Parking Fees

The American University in Cairo administration has reduced the parking fees by 50 percent for faculty, staff and students to 1500 L.E per year and to 750 L.E per semester for this year only.

"I wouldn't get a permit if it wasn't reduced, but now it's wonderful," said Basma Ezz, a political science graduating senior. "Of course I got the permit."

A number of the AUC community members enjoyed the free parking since the beginning of the fall semester.

However, all vehicles have been required to display a valid parking permit in order to park on campus since Sunday, September 28.

Still, others prefer to park themselves off campus to avoid paying any fees.

"I park in the desert, and I don't even leave my car with a car attendant," said Ahmad Moneeb, a political science graduating senior. "I didn't get a parking pass, and I wouldn't. It's unreasonably expensive even after the reduction, and it already costs me much to fuel my car as I come from Mohandessen."

Moreover, the AUC administration has refunded those who have already purchased a parking permit.

According to Gamal Sultan, a political science professor, parking in EL-Bostan near old campus used to cost him 30 L.E per a day. Now, thanks to the new reduced parking fees, it costs only 35 L.E per a week.

"Parking fees were over exaggerated, but now they are reasonable, I think." said Sultan.

Despite being refunded as well, students who take the AUC bus are filing complaints that the bus service fees should be reduced too.

"No, they shouldn't reduce the bus fees as well," said Letitia Gasser, a political science graduating senior. "Buses make effort to pick us from the nearest point to our homes and take us to the new campus while parking is just a free slot and one shouldn't pay much for it."

Is that even LEGAL?!

One of my required courses to be able to graduate next semester got canceled and it is not offered anymore next Spring. My political science advisor "advised" me to find any political science course that is "somehow" relevant to this course and take it as a substitute. Eager to learn, I found this interesting course, human rights in contemporary Egypt, which is relevant to my given up for lost course, Egyptian constitution. I needed to get the instructor's consent to register in this "somehow" relevant course although it is the department's responsibility to get me the substitute.

It took a series of emails between me and the teacher to get the "divine" consent. At the very first email, I explained how my course got canceled and how it was easy for me to register for any of the political science courses that are offered next semester and take it as a substitution. But, because I am excited to learn something, I chose this specific course which is relevant to my specialization in law. The teacher asked about my GPA, and whether I am an "American Arab" or an "Arab"!!! I replied that my GPA is STILL 3.2 despite the fact that I have two Ds in my record which I am repeating to improve this GPA, and that I am Egyptian. The teacher never replied back, and when I asked for a reply anytime soon, I got this reply: "I'm afraid I cannot approve your enrollment on this course. Minimum requirement is 3.5 GPA."

I have never seen this teacher, and I don't wanna take this course anymore. I am just wondering what kind of students does this teacher accept in this "divine" course? Does the fact that this teacher asked whether I am an American Arab or a pure Arab ring any bells? Is there even such a thing as a minimum GPA requirment to enroll in a course? Is there an AUC policy that says so? IS THAT EVEN LEGAL?!

Power Outage!

Roaming around campus and shifting classes from HUSS and BEC to CORE...This was the state of AUC students moving from one building to another on Nov. 10th. They were questioning working power plugs following a sudden campus wide power outage that Monday.

"We couldn't take our excel quiz in the morning due to the campus blackout," said Ahmad Hbous, a finance senior. "We have waited the entire class period for the power to come back. Then, the teacher canceled the quiz."

In an interview with campus newspaper the CARAVAN, Osama Zayed, one of the university's head engineers, blamed construction loaders outside of the campus for cutting the main power line. When the power is cut, generators are used to backup areas with electricity loss. When this procedure was followed that morning, however, generators were not enough to supply energy to power the entire campus.

"Most of the mass communications classes were canceled that morning and more classes have been canceled later in the day," said lab technician who refused to mention her name. "Students take their classes in the labs because they need the computers and definitely the internet to do their research."

The power outage is another issue to be added to the problems that AUC is having already.

AUC Trek Debate

AUC community has mixed opinions about the long distances at the new campus.

Cairo- The American University in Cairo’s (AUC)sprawling campus has raised debate over how much of a problem the far distances between buildings is for the elderly and handicapped on campus.

“There are no enough times between classes in order to go to from one class to another in such a massive campus with no shaded areas,” said Mohamed El- Kabany, a mass communications senior. “It is very tiring to walk between buildings. I have problems with my knees, and going up slides is a very huge problem for me.”

Scooters Abound

As a solution, some students bring their scooters to go around campus. In a Q and A section in one of this semester's Caravan's issues, students were asked of their opinions if there was a shop to rent out scooters around campus.

According to El- Kabany, who uses his scooter to move around campus, scooters are very practical means to deal with this issue.

“Why not renting scooters,” he said.

Golf Cars

Some students demand to ride golf cars, which they see everyday going around campus driven by staff and workers.

“Students are not supposed to see golf cars going around campus,” said Lobna Ali, events scheduler coordinator, facilities and operation department. “These cars are supposed to be moving in tunnels not on campus, but tunnels are not ready yet. Golf cars are meant to move furniture and goods not students.”

According to Ali, golf cars were used in the first place to move staff and workers to and from the site office, which was the first thing to be built before any other buildings were finished.

“Golf cars are limited and many of them belong to the contractors themselves not to AUC,” said Wafaa Sadek, acting director administrative support, facilities and operation department.

According to Sadek, AUC administration faces many other issues which take priority over the long distances issue. While there have been discussions on how to accommodate students with disabilities, nothing concrete has come out of those conversations yet.

Minor Issue

Still, some on campus feel that the facilities are adequate for those that have special needs.

“I think the new campus is more designed for handicapped,” said Laila Bahgat, a handicapped maintenance assistant. “I feel sorry for normal students since they are not allowed to use elevators. Elevators are used only by staff and handicapped. There are many sliding down roads for people with wheelchairs.”

According to Bahgat, the design of the new campus could have been better to reduce distances, but now it is already fixed. Therefore, AUC administration can’t do anything about long distances.

“Distances are not long. They are equal to the distance between the Main and Falaki buildings located in old campus,” said Bahgat.

Some members of the AUC community argue that all private well-developed universities have similar long distances.

“This is not a problem. Student Union (SU) is not planning to do anything concerning long distances,” said Aya Hamid, SU Services Committee Chairperson and a business administration senior. “I don’t think AUC administration is planning to do anything either.”

According to Hamid, there are more serious issues to be discussed and taken into consideration. There is an AUC committee which is attended by SU members to discuss bus issues, for example.

“When people came complaining at the beginning of the semester about long distances, I thought they were joking,” said Hamid. “I also thought they were tired because of fasting during the holy month of Ramadan. Ramadan is over, and people must be used to the new campus and adapted by now."

Being An Intern!

The Career Advising and Placement Services (CAPS) office at the American University in Cairo (AUC) is a very useful tool for students. It helps students choose their career life styles and guides them to the best opportunities offered by the most recognizable employers. CAPS offered me many internship opportunities, but I have actually been through only two unforgettable summer internship experiences. During the past two summers, I have had two priceless experiences introducing me to the field work, teaching me how to explore oneself and how to deal and to interact with people and filling me with the most valuable guidelines of the career world.

My latest experience during the past summer was working for the Canadian Embassy in Egypt as a Political and Economic Reporting and Public Affairs (PERPA) intern. Excitingly, I was telling everyone about me getting this one-life opportunity to work for the Canadian Embassy. As a political science major, I got responses and comments such as, "This is not only exciting, but also great for a political science student," and "This is the first big step in building your political career," Unfortunately, all my dreams were broken by the reality rock. I had my interview with the political consul at the embassy, which I thought to be horrible, but it turned out to be good enough to get me the job. That gave me much confidence in believing in my skills and abilities. Finally, I got the vacancy and started the work.

At the beginning, I was very excited having so much fun. I was doing this daily press review replacing someone who was having babies at the time. It was a real job; reading these entire newspapers- official, semi-official, opposition and independent- making the review on regional, local and international events and gathering news from everywhere. I also looked through online papers and blogs. And, by the end of the day, I send the press review to every single person in the diplomatic mission through the local computer system. When this person came back and reoccupied his office after a week and a half of my working on a highly-praised daily press review, I actually had nothing left to do. First, they moved me to this work station where everyone dumps I-might-need-one-day files and folders. I had this old-versioned and slow computer that I had to wait for almost half an hour to turn it on.

In addition to that, I had no specific tasks to perform. They allowed me to attend the PERPA weekly section meeting, and again I became excited. I had an idea of the work they perform and the current projects they are working on. I started to brainstorm and do research to contribute to the work and to have a valuable input. Seemingly, they were too busy to take my inputs into consideration, and my ideas got nothing but verbal praises. I received comments such as, "That’s a great idea," and "What a bright girl!" Then, they started to give me research papers and reports to work on. That was interesting for me to handle since that is what I basically do in my political courses at AUC. However, it was not the proper environment for me to work; my work hours were from 8am to 4:30pm in this depressing work station with a very low temperature. I used to bring my jacket, but it did nothing to the very cold atmosphere that made me sleepy all the time. I used to finish my research work in two hours as I am usually used to do it at home or in the AUC library. I did not know what to do with the most and the rest of my time.

I left work after finishing my assigned time period, but I came to know that office work does not suit me at all. I also recognized that all governmental and bureaucratic work is the same everywhere in the world; the Canadian Embassy is just like any governmental institution anywhere. The embassy hired me to solve a critical situation without assigning me any other additional tasks to perform after accomplishing my rescue mission. As a result, I was wasting my time while not acquiring much expertise. However, I can not deny the fact that it was important for me to be introduced to the diplomatic world for the first time. I knew how an embassy works, operates and functions in the international arena. I also became conscious of the bureaucratic division of the embassy and the hierarchy of the diplomatic mission. I still want to contribute to the diplomatic world, but I would love to have a filed-work post to be able to interact and develop relations with other people outside the political sphere. International organizations and development work would be my best options. I would love to go around the world in diplomatic missions representing my country in the global arena.

It is a matter of fact that field work is the best that suits me. I came to realize this truth while having my previous experience as a market impact team member at the Coca-Cola Company during the launch of its new product Coca-Cola Zero. I went down to the markets to make sure that the advertising process for the new product is going well, to achieve both system and market excitement behind the new innovation, to create summer news and secure peak season and to recruit new users through a fully integrated marketing campaign behind the new Coca-Cola Zero. I also used to clean, tidy up coolers and place the Coca-Cola see-through stickers. Moreover, I learned how to build extra points of interruption as warm displays, to build big displays and to place posters where allowed. It was the most amazing experience I have ever had. In fact, being an intern is a life-time experience that guides one to his best choices and helps him find his career path.

AUC on the Move

The American University in Cairo (AUC) has moved to a new campus in new Cairo since the beginning of the new fall semester leaving the down town campus behind. The move, that took place over the summer, has raised many questions, and in fact, the AUC administration had no clear reasons to justify the move to the students, the faculty or the staff.

"I think that we moved to the new campus so that AUC could accept more students and hence make more money as usual," said Dina Tarek, a mass communication senior. Some argue that the current administration is transitional that it was assigned to carry out the move, which had to be accomplished before they leave office.

The new campus is still not finished yet, construction work is taking place during regular school days and construction workers are all over the place. In addition, the dorms and the sports area are still under construction. "My personal opinion is that we should have not moved if the campus was not fully complete," said Sally Samir Abd El-Aziz, a political science and business administration senior. "I don't really know the real reasons, but part of me thinks that because people were complaining too much, they finally moved, or that maybe they needed more funding, which would involve selling the old Falaki building,"

However, after-Iftar classes during the Holy month of Ramadan were being held in the old campus, which means that the old buildings are not sold yet. "Perhaps they just thought that because the campus is almost done that we should move, though it's far from complete in my opinion," said Abd El-Aziz.

Obviously, the AUC administration while thinking about the move did not put into consideration the comfort or the safety of the AUC community. According to Abd El- Aziz, there are not enough shaded areas. And, that lack of shaded areas has caused AUCians to crowd in the smallest spaces, especially in an area on AUC Avenue between the CORE and SSE buildings.

"They did not take anything into consideration, which explains why the campus is such a mess," said Tarek.

Hello!

I thought I would never have my own blog, but here I am having to create a blog for academic purposes. And when I got the chance, my blog can't be in any form political. Despite the fact that it is very hard to be Egyptian without being involved somehow in politics, I am not allowed to relate any of my blog entries to politics or to express my own political views. Hence, no political-related disappearances!!
This blog is for my Multi-media Writing II class since I am minoring in mass Communications. It is meant to be a window into the AUC new Campus giving an overview of the AUC life in the suburb of new cairo. I hope that non-AUCians and others who live outside the deserts that are bordering AUC's new campus would find this blog helpful in drawing a picture of how things work at AUC.
One last thing, please comment on my entries, show instantaneous inter-activity and make my teacher happy:)