For many NYU Abu Dhabi students, the transition from the pandemic to a post-pandemic era has begun; as some in-person classes begin on-campus and the second on-campus vaccination drive wraps up, the light at the end of the tunnel becomes increasingly brighter.

However, the same cannot be said for many other students around the world, especially in the Global South, where a third wave of the Covid-19 virus has continued to disrupt their academic lives. Even on-campus, students continue to live with heavy restrictions and try to adjust to this new reality. After almost two semesters of living in this new world, I ask myself: how do we make sense of the losses that we have incurred during this time and yet maintain our ability to hold ourselves accountable to the relative privileges that we hold? How do we find the right balance between due criticism of this institution while also remaining grateful for all that we have?

Over the last two semesters, NYUAD’s handling of the Covid-19 pandemic has been one of the most controversial and widely-discussed issues on campus. From the extended ghosting of students by Student Finance, issues surrounding the new stipend disbursement process, to the overall lack of clear communication by the administration, students at NYUAD have voiced valid concerns about the institution’s policies and management of the pandemic. This might seem hardly different from conversations being had on other university campuses around the world, but what makes our case stand out is the revocation of privileges that we once held exceptionally as students of NYUAD.

Here, it is important not to conflate entitlement with legitimate expectation. The demand from students for clear, coherent and transparent communication from the administration is not an overreach but an essential need for students to be able to plan their semesters. Backlash over a stipend disbursement policy change that entirely derails students’ financial planning for the year and is inherently inequitable is well earned. The tangible consequences that these administrative missteps have had on students’ emotional, material and psychological well-being are valid and worthy of recognition.

However, it is just as convenient for students to breach the ambit of criticism to enter the territory of unreasonable entitlement. We saw this in the discourse around the elevated risk level on-campus in the last few weeks or students’ inability to grasp the limitations imposed on campus facilities and resources as a result of public health restrictions. Much like us, the administration is also navigating a difficult and unpredictable situation. This has manifested very clearly in the understaffing of essential departments within the institution such as Student Finance. The uncertainty of the pandemic touches us all and thus the expectation of ideality in the administration’s responses is not only unreasonable but also unconstructive.

Our campus is a safer place than most places in the world right now, keeping in consideration the regularity with which our community gets tested and the increasing concentration of vaccinated people on campus. Reminders of the generous financial support that our university provides a large majority of its students might seem frustrating but it is an undeniable fact that seems to easily escape many minds when having these conversations. And most importantly, the ability of the administration in being able to successfully create some semblance of campus life during a time when most academic institutions around the world have failed to do so is in itself worthy of acknowledgement. Just by the virtue of being an NYUAD student, we are more comfortable than most people in the world right now and remaining conscious of that while we push our institution to do better goes a long way.

None of this is to absolve the NYUAD administration of the criticisms that are made by the students or invalidate their miserable experiences with the institution during this time. The need for a critical perspective is just as important as remaining conscious and grateful for the exceptional privileges we hold as NYUAD students. For an institution as experimental and young as NYUAD, criticism is an essential part of its foundation and its growth. The novelty of the Covid-19 situation further necessitates the need for a critical perspective due to the ever-changing circumstances surrounding the pandemic. If students do not feel empowered to voice their concerns, the space for improvement shrinks. Just as the ability to criticize constructively is a vital element of an active student body, the provision of safe spaces to have these conversations is an integral prerequisite for an administration that wishes to hold itself accountable.

These spaces can however only function if we reframe our conversations on entitlement from superficial comparisons of privilege to a more nuanced and contextually-aware dialogue between the administration and the student body. These safe spaces need to be constructed with transparency, on the grounds of mutual acknowledgement of the limitations that both the administration and the student body face. And perhaps, most importantly, they need to be more than performative actions guised as sincere engagement and be able to yield accountability and constructive action for both the parties involved.

If anything, this pandemic has been an intensive exercise in the process of dealing with loss of a first semester, of a study away, of a job, of graduation, of time and, most importantly, of life. We are all deserving of a sense of peace, comfort and security after an exhausting year of tip-toeing around health restrictions and social distancing guidelines but this should come at the cost of cognizance of our privileges and compassion toward others.