A Window on AUC: 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.