This is just the second year of operation for NYU Sydney. With only ten courses, we remain small, but successful, and this semester we have our largest class to date.
All students are taking our new Global Orientations course, which explores indigenous and colonial history, multiculturalism, popular culture, and Australian self-image, among other topics. A federal election in September provided a great opportunity to explore the Australian parliamentary political system. Recent student life trips to the Blue Mountains and to the Australian outback brought to life class discussions of the Australian Bush Myth.
Planning for the future was evident at many levels in recent months. In September, we held an event in New York called “Global Opportunities: Discover NYU Sydney.” Students who had already experienced a semester away in Sydney joined prospective students for an open conversation, and shared their experiences enthusiastically. October’s inaugural meeting of NYU Sydney’s Site-Specific Faculty Committee represented an important step in NYU Sydney’s curricular development. The committee is helping to craft new course offerings that mesh with our existing courses to provide students with more complete academic pathways. Later in the Fall semester, one member of the committee, Professor Fred Myers, spent a day at NYU Sydney. We particularly appreciated his presence at a meeting of our full faculty, and look forward to visits from other committee members.
In December, our colleagues at NYU Buenos Aires initiated a collaboration with NYU Sydney to forge a connection between the Creative Writing classes in our two locations. We are excited about the possibilities not only for this course, but as a model for creating deeper ties throughout our global network.
Also in December, after almost a year of planning and negotiation with regulatory agencies in Sydney, work began on renovations that will breathe new life into our academic center. NYU Sydney is housed in a heritage building known as Science House, built in 1930 as the home of the Royal Society of Australia. Our renovations included lighting upgrades, flooring restoration, and the addition of partitions to create new faculty offices and a new classroom.
At the end of the Fall semester, we relocated our student services and operations staff to create a third classroom on the third floor. This was completed just in time to welcome three classes from NYU Abu Dhabi for January session. We had hosted one NYU Abu Dhabi class a year earlier, and are delighted with this growing collaboration with NYU Abu Dhabi.