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Yes, Some Students Live in the Library (But Not Like This)
By KAREN W. ARENSON
Published: April 27, 2004
Tyler Hicks/The New York Times
Steve Stanzak, an N.Y.U. sophomore, said he could not afford an apartment or a dorm and for months lived in the Bobst Library subbasement
In an era when attending college can cost $40,000 a year or more, hardship tales abound. But few match Steve Stanzak's curious story of his last eight months as a homeless sophomore at New York University, sleeping six hours a night in the subbasement of the Bobst Library, showering in the gym or at friends' apartments, doing his homework at a nearby McDonald's and subsisting mostly on bagels and orange juice.
As he put it on the Internet, where he has spent four or five months recounting his adventure, it was "the tale of a penniless boy and his quest to gain a college education." He said he took refuge in the library after being denied adequate financial aid, and described himself as "a furtive figure amongst dusty stacks of books, below the offices of the elite administrators of the university."
Could it really be true?
That is hard to say.
N.Y.U. officials, when they learned of his Web site (homelessatnyu.com/home.php) last week and read his online diary, quickly invited him in for a conversation and then gave him a free room in one of their residence halls for the rest of the semester.
"We took what he had to say at face value," John Beckman, an N.Y.U. spokesman, said yesterday. "It seemed the only appropriate course. I can't go into many details. But we have arranged for housing for him."
For his part, Mr. Stanzak seemed somewhat surprised yesterday by the attention he was drawing after an article about him appeared in the campus newspaper, The Washington Square News.
"I knew it would be interesting to the N.Y.U. community," he said in an interview, as he sipped orange juice in a cafe. "I just didn't know anyone else would care."
Mr. Stanzak, 20, a creative writing major who made the dean's list last semester, looks the part of a tousled college student. His blond hair — dyed, he said — flops over his forehead. He has small metal rings in his left ear and his right eyebrow, and when he speaks, a silvery metal post is visible in the middle of his tongue.
He said that as a gay man who grew up in Waterloo, N.Y., a small town in the Finger Lakes region, he is used to being different.
He said that he hit upon the idea of sleeping in the library last September after he could not get a private loan to supplement his N.Y.U. scholarship ($15,000, he said), his federally subsidized loans and the money he earns by working at multiple jobs. He said that his parents are divorced and that neither is contributing to his education. The only question he was unwilling to answer was how to reach them.
But if limited finances were the original reason that he took up residence in the library, he said he soon realized it could be a rich experience for his writing.
As he put it on his Web site: "I am a writer at heart, and go to N.Y.U. for creative writing, and this seemed like an experience I just couldn't pass up. I am an idealistic dreamer, and this seemed like something I could do, that would benefit me financially and creatively."
The decision to share his experiences with the world came later, he said, as he grew tired of explaining to friends what he was doing and why. He simply posted an explanation on the Internet.
The more he wrote about his life as "the Bobst Boy," as he christened himself, the more it became a kind of "stress relief," he said.
Yesterday, as he led a visitor on a tour of his former haunt, down the marble steps to the second basement, he seemed familiar with the surroundings. It was a bare white room lit by fluorescent tubes and filled with a maze of study carrels. The basement floors are open 24 hours a day, seven days a week. Sometime after midnight, Mr. Stanzak said, he would head to the far back corner with a pillow and pull four chairs together to sleep. He said he fit pretty well — he is only 5 foot 6 — and never rolled off.
"It's not as uncomfortable as it looks," he said.
At first, he was fearful, Mr. Stanzak said, but gradually he gained confidence.
"I wasn't afraid of being thrown out of the library," he said. "I could have slept in the park. My worst fear was getting kicked out of N.Y.U. I love this school."
He said that security guards awakened him perhaps five times. The first two times they told him he could not sleep there, he said. Later, they wanted to make sure he was O.K. — and that he was an N.Y.U. student. He said he suspected that some people in the library might have been aware of what he was doing but chose not to say anything about it.
He kept some clothes and toiletries in a rental locker at one end of the library floor. (They were still there yesterday when he opened it.) His books were in a second locker, on the fourth floor, and the rest of his belongings were in a storage locker near the university.
He said that while friends might have been willing to put him up for more than a night or two, "I didn't want to impose."
He said that many of his friends thought he was crazy when he embarked on his library life, and that some continued to think of it as a kind of extended joke. And some people who commented on his Web site expressed skepticism about whether his story was true. But he said that for himself, it gradually became his "normal life," though not one that he discussed with his family.
"Unlike the majority of students at N.Y.U," he wrote on his Web site, "I don't get an ounce of money from mommy or daddy and can't afford to live the lavish life here. If it sounds like I'm bitter, it's because I am."
He said he had not yet heard about his financial aid for next year.
By yesterday afternoon, N.Y.U. officials seemed to be taking Mr. Stanzak in stride, but stressed that students who fall short financially should seek help.
"We do have resources for students in emergency situations," Richard J. Kalb, associate dean for students at the College of Arts and Science, where Mr. Stanzak studies.
Other officials, though, described Mr. Stanzak as creative and entrepreneurial.
"N.Y.U. doesn't attract just smart students, it attracts smart, eclectic students," said Mr. Beckman, the university spokesman. "We had a film student who wanted to film a couple performing a live sex act in front of a class. We had students who set up a swimming pool in their dorm room. Now we have this fellow."
Yes, Some Students Live in the Library (But Not Like This)
By KAREN W. ARENSON
Published: April 27, 2004
Tyler Hicks/The New York Times
Steve Stanzak, an N.Y.U. sophomore, said he could not afford an apartment or a dorm and for months lived in the Bobst Library subbasement
In an era when attending college can cost $40,000 a year or more, hardship tales abound. But few match Steve Stanzak's curious story of his last eight months as a homeless sophomore at New York University, sleeping six hours a night in the subbasement of the Bobst Library, showering in the gym or at friends' apartments, doing his homework at a nearby McDonald's and subsisting mostly on bagels and orange juice.
As he put it on the Internet, where he has spent four or five months recounting his adventure, it was "the tale of a penniless boy and his quest to gain a college education." He said he took refuge in the library after being denied adequate financial aid, and described himself as "a furtive figure amongst dusty stacks of books, below the offices of the elite administrators of the university."
Could it really be true?
That is hard to say.
N.Y.U. officials, when they learned of his Web site (homelessatnyu.com/home.php) last week and read his online diary, quickly invited him in for a conversation and then gave him a free room in one of their residence halls for the rest of the semester.
"We took what he had to say at face value," John Beckman, an N.Y.U. spokesman, said yesterday. "It seemed the only appropriate course. I can't go into many details. But we have arranged for housing for him."
For his part, Mr. Stanzak seemed somewhat surprised yesterday by the attention he was drawing after an article about him appeared in the campus newspaper, The Washington Square News.
"I knew it would be interesting to the N.Y.U. community," he said in an interview, as he sipped orange juice in a cafe. "I just didn't know anyone else would care."
Mr. Stanzak, 20, a creative writing major who made the dean's list last semester, looks the part of a tousled college student. His blond hair — dyed, he said — flops over his forehead. He has small metal rings in his left ear and his right eyebrow, and when he speaks, a silvery metal post is visible in the middle of his tongue.
He said that as a gay man who grew up in Waterloo, N.Y., a small town in the Finger Lakes region, he is used to being different.
He said that he hit upon the idea of sleeping in the library last September after he could not get a private loan to supplement his N.Y.U. scholarship ($15,000, he said), his federally subsidized loans and the money he earns by working at multiple jobs. He said that his parents are divorced and that neither is contributing to his education. The only question he was unwilling to answer was how to reach them.
But if limited finances were the original reason that he took up residence in the library, he said he soon realized it could be a rich experience for his writing.
As he put it on his Web site: "I am a writer at heart, and go to N.Y.U. for creative writing, and this seemed like an experience I just couldn't pass up. I am an idealistic dreamer, and this seemed like something I could do, that would benefit me financially and creatively."
The decision to share his experiences with the world came later, he said, as he grew tired of explaining to friends what he was doing and why. He simply posted an explanation on the Internet.
The more he wrote about his life as "the Bobst Boy," as he christened himself, the more it became a kind of "stress relief," he said.
Yesterday, as he led a visitor on a tour of his former haunt, down the marble steps to the second basement, he seemed familiar with the surroundings. It was a bare white room lit by fluorescent tubes and filled with a maze of study carrels. The basement floors are open 24 hours a day, seven days a week. Sometime after midnight, Mr. Stanzak said, he would head to the far back corner with a pillow and pull four chairs together to sleep. He said he fit pretty well — he is only 5 foot 6 — and never rolled off.
"It's not as uncomfortable as it looks," he said.
At first, he was fearful, Mr. Stanzak said, but gradually he gained confidence.
"I wasn't afraid of being thrown out of the library," he said. "I could have slept in the park. My worst fear was getting kicked out of N.Y.U. I love this school."
He said that security guards awakened him perhaps five times. The first two times they told him he could not sleep there, he said. Later, they wanted to make sure he was O.K. — and that he was an N.Y.U. student. He said he suspected that some people in the library might have been aware of what he was doing but chose not to say anything about it.
He kept some clothes and toiletries in a rental locker at one end of the library floor. (They were still there yesterday when he opened it.) His books were in a second locker, on the fourth floor, and the rest of his belongings were in a storage locker near the university.
He said that while friends might have been willing to put him up for more than a night or two, "I didn't want to impose."
He said that many of his friends thought he was crazy when he embarked on his library life, and that some continued to think of it as a kind of extended joke. And some people who commented on his Web site expressed skepticism about whether his story was true. But he said that for himself, it gradually became his "normal life," though not one that he discussed with his family.
"Unlike the majority of students at N.Y.U," he wrote on his Web site, "I don't get an ounce of money from mommy or daddy and can't afford to live the lavish life here. If it sounds like I'm bitter, it's because I am."
He said he had not yet heard about his financial aid for next year.
By yesterday afternoon, N.Y.U. officials seemed to be taking Mr. Stanzak in stride, but stressed that students who fall short financially should seek help.
"We do have resources for students in emergency situations," Richard J. Kalb, associate dean for students at the College of Arts and Science, where Mr. Stanzak studies.
Other officials, though, described Mr. Stanzak as creative and entrepreneurial.
"N.Y.U. doesn't attract just smart students, it attracts smart, eclectic students," said Mr. Beckman, the university spokesman. "We had a film student who wanted to film a couple performing a live sex act in front of a class. We had students who set up a swimming pool in their dorm room. Now we have this fellow."
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