Prospective college students and their guests touring New York University were harassed by some of New York City’s homeless population last week.
A tour guide, who was a student at NYU, said he was harassed by a homeless person during one of his tours, when the homeless person grabbed him and demanded money. In another display, a homeless person laid down in the middle of West 4th Street in the view of multiple tour groups.
“Every single day something is happening,” the guide told the New York Post. “Our duty is to sell the school, to showcase our campus, and obviously, being harassed is not something you want to deal with on a daily basis.”
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The guide added that he hopes students do not write the campus off because of the homeless population. However, he said he has seen the “disgusted” looks on the faces of prospective students.
“You can see them visibly disgusted and say, ‘I don’t want to apply here. I don’t want to apply here because I feel unsafe,’” the guide said.
Starting Monday, tour guides can include the inside of campus buildings on their tours, marking the end of another pandemic-related restriction. Tour guides prior to Monday were stopping outside the campus library, the Washington Square News, and the student center. However, they left off the city’s famous Washington Square Park, which is off-limits to students due to an increase in illegal drug dealing, violence, wild parties, and unsanctioned boxing matches, the New York Post reported.
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Tour guides are given walkie-talkies, taught de-escalation training, and are instructed to go out on tours two at a time when staffing allows in order to deal with “disruptive individuals.”
Despite the homeless situation, NYU announced it received a record 105,000 applications to the university for the year and accepted 12.2% of the applicants. Tuition this year will cost between $78,440 to $84,169 before student aid.
