Student Performance Over Gas Deal

In what was dubbed by participants as a durational performance, nearly a dozen students stood outside NYUAD’s main dining hall for several hours donning surgical masks to protest the recent Jordan-Israel gas deal. The performers provided informational pamphlets on the event discussing how the deal would affect Israeli-Jordanian relations and influence the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. The event ended without incident. The performance was preceded by increased tension over the Israel-Palestine conflict on campus after a heated discussion broke out on a major social media forum for NYUAD students and several students drew Israeli and Palestinian flags on the Student Activity Zone chalk board.

Students Upset By President’s Email

Numerous NYUAD students voiced their concern after a recent email sent by President Hamilton ended with wishing students a happy Jewish New Year, while making no mention of Islamic New Year. Both the Islamic and Jewish New Year fell on the same day and some students felt the omission of wishing students well for the Islamic New Year reflected a snub to the Muslim community and an ignorance of the Abu Dhabi campus which had off for the holiday.

J-Term Courses Announced

NYUAD students’ January Term (J-term) courses were announced this past week after the introduction of a new point system for allocating courses. NYUAD students must do three J-term courses to graduate from the university with a mandate to complete one abroad. The university changed J-term policy this past year to qualify Abu Dhabi-based J-term’s with a trip as abroad.

Initial Student Government Budget Report Released

At the most recent NYUAD Student Government General Assembly meeting Student Government Treasurer Cyril Cuda gave a presentation on budget allocations for the upcoming semester and year. This year’s budget allocationfor the Student Government was roughly 460,000 AED (about 125,230 USD), signalling a decrease in funding for the government in both the overall budget and the funding per student compared to last year. Of the 312,003 AED (about 84,940 USD) requested by 54 Student Interest Groups (SIGs) for the Fall semester, 129,311 AED (about 35,200 USD), approximately 41 percent of the annual SIG budget allocation, was approved.

Invisible Threads Exhibit Opens In NYUAD Art Gallery

The “Invisible Threads: Technology and its Discontents” exhibit opened to the public in the NYUAD Art Gallery. The exhibition features works from 15 artists such as Ai Weiwei and Addie Wagenknecht and is set to run until the end of December. The exhibition centers on man’s relationship with technology and follows the success of NYUAD’s other recent exhibition of “Slavs and Tartars”.

This article was written by Thomas Justin Klein. Please send an email to [email protected] to get in touch. Photo Credit: The Gazelle