New York University Abu Dhabi (NYUAD) was established in partnership with the Emirate of Abu Dhabi. While plans for a main campus on Abu Dhabi's Saadiyat Island were approved in March 2009, in December of that year an interim Downtown Campus (DTC) opened in Abu Dhabi city, and welcomed its inaugural class of 148 students in September 2010.
The idea of capturing oral histories during the final year at DTC was a collaboration between the NYUAD Library and the Office of Human Resources. Project team members included Library Director, Virginia Danielson; Librarian for Research and Reference Services, Ilka Datig; Media Specialist and Videographer, Rebecca Pittam; and Tamu Al Islam, who at the time of the project was Director of HR Services, Strategy, and Engagement.
The subjects of this oral history collection are students, faculty, and staff who were present during the first four years of operations. Community members were informally polled, and those who were identified as individuals "with interesting and unique knowledge of the early days" were invited to participate in a 30-minute to 1-hour video-recorded interview session. The resulting set of interviews represents those who agreed and were available. A first round of interviewing took place during the Spring 2014 semester, weeks ahead of the University's first commencement ceremonies. Additional interviews were recorded during Summer and Fall 2014.
Interviews were conducted in dedicated campus spaces in DTC, and later Saadiyat, with Ilka Datig, Rebecca Pittam, and Tamu Al-Islam (and sometimes others) also present as interviewers and facilitators.
Questions asked covered a range of topics, including questions about impressions, key moments, the physical environment, and individual memories.
The project formed a beginning effort to document origins, with the goal "to begin the preservation of materials and memories related to the early days of NYUAD, before they are lost or forgotten." Early project documentation notes this project as the initial effort to build and grow a University Archives, as participants were invited to donate other materials such as "yearbooks, born-digital items from social media, a collection of media coverage from both print and online sources, and any other memorabilia."
Reference: (from original invitation letter to potential interviewees.) Reference: https://nyuad.nyu.edu/en/about/nyuad-at-a-glance/history.html
