Diversity is indispensable to NYU's pursuit of excellence. Not only did national institutions of all types -- including our institutions of higher education -- for too long ignore people of talent and insight because of race or gender or sexuality or creed or national origin -- because of differences of all kinds -- but in so doing we shortchanged so many people: accomplished people who deserved entry into our universities but were denied it, thus eroding our meritocratic instincts; those who would have been their fellow students and scholars, whose pursuit of knowledge would have been greatly enhanced by being in class with those from different backgrounds; and our society itself, which was deprived of many men and women who might have emerged as leaders.

Our home, New York, is the most global, vibrant, and diverse of cities; that is why it is a world center not merely for business, media, and finance, but for the intellectual, cultural, and educational sectors, drawing in people of talent from everywhere. From the composition of our faculty and student body to the content of our curriculum, we should prize the invaluable contribution that diversity makes to our community and should pledge to strive every day to make NYU more closely reflect the embracing nature of its global urban home.
— President John Sexton

Labor Day Parade

In 1912, hundreds of women marched in the city's Labor Day parade rally in Washington Square to proclaim their rights as workers and citizens.

Constance Baker Motley

A civil rights activist, lawyer, state senator, and judge, Constance Baker Motley received an A.B. in economics from NYU in 1943. After receiving a law degree from Columbia University, Motley worked under the tutelage of Thurgood Marshall, chief counsel of the NAACP's Legal Defense and Educational Fund, Inc., and eventually became associate chief counsel for the association. She aided in several key civil rights cases, including Brown v. Board of Education. In the early 1960s Motley continued her fight for equality, arguing ten civil rights cases on the floor of the U.S. Supreme Court. She won nine. In 1964, she left the NAACP to become the first African-American woman state senator in New York. She served in this capacity until the winter of 1965, when the New York City Council elected her the first woman to serve as President of the Borough of Manhattan. The following year, President Lyndon Johnson nominated Motley for a Federal District Court judgeship for the Southern District of New York. Confirmed in August of 1966, Motley became the first African-American woman named to the federal bench.

Female Law School Graduates

NYU's School of Law was one of the first in the nation to admit women. The first three graduates -- Rose Otliffe Levere, Agnes Kennedy Mulligan, and Julia Amanda Wilson -- graduated in 1892. Of the three, only one - Mulligan - continued her pre-law-school career, in real estate finance and development, and she became the first woman elected to the New York Real Estate Exchange. Levere moved from a career in the theater to a post-law school career as pastor of the First Spiritualist Church in New York. Wilson had been a homemaker for a number of years when she started law school. When her husband died in 1891, she completed her studies and went on to private practice upon graduation in 1892.

Havana

In December 1999, NYU became the first U.S. film school to screen works in Havana. Tisch School of the Arts was the first American film school to be invited to screen works at the Festival Internacional del Nuevo Cine Latinoamericano, a major showcase for Latin American filmmakers that draws an audience of 500,000.

Def Jam Records

In the early 1980s, Rick Rubin, co-founder of Def Jam Records, lived in Room 712 of NYU's Weinstein Residence Hall on University Place, where he collaborated with Russell Simmons on what is now one of hip hop's most influential record labels.

Judson Memorial Church

In 1890 the cornerstone was laid for Judson Memorial Church. Reverend Edward Judson, DD commissioned architect Stanford White to create the building as a memorial to his father, Adoniram D. Judson, who served as one of the first American foreign missionaries. In the cornerstone, the Rev. Judson placed copies of a Bible that his father had translated into Burmese.

Peace Corp

In 2006, the US Peace Corps ranked NYU fifteenth among large universities for the number of alumni involved in its grassroots organization, which has sent more than 180,000 people to help developing countries. NYU currently has 53 alumni working in the 76 countries that the Peace Corps serves.