Statement by NYU Spokesman John Beckman on Research Report and the Soho/Noho Planning Process

“It has come to our attention that a recent report by an NYU researcher is being characterized as NYU’s official, institutional position on the future planning of the NoHo/SoHo area, and representative of our future plans. This is definitely not the case, and misunderstands how universities work.

“The report was written by a researcher affiliated with the Wagner School’s Rudin Center for Transportation. These are the kind of papers that academic centers and institutes issue routinely—in NYU’s case, they number in the hundreds every year and range across topics from immigration reform to voting restrictions, from ways to fight poverty to ways to address public health threats or improve city schools. In keeping with the precepts of academic freedom, these reports and their authors’ views are published completely independently of the University administration.  As is almost universally the case, in this instance University administrators had no foreknowledge of this report, nor any involvement in its preparation.

“NYU has taken no position on this research paper, because it is not the University’s role to do so. Universities exist to enable their faculty scholars and researchers to conduct their work free from interference, and it is only in rare instances that a university is in the position of having to comment on the work on one of its scholars. And NYU has also taken no position on the SoHo/NoHo planning process. We are a participant in the Soho/Noho Advisory Group, but we are very much in a ‘listening and learning’ mode.

“NYU finds it regrettable that the Rudin Center for Transportation report has been mischaracterized in the way it has.

“When NYU chooses to take an institutional position on the zoning matter, it will do so publicly and straightforwardly.”