Aug. 19 marked the beginning of the annual Marhaba event for the incoming Class of 2020 at NYU Abu Dhabi. Although the size of the incoming class hasn’t increased drastically since last year, the Marhaba program has undergone some major changes.

A large class size of 325 freshmen is likely to result in the use of an enormous amount of resources which, in turn, will generate a large quantity of waste. This year, therefore, one of the main objectives when planning Marhaba was to promote the idea of sustainability and inculcate a sense of responsibility among freshmen as they enter the NYUAD community.

In the past, students have received goodie bags — referred to as NYUAD Swag Bags — containing items useful for their transition to life at university. This year, these items include reusable take-away boxes and water bottles. Boxes of plastic water bottles around campus have been replaced by water coolers so that students can refill their water bottles instead.

Another major change to Marhaba is its duration. According to feedback from last year, many students felt that the events were too condensed in the one-week period. In response, the Marhaba team spread everything out over 10 days so that students are not overwhelmed. In addition, the Marhaba team came up with student-led optional workshops to give students the chance to learn about various aspects of student life at NYUAD. These workshops included Dining at NYUAD 101, How to Make Your Dorm Feel Like Home and Budgeting. While these workshops are useful in their own right, they are also intended to encourage greater interaction between the freshmen and the Marhaba leaders, a group of 16 upperclassmen who are helping run Marhaba.

The effort to encourage interaction between freshmen and upperclassmen continues with the final Marhaba activity, the Marhaba Carnival. Marhaba Carnival will act as an introduction to the College Parent Program, an initiative started by 2015-16 Freshman Class Representative Chris Wheeler. In this program, two upperclassmen are paired with up to five incoming freshmen to act as their student mentors.

Overall, this year's Marhaba program aims to create a balance between freshmen getting to know each other and becoming acquainted with their new community.