New York, U.S.A. — As summer funding decisions were being released in spring 2016, current juniors in the Science Division who had applied for summer capstone funding were informally told of a new policy whereby no student is eligible to receive capstone funding before their final year.

Junior Thinh Tran reported she heard about the policy from her mentor when she tried to apply for capstone funding to supplement what she received from the Undergraduate Research Summer Funding Committee, which limited research funding to a maximum of eight weeks. The change was described in an email several students received from Executive Assistant in the Division of Science Julie Brookes.

In the email, Brookes describes a set of three criteria the students had not before been informed of that would prevent them from receiving funding. Under the new policy, students must be in their final year, enrolled in a capstone seminar and be in Abu Dhabi.

Capstone funding for science majors is capped at 9,182 AED (2,500 USD) and students in past years have used this funding during summer outside of Abu Dhabi.

“My capstone proposal stated very clearly that I would work on my capstone in the spring and summer [in New York], and nobody commented about the feasibility of that or brought up any concern about the duration of my potential summer stay ... Capstone [funding] was held for Abu Dhabi where I have no use for it,” said Tran.

Brookes and Dean of Science David Scicchitano have been off-campus over the past week, so we were unable to schedule an interview.

On May 6, in a post on Student Portal, Special Assistant to the Dean of Students Jennifer Gerdes announced that NYUAD’s third commencement exercises, which are scheduled to be held on May 23, will be translated into Russian. The past two events had only been translated into Arabic. Earlier this semester, the Student Commencement Committee, in collaboration with the Office of Student Life, released a survey which asked students to name languages that will help their guests in understanding the commencement exercises. Over five percent of respondents said that their guests would benefit from Russian. According to Gerdes, whilst the school is unable to translate the commencement exercises into every language that the respondents requested, the Student Commencement Committee plans to provide one-page summaries of the ceremony online.

“My parents were very excited about the news. Coming to the UAE for the first time, they are concerned about the language barrier, as they only speak Russian,” said senior Yulia Rovnova from Russia. “The live translation though made them feel much more comfortable, as now they will be able to truly appreciate the event.”