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BY ALEXANDER ROLLE

In print | Published October 9, 2008

At the beginning of the next school year, when Al Bloom steps down as president of Swarthmore College, he will have the opportunity to oversee the establishment of a school from its inception.

Bloom is to become Vice Chancellor of New York University Abu Dhabi (NYUAD) and will be leading an effort to create a liberal arts college, along with graduate and research programs, in NYU’s name in the United Arab Emirates. The campus will be linked with NYU’s New York campus as well as two other not-yet-created campuses to form what NYU envisions as a truly global university. Almost immediately after Bloom announced his impending resignation from the presidency of Swarthmore College, the NYU President, John Sexton, contacted him and “started describing a position that would involve developing an extraordinary liberal arts college with a graduate program as well as a center for intellectual and creative advancement in Abu Dhabi,” Bloom said. “He said the reason I’m calling is to ask you to consider being the leader of it, developing it from the ground up.’”

According to Hilary Ballon, Associate Vice Chancellor for NYUAD, the university reached out to Bloom because he “stood for the qualities of education that were so important to us in developing NYU Abu Dhabi.” Ballon mentioned Bloom’s “amazing record of building a sense of community,” which he cited as an essential trait for someone charged with building an institution from scratch.
“What he did at Swarthmore was simply breathtaking. I think Swarthmore was so lucky to have had him,” Ballon said.

Bloom was thrilled by the offer and began exploring NYU’s program and meeting with his future coworkers, both in New York and Abu Dhabi. This summer he was officially endorsed by the Crown Prince of Abu Dhabi as the leader of the NYU project.

According to Bloom, the NYU campus is part of a larger effort on the part of Abu Dhabi’s government to bring new cultural and intellectual opportunities to the region. “Representatives of the Abu Dhabi government, including the Crown Prince, have consistently expressed their aspiration that Abu Dhabi become an ‘idea capital’ of the region and the world,” Bloom said. “It is amazing to see that kind of commitment to education and intellectual life from a government.”

The campus is to be on Saadiyat Island, 500 meters off the shore of Abu Dhabi, along with branches of the Guggenheim and Louvre museums, as well as a performing arts center.

While some have wondered about the existence of a liberal arts college in a nation that has some history of government censorship, Bloom said that censorship “will not affect the university … and I believe the university will provide a persuasive model of responsible, open discourse.”

According to a BBC News article “Web Censorship: Correspondents Report,” an attempt to access some political sites will bring up a message that says the site is blocked “due to its content being inconsistent with the religious, cultural, political and moral values of the United Arab Emirates.” For similar reasons, some books have been banned from the U.A.E.

Bloom hopes to be a part of creating a “reciprocal” relationship between the campus and Abu Dhabi. Just as living in the UAE will have an impact on students at the college, he hopes the college will have a positive effect on the country.

Bloom said that “among issues studied and discussed at the University, will certainly be the value of, and varying approaches to democracy, and the challenge which faces the U.S. and nations worldwide of inclusion of foreign workers. The first step towards a better world is being able to talk openly about what that better world should look like and how best to build it.”

In his last year at Swarthmore, Bloom has had to begin preparing for his new job while still fulfilling all the duties of a college president. According to Bloom, he agreed to take the position with the understanding that, until next year, his primary focus would still be Swarthmore.

According to Vice President Maurice Eldridge ’61, Bloom’s job performance has not been affected. “He’s carrying out his work with the same energy and pleasure as always,” Eldridge said.

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