheld a rule regarding a majority abstained vote, and noted that he was the only candidate who fulfilled the campaign requirements — leaving the position otherwise vacant. The sit-in was staged after GSC adviser Randi Amalfitano did not respond…

Four NYU professors are recipients of this year’s Guggenheim Fellowship, earning grants to further their projects in the creative arts, sciences and humanities. They were each selected alongside 194 other scholars across 53 fields and 83 North American universities for the prestigious program’s 100th class.  Tisch professors Jessica Bardsley and Rubén Polendo were honored for their work in film and performance, respectively, while CAS professors Katie Kitamura and Nicole Eustace were selected under the fiction and American history categories. The John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation allocated varying amounts of funding to each recipient, reflective of their other resources and scope of their projects.  In an interview with WSN, Eustace said…