In an effort to assure that its students are equipped with the necessary knowledge to navigate the complexities of its campus and community, NYU Abu Dhabi has introduced a new requirement: the Saadiyat curriculum. This program aims to provide the school’s future Global Leaders™ with the real world skills necessary to survive their four years on an island campus, starting from the 2018-2019 academic year and consisting of a variety of courses that touch upon various aspects of life at NYUAD.

“How will students learn to contribute to the school’s online discussions unless they take Fast and Furious Typing: A History of NYUAD’s Facebook Arguments? How will they be able to deal with seeing professors off campus unless they take Meeting Your Professor in the St. Regis Underground Parking: A Course on Professional Etiquette in the Cosmopolitan City?” explained Bryan Sandman, the creator of the curriculum.

“Our carefully selected faculty and painstakingly created syllabi will teach students how to deal with these myriad situations unique to life on Saadiyat,” added Sandman.

The problem-solving section of the new program includes courses such as Automatic Doors: Making the Perfect Entrance, Fly Infestations in the Gulf in the 21st Century and Origami Paper Cup Making. The program will also include a section of courses open to NYUAD staff members, such as the Interactive Media department’s new class on Introductory Web Redesign. University employees will be allowed to audit What is Satire? which, due to popular demand, will also be available to parents of prospective students.

“The feedback we got from the First Year Dialogue program was just so overwhelmingly positive that we had to make it a more official part of the curriculum,” clarified Sandman. “As of next year, in addition to FYD, students will also be required to take at least two classes from the Saadiyat curriculum.”

The courses will be taught by world-renowned professors — all of whom happen to be close friends of John Sexton — who will apply their knowledge in the unique context of life at NYUAD. Business professors have been invited to teach classes such as Where Did My Dining Dirhams Go? Starbucks Marketing Strategies in 2017, and esteemed historians will apply their knowledge in courses like Reinventions of the Marketplace: an Evolutionary Perspective. There were also plans of a journalism class on Reading Banned Publications Through Their Source Code, but the professor from the Arthur L. Carter Journalism Institute has since decided that he has to prioritize fixing Washington Square News.

There will also be a course detailing the extensive history of legislative days titled, Why Are We Having Class On Saturday Again?