<p>I am gay and really interested in NYU - I am not sure though - since I know NYU is starting an equal school in Abu Dhabi - In Abu Dhabi men are jailed for suspicion of being gay - I am also told that gay students - if they are even accepted to NYU Abu Dhabi - will be sent home by order of the Emirates.
Isn't that a sign that NYU does not respect gay students?</p>
<p>Why would you even want to apply to NYU Abu Dhabi if you were gay? I have a hard time understanding why you would voluntarily choose to move half way across the globe to live in a predominantly Muslim nation with stringent anti-gay laws if you were openly gay. And to accuse NYU of being anti-gay is ridiculous. It is not like NYU has jurisdiction over Abu Dhabi. </p>
<p>NYU just wants a piece of the oil money just like everyone else in the world.</p>
<p>Well, nobody forced NYU to open a branch in Abu Dhabi.</p>
<p>well - my question is more that I want to know how NYU reconciles their plan to begin a campus in a place in which all are not welcome - if the campus in abu dhabi is supposed to offer the same quality of education as the NYU campus in NY - then how can the participation of gay students and women be valued at the NYU campus in the US? it seems that you can’t really say you value a population if you are willing to have a campus in another place that does not value that population? So, I am wondering what sort of campus is NYU (in the US) for gay students - if its faculty supports an enterprise that clearly does not value gay students? - and is NYU a campus that values protests - and difference in opinion - when there seems to be none raised about this effort.</p>
<p>i think it is rather inappropriate that nyu abu dhabi is neither welcoming or equal opportunity towards gay students however i do not think it is necessarily telling of what one’s experience would be at nyu in nyc. i think it is an interesting issue to discuss (if one so chooses) that nyu would want to establish a campus in a country where such discriminatory laws exist. however i also would like to say that the nyu faculty that are are in nyc do not necessarily support the abu dhabi establishment. i don’t think it’s fair to judge the nyc faculty based on a decision they may not have had any input on.</p>
<p>honestly, as a junior in cas, i have heard extremely little about the abu dhabi campus. i have had few to no professors comment on it good or bad (maybe one offhanded comment about how it’s a dumb way to spend nyu money). but personally i would not make an assessment of nyu in nyc based on this one aspect.</p>
<p>There’s an article about this in New York Magazine that you can Google. It has been controversial at NYU, and not just because of this issue–there are also issues of labor standards in U.A.E., and also the fact that Israeli scholars will not (at the time of the article, anyway) be allowed to go there.</p>
<p>NYU isn’t spending its money on this–the money is coming from the U.A.E.</p>
<p>thank you - I guess I might prefer a campus where professors are more inclined to speak their minds about issues that effect everybody - and where students are welcomed if they are minorities -</p>
<p>This website suggests that Abu Dhabi remains intolerant of LGBTQ people - and NYU has only said that students going to the NYU campus there should respect the laws (of intolerance.)</p>
<p>[Gay</a> UAE, Gay Dubai - Gay Middle East](<a href=“http://www.gaymiddleeast.com/country/uaemirates.htm]Gay”>http://www.gaymiddleeast.com/country/uaemirates.htm)</p>
<p>Well, no kidding. NYU isn’t exactly an American Embassy in the UAE. The campus was paid for by the UAE and will be subject to the jurisdiction of their law.</p>
<p>That is my question - how can NYU claim to value a significant constituency of its students and neighbors on its NY campus, if it willingly enters into an agreement with a country that would put them in prison or kill them if it had the chance? I think that lack of consideration has a price on the NY campus- and I think it would effect my studies if I were to go to any NYU campus- I don’t know how NYU can really reconcile this and claim that it values diversity - but more important - a school that I used to think would be great to attend - seems to be willing to sell me out -</p>
<p>FYI- NYU is EXTREMELY liberal and welcoming of gays in general, regardless of what happens at Abu Dhabi. The housing applications let you pick options to live with a gay roommate or a transgendered roomate. None of my son’s friends applications to other schools had that option. On the orientation registration they ask if you preferred to be addressed as male or female regardless of your sex. I dont think you will find another school more accepting- its in the village - one of the gayest areas of NY. That said, if you are gay do not even consider Abu Dhabi, or any other school in the Middle East.</p>
<p>I think NYU’s New York campus is very welcoming of gay students. But it would not necessarily be irrational for a gay student (or an Israeli) to decide not to go there because of its institutional involvement with the U.A.E. Some other colleges decided not to open branches there because they decided it would violate their non-discrimination policies. You could go to one of those places instead. But note, this would be about principle, not actual comfort being on campus in New York.</p>
<p>I appreciate that response Hunt - I am now leaning on going elsewhere as a gay student - it’s one thing to claim to be accepting - but I don’t want to start a relationship with an institution that will always make me less than a full person if it decides its more meaningful to go to bed with homophobic nations. I think my biggest reason not to go to NYU is it seems that much of the current students who recognize the injustice about the program seem to be silent on the issue - and that doesn’t speak well to me about the climate of the campus…</p>
<p>I had hoped that people who are not gay would understand how hurtful (and hateful) this sounds for an institution that is located closer to Stonewall than any other university - would be so blind to this -
but it seems that the rest of the campus community is either silent or silenced - and so, I guess it might be best to look to other places.</p>
<p>rainbowboywonder, I’m kind of on your side on this, to a point–but tell me, are you a high school student who is considering NYU, or are you simply posting to cricitize NYU for what it’s doing?</p>
<p>***…i used to live in Dubai and all I can say is that since the U.A.E. is a muslim country (im muslim myself, btw) homosexuality is NOT tolerated. If you do get in trouble for it you might go to jail, get deported…or something worse?..idk… but being a homo there isn’t a good idea. NYU in nyc would definitely be waaay more accepting.</p>
<p>On top of that Abu Dhabi isn’t as ‘liberal’ as Dubai is.</p>
<p>Hunt - I am hoping to start college fall 2011 - I am out of high school though now - I have been supporting myself for a few years - but now I want the same experience that my high school friends have had - I was thinking NYU would be a good place - and then last weekend people were talking to me abut NYU in abu dhabi - and that made no sense to me - I was hoping to hear how that could possibly be true - and that really the people making decisions weren’t horribly homophobic.</p>
<p>
Agreed. Policies can be a tricky thing. A lot of colleges, including NYU, refused to allow ROTC on campus until Don’t Ask/Don’t Tell is revoked and accepted the loss of federal funding as a result. </p>
<p>NYU unfortunately has something of a habit of accepting somewhat questionable money in its rise to prominence - for example, recently it acquired quite a large sum from a known antiquities dealer to start an ancient studies graduate program, and an archaeology professor resigned in protest. So…I can see where the OP is coming from.</p>
<p>That said, there is also the “When in Rome” principle. I’m gay, but I am simply careful when working in the Middle East, as I do most summers; there’s no need to boycott the area. In any case, I would not let this color someone’s opinion of the main campus.</p>
<p>This is kind of like schools that had investments in South Africa during apartheid–it doesn’t really tell you much about the experience of African-Americans on campus–it’s a question of principle. I think NYU in New York would be quite comfortable for a gay student. I mean, I don’t think Ole Miss has an Abu Dhabi campus, but that doesn’t mean a gay student should go there over NYU. (Unfair: for all I know Ole Miss may be a haven for gay students…OK, Liberty University.)</p>
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<p>“When in Rome” works well when it comes to customs and culture, but not when it comes to traits of a human being. Why ISN’T there a reason for you to boycott that place? I definitely wouldn’t want to go somewhere where the only way I could be respected (understatement - should say “a free man”) was to hide who I am. </p>
<p>The reason that we are still struggling to get marriage equality, that lawmakers and military men are ardently trying to keep benefits away from gay and bi service members and are respected for their views, and that gay genocide has been close to being legitimized in some countries is this laissez-faire attitude. Gays are only a small portion of the population - that is true. But the majority is a little too quick to dismiss our small minority’s rights or issues when it is easy and convenient - NYU Abu Dhabi is apparently a more recent example. This is the reason a lot of conservatives think gay rights activists are so hostile or the tea baggers claim gays have disproportionate power. They’re noticing a minority that needs to be extremely vocal to even be recognized. I’m not going to be be following a policy of “When in Rome” anytime soon.</p>
<p>wow panther124 - I admire your response - I can’t explain my shock after thinking so much that I wanted to go to NYU to learn about the abu dhabi program - and then to find that there has been nobody from NYU even expressing any real concern - I am going to give other options real consideration -</p>