Moving back Downtown
Ursula LindseyA few years back, I studied at the Center for Arabic Study Abroad (CASA), an excellent, intensive Arabic language program funded by the US Department of Education and housed at American University in Cairo (AUC). When I attended, the program was getting ready to move--alongside all of AUC--to the new campus in the eastern suburb of New Cairo.
But, as I report, the students were so miserable out at the new campus that CASA has moved back Downtown.
...Says the center's director, Martha Schulte-Nafeh, "From Day 1 the CASA students said: We don't want to be here."
Students complained of the long commutes to and from the campus, which averaged two to three hours a day, round-trip. And they were unhappy that they were socially and geographically isolated on a largely English-speaking campus with a student body who came mainly from the upper classes of Egypt.
The new campus is "surrounded by malls and suburban developments," says Anna Ziajka, who is studying at the center this year. At the international food chains that have outlets on campus, "Even the waiters speak English."
I've written about AUC's new campus before. While I think it may satisfy the needs of the university's undergraduates, and it clearly has many advantages, I'm still shocked by how cavalierly the university seems to have made its decision to cut most ties with central Cairo. There doesn't seem to have been any serious discussion of the draw-backs of the move, or serious thought given to ways to keep certain components of AUC Downtown (I know, there is still the historic building in Tahrir Square, which houses the bookstore and continuing education programs. But that's it). It seems obvious that foreign exchange and Arabic language programs, for example, might be better situated in the heart of the city than in near-deserted suburbs. And I know the CASA program isn't alone in wanting to return Downtown--I hear several schools and departments have been unhappy with the move.
Reader Comments (8)
I have a friend currently in CASA in Cairo, going through the very same issue. Glad to hear that they'll be back in Midan al-Tahrir.
I always thought that AUC's decision to move into Heliopolis was a bit isolationist. It also strikes me as representative of the prevailing attitude in Egypt, that the walled suburbs being built in the desert (on reclaimed land that won't really last) are the nation's future, and everything else will never change.
Well, we'll see about that.
This is great news. I'm a CASA alum too. A year and a half ago I was passing through Cairo and took the AUC bus from downtown to the new campus to visit my old teachers. It took freaking forever to get there, and the teachers I spoke to were really unhappy about the move and the commute.
With a second CASA option available now, I couldn't believe that they were shooting themselves in the foot by moving the Cairo program out of the city. Who would choose to study Arabic in the middle of nowhere?
The decision to move was because there was money to be made. And a lot of money was made indeed. Plus maybe the growing horror of upper class egyptians at having to live amidst... poor egyptians. But really, it was the money. I knew some people that profited handsomely.
Best
Dan
Really, I cannot believe people complementing the CASA program. Everyone that I met from CASA at AUC (back at the old campus from 2006-2007) were among the worst Arabic speakers studying. I was kind of surprised by that, because that bar continues to be set pretty low there.
@DanM: As for the campus, friends remind me of rumors they heard from numerous parties confirm what you say, I think. They say all of the Sixth Settlement was basically owned by the higher ranking generals. Connections were utilized to by the property dirt cheap as expansion in that area was being encouraged. Encouraged here meant tax breaks (If those are even significant in Egypt, but hey it's what I heard), so they got it cheap and had to pay less upkeep. Explains how fast it "had" to be done, and every negative thing I heard. How clue this is to the truth, I have no idea. Still, the general theme you propose, DanM, seems most likely.
Thanks for the article letting us know that a general change back to the downtown campus has occured, but perhaps you could go into greater depth in the future on the issue. The decision to move back downtown must have come only after lots of discussions at the highest levels of the university. Why did they decide to change back? When did they decide? What are the implications of this move from a broader education management of the larger AUC perspective? Yes, a change was made but some more substantive reporting on the move would be welcomed.
The decision to move back came after CASA students contacted the CASA Governing Council members just before their annual meeting at MESA. As expected, the American academics serving on the committee were much more receptive to the arguments in favor of a Tahrir location than the AUC administration.
this was an amazing to read, I want to thank you for posting it on the blog...
As a former Casaween, I've also heard that last year's class -- the first one for which people applied after the move to the campus -- had a really, really high rate of accepted students turning CASA down because of the move (people initially not accepted were contacted later to be offered a spate), as a result of a lot of students pissed with traveling to CairoDisney spoke poorly of their experience to their home universities. I think the concern with CASA losing good students pushed the Americans to insist that the Egyptians move the program downtown. From what I also heard, one of the Arabic professors leading CASA had been a real cheerleader of the new campus, and had too great a stature at AUC for anyone by the American funders to disagree with him.