Bobst Boy is the nickname of Steven Stanzak (born January 25, 1984), a

New York University New York University (NYU) is a private research university in New York City. Chartered in 1831 by the New York State Legislature, NYU was founded by a group of New Yorkers led by then-Secretary of the Treasury Albert Gallatin. In 1832, the ...

student who spent eight months living in the basement of one of the school's libraries,

Bobst Library The Elmer Holmes Bobst Library ( ), often referred to simply as Bobst Library or just Bobst, is the main library at New York University (NYU) in Lower Manhattan, New York City. The library is located at 70 Washington Square South between LaGuardi ...

from September 2003 to April 2004. Before living in the Bobst library, Stanzak was an ordinary student living on loans and part-time jobs, without financial assistance from his parents. In September 2003, he found that his NYU

scholarship A scholarship is a form of financial aid awarded to students for further education. Generally, scholarships are awarded based on a set of criteria such as academic merit, diversity and inclusion, athletic skill, and financial need. Scholarsh ...

, four jobs, and private loans would cover his

tuition Tuition payments, usually known as tuition in American English and as tuition fees in Commonwealth English, are fees charged by education institutions for instruction or other services. Besides public spending (by governments and other public bo ...

costs, but he could not get enough loans to cover housing. He refused to drop out or transfer to a cheaper university, choosing instead to live in the library. Stanzak quickly tired of answering peoples' questions about life in the library, and posted a Q&A online, which eventually grew into the

blog A blog (a truncation of "weblog") is a discussion or informational website published on the World Wide Web consisting of discrete, often informal diary-style text entries (posts). Posts are typically displayed in reverse chronological order ...

and web site, and Stanzak developed an underground fan following on NYU's campus. The ''

Washington Square News ''Washington Square News (WSN)'' is the weekly student newspaper of New York University (NYU). It has a circulation of 10,000 and an estimated 55,000 online readers. It is published in print on Monday, in addition to online publication Tuesday thr ...

'', one of NYU's student papers, was told of Stanzak's situation and asked to do a profile on him. At first Stanzak refused, fearing how NYU would react to the situation. However, once Stanzak was told that the article would only be printed with his consent, he agreed to an interview. In April 2004, just before the release of the news article, an NYU dean was told of Stanzak's situation, and requested a meeting. At the meeting, the dean told Stanzak that his initiative was remarkable, but that he could no longer live in the library, and Stanzak was provided free NYU housing for the last few weeks of classes. The day the profile was published, reporters started calling Stanzak, and he became an overnight celebrity. Stanzak received widespread media attention, appearing on ''

Good Morning America ''Good Morning America'' (often abbreviated as ''GMA'') is an American morning television program that is broadcast on ABC. It debuted on November 3, 1975, and first expanded to weekends with the debut of a Sunday edition on January 3, 1993. Th ...

'' on April 29. Stanzak continued to receive financial assistance from NYU until graduation, and no longer updates his blog or web site. After his time in Bobst library, he became a

Resident Assistant A resident assistant (RA), also known by a variety of other names, is a trained peer leader who coordinates activities in residence halls in colleges and universities, mental health and substance abuse residential facilities, or similar establishm ...

at NYU's Lafayette Street Residence, in Chinatown. Stanzak later attended

Indiana University Bloomington Indiana University Bloomington (IU Bloomington, Indiana University, IU, or simply Indiana) is a public research university in Bloomington, Indiana. It is the flagship campus of Indiana University and, with over 40,000 students, its largest ca ...

, where he received an M.A. (2009) and Ph.D. (2014), both in folklore. He currently serves as the managing editor of the Journal of Folklore Research.

References

External links

Interview
at ''

NYU Local ''NYU Local'' is an independent news blog run by New York University (NYU) students. It is the companion publication for NYU along with the ''Washington Square News'', and the undergraduate equivalent of '' Washington Square Review''. Founded in ...

'' {{DEFAULTSORT:Bobst Boy 1984 births Living people New York University alumni Indiana University Bloomington alumni