For a long time, many have claimed that there is a huge grey zone between academic freedom and freedom of expression at NYU Abu Dhabi. However, until recently I never thought that making a distinction between these two was a difficult task.

In 2015, United Arab Emirates barred NYU New York Professor Andrew Ross from traveling to the country. According to the New York Times, “Other professors at N.Y.U. said the development renewed questions about academic freedom in the university’s vision for a global university system”. The news made a huge sensation in the NYU community both in New York and in Abu Dhabi.

The Washington Square News board called on NYU to suspend activities at the Abu Dhabi campus until professor Ross is allowed in the country following the event. NYUAD Philsophy Professor Matthew Silverstein, responded. He acknowledged that certain varieties of activism are off limits for NYUAD faculty and students, including the sort of activism Professor Ross practices and advocates. Freedom of expression, therefore, is not guaranteed.

He also made it clear that academic freedom, understood as a freedom for professors in their research and in the classroom, have not been abridged in any way at NYUAD. When a commentator accused Professor Silverstein of attempting to cover up the issue of internet censorship, he wrote, “NYUAD does have unfettered internet access.” He also made it clear that the blockade on computer-to-phone Skype calls had nothing to do with censorship and website that were blocked elsewhere in the UAE were easily accessible on campus.

Other than agreeing with everything Professor Silverstein has written in his letter, I understand academic freedom at NYUAD or NYU Shanghai as being able to study or research in a way any NYUNY student or professor could do. It is also written in NYUAD’s public website that students and faculty have access to the same research and educational materials they currently enjoy at NYUNY, including unrestricted access to the Internet.

Additionally, while I do not seek to justify the entry restrictions that countries hosting NYU’s three degree-granting campus impose on the person’s nationality, faith or opinion, a bar on Professor Andrew Ross from traveling to Abu Dhabi does not violate the principle of academic freedom. Professor Ross was an outspoken critic of abuse of migrant laborers in the Emirates, including the abuse of laborers who constructed our campus. Ross had planned to spend his spring break researching the labor conditions of such laborers. Irrespective of whether NYUAD exists, the UAE would probably bar Professor Ross or others with similar publicly expressed opinions and research interests in the country.

More recently, Professor Mohamad Bazzi wrote in The New York Times that he was scheduled to teach a journalism class this fall in Abu Dhabi, but was told by an NYU administrator that the UAE government had denied him the security clearance necessary for his teaching work visa. He believes that it is due to the fact that he is a Shiite Muslim originally from Lebanon. While I believe in the free movement of people and ideas, this example also doesn’t violate academic freedom directly.

Regarding academic freedom, things changed a bit when I came back to school this fall. The recent internet censorship at the campus has made it difficult to access information on certain websites, the ones that could be easily accessible in previous years. Since I have accepted to forgo my freedom of expression and abide by UAE laws while joining NYUAD, I prefer not to specify the websites that I would like to visit. Sometimes I do not even know what specific article I am looking for in a particular blocked website, so requesting that a librarian to provide me with a specific article is not an option. This came as a shock to me because I always believed unrestricted access to internet and freedom on classroom discussions were nowhere close to the grey-zone that some people think exists between freedom of expression and academic freedom. Even when I was at NYUSH, I had no problem accessing Dalai Lama’s website from the campus.

Last month, my favorite news media in the UAE, The Gazelle, published a misleading news story claiming that academic freedom at NYUAD is untouched by the current political climate. After I inquired in NYUAD Forum, an NYUAD Facebook group, about not being able to access a particular website, a few students who saw my post in the group, later directed me to the article that was dealing with how current political climate relates to academic freedom at the campus. If a professor ever decides to teach a highly interdisciplinary and intercultural core course called, What is Gazelle?, they might use the article as an example of Ideological State Apparatus when discussing the works of Louis Althusser.

My article is not at all to imply that I am having a difficult time at NYUAD. NYUAD has provided me the highest quality liberal arts and science education. The resources and opportunities provided by NYUAD are exceptional and perhaps can only be matched by a handful of the richest universities in the world. I would join NYUAD any day, even if NYUAD edits its public website and clarifies that academic freedom does not include access to the unrestricted internet.