An announcement was made this week to all Global Academic Fellows that the GAF Program at NYU Abu Dhabi will be terminated after the 2015-2016 academic year.

Charles Grim, Vice Provost for Academic Administration, explained that the GAF Program was always envisioned as “a temporary measure that would eventually be replaced.” He cited the university’s growing size as the reason for the retirement of the GAF Program.

A current GAF who was approached for comment was advised by their supervisor not to talk to The Gazelle about the development.

Instead of the current program, student support will be moved to an instructor model. These instructors will differ from the current GAFs in three main ways.

First, they will mostly be comprised of graduates with postgraduate degrees. Grim said that the additional academic experience from postgraduate studies will be useful in providing students with a higher level of academic support.

The new instructors will also be on three-year contracts, as opposed to the current one-year cycles that GAFs currently work in. This is due to the amount of on-the-job learning required for academic support, which the university says cannot be accomplished in a single year. Cost efficiency is also cited as a reason, as the current model involves an expensive and time-consuming yearly hiring process.

Currently, GAFs are centrally administered, but Grim stated that faculty and deans decided it would be more beneficial for academic support to be tied to the divisions. The new model would be decentralized, with instructors reporting to the four divisional deans and faculty members instead.

Grim explained that this plan is a long-term one, with changes taking effect soon after the beginning of the recruitment process.

In regards to the future of the current GAFs, Grim said, “They will certainly be eligible for the positions. For the most part, their experience here could offset the Master’s degree requirement.”

However, graduating students looking to work at NYUAD in academic support positions face a more uncertain future. Although the Arts and Humanities division has agreed to consider hiring NYUAD graduates, Grim stated, “Their competitiveness will really depend on the applicant pool.”

“We’re definitely not saying that they can’t apply, but we’re also not saying that we’ll definitely have four, or six or any other number,” Grim explained “We’re also exploring the option that some of our current undergraduate students could act as peer tutors.”

Along with the changes to the GAF Program, a total revamp of the Writing Program at NYUAD has been proposed, centering on the replacement of Analysis & Expression classes with the First Year Writing Seminar. This will be a mandatory year-long writing course for all freshmen, regardless of level, happening on a weekly basis.

Grim said that instructors hired under the new model will take on the role of the writing GAFs in running these seminars.

“They will function in more or less the same way that the GAFs do,” Grim explained. “But over time, it would be a group of more experience because we hire them on a longer-term contract.”

Some students have expressed concern that replacing GAFs with more academically experienced and senior instructors will diminish the personal access they now have to professors.

“I feel like seeking help will now be harder because both professors and instructors are less accessible than GAFs,” said freshman Cristobal Esteve.

Overall, Grim reassured students that, “The new model promises to be just as effective, if not more effective.”

The university has yet to make an official statement of this change, and administration is still undecided as to whether they will or not. Currently, only GAFs have been formally informed of the changes.

An announcement on the NYUAD student portal regarding the nomination of GAFs for NYU Shanghai mentioned briefly that NYUAD would not be hiring GAFs for the 2016-2017 Academic Year, but no further clarification was provided on this.