On Feb. 2, the NYU Abu Dhabi community received an email from Peter Christensen and Jessica Sederquist, Co-Chairs of the Return to Campus Initiative, detailing how the shuttle service would be “limited only to key locations including the Galleria Mall, Spinneys at the St. Regis and Carrefour at Yas Mall.”

The Gazelle spoke to members of the NYUAD Administration, the Student Government President and affected students to understand the rationale behind the initial decision, its impact and what followed.

Kyle Farley, Associate Vice Chancellor for Student Affairs and Dean of Students, explained the organizational structure of the RTC Initiative.

“[There are] five workstreams — Research, Academic, Facilities/Operations, Students and Public Health — which each have a chair and then report up to RTC Steering, chaired by Peter Christensen and Jessica Sederquist,” explained Farley in an email. “Health and safety are the top priority, all workstreams look to the Public Health Workstream for guidance. This team is led by Fabio Piano and Dr. Ayaz Virji also sits on this committee.”

Fabio Piano, NYUAD’s Chief Academic Officer and Public Health Portfolio Committee lead, provided more insight into how the committee works.

“What our group discusses, on a weekly level, is the risk assessment that relates to our community on the basis of multiple data sources … [including] the case dynamics in our own community and the UAE, the availability and applications of vaccines in our community and beyond … the risks coming from new strains and others,” stated Piano, also in an email to The Gazelle.

Piano explained that the committee responds to this information by discussing strategies to manage campus health at a macro level. It then makes recommendations to the RTC Steering Committee which in turn delegates tasks to the various Operations Workstreams. These workstreams then put measures in place or revise pre-existing ones to address the risk assessments and recommendations.

“The result is that it sometimes might more heavily rely on lowering risk in one area while allowing another area to continue to operate at the current level,” Piano explained.

Grace Bechdol, Class of 2023, shared how dependent she was on the shuttle service before the original restrictions reduced her level of access to essentials and medical facilities.

“I have a good bit of Covid anxiety, so it’s much easier for me to cook in my room and I get a lot of those supplies from Carrefour, from Lulu … so I would probably use the shuttles three to four times a week,” explained Bechdol. “I also go to Cleveland Clinic pretty regularly … so I use the Galleria shuttle probably twice a month to go to doctor’s appointments where otherwise a cab or a Careem would cost me a lot more money.”.

She believes that the Galleria and Al Wahda shuttle lines were reinstated as a result of student pushback particularly relating to the proximity of these locations to medical facilities like Cleveland Clinic and the American Center for Psychiatry and Neurology.

Bechdol also questioned the original decision to keep Yas Mall, which has a Carrefour outlet, but leave out Al Wahda Mall, which has Lulu and is considered more affordable.

“Students felt that they were being forced to choose the more expensive option… It was seen as a pretty classist decision by a lot of students” Bechdol added.

Bechdol was skeptical that the original decision would ultimately reduce the risk level among the community.

“Most students will still find a way to leave campus and in some ways … it elevates risk because most students won’t be using these safer shuttles where everybody … has a symptom checker and a Covid test and instead they’ll turn to these public modes of transportation which aren’t quite as safe.”

This decision was later revised following feedback from students and members of the RTC Student Portfolio committee, which advocated for the reinstatement of the dropped shuttle lines.

A Return to Campus Memo dated Feb. 4 announced that additional shuttle routes, including to Al Wahda and Central Souk, were being added back to the schedule for the following three weeks.