Between finishing a paper for a class that starts in 20 minutes, trying to grab the quickest bite to eat and scheduling half-hour naps before work, days at NYU can occasionally be busy and exhausting. Let’s not forget the poor souls who have internships, clubs and rehearsals to add to the hecticness. On those days however, when you do find yourself with free time and in need of something new and exciting to do, you may not have to look much further than campus. I mean, paying this much tuition? Might as well exploit the perks!
1. The Fales Library in Bobst
Housed in the walls of Bobst Library, special collections of books and cinema are available exclusively to students and faculty of NYU. The Fales Library, located on the third floor of Bobst, contains over 300,000 volumes of written works. This ever growing collection specializes in the acquisition of rare books in English and American literature. I was lucky enough to visit Fales with a class of mine and was allowed to see first edition copies of Jane Austen’s novels! While it is tailored more for research students, so much great material and media elements from the collection can be found on Bobcat. If you’re a bibliophile with some free time, this is definitely worth checking out!
2. Avery Fisher Center for Music and Media
If being a cinephile is more of your thing, then look no further than one floor below Fales, to the Avery Fisher Center for Music and Media. Like Fales, this collection of videos and audio recordings is vast. More than 50,000 videos consisting of art films, documentaries and U.S. and foreign cinema are available for students’ viewing and listening pleasure. Although all material must be enjoyed inside the library, there are special viewing rooms and workstations where you can sit and enjoy comfortably.
3. Movie Screenings
On the topic of movies, NYU program board and the Kanbar Event Series are both notorious for their awesome movie screenings throughout the year. Over the course of one semester I attended multiple movie events, including Pride and Prejudice and Zombies, (months before its official release!), The Leisure Class, Belle and Ex Machina. Other popular events included early screenings of Oscar-nominated movies, such as The Danish Girl, Anomalisa, The Revenant and Steve Jobs. If you’re lucky, you may even get a special Q&A after the screening with the producer and/or director of the film. How awesome is that? and best of all, they’re FREE.
4. Tech @ NYU
Want to venture outside of campus for some fun? Tech @ NYU is an incredible, student-run organization of “hackers, designers, and builders.” If you’re into technology, this is the space for you. Some notable events have included trips with students to the social media headquarters of Facebook, Spotify, Twitter and Tumblr! Sign up with your email to be notified of upcoming events and meet a community of like-minded and driven students.