Sama Tower’s hallways are quieting down as finals rapidly approach. Study rooms are cramming, the cafeteria is moving at a slower pace and fewer students can be seen playing ping-pong in the fifth floor lounge. For many students, the end of the year is a much-anticipated break from studying, and from Abu Dhabi, and they eagerly pack their boxes and suitcases to head home.

But for a number of students from the Class of 2015, this end of the semester has a particularly bittersweet feeling.

These weeks of finals mark the last days of living in Sama Tower and studying at Down Town Campus for the current sophomores who have chosen to study abroad all of their junior year. The university they know and can call their own will not be what they return to and, although excitement rings about the Saadiyat Island campus, a certain level of anxiety still exists surrounding what is to come.

Over the past few years, Sama Tower has invariably become a home away from home for students. It is an intimate space that mixes students, faculty, staff and Abu Dhabi residents and has become a symbol of the birth and growth of the university.

“For me one of the big reasons to come to NYUAD was for a really intimate community where everyone knows everyone,” said sophomore Alf Lim. “I feel like you can easily lose that when you move to a bigger space.”

Events that usually bring all students together, like Open Mic nights, will become less intimate as Common Ground is replaced with a large theater.

“Saadiyat is going to be a very big campus meant for a lot more students, so we will never fill the space … suddenly it’s going to go from being super full to maybe half full,” Lim said.

That being said, others welcome the change and are excited to have more space of their own. In Sama Tower, casual run-ins with professors can turn a fun Friday night with friends into a very awkward and silent elevator ride.

As the university prepares to transition to the Saadiyat Island campus in the summer of 2014, there are still many unanswered questions about the layout of the new campus, the facilities and the organization of the university in the new space.

Students and faculty may get a peak of the new campus and its facilities as soon as October of next year, explained Ken Grcich, the Associate Dean of Students. Grcich said that during the next academic school year, many offices that are not directly involved with student life — like IT and procurement — might start moving out and working on the new campus. Once major construction has finished, they hope to lead tours so that the students can familiarize themselves with the space before the 2014-2015 academic year.

As for now, students are still in the dark about many of the plans, layout and the facilities that will be available. Vague language on the NYU Abu Dhabi website states that the new campus will have “state-of-the-art classroom, library, and information technology facilities; laboratories; academic buildings; dormitories; faculty and residential housing; student services; and athletic and performance facilities.”

The speculation around about the new campus is enticing but also uninformative. Although excited for the new campus, Lim expressed frustration that students do not know more about the dormitories and facilities on Saadiyat.

“[I] don’t know when I go to pack my boxes what I should be putting in them,” Lim said. “Will we have kitchens, utensils [and] what is the layout?”

Grcich was able to provide some insights on the layout of the campus and the transition process.

Grcich explained that in the first year, the campus “will consist of three residential colleges, which actually consists of nine buildings. Each set of three [buildings] creates a quadringle, which will then be considered one little community.”

Each community will have its own resident assistants and, similar to Sama Tower, all the floors will have lounges and study space. Some of the faculty will also live in the residence halls, although in the first year they will only be in three buildings and will later expand to live in all residence halls.

As for how to pack for the move to Saadiyat, Grcich explained that sophomores should make sure their boxes are properly taped and labeled and contain no breakables, liquids or flammables. A professional moving company will move the boxes during the summer of 2014 to a central location on the Saadiyat campus for student retrieval. Boxes will be insured, however boxes should not be overstuffed so that they can be safely stacked and moved.

Sophomores will not only be packing their pillows, books and photos; they will be packing away memories of Electra Street. Students reminisced about midnight trips to Al Safa, Halloween costumes bought at Al Sadaf and the friendly staff at Abu Tariq.

“It’s weird,” said sophomore Caroline Gobena. “I am definitely going to miss being in a superblock where I can just walk outside and there is a supermarket right next door and there are other people, like on bicycles, and seeing the NMC hospital every time I look out my window.”

Going from a superblock to a super-campus will be a drastic change in scenery. Whereas Sama is squarely in the middle of the city, Saadiyat has few neighbors and is surrounded by mostly desert and construction.

“I will definitely miss the notion of a neighborhood,” said sophomore Suel Rousseau.

Looking forward, sophomore Andres Fernandez suggested that the trip from the airport to the new campus will be a surreal experience.

“You’ll be coming in from the airport and you won’t be received by the warm people at Sama, but by gates opening into a world where you have no idea where you are going, in the middle of nowhere,” he said.

Instead of being the big guys on campus, the returning seniors will be as equally new to the space as the freshmen class.

“As a senior getting there you won’t be able to claim your spots because you will have no idea what spots to claim,” Lim said.

For the time being, the sophomores are saying their goodbyes to Sama Tower and looking forward to their various study abroad experiences.

“Sama Tower, I hope you will keep breaking your pipes, keep breaking your windows and make funny sounds when the wind blows through you,” Gobena professed. “And I hope other people will be entertained by your being.”