Viktor Koen

High-cost, low-interest loans from NYU are the hottest commodities on the market these days. On a city level, they've been used (and eventually forgiven by the school) across Manhattan to pay for profiled professors' lofts or condos. On a national level, they've made their way into the Senate, with Senator Chuck Grassley grilling Treasury Secretary Jack Lew for accepting one when he was an NYU professor. And, on a world level, they're the subject of serious backlash in relation to the school's expansion here and abroad. Now, it looks like the loans have gone coastal.

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Was Guangcheng's dismissal a result of pressure for NYU Shanghai?

Last year, Chen Guangcheng arrived in New York to take a teaching position at New York University. He'd just escaped house arrest in his native country of China after being prosecuted for representing thousands of women in a class-action lawsuit against the Communist government. Now, more than a year later, the university has let the renowned dissident and self-made lawyer go, leading many to point fingers of blame at the school's PR coup de grace: worldwide expansion.

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The wave of faculty dissatisfaction at New York University continues to roll on. After the School of Arts and Sciences voted in favor of a statement of no confidence in President John Sexton and his administration back in March, similar resolutions were passed by NYU's Gallatin School, its Steinhardt School, and its Tisch Asia program.

Today, add another big NYU division to the list: NYU's Tisch School of the Arts just finished tallying the votes on their own no-confidence resolution, and the results, while hardly overwhelming, are clear: Of the 169 professors who voted, 93, or 55 percent, voted in favor of the statement of no confidence; 76 cast votes disagreeing; 16 abstained.

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Herr_Bert via Compfight cc

Forget self-deportation: It appears the feds have stumbled across a case of secret self-outsourcing at New York University. On Monday, U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York Preet Bharara and the FBI announced charges against three NYU researchers who had been funded by the National Institutes of Health to work on super-specialized MRI technology--then gave away that research to an institute supported by the Chinese government and another competitor, according to the complaint.

"As alleged, this is a case of inviting and paying for foxes in the henhouse," Bharara said in a statement. While the researchers were toiling away with the multimillion-dollar grant, the charges allege that the defendants communicated with United Imaging, a Chinese medical imaging company, and the Shenzen Institute of Advanced Technology, a project established by the Chinese Academy of Science, the Chinese University of Hong Kong, and the Shenzhen municipal government.

A university investigation into researchers' NYU e-mail accounts found that the researchers had been sending NIH-funded project updates to United Imaging, while the feds discovered that an executive there paid one of the researcher's grad school tuition fees and another's rent. Guess SeekingArrangement.com just wasn't good enough this time around.

Send your story tips to sbrownstone@villagevoice.com. Follow her on Twitter here.

NYU's insurrection isn't dying down -- it's accelerating.

Ever since the faculty of New York University's core division, the School of Arts and Sciences, voted no confidence in the administration of President John Sexton in March, Sexton has been on a charm offensive, promising angry professors that he will solicit their input and try to be a better listener going forward. So far, at least, that effort is falling flat, as more and more school constituencies continue to line up against him.

The faculty of NYU's Steinhardt School of Culture, Education, and Human Development held its own no-confidence vote last week, and finished tallying the results yesterday. The result was overwhelming, with 117 faculty voting in favor of a statement of no confidence, 45 voting against, and 22 abstentions. The Gallatin School of Individual Study also narrowly voted no confidence in the administration, 23 to 21, with 6 abstaining. Meanwhile, NYU's troubled Tisch Asia program just held its own vote today. 19 faculty voted in favor of a no-confidence statement, one against, and two abstained.

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As we learned from A Christmas Story, you can and will shoot your eye out with a BB gun. The same applies to airsoft guns -- those plastic knockoff rifles that fire out small, plastic BBs. The pseudo-weapons are favored by a younger, gun-savvy crowd and, boy, they can hurt like hell.

That brings us to the story of NYU junior Andrew Goal. On Sunday, he was arrested at 80 Lafayette, the location of NYU's Lafayette dormitory space, for building and selling airsoft guns out of his room. Both of those activities are illegal in New York.

Apparently, maintenance workers tipped off the campus police that they saw a few pistols on Goal's bed during a service visit. The NYPD soon busted his room and found five rifles stashed away in the 20-year-old Texan's room; one of which resembled an AK47. It was later discovered that Goal was selling his products online for upwards of $500.

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NYU President John Sexton could soon be facing more no confidence votes.

When the faculty of New York University's School of Arts and Sciences voted no confidence in President John Sexton and his administration earlier this month, Sexton and the university's board of trustees dismissed the significance of the non-binding vote and pledged to forge ahead with their controversial expansion plans.

But as the administration now manages a burgeoning scandal over outsize compensation for top administrators, it now appears that the School of Arts and Sciences faculty won't be the only members of the NYU community to hold a no-confidence vote.

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senate.gov

Senator Chuck Grassley has taken an interest in NYU's finances.

It's been a rough few weeks for the central administration at New York University.

Last Friday, the faculty of NYU's School of Arts and Sciences voted to support a statement of no confidence in President John Sexton and his administration. In the weeks surrounding the votepress attention (including this cover story from the Voice and the New York Times's uncomfortable interview with Sexton) focused on discontent at the university over its aggressive expansion plans, both globally and in New York. Meanwhile, the lawsuit over the university's New York expansion plan held its first hearing, with the judge siding with NYU's opponents on a potentially important procedural motion.

But there's another headache facing Sexton and his administration, and it comes from an unlikely quarter: the United States Congress. When President Obama nominated Jack Lew to be his new Treasury Secretary, it put a spotlight on Lew's previous tenure as an executive vice president at NYU, and the details that came to light weren't exactly flattering.

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Though not binding, the vote is a setback for John Sexton and his agenda of NYU expansion.

The week-long electronic balloting just closed, and the results are in: Faculty in New York University's School of Arts and Sciences have voted in support of a resolution of no confidence in the university's president, John Sexton, and his administration.

The voting was open to the school's 682 tenured or tenure-track faculty, of whom 569 took part. Of the votes cast, 298 professors (52 percent of those participating) voted no confidence, and 224 (39 percent) voted to support Sexton.

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It's been quite the newsworthy week for NYU.

Since Monday, President John Sexton has undergone a no confidence vote by the faculty at the University. This comes after the New York Times ran a piece detailing the inner drama of the school's hierarchy, as well as Sexton's complex personality as a charmer and provocateur. And, of course, fellow Voice scribe Nick Pinto had his in-depth report a few weeks ago that dove into the battle over the school's global presence and here at home with NYU 2031 - an expansion plan that has West Villagers up in arms.

Well, today, the no confidence vote will come to an end.

The faculty is expected to announce the results some time this afternoon. That result will determine what the faculty has to say about their leader's term in office and NYU as a whole. The decision could have enormous consequences for the world-renowned University and, as the Times and Pinto pointed out, higher education as a whole.

The Voice will have the updates here.