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Monday, March 23, 2009 Volume 8 Issue 9
Shahzad Anwar
NYU Student ProtestsNYU Student Protests Draw AttentionDraw Attention 
On the night of February18, 2009, more than 50 New York University students barricadedthemselves in the Kimmel Center for Student Life cafeteria. The oc-cupation was planned by the stu-dent organization Take Back NYU.The organization had alengthy list of demands, which in-cluded full disclosure of the uni-versity’s endowment, investmentstrategy and operating budget. An-other demand was the tuition stabi-lization for all students beginningwith the class of 2012. The TakeBack organization also wanted areconsideration of the recent lift of the ban of Coca-cola products oncampus.Farah Khimji, a participantin this event, told the WashingtonSquare News, the NYU studentdaily news publication, “We’re planning on occupying the spacetill our demands are met.” The stu-dents were, however, forced toleave before their demands were
Continued on page 3Continued on page 4
By: Rammiya Nallainathan
On February 11
th,
2009, thecurrent Big Sib Chairs (’08-’09)announced their final decision onwho the new Big Sib Chairs (’09-’10) were going to be. The newBig Sib Chairs are Adeline Yeo,Alex Genshaft, Avril Coley, JohnConnuck, and Tara Anantharam.Big Sibs is a student-runorganization which helps incomingfreshmen and sophomores adjust tothe new high school life. From theOpen House and Camp StuyvesantOrientation, to the homeroommeetings and dances, Big Sibs arean integral part of the many Stuy-met.According to the February26, 2009 edition of the Santa Claranewspaper, the “NYU protest endswith suspensions, no arrests,” thestudents had assembled in theKimmel Center cafeteria under theruse of a dance event. At about 10 pm on February 18, they pushedtables and chairs in front of the building’s two entrances. At one point, nine NYPD cars and 18 offi-cers surrounded the building, inaddition to the six NYU PublicSafety officers inside the building.The protesters were cheered on bya crowd of about 100 people, someof whom were from other schoolssuch as Hunter College and Co-lumbia University.There were 18 studentswho chose to remain in the cafete-ria even though the universitythreatened to suspend them, whichthey did. At about 2 pm, the lastmembers of the occupation left theKimmel Center, at which point thecrowd greeted them with enthusi-asm.According to the February26, 2009 Duke University newspa- per editorial, “Take Back StudentActivism, “the protest was an un-fortunate and unintentional” and a“parody of the important American protests of the 1970s, which wereactions of last resort toward unre-sponsive administration and had broad support.” The NYU protest,on the other hand, was not a wellthought-out plan of last resort, nor did it have support from other stu-dents. The protest’s power and le-gitimacy was diluted by several
T  S  S  / E l  i   s  s  aT  am 
 A congregation of NYU students staged a sit-in at the Kimmel Center as they protest for institutional democracy to NYU.
vesant events geared toward first-year students. Because next year’sincoming class consists of 989 stu-dents, the Big Sib Chairs of ’08-‘09 expressed just how importantthey believed it was for them toselect the right people to handlenext year’s job of getting studentsassimilated to the community.This year, 34 applicantstried out for the position as Big SibChair. Applicants were required tofill out an application which con-sisted of three short and three longessays on their experiences as aBig Sib and plans for the future. Inaddition to this, each applicant wasrequired to have two to three rec-She was probably theshortest manager of the StuyvesantPeglegs Varsity Football team inthe 105 year history of the school.Her diminutive stature didn’t di-minish the strong impact she hadon the team. She is remembered as,"One of the kindest and most genu-ine people at Stuyvesant,” said EdKo, Class of 1988, one of the play-ers. She may have been short of  physical stature, but Sari Halper Dickson, Class of 1987, was a gi-ant when it came to principles.She took on the presidencyof the Stuyvesant High SchoolAlumni Association (SHSAA) at amost pivotal time in its history, thecentenary of Stuyvesant HighSchool. She placed her name onthe ballot as a candidate for publicoffice when no one else wouldchallenge an incumbent who wasthe scion of a powerful politicalfamily. Wherever she went, she setthe example of leadership by ser-vice. Her quantity of life may have been short as well, but the qualitydwarfed so many others.I remember Sari’s firstSHSAA Board meeting in May,1995. She sat between Leo Mar-shall and I, her eyes shining as shelistened to the various discussionsconcerning Association business.We later learned that she was the protégé of Serph Maltese, one of the more senior members of theBoard and a New York State Sena-
Meet the New Meet the New Big Sib ChairsBig Sib Chairs 
 
 A Celebration of Sari  A Celebration of Sari  Halper  Halper -- Dickson: Dickson: 
Her Constituency WasHer Constituency WasEveryoneEveryone
By: Kenneth Barr, Class of 1975
Continued on page 3
In This Issue
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Best Games of2008:The List Goes On
 
2 The STUYVESANT STANDARD March 23, 2009–VOL.8, NO. 9
The ExecutiveBoard
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Publication
THE STUYVESANT STANDARD
is a non-profit publication produced bythe students of Stuyvesant High School.
THE STUYVESANT STANDARD
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Staff Editorial:
Give Them the CreditThey Deserve
As April approaches, manysenior students eagerly await theresults of their college applications.Students often argue that it is moredifficult to be admitted to a selec-tive college as a student from Stuy-vesant than a student in a smaller school where more personal atten-tion is afforded to each student bycollege counselors. Some parentshave expressed the concern thatdrudging through the college admis-sions process in an overcrowdedschool could put their child at a dis-advantage. Rather than complainabout the extreme population condi-tions under which our school hasmanaged to function, students and parents should take the time to fullyacknowledge and appreciate theexceptional amount of effort thatcollege counselors, teachers, andguidance counselors, and have of-fered Stuyvesant students everyyear.In spite of the very com-monly held notion that the staff of the college office could do a better  job of accommodating students, itseems impossible for them to have been more supportive to studentsthan they have been in the past year.As rejection letters roll in some stu-dents may forget about the handfulof college meetings that the collegeoffice scheduled for seniors to makesure that they were on target withtheir college selections. Not onlywere seniors kept regularly in-formed of college deadlines throughmeetings in the theatre and college bulletins frequently released onstuy.edu, but were also scheduledfor a personal meeting with their college counselor in which their  personal needs were specificallyaddressed. Some students eventook advantage of the opportunity tohave a parent-student meeting witha college counselor their junior year to get ahead of the game. In addi-tion to keeping students well-informed of deadlines, general ap- plication procedures, and scholar-ship opportunities, the college coun-selors offered their time before, af-ter, and during classes to studentswith questions and ensured that stu-dents were notified well in advanceof college representative visits.Where the college counselors, andcollege office secretaries couldhave possibly gone wrong in theeyes of the student body is unclear.In addition to college of-fice staff, Stuyvesant seniors owean incredible debt to the teachersand guidance counselors who wereresponsible for writing teacher rec-ommendations and SecondarySchool Reports (SSRs) respec-tively. In a sense, the future of Stuyvesant students lies in thehands of guidance counselors andteachers who write on behalf of students while some students and parents fail to acknowledge thesheer weight of the role they playin deciding the future of eachmember of each graduating classthat is going on to college. Teach-ers often sacrifice a great deal of their personal time writing recom-mendations during summer vaca-tion and corresponding with stu-dents during the school year en-tirely out of their own inclinationto assist a student in need. Thewillingness exhibited by our teach-ers in cooperating with studentsduring the college admissions process is incredibly admirable.And many students can be surethat teachers went that extra mileto truly articulate the best qualitiesof the students about which theyagreed to write recommendations. Neither should guidancecounselors who possess the daunt-ing task of writing literally dozensof SSRs be left unacknowledged.In light of the extremely complexextracurricular portfolios of Stuy-vesant students in general, guid-ance counselors have faced thearduous task of accurately commu-nicating the attributes and experi-ences of students with whom theyhave only spent a few minutes. No matter what the out-come of college admissions thisyear, the people that made the en-tire process possible should begiven the credit they deserve. Stu-dents should make a visit to their college counselor, teachers, andguidance counselor and thank themfor their willingness to offer timeand energy that they will never beable to replace.
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 As Stuyvesant High School’s only independent schoolnewspaper, we feel that it is our responsibility to offereach and every student theopportunity to contribute to a news publication. If you would like to join any section of the StuyvesantStandard, or have any comments or questions thatyou would like to run passed us, please email us at:EIC@stuystandard.org.
 
 NEWS The STUYVESANT STANDARD March 23, 2009 –VOL.8, NO. 8 3
TheStandardNews
Her Constituency  Was Everyone
Continued from page 1
NYU Student ProtestsDraw Attention
extreme demands, such as the 13scholarships per year for Palestin-ian students, acknowledgement of the right of graduate students tounionize and public access to the NYU library. In addition, the stu-dents involved vandalized theKimmel Center and injured a secu-rity during the activity.Stuyvesant students haveexpressed mixed reactions towardthe recent turn of events at NYU.Junior Simon Tong said, “I don'tthink what the students at NYU didwas really right because there are alot of other forms of protests thataren’t so troublesome and incon-veniencing to others. There aretor. Since politics is totally irrele-vant, I won’t mention that most of us are Democrats while Serph andSari are Republicans. Oops, I did itanyway. Oh, did I mention that bothSerph and Sari are Republicans?That was the least relevant fact. Sheshowed an instant grasp of what theAlumni Association did and how itneeded to do it going forward. Leo,Serph and I immediately decidedthat Sari had to be elected to theBoard at the next election. She was,and she immediately dove into the business of improving the way wedid things. She took an active rolein re-writing the by-laws and took charge of the scholarship commit-tee. It fell to her to negotiate theCarol and Marvin Eiger Scholarship program with Dr. Marvin Eiger.Then, there was the football team.We could not overlook the Peglegs,her pride and joy. I never realizedthat she was manager during her student days. She badgered us onthe Allocations Committee to givethe team vital funding for transpor-tation, a need unique to Stuyvesantsince we were without a home field.Did I say badgered? Actually, it wasarm twisting with a broad smile onher face. Let’s face it, one resistedSari at one’s own risk.Sari became President after serving as first vice president duringthe latter stages of Evelyn Krejci’s presidential term. Once again, Sari’sspirited leadership style galvanizedthe Board to tackle everything fromthe aftermath of 9/11 to the school’scentenary in 2004. Working closelywith Principal Stanley Teitel, theParent’s Association and other in-terested parties, Sari ensured thesuccess of the year-long activities, beginning with the Stuy Strut andending with the All-Class Reunion.She also took on the thankless task of editing the Alumni Spectator, nomean feat considering all that shehad going on in her life. After fin-ishing her fourth term as presidentin 2005, Sari chose not to run for afifth term when she saw that the board was in capable hands and de-cided the board should have newleadership to follow fresh ideas.Her professional life was noslouch. Starting with her work inthe Republican Council Leader’soffice under Thomas Ognibene, shemoved on to be Deputy Clerk of theQueens County Board of Elections,Deputy Commissioner of the StateDepartment of Housing and Com-munity Renewal and Deputy Direc-tor of the Roosevelt Island Operat-ing Corporation under Herbert Ber-man. She was president of the pres-tigious Queens Council for the Artsand served on the boards of a hostof charitable causes. However,Stuyvesant was her first and bestlove. I don’t think she would objectto being described as a StuyvesantChauvinist.The cruelty of Sari’s deathwill never be lost on any of us.When Sari was informed she wouldhave difficulty becoming pregnant,she journeyed to Russia to adopttwo wonderful children, Diana Joy(now 5) and Aleksander (now 3).Upon her return, she found out thatshe was pregnant despite the doc-tor‘s original diagnosis. Sari was ontop of the world. Her beautiful sonZach was born. Then, with the sud-denness of a thunderclap, she re-ceived the awful diagnosis of can-cer. She fought it with the verve andvigor with which she lived her en-tire life. Then, on January 30, it allended. It will be very hard to attendSHSAA Board meetings and notthink of Sari, eyes shining brightly,making a trenchant remark that cutsright to the heart of the matter. SariHalper Dickson, wife of John,mother of Diana, Aleksander andZachery. She will be missed. Shewill always be remembered.Lisa Cangro Tepperberg, Class of 1988; Stanley Loo, Class of 1982;Hon. Serphin Maltese, Class of 1951 and Henry Grossberg, Class of 1982 contributed to this article.
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Continued from page 1
Financial Aid FormsCause Complication
The Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA) is theapplication for students who wish toapply for federal student aid mustcomplete and submit. Some stu-dents dread completing this lengthyapplication. The main purpose of the FAFSA is to determine whether a family is eligible for financial aid.Federal Student Aid, an office of the U.S. Department of Education,is aimed at helping students pay for  postsecondary school (educationafter high school). Those who areeligible for financial assistance canreceive grants, loans, or participatein work-study programs to acquiremoney for college.Many students are daunted by the complexity of the FAFSA: asix page application with over onehundred questions, all targeted todetermine the financial status of theapplicant. The intimidating applica-tion can even prevent students fromapplying for financial aid. Somefamilies hire professionals to fill outthe form for them. Student FinancialAid Services Inc. is a service thatcharges a fee of $80 to $100 to helpstudents complete the FAFSA.Other families even go as far as paying for a financial advisor whowill help them increase their chances of eligibility.Because of these problems,the FAFSA may be eliminated or replaced in the future. Some arguethat the main problems with the cur-rent application are that is it toolong and too complicated, not allstudents will be able to apply for financial aid, and some students aredaunted by the lengthy form. In at-tempt to simplify the application process, President Obama proposesa different method for determining astudent’s eligibility. All that thisnew “application” would require ischecking a box on the federal taxreturn. The Internal Revenue Ser-vice (IRS) will then send the re-quired information to the Depart-ment of Education, where eligibilitywill then be determined. Thoughthis approach is a lot simpler, thereis a disadvantage—not everybodyfiles taxes, especially the low-income families. Furthermore, thefinancial aid application processstarts in January, while the informa-tion that the IRS provides concernsthe previous year.Another approach in simpli-fying the student aid application process, proposed by former Secre-tary of Education Margaret Spell-ings, is a shorter and less compli-cated form. Containing less thanthirty questions, the sample applica-times when you need to do some-thing drastic, but I don't think thiswas one of them.”However, Junior ShivamPappu stated, “I think that the stu-dents who actually have the cour-age to fight for such noble ideals,are the best students the college possesses, and by suspending them NYU is subjecting itself to a hugeloss. You see good colleges instillthese values into students and theyencourage them to try and improvethe world, but when they actually put the ideas they discuss in classinto practice, they're punished. It'scomplete hypocrisy. Perhaps their methods were a tad extreme, but Iadmire them for actually fightingfor reform.”
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Jenny Shan
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 In order to receive financial aid, most students must go through the mundane task of filling out complicated forms such as FAFSA, TAP, and CSS Profile.
Continued on page 6
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