Last month’s news that Vice Chancellor Al Bloom will step down in 2019 is only the latest in a series of departures from the echelons of NYU Abu Dhabi’s administration. The transition of power that must unfurl over the next two years will determine the short-run trajectory of our school: either doubling-down on liberal arts or scaling up the research aspect of the school. As the editors of this publication suggest, it is a constant struggle to keep our university open and open-minded. In addition to the obvious questions of direction, endowment, non-academic oversight and tenured recruiting, we believe that in order for NYUAD to succeed, the next university leader must fully commit to championing academic freedom and integrity.

Given the rapid transitions that mark our lives on Saadiyat Island, it is easy to forget the storied mandate of the modern university. The word “university” comes from the Latin “universitas,” meaning “people assembled into a metaphorical body.” The key with any such body is organization, structure and function. One of the central tenets of the body universitas was academic freedom, first developed at the University of Bologna in the twelfth century. Known then as “authentica habita,” the University of Bologna’s charter granted foreigners legal protections akin to those afforded to clergy and also allowed scholars freedom of movement and immunity from reprisal.

Over time, universities have evolved from being exclusively institutions of learning. The colonial era heralded the rise of the doctrine of “loco parentis,” or “in place of the parent,” a concept that was instituted in colleges due to the prevailing sentiment that students entering college lacked the emotional maturity necessary to function without faculty supervision. In the early twentieth century, this doctrine led to the first hirings of non-academic administrators — generally “deans of men,” as they were then called — to enforce rules of conduct. In subsequent decades, health services were added, student activism began dismantling strict administrative control of students’ actions and diversity abounded where none had existed before. Finally, only a few decades ago, the idea of “campus life” as we now know it was pioneered across U.S. campuses, rounding out the ecosystem of the modern college environment.

Throughout the myriad changes to the structure and norms of colleges, academic freedom has always been a guiding light. As universities began to globalize, this institutional tenet became even more important. Nowhere do we see this more than at colleges like NYUAD, where questions of academic freedom foment into constant derision from Washington Square News despite more scholars losing the ability to travel to the United States than to the United Arab Emirates. But the Square does have a point: NYUAD’s unusual situation is anchored only in guarantees of academic freedom from our local partners. The line often quoted during Candidate Weekend is that anything can be said, argued or asked in the classroom.

But what exactly is a classroom? Does the classroom require a professor to be present? If so, free-flowing discourse between students after class, long a central tenet of new discovery, are not covered by our guarantees of academic freedom. Does academic freedom apply to what students write but do not publish? Does it apply to documents published in the U.S. but not in the UAE? Does it apply to class field trips around the UAE? Long a celebrated practice, the field trip out into the Emirates creates a transient classroom — but can learning happen with muted freedom to ask genuinely pondered but politically sensitive queries?

Our next Vice Chancellor will have to navigate the paradox — or, perhaps, quagmire — of the closed classroom on an open campus. No matter whether the undergraduate program remains the focal point or whether the administrative focus shifts to transforming NYUAD into a premier research university, full, unrestricted academic freedom must be the top priority.

Without Campus Life, we would still be a university. Without Global Education, we would still be a university. Without Athletics, we would still be a university. But without academic freedom, we are nothing.

Many decisions have, perhaps purposefully so, promoted a certain grey zone of implicit understanding between us and our partners about what can and cannot be said. While some defend an approach of not rocking the boat and others advocate a continuation of the current status quo, we prefer a Houdini option. One of the most notable magic tricks in the repertoire of the great Harry Houdini was his escape from inescapable situations. The trick to wriggling his way out of straightjackets and handcuffs, he later revealed, was to puff himself out and make himself as large as possible when being initially constricted. This way, he could deflate when necessary and have the requisite space to escape the so-called inescapable.

The next administration should do the same, advocating explicitly for the fullest extent of academic freedom such that it will have breathing room for the coming years in which to maneuver. If these requests are ultimately not met by our government partners, well, that fact would speak volumes.