How will you spend your Thanksgiving break?
The first freshman class at NYU Abu Dhabi won't arrive there until next September, but many faculty members from the new campus are already teaching classes — here in New York.
NYUAD is the university's degree-granting satellite campus in the United Arab Emirates.
Ten NYUAD professors are currently undergoing an integration year: working here on the New York campus, teaching classes, preparing next year's curriculum and conducting research. Their salaries are paid by the crown prince of Abu Dhabi, Sheik Mohammed bin Zayed al-Nahyan, who is funding the NYUAD campus on Saadiyat Island.
One such professor, Matthew Silverstein, is spending the year in New York before he relocates to Abu Dhabi. A first-year assistant philosophy professor, he is teaching a freshman honors seminar this semester, in addition to planning his courses for next year.
Silverstein said the idea behind the integration year is primarily for networking, but also "to have us teach to cement our affiliation in our home departments and to offer something to the departments that are hosting us."
Approximately 100 other New York faculty members are also on Abu Dhabi's payroll in some way. They receive compensation from Abu Dhabi for their work in faculty recruitment and curriculum planning, as in the case of computer science professor Zvi Kedem. As NYU Local reported in the spring, NYUAD pays Kedem for his work on a faculty-recruiting committee at the university. The group of 100 also includes faculty who receive compensation for speaking at NYUAD events in New York.
Whenever possible, NYUAD faculty members will begin their NYU careers in New York, NYUAD spokesman Josh Taylor said; the university hopes to integrate NYUAD faculty and departments with their counterparts in Washington Square.
According to an NYUAD associate psychology professor P.J. Henry, the integration year is crucial for keeping the two universities connected.
"You actually have faces of people who are going to live there," he said of the Abu Dhabi-bound staff.
Henry said New York faculty members have been getting the NYUAD bug.
"I can see the lights in their eyes. I can see them starting to imagine that they could go to Abu Dhabi," Henry said.
When NYUAD's home base in New York (19 Washington Square North) is completed, faculty members doing their integration year may have offices there, according to NYUAD Associate Vice Chancellor Hilary Ballon. Currently, the 10 NYUAD professors have offices in their respective departments.
NYUAD has already opened a research center in central Abu Dhabi and will welcome its first full freshman class in fall 2010.
