Photo by Luis Carlos/The Gazelle

Spring break at NYU Abu Dhabi is a time for members of the student body to travel across the world. But this year, the terror attacks in Brussels and Istanbul sparked a university-wide response to ensure the safety of students in the affected countries. A week later, the attack at a family park in Lahore once again left students disturbed and prompted a university-wide response.

On March 22, students across the GNU received a Memorandum in response to the explosions in Brussels and Istanbul. It mentioned the safety precautions that students should take during their personal travels because of the attacks.

Associate Vice Chancellor of Global Programs Josh Taylor was one of the two people who sent out the Memorandum; he discussed the impact of the recent attacks on the student body with The Gazelle.

“Given NYU’s breadth, we have students and faculty around the world at all times, and are continually monitoring world events as a result. Right now is clearly a particularly complex time,” said Taylor. “It seems like everyday you open the paper or look at the web — and there’s a troubling situation [or] problem in a different city and country.”

“We need to balance the line between being so cautious that nobody travels anywhere — and we negatively impact the academic experience — and [being] so nonchalant that we take unnecessary risks,” he continued.

Taylor mentioned that he and his team in New York work closely with the Office of Public Safety at NYUAD and external partners who provide analyses of countries’ safety levels.

“Brussels is of course, tragically, a different city today than it was a few weeks ago. If a class wanted to travel there right now, we would likely recommend that we give the city — and its community — some time to heal, and more pragmatically, to ensure the city’s infrastructure is capable of ensuring that students and faculty would have the sort of educational and cultural experience we would want them to,” said Taylor.

He also urged students to register via NYU Traveler since it is a critical tool to see who is in a country, city or region at any given time.

Freshman Donia Tamer Ismail was in Brussels during the attacks.

“After finding out about the bombing in my friend’s home, I was scared [about] whether we will be able to leave the country on time or not,” said Ismail. “We purchased tickets to Paris a day before from the same station that was bombed, but the buses were under a French company so they were still running.”

“The university was actually very helpful. Dean Kyle Farley, people from Student Life and Global Ed also texted and called us and they were constantly sending us emails to inform them about where we were,” said Ismail. “Dean Farley even offered [to let] us stay in the emergency housing offered at NYU Paris.”

Freshman Luis Carlos Soto Ruiz was in Turkey for spring break when the terror attacks happened in Istanbul.

“I was in a café when I first read of the attack. I was in a touristy area and was a bit surprised [by] the amount of policemen that were at the place, patrolling and checking people,” said Soto. “After hearing locals talking about it and knowing that it was a terrorist attack actually made me feel a bit afraid. But no one from NYUAD contacted us except for friends.”

Soto added that he did not feel the need to be contacted since the situation was not out of his control, but it would’ve been useful under worse circumstances.

Senior Director of Public Safety and Emergency Operations Planning for NYU Abu Dhabi, Michael Scollan, discussed the measures that are taken in response to unfortunate circumstances abroad.

“Public Safety is a support mechanism for global travel and campus life. For example, after the attacks in Turkey in January, I was able to reach out to the U.S. Embassy and passed on the information to Carol [Brandt] in order to decide the details of various class trips,” said Scollan.

Scollan also mentioned that NYU recently signed a contract with Rave, a company that provides an instant messaging emergency notification system through which the university can send out text messages and emails to particular individuals and large groups to help the student body deal with unforeseen circumstances.

On March 27, a suicide attack at Gulshan-e-Iqbal Park in Lahore left the Pakistani students at NYUAD concerned.

An email from Dean Farley to students from Pakistan stated, “I am truly sorry to hear about the bombing in Lahore. As I learned during Marhaba and we discussed at the PSA lunch last month, Lahore is very well represented here at NYUAD and thus the impact can be far more personal.”

The Pakistan Students Association organized a vigil for the victims of the Lahore attack. NYUAD student Mubasher Iqbal, who is from Lahore, shared his experience of hearing about the attack.

“The moment that I found out about the attack, the first thing that came to my mind was that the route my father takes to work is close to the Park and I called him immediately,” said Iqbal. “Since I’m distanced from my family, I strongly feel the need to close that distance.”

Dean Farley concluded by saying that the university will always do its best to support students in times of emergencies like the recent attacks, but he also strongly encouraged all students to take precautions when traveling.