As NYU Abu Dhabi enters its second decade, the noble vision underpinning the institution has never felt more fraught. Over the past year and half, amid a ravaging global pandemic, our community — and by extension, the institution — has been caught up in a routine and burdening state of turmoil.

The importance of student journalism is greater than ever. If NYUAD is to ever live up to its lofty aspirations, then it needs a robust publication that will consistently hold it to account. In this vein, we hope to offer a certain clarity on the role The Gazelle must play in the year ahead.

It only seemed natural to us to publish a special issue that called for deep introspection, self-inventory and a forward-looking intentionality. The Retrospective Issue hopes to serve precisely that to our community.

This is the same intentionality that we will channel at The Gazelle over the course of this academic year. In light of this, we hope to work on instituting a series of organizational changes that will better equip us to produce meaningful journalism and serve the broader NYUAD community.

The first element is to better leverage the diversity that exists within this campus. In the past, The Gazelle has tried its best to report on issues that matter to the community. Only in the last year, we have reported intensively on the Black Lives Matter movement and racism in our community and institution, on Palestine and the Israeli occupation and the struggles of low-income students in our community. Throughout all our reporting, we have been deeply committed to centering marginalized voices.

Now, we wish to go one step further. If The Gazelle wants to aspire to represent the student body, it must also aspire to be as diverse as that very body. And as the only publication on this campus, it takes on an even greater significance.

We have made deliberate efforts to ensure our newsroom is more diverse, and effectively so: from targeted outreach to intentional hiring processes that give considerable weight to different perspectives. We hope to build a newsroom culture that calls for feedback, criticism and debate. We also hope to provide Inclusivity, Diversity, Belonging and Equity training to our editorial staff in order to enable writing and reporting that is informed by a marked sensitivity of the diversity within our community.

Secondly, we recognize that our staff and contributors are indispensable to our work. It does not escape us that amid stipend changes and the significant losses in financial freedom, the voluntary commitment we ask of our staff may be too heavy a burden for some. Therefore, as we move forward with the semester, we also reaffirm our commitment to forming a work culture that is sustainable, accessible and fair in its demands of all our staff.

Further, the importance of diversity is exacerbated by this moment in which we find ourselves. More than the administration would like to admit, there is a sense of alienation within the student body. In the recent past, amid unfavourable policy changes, a scattered sense of community and a collective sense of loss, we have become so occupied, justifiably so, in this routine of damage control and bracing ourselves for the uncertainty that prevails in every aspect of our lives. And in the performance of such a routine, the pioneering vision on which this institution is premised — a vision in which we all have invested and celebrated — seems out of place and forgotten. The Gazelle hopes to change that.

The Gazelle has reported on many of the institutional changes that have taken place over the past years. We wrote extensively on the loss of our financial freedom, and will continue to report on its long-term consequences. When we lost our study aways, we amplified student sentiments on the hypocritical nature of this decision. The student body’s calls for transparency and accountability continue to grow stronger. But as this institution heads into the next decade of its existence, we must take a step back and undertake rigorous self-examination.

We must ask pressing questions about this institution’s vision and demand that outcome and action align with rhetoric. The most pernicious threat to the university is not vocal criticism, but rather quiet apathy. If NYUAD is to recapture the idealism inherent in its founding, it needs larger, more diverse conversations. That needs to start with The Gazelle. And we are up to this task, but we need your support.

If you want to work for a publication that acts as an engine of advocacy and subversion on campus, we invite you to apply. Write, edit, code, design, photograph and film for us. We ask for no prior experience — The Gazelle is a learning publication. We have traditionally acted as a platform for nuanced debate and conversation, and as we head into this new era, we will continue to report, document and investigate with intentionality and care. Here, we ask for your investment, whether that be as a staff member, a contributing writer or an engaged reader.