{"id":640642,"date":"2026-03-08T09:33:20","date_gmt":"2026-03-08T09:33:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/640642\/"},"modified":"2026-03-08T09:33:20","modified_gmt":"2026-03-08T09:33:20","slug":"nyu-launches-daycare-like-center-where-students-color-play-games-and-phones-are-banned","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/640642\/","title":{"rendered":"NYU launches daycare-like center where students color, play games and phones are banned"},"content":{"rendered":"

Those are some pricey crayons.<\/p>\n

New York University, <\/a>where parents now spend $91,000 on their kids\u2019 tuition, room and board, has a new student perk: a screen-free daycare-like campus corner filled with coloring books, board games, stuffed animals and clay.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Nest\u201d on the second floor of the university\u2019s Kimmel Center has tables covered with arts and crafts; a giant Connect Four, Etch-a-Sketches, polaroid pictures, colorful art hung on the walls and a record player.<\/p>\n

A giant \u201cPLAY\u201d sign sits on top of a game shelf with a reminder to return the games they borrow. <\/p>\n

Sophomore Avani Advani is a student worker at The Nest, which officially opened on Feb. 24. J.C. Rice for NY Post<\/p>\n

From left to right, NYU students Alexandra Robinson Bellin, Celeste Edelson, and Rishi Gala ate lunch together at The Nest on Wednesday. J.C. Rice for NY Post<\/p>\n

The childlike haven opened on Feb. 24 at the Village campus \u2014 along with NYU outposts in Abu Dhabi and Shanghai.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

Phones are locked away in charging cubbies while students revisit their preschool years \u2014 molding sculptures or completing puzzles.<\/p>\n

While the university has pitched The Nest as a wellness hub, critics chuckled at the nanny state emerging where people who should be getting ready for adulthood.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe infantilization of students continues \u2014 with the active cooperation of the students themselves, it should be noted,\u201d Heather MacDonald, author and fellow at the Manhattan Institute, told The Post. <\/p>\n

\u201cThe ever-expanding college bureaucracy became superfluous decades ago, but providing toy-filled interaction zones for undergraduates is particularly ludicrous.\u00a0Any college administrator who has worked on that idea should be fired since he clearly has nothing actually important to do.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

The Nest is just one piece of the university\u2019s broader \u201cNYU IRL [In Real Life],\u201d initiative aimed at getting students offline.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The Nest has shelves filled with games for students to play together instead of being on their phones or other devices.
. J.C. Rice for NY Post<\/p>\n

The campaign is the largest device-free effort taken on by any major university, NYU said in a news release.<\/p>\n

Professor Jonathan Haidt, who teaches at NYU\u2019s Stern School of Business, inspired the undertaking with his book \u201cThe Anxious Generation,\u201d which discusses how the rise of smartphones sparked a mental health crisis among Gen Z<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Alexandra Robinson Bellin, left, and Celeste Edelson both enjoy the serene feel of the lounge. J.C. Rice for NY Post<\/p>\n

\u201cIf colleges want to decouple students from their phones \u2014 a not unworthy goal \u2014 they should assign enough rigorous homework, without phony disability exemptions, to take up students\u2019 attention,\u201d Mac Donald said.<\/p>\n

\u201cAs for getting students to talk more to each other, students can decide their own level of interaction.\u00a0 They should not be taught to expect their coddling bureaucrats to provide them with prompts.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

But students cheered The Nest for offering a much-needed change of pace from their screen-centered lives.<\/p>\n

\u201cI love that the school is encouraging digital-free zones, especially because everything is so focused on your laptops and your phones,\u201d Alexandra Robinson Bellin, 18, of Chicago, told The Post from a couch adorned with plush toys.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The freshman drama major fondly recalled an Uno tournament she and her friends had attended days prior \u2014 one of the many events urging students to live in the real world instead of being swallowed by their screens.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Stuffed animals are propped up on the couches in the lounge. J.C. Rice for NY Post<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a lot of games and a lot of crafts. These are things you don\u2019t usually do at university,\u201d sophomore business major Avani Advani, 19, a student-worker at the lounge from India, acknowledged.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cWithout this place, I don\u2019t feel like I would be playing games that I used to play in my childhood \u2026 It\u2019s such a nice way to connect with things that you used to do so you feel that sense of belonging.\u201d<\/p>\n

With puzzles, Play Dough and board games everywhere \u2014 students have had no trouble recreating their childhood wonder.<\/p>\n

Zihao Huang, left, ate lunch with his friends at a table in The Nest on Wednesday. J.C. Rice for NY Post<\/p>\n

The Nest opened up on the second floor of the Kimmel Center for University Life. J.C. Rice for NY Post<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a nice place to come to unwind, eat, and maybe play a game of Uno after class,\u201d Zihao Huang, 18, a freshman education major from Brooklyn said. \u201cIt\u2019s good to take a break from the devices that we are connected to every single minute of every single day.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Those are some pricey crayons. New York University, where parents now spend $91,000 on their kids\u2019 tuition, room…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":640643,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[5122],"tags":[5229,92388,5248,405,403,5226,5225,5228,5227,112707,10740,6214,67,586,132,5230,68,1154,2969],"class_list":["post-640642","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-york","tag-america","tag-daycare","tag-metro","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-city","tag-newyork","tag-newyorkcity","tag-ny","tag-nyc","tag-nyu","tag-smartphones","tag-students","tag-united-states","tag-united-states-of-america","tag-unitedstates","tag-unitedstatesofamerica","tag-us","tag-us-news","tag-usa"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/116192870989608422","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/640642","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=640642"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/640642\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/640643"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=640642"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=640642"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=640642"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}