Graphic by The Gazelle Multimedia Team, Photo courtesy of Vic Lindsay

In May 2014, alumni Mohammed Omar and Dmitriy Byliev founded NYU Abu Dhabi's first professional business organization: a colony of Alpha Kappa Psi (AKP), a fraternity in the United States. The objective behind the initiative is to connect AKP’s colony in NYUAD to a global network of people who are pursuing business-oriented goals.

“We recognized there was great talent in our community and it would be incredibly helpful for us to continue working together as we maneuvered globally through our careers. The idea of a well-established structure that would facilitate this led us to pursuing the idea of opening the first fraternity at NYUAD,” wrote Omar in an email to The Gazelle.

Before AKP, no Greek life existed on campus. Alumnus Jasmine Boutros said that the students were told that Greek life was not allowed on campus.

“I was told that Greek life of any kind was not allowed on campus. Other than that, there was not much discussion about it,” she wrote to The Gazelle.

Jorge Zarate, another graduate, commented that maybe Greek chapters were not allowed because of their exclusivity.

“I think we talked about the Greek system when I was a freshman and people were saying that [fraternities] weren't allowed on campus because they're exclusive by nature and thus they don't really fit in with the philosophy of the school but I never found out whether that was official or something a student said that everybody started saying afterwards,” wrote Zarate.

Given that fraternities are known for their exclusivity and the practice of hazing, Assistant Director of Student Activities Vic Lindsay said the university expects AKP to follow NYUAD's code of conduct.  Secondly, since this is the first time an organization of this sort has opened in the UAE, the university is making a conscious effort to differentiate the professional organization from a Greek Fraternity.

“[It] was allowed for students to pursue participation with Alpha Kappa Psi under the expectation that we would, in many ways, not refer to it as a fraternity … that it is a professional business organization. The words ‘professional business organization’ are very important in how we distinguish between any fraternal organization or any other chapter kind of organization,” said Lindsay.

According to Lindsay, the organization has been approved by the original AKP and the team is working with an advisor in Dubai. As far as the issue of funding is concerned, the school has strong policies.

“[SIG, Student Government or Campus Life] funding will only be available for events and programming and things like that. And this is to separate the personal benefit that students get by being members of that organization from the collective benefit that [will come] from having the organization on campus,” said Lindsay.

On the question of whether the school would support other Greek sororities and fraternities that are religiously or racially oriented, Lindsay confirmed similar support will not be provided to such organizations and justified support to AKP on their focused aims.

“At this time, there is [no] fraternity. And I think the university’s willingness to support the students pursuing this is very much based on the specific focus of this organization and I think similar support would not be readily available for typical fraternal [or] sorority type organizations,” said Lindsay.

Greg Bruno, Director of Public Affairs and Community Relations, shared the opinion that NYUAD does not support the more conventional Greek chapters.

“Alpha Kappa Psi was originally founded at NYU and is one of the premier professional business organizations in the USA. It was permitted at NYUAD because of its business and professional credentials. We do not expect the university to support more ‘traditional’ fraternity/sorority organizations,” wrote Bruno in an email to The Gazelle.

Sophomore Cyril Cuda wants to become a member, hoping that the AKP would help him in his professional future.

“[I am] hoping to connect with people that could help me in the future and possibly join some interesting events meanwhile,” said Cuda.

“[At NYUAD] we were looking to create new and unique connections for our students studying abroad; especially in New York where spending six months to a year is often not enough to become a part of an ambitious community. Should a student be initiated in the chapter in Abu Dhabi, and since there is a chapter in New York, they would find on their arrival a welcoming community of students who share similar interests,” said Omar in an email.