News Briefs for December 9, 2009

Governor's Island school to open

In 2010, the Urban Assembly New York Harbor School (NYHS) will open up on Governors Island. The school has spent the past six years in the Bushwick section of Brooklyn.

The NYHS will have an enrollment of 432 students that will have students taking the ferry to Governors Island from the Battery Maritime Building in Lower Manhattan.

The ferry used to get to the school will be free for students and faculty and will run every hour. The school is planning on adding a second ferry that will run between Brooklyn and the Governors Island as well.

The location of the school will also benefit the students by cutting down on subway and bus rides that students must take to get to the shore to complete work for their classes.

Students at the school are helping to restore New York Harbor's oyster population, with the location of the school near the water that is now made to be even more possible.

According to the school's Web site, "NYHS joined the Urban Assembly network of 17 schools in the newly formed Department of Empowerment Zone."

Urban Assembly was founded in 1990 to help students who faced poverty. The schools were created to help with the lack of quality secondary schools.

- - - -

Columbia to offer co-ed dorming

Co-ed dorms could be implemented at Columbia University starting next fall.

Sophomores, juniors and seniors will be getting the option of rooming with whoever they want no matter what sex they are. Freshmen are not able to have co-ed dorming their first year.

According to The New York Post, "The proposal would also ease awkward living situations for gay and lesbian students, who don't always feel comfortable living with a same-sex roommate."

Students who decide to room with the opposite sex will be housed in the University's Morningside Heights dorm.

New York University (NYU) was has a ‘mixed housing" policy at their University that started this year.

Two men and two women are able to share an apartment style suite. As with Columbia, freshmen are not allowed to live in the "mixed housing."

NYU's Web site states, "Students participating in mixed-sex housing should be committed to maintaining a livable environment free of discrimination, harassment and/or abuse."

While students may like that they can dorm with whoever they want, it is their parents that may not like it so much.