NYU President Andrew Hamilton visited NYU Abu Dhabi this past weekend for the last Candidate Weekend of the academic year. In a manner similar to that of former NYU President John Sexton, Hamilton had a conversation followed by a Q&A session with prospective students of the class of 2020.

Aside from meeting prospective students, Hamilton had the opportunity to meet current students at a breakfast organized by Student Government. Freshman Class Representative Chris Wheeler shared his experience at the Breakfast with the Hamiltons event.

“Andy Hamilton is genuinely interested in students, and was fascinated by NYUAD’s diversity…[the breakfast] was a nice event to get to know him and his wife.”

Hamilton told The Gazelle that it was important for him to come to Candidate Weekend as it plays an important role in building the NYUAD community. He also added that he wishes to get to know NYUAD’s senior leadership better.

“This will not be the last time I come to NYUAD to Candidate Weekend or meet current students,” concluded Hamilton.

Following the resignation of the Sophomore Class Representative, NYUAD Student Government sent an email to the student body announcing that it will hold new elections for the position as stipulated in Article 4, Section X of the Student Constitution. According to the Elections Commission’s Student Representative Abdullah Mahomed, no applications had been submitted as of March 5. “People generally submit on the last day, so I am hoping that we get at least one application by then,” emphasized Mohamed.

When asked whether the introduction of a new Sophomore Class Representative will cause any problems for Student Government, both Officer of Communications Juliana Bello and Vice-President Quan Vuong affirmed that the Executive Board and other members of Student Government will be able to work with any new member. Students of the class of 2018 who are interested in running for the position should declare their candidacy before 11:59 p.m. Gulf Standard Time on 8 March.

The Office of Community Outreach organized a trip to Warehouse 421 at Mina Zayed on March 2. The event was part of Wednesdays at the Warehouse and the panel discussion, Abu Dhabi Then and Now: Sharing Oral Histories and Photographs, was of interest to many people across the capital. The panel comprised Historian Dr. Frauke Heard-Bay, Nick Cochrane-Dyet, Dr. Aisha Bilkhair Abdulla and Photographer Jack Burlot. They led the discussion and shared photographs and personal stories about Abu Dhabi’s transformation into a global city.

Freshman Alena Mikhalkovich shared her experience with The Gazelle.

“When I was going to attend the lecture, I didn't expect to see people whose books we're reading in class to sit in front of the audience and casually talk to each other about Sheikh Zayed's charming personality, goats walking on the streets of Abu Dhabi, Volcano Fountain that used to stand on Corniche once,” said Mikhalkovich. “They witnessed the entire transition of the UAE from one state to a radically different one, and grasping all their unique memories was a big pleasure for me.”

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The Office of First Year Programming organized a bargaining competition at the Dubai Global Village for the freshman class. A total of four teams, each comprising five members, registered. Each team was given 100 AED and had to purchase an item representing the UAE, a pottery piece, one spice, an item made of cloth, jewelry and something made out of wood.

Earlier this week, NYUAD’s women’s football and basketball teams secured a spot in the Championship matches at Zayed University. The women’s football team defeated Zayed University 3-0 and the women’s basketball team beat Petroleum Institute 18-9.

Tamy Sánchez-Ortiz, one of the women’s football team captains, commented that she was pleased to see the team’s improvement in terms of size, talent and spirit.

“Regardless of what happens [tonight] I am proud of these girls and the team we have become,” Sánchez-Ortiz said.

On 9 March, NYUAD’s men’s basketball team will play against Masdar Institute and the men’s football team will play against Al Ain University of Science and Technology. Both finals will take place at NYUAD – the basketball final is scheduled to begin at 7 p.m. and the football final at 8:30 p.m.

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[/big_image]Photo by Sannia Farrukh/The Gazelle

On March 5, the Student Interest Group TASHAN organized Holi at the NYUAD practice field. The event started at 11 a.m. and went on until 3 p.m. Many students went out on the field and threw water balloons and powdered color at each other, celebrating the essence of the festival of colors.

TASHAN Executive Board member Ishani Sen spoke about organizing Holi at NYUAD.

“Holi was a great success and we had a very big turnout, which was amazing. Having it out on the practice pitch was nice as people could rinse themselves off and relax on the grass as well,” said Sen. “Overall the event was a lot of hard work, but we managed to pull it off in the end!”

On March 3, NYU held its first Global Network University-wide Giving Day, which marked the beginning of fundraising for the 1831 Fund in New York and the 2010 Fund in Abu Dhabi. According to the Senior Class Representative Angela Ortega Pastor, the purpose of the Fund is to remind students, alumni and families to give back to the NYU community. Unlike the 1831 Fund where the money is used to finance scholarships, faculty, staff, research and schools, the 2010 Fund uses the donations to finance Abu Dhabi community projects chosen by the donors, or to provide aid to NYUNY students who would otherwise struggle to study away in Abu Dhabi. Ortega Pastor commented that it was exciting to see that more first-year students gave donations than members of the senior class, given that the focus of these funds is to fundraise money from the graduating class.

“In general, I think we achieved our goal of raising awareness about the Fund around campus,” Ortega Pastor concluded.

The inaugural NYUAD Datathon, organized by the undergraduate Journal of Social Sciences, took place on March 4 and 5 this past weekend. 14 participants competed in teams to write policy proposals and win a 400 AED voucher to St. Regis restaurants. The JSS editorial board provided competing teams with data on NYUAD catering sales and transactions from across the Saadiyat campus, plus the suggestions and accolades from the East Dining Hall. The award for the best presentation went to a proposal made by Sophomores Jaehurn Nam and Mina Kim to make food pricing options more flexible. A second award for best analyses and framework went to a proposal by Beatrice Ionascu and Rodrigo Ceballos. They proposed cutting back on the least popular Global Street menu — hot dogs — while moving the menu off of a weekly rotation, in order to allow analyses not confounded by general weekly trends in dining hall consumption.

Student Interest Group Students for Justice in Palestine organized a Palestine Film Festival on campus from March 3 to March 5. SJP screened five movies — The Time that Remains, A World Not Ours, Omar, Tears of Gaza and The Law in These Parts — to raise awareness among students. Two of the movies also included post-screening discussions with the directors over Skype. Traditional Palestinian food, like Knafeh and Mana’eesh, was also served.

SJP President Ameed Abutteen explained the reasons for hosting the festival at NYUAD.

“Through the Palestine Film Festival at NYUAD, we hoped to raise awareness about the struggle of the Palestinian people, of whom some continue to live under Israel's system of apartheid, military occupation and settler colonialism, and others are still forced to reside in refugee camps away from their native homes in Palestine,” said Abutteen.

“We wanted to share with the NYUAD community the story of the Palestinian people, who have been colonized by the Zionist movement ever since 1948,” he added.