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The Residential College at Broome Street

 Welcome to the Residential College at Broome Street!

We’re excited that you’ll be with us for the upperclassman Residential College at NYU. The Broome Street Residential Life and Housing Services Staff, including Residence Hall Director Tyler Crisman, Residence Hall Assistant Director Ali Guokas, Faculty Fellows in Residence Michael Ralph and Michelle Dent, our Faculty Affiliates, and all the RAs look forward to building a new kind of learning/living community in the coming years. Please take a moment to look over this brief overview of the RC’s opening activities and larger principles and aims. If you have questions or comments, please feel free to send them via email over the coming weeks (broome.hall@nyu.edu)

The Residential College at Broome Street has two principal aims: 1) To bring residents into closer intellectual and social contact with one another and with faculty and 2) To bring residents into a more intimate relationship with the surrounding city – including neighborhood communities, cultural institutions, and historic traditions.

To these ends, the Residential College will sponsor several types of programs: you’ll be invited to participate in and/or help develop them.  In addition to leading occasional outings for cultural events in the city at large, the Faculty Fellows in Residence will have a regular round of programs in the building to help facilitate relationships among residents. The Faculty Fellows in Residence also sponsor a Broome Book Club that meets a few times per semester to discuss fiction and non-fiction novels related to the neighborhoods we live in.  We also host an Alternative Spring Break trip to Detroit and a local Alternative Spring Break right here in NYC.

If you have ideas for any of these regular events – or would like to volunteer to lead a discussion or create an event on your own – please contact your RA! We’re interested in generating a diverse set of in-building programs based on your interests.

Engagement Streams

In addition to these general programs, each resident will be assigned to a specific programming “stream” according to their expressed interests (see the drop down menu to the right for Broome Stream descriptions).

Your stream will serve as a home base for your participation in the community, introducing you to residents and Faculty Affiliates throughout the Residential College who share your core interests. You’re encouraged, though, to participate in as many activities as appeal to you, regardless of the stream from which it originates. If you have particular ideas for programming in your stream, contact the Faculty Fellows over the summer!

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You’re also invited to participate in BEAST Hall Council.  This student-run board offers excellent programming resources and hosts large scale events for the Residential College community.

The Residential College also sponsors a blog, with regular contributions from residents and RAs. If you’re interested in writing for the blog (food and concert reviews, accounts of activities, opinion pieces), contact RHD Tyler Crisman.  Our building blog is hosted at http://broomestreetblog.blogspot.com, where you can always find out the latest happenings at Broome Residential College.

 Again, we’re looking forward to meeting you in the fall and glad you’ll be a member of our Residential College!

   -  The Broome Street Res College Faculty and Staff

Broome Street Front
Button: display or hide Broome Streams 2013-2014

Pulses of the City
Exclusively for ResCollege seniors, this stream explores and celebrates the multiply varied cultures and industries that have helped found the great urban milieu of New York City. From literary, architectural, museum, zoological and theatre cultures to restaurant, fashion, media, and transportation industries, these sub-spheres include some of the many (re) discoveries available to members of this group. At the beginning of the academic year, in conjunction with the faculty affiliate and resident assistant, participating seniors will select four major sub-spheres (two per semester) as a collective. Each selection will involve at least two active programs and two discussions throughout the term. Excursions around the town will enable engagement with and celebration of each culture or industry; discussions prior to and following each program will consider the significant historical, cultural, and sociological conditions pertaining to that sub-sphere’s unique contributions to our metropole’s lifespan.

Foodie
Eating is only a tiny part of this scrumptious stream. From obesity to malnutrition; from haute cuisine to farmers’ markets, we will explore the many roles food plays in societies and cultures everywhere. Stream members and faculty will delve into the local, sustainable food movement - reaching out to schools, nonprofits, elected officials and health organizations, and work with them to create events, talks, meals or film screenings pertaining to Food/Nutrition.  Stream events can include volunteering at East Farms New York, a sustainable community garden in Brooklyn; participating in the national day of awareness and advocacy around the various food movements on “Food Day” (October 24); as well as lessons in sushi-making and cookie decorating; or exploring New York City's numerous fruit and fish markets, etc.
 
The Urban Adventure
New York City holds within it borders many great (and many hidden) treasures: foods from every corner of the globe; museums of every memorable thing imaginable; hilltops and blacktops; productions off-Broadway and off-off Broadway and even off-off-off Broadway. For various reasons, most of us take very little advantage of this plenitude; and, yet, the city’s boroughs have much to teach us about other people, places, cultures and lifestyles. Students in this stream are signing up for a year of urban adventuring. Most of our adventures will take us into the outer boroughs and into neighborhoods that NYU students rarely explore to find experiences that may very well take us outside of our comfort zones, but will definitely expose participants to the diversity of our urban home. Past adventures have included a wide range of enlightening experiences: eating shashlik in Brighton Beach; learning to make tortillas in Queens; meeting playwrights and actors post-show; attending trapeze school; and much more.
 
Sounds of New York
What does NYC sound like? Let's push the boundaries of what the concept of "sound" actually means. In a city like New York, we are barraged by a sonic landscape everywhere we go. Together-- through mediums of theatre, dance, installation art, film, and music-- we will redefine all conventional wisdom about sound by creating our own audio-urban experience. Listen up!
 
Urban Archaeology
Unlike many major urban areas, New York City does not have a dedicated historic district.  Yet, it is unique in the way that it seeks to place the traces of its past and its present in some sort of vibrant dialogue.  From the Highline Park to Governors Island, lost and seemingly abandoned parts of the city are repurposed, reclaimed, and made new again.  But what is the result of these rediscoveries? How do local residents respond to and engage with them?  In this stream, we will explore those parts of the city where “then” and “now” intersect. This can include field trips to recently rediscovered parks spaces, podcast walking tours of established neighborhoods, films and art exhibitions that examine the romance of the city’s past, visits to “lost” streets, and panel discussions on gentrification. As the city continues to grapple with its past, we will seek to find our own place in this ever-evolving history.
 
Performance
This stream, as a continuation of Goddard's wildly popular "All the World's a Stage," will engage students with the many forms of performance available around New York City. Stream events can include trips to the Bowery Poetry Club, audition workshops, and attending live performances both on and off the NYU campus.
 
The Power of Politics
You have arrived at NYU during one of the most politically charged moments in American history. Devote this year to understanding American politics by examining how political events, and the conversations we have about them, are shaped by international affairs, terrorism, globalization, cultural wars and other hot button issues. Ask what "politics" is and why it matters; what "democracy" means, and why people either withdraw or get involved in the political process. Discover how your own point of view or framework of interpretation shapes what you "see". You will have the opportunity to explore politics on both a local and global scale, while closely watching how the election season unfolds and what implications it has on setting the agenda for the coming year.

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