I wrote in 2023 about NYU consistently violating its own rules in NYU in 2019: We will stop buying bottled water. NYU in 2023: Here’s some bottled water from us.
It’s tempting to read something I’m not writing. I’m talking about leadership, which requires credibility and integrity, which require hands-on practical experience, not mere talk. I’m not writing in judgment. During a bus boycott, Martin Luther King would undermine everything if he occasionally took the bus, or even once, even if it took him places faster than any other way and he could do more with that extra time than anyone else.
I attended a wonderful event hosted by NYU this week. The prominent author Walter Isaacson spoke about his book on the Declaration of Independence called The Greatest Sentence Ever Written. The picture below shows the NYU professor on the left interviewing Isaacson on the right. The podium on the left of the stage says NYU and shows NYU’s logo and colors.
What do you see on the table? Yes, two bottles of water. Yes, they violate NYU’s rules, but that’s the minor point. You’ll also see two plastic cups. Yes, they pollute, but they aren’t the point either. When the talk began, somehow the bottles and cups weren’t set up right. I think the cups weren’t there. I didn’t notice exactly, but guess who did.
The woman on the left in the white jacket in front of the podium’s NYU logo is the president of the university. She noticed the missing cups. She got up, went off to the right, and came back with the plastic cups so that the guests could drink the water in violation of the university’s rules. Even forgetting about the rules: she promoted polluting and depleting.
NYU’s bottle policy seems clear. From Cat Richardson Director of Content Strategy and Development, on NYU’s site, Sustainability Initiatives: Reducing Single-Use Water Bottles on Campus states:
NYU has pledged to achieve carbon neutrality by 2040, and we’re going to get there by making both targeted lifestyle changes and larger systemic ones. That is why NYU, led by the Office of Sustainability, eliminated single-use water bottles on campus in 2020.
The main target is plastic water bottles. But even water in aluminum and cardboard containers will no longer be purchased using NYU funds. This is because it takes 2,000 times more energy to transport bottled water than it does to drink tap water. And New York City’s tap water is not only healthy and safe, it also has a reputation for tasting great.
What do you expect of students, faculty, or any staff if the president of the university breaks its own rules?
My point is the opposite of a virtue test. I’m talking about effectiveness and serving her own values or at least those of the institution she presides over, effectiveness. I’m talking about the culture of America’s higher education community.
I’m also talking about doof. New York City’s water consistently rates among the most healthy and tasty, to the extent water has taste. NYU has plenty of reusable containers.
