Julian Roberts-Grmela

I'm a freelance journalist based in New York City, available for hire. My reporting has been published in The New York Times, The Chronicle of Higher Education, City & State New York, Chalkbeat, the New York Daily News, The Daily Beast, City Limits, and many more outlets. You can read some selected publications below.

City & State New York •

Manhattan parent board’s anti-trans vote complicates debate over mayoral control of public schools

A Manhattan parent advisory board’s decision to pass a non-binding resolution calling for an investigation into the presence of transgender girls on girls’ sports team has sparked intense criticism – and handed a potent political talking point to Mayor Eric Adams and Schools Chancellor David Banks as they fight to maintain control over the city’s public school system. On Wednesday night, Community Education Council 2 – an elected parent-led advisory group for public elementary and middle school
The Daily Beast •

This Tech May Stop High Beams From Blinding You at Night

A disproportionate amount of driver and pedestrian deaths occur at night, partially due to low visibility, according to AAA. While only a quarter of all driving in the U.S. takes place at night, that’s when 77 percent of all pedestrian deaths and 50 percent of all driver deaths occur. However, 64 percent of drivers in the U.S. “do not regularly use their high beams,” according to AAA. Drivers are choosing the risks of darkness over the risks of glare. “We’ve all been there: You’re driving at n
Chalkbeat •

Where are the students? Despite a state law, few NYC local education councils have youth members

Nearly all of the Community Education Councils across the five boroughs are out of compliance with a state law requiring non-voting high school seniors on their boards, New York City Education Department officials confirmed. Each of the city’s 32 local school districts has a Community Education Council, or CEC, with 10 elected voting members and two appointed by the local borough president. Since 2022, state law has required CECs to also have two non-voting high school seniors, up from 2003′s o
The 74 •

Forget Memorization: A Concrete Understanding of Math Better for Young Learners

Sign up for our free newsletter and start your day with clear-headed reporting on the latest topics in education. Emily Elliot Gaffney believes that many students enter kindergarten “without a lot of hands-on experience with numbers,” causing some to fall behind. Without a foundational understanding of the relationship between numbers and quantities, Gaffney says, some students begin school “believing that math is almost a foreign language where they need to memorize answers to equations they’
City & State New York •

Legislators object to including mayoral control in budget negotiations

As Mayor Eric Adams looks for Albany to grant an extension of mayoral control of the New York City public school system, Gov. Kathy Hochul is supportive but progressive legislators may stand in his way – especially since the state Education Department has yet to complete a study of the effects of mayoral control of the school system. The mayoral control law allows the New York City mayor to appoint both the chancellor of the city’s public schools and a majority of the members of the Panel for E
The 74 •

One-on-One Tutoring Program Bets Big on Teaching Kindergartners to Read

Sign up for our free newsletter and start your day with clear-headed reporting on the latest topics in education. High-dosage tutoring is one of the most effective tools to help students recover from lost learning, including in subjects like reading, where many are far behind. But what if schools didn’t wait until students fell behind? What if all kindergartners got a reading tutor from the start? That’s what the early-literacy tutoring company Once is testing out. They have a hunch the resul
The New York Times •

Pro-Palestinian Protesters Targeting Wall St. Denounce U.S. Veto of U.N. Cease-Fire Resolution

Thousands of pro-Palestinian protesters took to the streets of Lower Manhattan on Friday afternoon for what was billed as a “Shut Down Wall Street” event, just as the United States vetoed a resolution at the United Nations Security Council calling for a permanent cease-fire in the Israel-Hamas war. Protesters rallied in front of a number of prominent city landmarks in Lower Manhattan, including City Hall and Wall Street, chanting, “Free Palestine,” calling for an end to the United States’ finan
City & State New York •

Gotham Government Relations cuts ties with former Obama administration official caught harassing halal cart vendor

Manhattan-based lobbying firm Gotham Government Relations cut all ties with Stuart Seldowitz on Tuesday after a viral video emerged showing him harassing a halal cart vendor in the Upper East Side. “I did have an argument with a food vendor,” Seldowitz told City & State. “It is quite possible that it's me. I mean, I've not seen the video, but I believe it's probably me.” Seldowitz, who worked in the U.S. State Department’s Office of Israel and Palestinian Affairs and then served as Acting Direc
The New York Times •

Landlord Charged With Murder in Stabbing Deaths of Three in Queens

A landlord was arrested and charged with murdering his tenants on Tuesday after three people were found stabbed to death in the bedrooms of a Queens home. The man, David Daniel, 54, turned himself in at a police station Tuesday morning and confessed, said Joseph Kenny, the New York City Police Department’s chief of detectives. Mr. Daniel told the police that two of the victims were his tenants and that they had not paid the rent. The third victim was Mr. Daniel’s girlfriend, the police said.
City Limits •

Comptroller Calls for School Funding Changes to Accommodate Asylum Seeker Enrollments

The city’s education department insists the funding system is flexible, but the comptroller and education advocates worry some schools won’t get what they need if ‘massive numbers’ of new students enroll later in the year. The comptroller is calling on the city’s education department, New York City Public Schools (NYCPS), to revamp its funding process to better prepare for incoming students throughout the school year, as asylum seekers continue finding home in New York City. In a September r
The New York Times •

‘Let Gaza Live’: Calls for Cease-Fire Fill Grand Central Terminal

Hundreds of protesters calling for a cease-fire in the Israel-Hamas war streamed into Grand Central Terminal in Midtown Manhattan on Friday, in one of the largest protests New York City has seen since the start of the conflict three weeks ago. The demonstration, organized by Jewish Voice for Peace, came as Israel ramped up its military operations inside Gaza. The protesters filled the train station, chanting, “Cease-fire now” and “Let Gaza live.” Most wore black shirts that read “Not in our na
City & State New York •

Adams criticized for not offering enough support for Palestinians

A rift may be opening between Mayor Eric Adams and some leaders of the city's Muslim community, who in recent days have criticized the mayor for speaking publicly about the deaths of Israelis but not Palestinians. Adams has made efforts to strengthen his relationship with New York’s Muslim and Arab communities. Over the summer, he hosted the first-ever mayoral reception celebrating Arab heritage. In response to the ongoing violence in Israel and Palestine, he has recently hosted virtual meeting
The Chronicle of Higher Education •

More Students Want Virtual-Learning Options. Here’s Where the Debate Stands.

Concentrating in large lecture halls has always been a challenge for Harper Chambers, a rising senior studying neuroscience at Princeton University. That’s because Chambers has autism, which he said makes him extra sensitive to light and noise. But when Chambers got a concussion last fall, his “acute” sensitivity temporarily became even more severe. Side conversations and the clicking of keyboards drowned out his professor’s lecture and soon became indistinguishable white noise. Lights from pee
The Chronicle of Higher Education •

‘Enormous Surge’ in Unions Reflects Disconnect Between Colleges and Graduate Employees

Andrew Eneim has a front-row seat to what he describes as the “leaky pipeline” of graduate school. Low stipends, high workloads, and “rampant” poor treatment force some students, particularly those without independent wealth, to drop out and give up their tenure-track dreams to pursue more-secure careers, said Eneim, a Ph.D. candidate in biophysics at the Johns Hopkins University. Such working conditions, he said, exacerbate higher ed’s struggle to diversify the faculty. “We’re basically just
The Chronicle of Higher Education •

DEI Legislation Tracker

The Chronicle is tracking legislation that would prohibit colleges from having diversity, equity, and inclusion ; ban mandatory diversity training; prohibit institutions from using in hiring and promotion; or prohibit colleges from using race, sex, color, ethnicity, or national origin in admissions or employment. All four proscriptions were identified in model state legislation proposed this year by the Goldwater and Manhattan Institutes. What Would the Legislation Restrict? The Chronicle look
The Chronicle of Higher Education •

Striking U. of Michigan Grad Students Aren’t Submitting Grades. The University Wants Faculty to Fill In.

Grades are due on Tuesday at the University of Michigan. With graduate students still on strike, administrators have directed some faculty to submit grades on their behalf. That isn’t sitting well with some faculty members who say that being forced to grade students they didn’t teach might be a violation of their academic freedom and professional ethics. The end-of-semester drama mirrors what happened across the University of California system last fall, when graduate students continued their
The Chronicle of Higher Education •

A California Bill Might (Again) Allow Athletes to Profit. This Time, the Colleges Would Be Paying.

When Chris Holden enrolled at San Diego State University, being a student wasn’t easy. That’s because he was on the basketball team, and since his scholarship was tied to his performance on the court, his athletic obligations often superseded his classes and any hope for leisure time. Workouts, classes, more workouts, and homework set the cadence of his days, not to mention travel to away games. “You have to work harder,” Holden said. “You have to study on airplanes; you have to study in lobbie
The Chronicle of Higher Education •

Stanford Told Faculty Not to Publicly Share Opinions on a Grad-Student Union Drive. Then It Reversed Course.

Last week, soon after news broke that graduate-student workers at Stanford University had initiated a unionization campaign, a professor there weighed in with a public statement of solidarity. “I support the rights of Stanford Graduate Workers to unionize,” William Giardino tweeted on April 3. That tweet, he later worried, may have violated guidelines put forward by the administration that sought to limit faculty members’ social-media use about the issue. Giardino, an assistant professor of psy
The Chronicle of Higher Education •

Rutgers’ President Threatened to Take Striking Instructors to Court. Then He Walked It Back.

Thousands of instructors at Rutgers University joined a national surge in union activity on Monday, becoming the fifth currently active strike on a college campus. Three unions representing roughly 9,000 educators, researchers, and clinicians announced the strike on Sunday after nearly a year of contract negotiations. The strike will disrupt classes for Rutgers’ nearly 70,000 students across three campuses. Union leadership is asking its members to join the picket line and refuse to conduct te
The Chronicle of Higher Education •

Emotional Stress Remains a Top Challenge to Keeping Students Enrolled

A new report found that “emotional stress” remains a top reason that students consider “stopping out,” or temporarily withdrawing from higher education, highlighting a persistent issue for colleges seeking to keep students enrolled and on track academically. Moreover, students enrolled in associate and bachelor’s programs were just as likely to consider stopping out in 2022 as they were in 2021, despite many colleges “returning to normal” and easing pandemic precautions. The report was conduct
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