- Ladies and gentlemen, please welcome the president of New York University, Andrew Hamilton.
[ Applause ]
- Ladies and gentlemen, good
evening to you all and welcome, welcome, welcome,
to a very special event. We are
here to celebrate a very special person,
I should say two very special people, in Al and Peggy Bloom and the amazing...
[ Applause ]
...I hope you've all got one of
these.
NYUAD is in bloom, and its bloom will
last for a very very long time.
When I was thinking about what I would
say about Al, I decided that one of the
things to mention, of course, I stand here
with the great privilege of being the
16th president of NYU. Now, what does that mean?
It means 15 people came before me.
We have the 15th president who will be
speaking in a few moments time. It means
that all I can hope for as the 16th
president of NYU is to hopefully nudge
this great university forward, hopefully
keep it on the amazing trajectory that it's on,
do a few new things.
I came to NYU after being at Oxford University.
It's even worse: I was the two hundred and sixty second vice chancellor of Oxford.
So imagine how hard it is to feel you've achieved anything when you're the two hundred and sixty
second and there are 261 before you.
Well, Al Bloom, you are the first vice chancellor of NYU Abu Dhabi.
You are the first...
[ Applause ]
...you are the first and founding
vice chancellor of NYU Abu Dhabi.
As I think about my job, I know I am standing
on the shoulders of giants who have gone
before me, like the great John Sexton and
his predecessors.
Well, Al Bloom, it is your shoulders that the next many
hundred future Vice Chancellors of NYU
Abu Dhabi, it is your shoulders that they
will be standing on because they see
this great achievement, this remarkable
example of higher education, university
education at its finest. You've created
something with, of course, many partners,
but you've been a critical part of that
creation that has brought together an
unparalleled group of faculty doing
outstanding research and creating the
number one research institution in the UAE,
and I know soon to be the number one in
the entire region.
You are the person who has brought this amazing group of students
from all over the world, and brought them together.
Together to learn, together to live,
together to learn from each other. That principle
of NYU Abu Dhabi that you have
created means that those young people
will go out into the world, already eight
hundred of them have already gone out into the world,
and through their experience here, through
learning to live,
to embrace, not tolerate, but embrace
difference through the conversations, the
debates, the discussion that have taken
place at NYU Abu Dhabi. Those young
people will change the world, and are
already changing the world.
And so, to you, Al Bloom, on behalf of all of NYU,
I want to express our immense thanks to you.
And I want to add Peggy,
because I know well, my wife Jenny is
with me today, we are a team, you and
Peggy are an amazing team. You have acted
as such wonderful anchors of life of
student engagement, of faculty activities
here at NYU.
And Al and Peggy, our thanks are immeasurable, but I know very well
the wonderful successor Marriott Westerman who will be arriving next year,
and then the future vice chancellors of NYU Abu Dhabi
will all look back at you
and see that the real foundation stones
of this institution, its intellectual, its
social, its engagement foundation stones
those were laid by you.
Al and Peggy, thank you.
[ Applause ]
- Please welcome, the Dean of Science at
NYU Abu Dhabi, David Scicchitano.
[ Applause ]
- Al and Peggy, thank you, thank you, and thank you.
Over ten years ago when we began this initiative,
we were given this extraordinary opportunity, a blank canvas.
For anyone in the academy that's a
remarkable, remarkable thing to have
because the question becomes what are
you going to paint on this canvas,
how will you bring to life
something as incredible as NYU Abu Dhabi.
Well, in joining the team I have learned
so much from you as we began to put our
dots onto that canvas and we began to
put the brushstrokes, many different
things happened;
pictures emerged beautiful images occurred.
And then Dave would sometimes
come along and put, you know, black dots
in the blue sky and orange dots in the
sea that shouldn't have been there.
Mistakes were made. I some days would
feel like the patron saint of mistake-makers.
But you know Al, you were always
extraordinary when I would go to you and
say, "I think there's a problem".
In many ways you reflected a statement made by Arnold Beckman,  the inventor of the pH-meter
and one of the great chemists, who said:
"Don't be afraid of making mistakes.
If you're not making mistakes you're
probably not doing very much". But we were
doing very very many things and they
were coming along oh-so well, and we
would go back and gesso the mistakes and
repaint, and what is emerging is this
extraordinary enterprise called NYU Abu Dhabi.
In the mid-1980s an extraordinary
play opened in New York and it's one
that many people know is near and dear
to my heart, by Stephen Sondheim, my hero,
and James Lepine - Sunday in the
park with George.
It's a story of Georges Seurat and his
Sundays that he spent in a park
sketching people, dogs, anything he found,
to create his work
'A Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte'.
At the opening of the play, Georges Seurat enters and sits down,
and there is nothing on the stage except a white canvas. And he looks at the audience
and he says, "White, a blank page or canvas. The challenge, bring
order to the whole through design,
composition, tension, balance, light...",
and Al which you so brought to this project,
and for which I and everyone is grateful - harmony.
Thank you so much.
[ Applause ]
- Ladies and gentlemen, university
Professor, Dean Emerita, and affiliated faculty
NYU Abu Dhabi, Catherine Stimpson.
[ Applause ]
- How's everybody doing up there in the
balcony?
[ Applause ]
Around 1990 I was asked to become a candidate for the presidency
of a liberal arts college in the United States.
I went for an interview. Later, I learned that the search committee would
not advance the candidacy, and even later
I learned whose candidacy the search
committee had advanced. It was you,
Al Bloom.
[ Laughter ]
[ Applause ]
Now, as you know, from 1991 to 2009 Al was a legendary leader of Swarthmore, the
name of the college in search of a
leader. And for the past 11 years he has
also served New York University Abu
Dhabi with visionary power, ethical
steadiness, acumen, and energy, enormous
energy. I have had the privilege of being
a member of his affiliated faculty and
seeing for myself how wise that search
committee in 1990 was. Now, among else
triumphs as a leader, has been his
unswerving advocacy for the liberal arts
is the foundation of education.
For the liberal arts both teach us how to think and how to behave ethically with a
proper regard for the dignity of others.
In brief, the liberal arts cultivate both consciousness and conscience.
Now, most people believe that the classical Greeks
were the first architects of the liberal
arts, but I am sure that Al, you with your
love of Chinese culture and languages,
would agree that Confucius was another
of those great designers for did not
Confucius tell us we pixellated citizens
of the 21st century that the wise man and just woman must study music, as well as archery.
Now today the liberal arts embraced the Humanities, Social Sciences, and Sciences,
but another of Al's enduring gifts has been his tenacious insistence
that the liberal arts are more than those three disciplines, crucial though they are.
For the liberal arts need the Arts; the
liberal arts need the theater, film,
painting, sculpture, music, dance, mixed
media performance, and fashion. They need
them for ideas in nourishment and in
turn, the arts also need the liberal arts
for ideas and nourishment. The Red
Theater in which we sit so happily today,
The Blue Hall, The Black Box, the studios,
the library, the classrooms, and the labs -
they are all the interactive stars in
our galaxy of learning.
So Al, thank you and Peggy for being our navigator and our moral compass in these our stellar spaces.
Thank you.
[ Applause ]
- Please welcome president and vice
president of the New York University Abu Dhabi
Student Government, Tami Gjorgjieva and Chris Wheeler.
[ Applause ]
- Three weeks ago, an anonymous petition appeared overnight on change.org,
titled 'Make a statue of Al Bloom in C2'.
[ Laughter ]
We have no idea who put it
up, or whether change.org is actually the
most effective platform to make this
happen, but we think the sentiment is
what reflect one of the rare universally
held beliefs among students at NYU Abu Dhabi.
Beyond being impressed by his
remarkable achievements as a scholar, and
our first Vice Chancellor, we just
really like Al.
[ Laughter ]
- It's because every time you bump into him,
whether that's the candidate weekend fair, on the stairs
outside of A-3, or at the Pakistani mock
wedding, you're greeted with a genuine
smile and curiosity, no matter who you
are or what you do as part of this community.
It is this humility and enthusiasm that endears Al so much to all of us
because you can tell that he's genuinely just as
excited by everything that's happening
in this university, as we are.
Meeting regularly with Al, you see that it is
this excitement and unrelenting
commitment to the mission of NYU Abu
Dhabi which has made him such a success
as our first Vice Chancellor. Sharing in
his infectious enthusiasm and vision,
we'll often come into meetings with one
or two specific things to discuss but
leave with six new dreams and projects
to work on that afternoon.
- This fierce commitment to see solutions rather than obstacles, opportunities rather than
restrictions is exactly what has allowed
Al to lead this university from
something that people thought it could
not be done, to exactly where we are, creating
a remarkable institution that continues to exceed the expectations of everyone involved.
Al, your combination of visionary optimism, compassionate humility,
and calm level-headedness has provided a better
springboard for the future of NYU Abu
Dhabi than anyone could have possibly imagined.
You will be sorely missed by
everyone you've worked with here,
but in decades to come, this university
will never forget the impact that you
have had on it and the opportunities
that you have created for generations of
staff, faculty, and students.
- As a small token of appreciation from students, we want to leave you with a parting gift.
[ Applause ]
So that you can not only continue to
enjoy the view from your office, but also
keep yourself entertained working out
what each of the 76 languages on this flag are.
[ Laughter ]
Al, thank you for everything,
and we hope to see you walking through the palm trees again soon.
[ Applause ]
- Ladies and gentlemen, please welcome our first performance of the evening,
NYUAD class of 2019 student Eugene Cho,
performing Chopin's E-flat Major Waltz.
[ Applause ]
[ Applause ]
- Ladies and gentlemen, assistant vice president of strategic initiatives at NYU, Peter Kristensen.
[ Applause ]
- Good evening. So I'm already feeling a little weepy,
and then I have to speak after that beautiful performance,
but I'm gonna try it anyways. So, first of all, there is way too much for us to talk about tonight
and I only have three minutes and Ilana
is sitting over there with her crook, so I'll start with this.
It is impossible to
overestimate Al's importance in the
success of NYU Abu Dhabi. As many of you
know, I'm an old-timer,
and so back in 2007-2008 there was a
small group of us who were trying to put
plans together on how we were going to
realize John's audacious vision for NYU and Abu Dhabi.
And frankly, to me it
seemed impossible, and, in fact, there are
many people who didn't think this
venture would succeed.
Well, I don't have to go into all those stories,
but there were many doubters, let's just put it that way.
So, but then we appointed Al as vice
chancellor and suddenly the impossible
seemed possible. I was first introduced
to us at a XCOM meeting in Paris and
after that meeting the whole energy of
the project changed. There was a renewed
enthusiasm, a renewed energy, and it
was a tremendous moment.
Look, of course it was great that the president of
Swarthmore was coming to our fledgling
project that made us feel good. But
Al brought a lot to us beyond his reputation.
What Al did in those early days was eloquently explained to us,
the promise of NYU Abu Dhabi, especially with the support of His Highness
the Crown Prince and people like
that we had the potential to not only
succeed but to do something that would
be transformative in higher education and therefore, transform the world.
[ Fire alarm beeping ]
And then the fire came.
[ Laughter ]
So...
- An alarm has been activated.
We're investigating the cause.
Please remain calm.
[ Laughter ]
- The cause is Al is leaving.
That's the alarming fact.
[ Fire alarm]
Does this count my three minutes?
[ Laughter ]
Cause...
...okay.
Back to the story.
[ Applause ]
So, Kate, in her talk, mentioned the tenacity of Al.
And he was tenacious in his vision.
And sometimes, look, sometimes we'd be,
like, "excellence, yes, we know excellence
is our goal", but it was that tenacity
that really enabled NYU Abu Dhabi to
withstand headwinds over the last decade
but, look, many institutions that tried to
do something globally have not been able
to withstand. And so Al's focus on
quality, excellence, excellent students,
excellent administration, excellent
community, was so central to the
foundation of this campus and the
wonderful thing that is NYU Abu Dhabi.
There're...really, I only have 3 minutes,
and there's so many things to say, you
know, I don't have time to talk about all
the wonderful things that I want to talk
about that Peggy contributed to the
campus. And I don't have time to talk
about Al's amazing humanity and his
humanitarianism, and, you know, the sense
of common purpose that he brought to
this campus. So I will close with this
only, to both you and Peggy, thank you so
much for coming to Abu Dhabi and helping
us build this amazing, crazy, weird,
[ Laughter ]
beautiful, complicated, interesting,
amazing community in place.
There's nothing I can say that really can
express how indebted I am to the two of
you working at NYU Abu Dhabi has been the single greatest,
really, thing in my career,
sorry Marty.
And it's because of the two of you
that have created this amazing place
that's allowed us all, everybody in this room,
has allowed us all to thrive in that.
So, to you both, I say thank you, thank you so much from the bottom of my heart, thank you.
[ Applause ]
- Please welcome, NYU Abu Dhabi class of
2018 alumna - Shamma Al Bastaki
[ Applause ]
- Rumor has it we have an assassin amongst us.
Don't panic, do not panic.
This assassin's weapon of
choice is a Sharpie.
As can only be expected of a distinguished academic or a linguist or a vice chancellor of a global university.
Okay, allow me to explain.
For those who don't know assassin is a
game played at NYUAD. A campus-wide
tradition, let's say, that was birthed
upon the university's inception around a
decade ago.
So this is how it works:
the organizers give you a Sharpie and a
target, but you are also a target. If you
draw a line on your target with the
Sharpie - they're out, and you adopt your
target's target. It's kind of like a multi
linear domino chain and the last one standing wins.
Vice chancellor Bloom, as the campus
rumor mill goes, you once played this game.
Now, I have no way to verify if this is true.
This might be totally new information to
you.
[ Laughter ]
It's a rumor for a reason.
Perhaps, you can confirm it once and for
all once I come down.
What can I say, NYUAD fibs travel far.
But the thing is, rumor or truth, I can't bring myself to
denounce the story. I don't have a hard
time believing it and what compels me to
believe the story even more, is the fact,
not the myth, the straight-up fact that
you once visited a Design and Innovation
class and tested out each project,
including one that involves jumping on a
trampoline expressing genuine genuine
interest, completely unfazed by the prospect of jumping while in a suit.
[ Laughter ]
Vice chancellor Bloom, you have a plethora of accolades
and achievements to be proud of. You took
a huge leap after completing an 18-year
tenure at the Renault and Swarthmore
liberal arts college to come to a
university which at the time had a
meager legacy to boast. And yet, you
masterfully led this institution through
numerous successes during your vice chancellorship.
And the NYUAD community
and the United Arab Emirates and the
world of higher education could not be
more grateful. One could really go on and on
about your incredibly positive
large-scale impact, but in the few
minutes I have I wanted to highlight
some of the little moments that review
what kind of a vice chancellor you were
to us. The little moments which, actually,
to many of us, alumni and students, were
the big moments.
Like you jumping on a trampoline to test a student's project,
like the time you visited Open Studios
and upon seeing a student take
photographs, you went to her and you said
you wanted to test her photography
skills to see how good she made you look.
Like the many many dinners you and Peggy
have hosted for the members of this community.
Like sometimes attending the
Pakistani mock wedding, like the time you
chanced upon my best friend leaving
class with Don Quixote in his hand.
I don't know if you remember this, but you
asked him if you read it in Spanish.
"Yes, I actually have", he replied. And he
remembers how pleasantly surprised and
proud you looked that he had read it in
its original language.
Points for impressing a linguist by training.
[ Laughter ]
He was also touched that you stopped in your tracks
for a few moments to talk to him.
An alumna from the Class of 2014, the very first graduating class, told me this marvelous story.
It was during the legendary Sama tower fire
where you ushered students to the old downtown campus.
You were calming down those
who had midterms the next day and even
managed to get them an extension.
[ Laughter ]
[ Applause ]
Sidenote: this was the very
first time they saw you not in a suit, but in pajamas.
[ Laughter ]
You stayed with them for
hours comforting them and keeping them
company until the fire was controlled
and they were let back into the building.
What a superhero you have been.
Vice chancellor Bloom, I truly believe that
one of the greatest markers of your leadership has
been that at every opportunity you got
you try to get to know students and
faculty and staff; to have a laugh, to share stories of your adventures,
to ask them about their adventures.
I confess, I will never forget the first
time you remembered my name.
You have been a relentless and
passionate and selfless and caring
champion of NYUAD. You will be dearly
missed, but your legacy will live on
amongst all past and future members of
this community.
Thank you for everything you have done for us
and we will always be eager to welcome you back home.
Thank you.
[ Applause ]
- Ladies and gentlemen, please welcome New York University President Emeritus, John Sexton.
[ Applause ]
- So we did the warm-ups earlier...
[ Laughter ]
The question was would I speak from behind the podium or here,
and I said if I'm gonna tell my first kiss story I've gotta be...
[ Laughter ]
...but I'm not here to tell my first kiss story.
I am here to show off the first suit you've
ever seen me wear.
[ Laughter ]
[ Applause ]
This is this is to prove to the students that I do have other garments other than my
TravelSmith expandable waist pants and my NYU T-shirt,
and it is because this is
such a special occasion.
And I can't give you a hug from here, but I wanted to be close enough for my remarks at least for
me to look you in the eye and tell you
this is a special day for two special
people who've done very special things
at a place that's not special, but is unique.
So my task is to pick up on our
president's theme, on Andy's theme, about
how Al is the first.
And say a few words in the spirit of the poet and the
myth 'In illo rempore', the beginning,
what it was like in the beginning.
And in the beginning, when this dream was
hatched, a truly great man and leader
Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed sitting next
to me in the majilis, proposed this idea.
And he said, "can it be done?"
And I said, "I don't know, but I know it's worth to try.
And I know if we don't try, it won't be
done."
And he said, "what worries you?"
And I said that either you or we will
compromise excellence.
That we will accept A-, or the ordinary, in a context where only the unique and never-been-done-before will do.
Well, that you will
say cut a corner here, cut back on this.
And he looked at me and he said,
"If you won't compromise excellence,
I won't compromise excellence."
And that really has been the story of the great partnership that undergirds NYU Abu Dhabi.
So then came the moment where we had
to have our leader, our first,
who was going to provide the foundation, who was going to take what was
a very incoherent idea, undefined.
And make it into reality.
And i thought who is the leader of American liberal arts education that I admire most.
I'd never met Al, but I knew of Al, I was one step removed from Al by a dozen different people.
All of them spoke of him as the leader that's been described.
So I made a cold call. Out of the blue.
He thought I was calling to get somebody admitted to Swarthmore.
[ Laughter ]
And it was remarkable, I think we spent
more than an hour on the phone.
And at the end of the call I said, look, I'm a
lawyer,
I'm gonna explain something to you.
There's something in the law called
a rule 12(b)(6) motion. A motion to dismiss
for failure to state a plausible claim.
All I want you to decide right now before I hang up is have I survived a rule 12(b)(6) motion.
And he said, you know, normally I wouldn't answer that question without consulting Peggy,
[ Applause ]
he said, but I'm going out on a limb and I said, well, you go out on a limb far enough
to schedule a dinner for two weeks from now?
And he said, "you've now stated a
proposition I can't unpropose". And from that and
several dinners, I began to learn more
about the possibilities of what
NYU Abu Dhabi could be. He took the idea
and already was running with it.
It turned out that this place was the sweet
spot. The sweet spot of what he and Peggy
had been building for their lives.
This is what made sense for them, such
sense that he would make the act of
faith and everybody here and everybody's
been associated with this that goes back
now these nearly 11 years. It was a
remarkable act of faith. My son says that
NYU Abu Dhabi is the only thing he's
ever encountered about which dad can
exaggerate.
[ Laughter ]
And it really is true.
[ Laughter ]
And it's also true,
it's also true that I did not and could not
have imagined this place. That it was
Al and the fire that he ignited, that
began to give this place reality, with
loads of, loads of mistakes along the way,
but as I said in the very first
graduation speech I gave,
"we sinned worthily here, we may sin, but we sin in a good cause."
And yes, Al's been a sinner, just as all
of us have been, except maybe Peggy.
I don't want to get on her bad side.
[ Laughter ]
I don't want to occupy more than the minutes I've been allotted,
but I will say this, Al. Throughout the years there
isn't a person in this room that
wouldn't say that you haven't added to
the dream that they brought to you. I
think that it was put well by Chris and Tami
when they said it was always about how can we do it, not why it can't be done.
And you were always willing to undertake even the most extraordinary of things.
I'm gonna mix two metaphors as I close.
Okay.
Both of them are connected to Andy
Hamilton. One very very indirectly,
because it involves Yale where before he
went to Oxford he was provost, and Rick
Levin who was a friend of both of us, at
some point after NYU Abu Dhabi had had a
year or two, asked me if the Yale
trustees could come down and spend a day
at NYU to find out what we were doing
all about NYU Abu Dhabi. What a great
compliment that was to what Al had done
at that point. And they came down for the
full day, and a couple of days before
Rick called me up and he said, "listen, I
noticed you're not speaking." He said, "I
want you to be the first speaker of the day,
and I want you to explain to my trustees the difference between NYU and Yale."
And I said, "you don't want me to do that."
[ Laughter ]
And he said, "no, no, I know you, I know what you're gonna do." He said, "do it."
I thought about how I would do it, and I said, you know, and I got up with him that morning
and I said, "I'm gonna start with a Zen
parable because Rick has asked me to
explain the difference between NYU and
Yale. And as the Zen parable says, the world
divides into two kinds of people. There
are those who are so talented and august
and gifted, that you give to them your
most valuable possessions and the wisdom
of the ages to maintain and keep in
good stead. And then there are those, the
parable says, to whom you give a block of
wood and the charge of creating
something that's never been seen before.
And I said to the Yale trustees, "and
that's the difference between Yale and
NYU."
[ Laughter ]
Now, it's not fair to Yale...
[ Laughter ]
...but it is a pretty good description of NYU and especially, of NYU Abu Dhabi.
Because this was a block of wood and we
got to make it whatever we wanted.
The Clean Slate, 'Sundays In The Park With
George', it really was something that
Al's indomitable spirit is represented in the zeitgeist, in the ethos of this place
in a way that's perfectly
compatible. I don't think that Al ever
met a single human being that he didn't
like. That's a remarkable, a remarkable...
...he's able to dig in, sometimes very very deep,
[ Laughter ]
to find the goodness in a person.
And, of course, that's what NYU Abu Dhabi is about:
it's making sure that we see the goodness in every creation that we encounter.
Here's where I mixed metaphors, because I must pay
homage to my precedent and go back to
his original point, which is Al will
always be the first. I used to describe
being a dean or a president as running a
relay race. That you take the baton from
those that have run before you and you
run as fast as you can and you try to
give it to the next person in as good a
position as possible.
I don't describe the task of a vice
chancellor, or a Dean, or a president that way anymore
because there's a way in which a relay race has an end.
So if you can think of a perpetual relay
race of progress, more like a helix, would that be...
...I'm a Jesuit, so I don't know
science...
[ Laughter ]
...but something that just continues to go up and up.
That's where Al has handed the baton now to the magnificent Marriott
in a wonderful position. What we all have to do, all of us,
the faculty, the administrators, the
staff, the security guards,
everybody associated with this; the students, the senior members of the mission, most of all.
What we have to do is we have to make sure that the way we use our NYU Abu Dhabi experience
in life, in the world is worthy of the men we celebrate today.
And is worthy of the partners that we have, and the ideas, and the mission
for which this was founded. None of us simply chosen assignments here - we chose a mission.
And you Al, and you Peggy to
find that mission for us and no one
could have done it as well. Thank you very very much.
[ Applause ]
- Ladies and gentlemen, please welcome, our second performers of the evening -
the NYU Abu Dhabi vocal ensemble with their director Clare Lesser and accompanist David Lesser.
They will perform Francis
Poulenc's 'Laudamus Te'
[ piano ]
[ Singing ]
[ Piano ]
[ Singing ]
[ Applause ]
- Please welcome, associate vice chancellor for global education and outreach NYU Abu Dhabi-Carol Brandt.
[ Applause ]
- Working with Al has been one of the
greatest joys and privileges of my
professional life. Many years ago I
listened to Al give a convocation
speech at Pitzer College in Claremont,
California. What he said has stayed with
me a long time and guided my thinking
about global education. He said, "one of
the best outcomes of a great liberal
arts and sciences education is the
development of an ever more unprejudiced
mind." Whenever we met after he returned
to Swarthmore and in pretty much every
conversation we've had over the years,
especially here at NYU Abu Dhabi, it's
always come back to that in one way or another.
How to see all in the fullness
of their humanity, and help others to do the same.
I'll share glimpse into a few of
those conversations and how they played out here
at NYU Abu Dhabi including, in
the very first year how to set up and
maintain the most inclusive and
equitable access to an NYU Abu Dhabi
education for students around the world
and financing for that education
regardless of citizenship for a first
class of 150 remarkable students and
every equally remarkable class since. How
we could create the most intellectually
rigorous and culturally immersive
programs of global and local learning
from Buenos Aires to New York, from
Eritrea to India, or right here in Al Ain,
in Emirati homes. How to develop the best
practice hiring and work conditions for
domestic workers employed by our faculty
and staff right here on campus.
How to develop and fund an adult
education program for hundreds of our
contracted colleagues to further their
education in English, technology, and finance.
And to create a sense of
belonging to this community that
radically crosses class
and other traditional barriers.
To opening our campus and hearts to the
athletes of determination in the world
games of the Special Olympics and
through that broadening the conversation
of inclusion across the UAE, with Peggy a
gifted teacher of English supporting the
development of a program of enrichment
and very first independent global
experiences for our emirati students in
the academic enrichment program
providing our students with environments
that significantly foster as Al so
beautifully puts it "Their ability to
seek to understand to value and to
extend care to others across the most
personally challenging differences
wherever they were living, studying,
researching interning making art or
making peace, and providing environments
that challenge each of us to be deeply
mindful of the ethical and social
consequences of our knowledge and action."
a former US president said "Far and away
the best prize that life has to offer is
the chance to work hard at work worth
doing." I'm so grateful Al that you gave
me this work. I want to thank Al for
bringing us all together to have an
abundance of all of that, his model of
his vision for his steadfast commitment
to excellence in education calls us to
continue a personal lifelong liberal
arts and sciences education. To cultivate
that evermore unprejudiced mind and to
courageously assume the daily
responsibility that that liberation
summons and to foster a more just and
cooperative world. Al and Peggy thank you
for that great inspiration and Al thanks
for being one of the greatest leaders in
global higher
education today.
[ Applause ]
-Ladies and gentlemen the Provost of NYU
Abu Dhabi-Fabio Piano
[ Applause ]
- How can you follow these amazing moments, how can we stop
time, that's what I'd like to know
actually let me start em... so I'll be talking
a little bit about as well as vision to
execution so this is what happens when
Al might try to convince his team to do
a small event for him at the end of his
Vice chancellorship, Al can you just
Peggy can you both turn around and see
what's going on in this room and look at
all the people that have come today
[ Applause ]
[ Standing ovation ]
Al I tell you that was not planned but I
just found out how to follow this
amazing speeches my three minutes are up
thank you very much.
[ Laughter ]
Em... Look obviously there's so much that we
can we can say how could you put in a
few minutes over a decade of work that
has built what you now are sitting in
and thinking about and realizing it's
incredible we heard obviously that NYU
Abu Dhabi was originally built on this
incredible opportunity, seized by
visionary leaders in both John Sexton
and his Highness Sheikh Mohammed, we've
also heard how significant it was for
the first step to be in this incredible
journey the appointment of our Bloom as
our first Vice Chancellor and bringing
along Peggy with it for that good on you
John and thank you very much for doing that
but what I want to say in this
short time is the effect that this
decision has had to make this era and as
a biologist perhaps we can call it the
Bloom era a wonderful wonderful success
for many of us who originally joined NYU Abu Dhabi
have brought the daily unfolding of
this incredible vision and for those of
us lucky enough to work closely with you
Al, that vision rather than any other
career opportunity has been the most
wonderful way for us to spend our time
but of course no dream or vision alone
can make things happen
execution is key given my role I might
be the one who knows the most about the
effect how effective of a leader you have
been in navigating a number of
significant challenges over the last
decade Peter mentioned this a little bit
but clearly there have been many but how
have you dealt with them well I know
that everyone around you knows this but
perhaps in this room is it's good to
highlight it, by dealing with everything
using your incredible generous and
empathic personality with your belief
that a sense of humor can cut through
any difficulty
ultimately, you've been able to ensure
that difficult moments are transformed
into opportunities for collaboration and
cooperation by definition vision and
newness is in tension with tradition and
you've navigated that tensions to the
benefit of the project on an almost
daily basis and all with one goal in
mind to develop NYU Abu Dhabi as a prime
example of how education can lead the
development of a global society that
draws strength from human diversity we
sometimes have joked that we will know
that we will have been successful when a
member of our community hopefully one of
our graduates of NYU Abu Dhabi will
author a document that will look a
little bit like a constitution but for a
new society a global society that
unfortunately sorely needs one in the
lecture opening NYU Abu Dhabi David
Levering Louis described the idea of NYU
Abu Dhabi in the context of a historical
arc of universities as we heard from
various Asian origins as well as Greek
and other European origins British
German versions of what universities
have developed over the years and
centuries he ended with the American
system that actually spawned NYU Abu
Dhabi well under your leadership NYU Abu
Dhabi you have helped NYU
become an example of that next step
embracing many of the traditional roles
of universities developing people
creating new knowledge but not for a
single national or ideological community
but for the service of all of diversity
of humanity and given that the UAE is
last two years of celebration what a
fitting way to conclude your time here
at NYU Abu Dhabi with the during the
year of Tolerance following the year of Zayed
it's been an incredible journey so for
this short remarks drawing to a close I
have to ask what really are we here
thanking out for, well we heard some
ideas but I didn't want to just focus on
the fact that he's given all of us and I
think we even heard from John and others
something that we can take forever in
the rest of our lives and it's a gift
I think NYU Abu Dhabi is a
gift and you've built it for us
you've built it for NYU you've built it
for Abu Dhabi you built it for the UAE
and beyond and the world but there's
another gift and it's a very personal
gift for all of us who are actually here
celebrating you today you have given us
a much bigger role for ourselves to do
something much more valuable than
ourselves with our lives and giving us a
sense of pride for what we can
accomplish when we get together for all
this, and so much more from all of us
here thank you very much al and Peggy
thank you
[ Applause ]
- We now present a special tribute to vice
chancellor al bloom featuring members of our community.
[ Piano ]
- So in my first candidate
weekend Al Bloom gave a speech about what
it means to have such a diverse and
inclusive global education in the 21st
century and what it what it means for
NYU indeed to be that model for the
region and I found myself thinking about
how much I really wanted to go to this
amazing an extraordinary place that Al
was describing.
- It was really a sense of, I'm joining something that's bigger than
me bigger than just one person and
trying to bridge gaps of understanding
between different cultures and nations I
think that's the sort of mission that
Al Bloom sold me on at NYU Abu Dhabi
and it's definitely one that
came true.
- Many people take the success of this place for granted as if if you
brought these amazing students to this
part of the world together
success would be the only outcome
that's not true in many ways it's Al's
leadership during these very sensitive
first ten years where things could have
gone in so many different directions Al
was the one there who was able to steady
the ship and guide us to where we are
[ Music playing ]
- Al really has a vision for what's
possible here and he gets people excited about that.
[ Music playing ]
- I was department chair at the
University of California at Berkeley at
that time there was really no good
reason for me to consider this except
that it sounded very intriguing and then
I met with Al and I left that meeting
and I was sold his belief in what he
wanted it to be is what attracted many of us here.
- He loves to talk about
complex issues in particular ethically
complex issues he loves to talk about
the vision of a educational system that
has to respond to the modern challenges
of a world Society.
- When Al came a big change occurred.
- He brought us
credibility instantly.
- He infused a sense of energy and a sense of ideas and
values and love for higher education.
- I think he enjoyed that challenge I think
he enjoyed the fact that there was
nothing like this anywhere in the world.
- He is a person of ideas and he likes to talk about how those ideas are going to
translate into realities what is the
potential that we have to do something
magnificent.
- His leadership style for me is always characterized by warmth and encouragement so he was here to nurture us
and to provide us with the feeling of
support and of comfort that we needed as
a community to take risks and to step
forward into what at times felt like the unknown.
- Whatever the circumstances, he
persisted in teaching us that we have to
focus on the students there are the best
of what we could ever do and if we don't forget that we are saved.
- His door is
always open to whoever wants to come.
- Meetings with Al are hilarious because you go in with sort of two agenda
items and then you come out with kind of
ten new ideas and ambitions to go ahead and
save and change the world you always
come out of the meeting feeling so just energized, yeah I love meetings with Al.
- Al was
fantastic in the core reform in the
sense that he pulled back and let
faculty have their conversations
he let students have their voices at the
table he didn't insert himself
forcefully into the debate but he let us
know that the debate meant something to him.
- The one place where I've spent the
most time with Al is the Peace Institute
which is a think tank that would focus
on conflict issues and if you think
about the culture of the NYU AD
campus and if you think about Al's
impress on that culture it has a lot to
do with his devotion to peace and
harmony and to people understanding one
another.
- He made everybody realize that this university is all encompassing, it
doesn't have borders it doesn't have
cultural constraints, we have a common
goal.
- Sorry sorry can I see that, that's part of my box, am so sorry.
- New York City, Abu Dhabi and most importantly the Platypus
- So people
may or may not know about Al's love for animals.
- From penguins to lions.
- Anything that moves, creeps, crawls, squeaks.
- Some selective animals served up on a plate.
- He's quite a carnivore and loves beef and steak and things like that.
- Al is great fun at dinner because he enjoys his food so much in fact
sometimes we lose him.
- What does Al like to eat the most he loves he loves he
loves beef burgers, yeah
- His favorite word is trajectory.
- Al is weirdly competitive about his kazoo soloing, he burst into sixteenth notes when
trying to render Jimi Hendrix's Purple
Haze on the kazoo
- During national day a lot of the students from my class in the above were able to rope him into the traditional dance and he was the
happiest vice-chancellor during
emirati dance during national day in
front of a lot a lot of people.
- He's a stamp connoisseur.
- Not all types of stamps collection only animals
collection all over the world.
- And he loves platypuses.
- We went to Dubai green
planet and we saw the sloth walking and
now last three weeks always talking
about sloth sloth sloth
- Al is an incredible traveler you could
go to Al for any kind of travel advice
to both Allen Peggy
they've traveled most places they could
talk to you about the culture the food
the people.
- Al there are only so many more countries in the world
that you haven't visited and its time now to tick off the rest of those boxes.
- Beyond the academic and intellectual I think Al
has sort of will have this amazing
lasting legacy in terms of creating the
sense of shared humanity and it's
telling that in our students faculty and staff
- NYU Abu Dhabi is our Boom as
much as it is you know John Sexton
Hillary Balan others visionaries who
made this place.
The number one thing Al and Peggy will miss about NYU AD is its students.
- If you walk across the central plaza and see students from around the world just casually chatting
on their way to class of the dining hall
I think that's what inspires Al.
Al's wife, Peggy is on a fantastic job
connecting to the local community and
enriching the education of students from
the UAE and I want to thank you Peggy
for the work that you've done in this
area.
- Peggy has unhesitatingly and tirelessly worked with our students
to help
them rise to be the best that they can be.
- I was born and raised in Abu Dhabi so
I've seen the city itself grow and when
NYU Abu Dhabi came I was very aware
and very proactive about a relationship
between NYU Abu Dhabi with the community
around us he understood that we are a
university but we are an University in a
community.
- I think the mark that Al has
left on NYU Abu Dhabi is like
incalculable and so much of it has to do
with just the sense of values the sense
of community the sense of a real
commitment to teaching and learning but
also to mutual understanding and to
creating a community that really
reflects the world.
- Al is a compassionate vision driven leader and the world needs a lot more of those.
- Al Bloom shekharan Jocelyn thank you very
much from the bottom of my heart for
everything that you have done for the
NYU AD community and as a result of the
lobby the UAE the region and the world
as a whole for for setting the
models for excellence and education
that you have done through NYU Abu Dhabi
we know that you are leaving us
physically but please know that I will
love you will always be your home.
- Al I am very grateful for your hard
work over the past decade in forming
this incredible institution that's
impacted my life and countless students.
- Working at NYU Abu Dhabi has probably been the
most valuable important and
meaningful event of my professional life
and it is to you I owe a debt of
gratitude for allowing me to have this
experience both the work at NYU Abu
Dhabi and to experience the joy and
benefit of your leadership.
- Al I am extremely thankful for your trust for
giving me the opportunity to be part of
I think the most exciting experiment in
global higher education and we are where
we are as an institution today because
of your tireless efforts on all of our behalf's.
- And you are truly going to be
missed
thank you so much and thank you for
always keeping a wonderful sense of
humor
even in the most challenging of times
- And I'll don't worry, I'll look after the
cat's I'll find somebody to look after
them they'll be well looked after.
- I just want to wish you Al and Peggy an
incredible future together as always and
to be able to take all the memories of
NYU Abu Dhabi with you and just
continue to share with the world what
you do on a daily basis to make the
world a better place.
- So I hope over the years I had
I got to know many many of you very well.
- Dear all on behalf of students
and alumni I just want to say thank you
thank you for your continuous investment
in NYU Abu Dhabi thank you for all
of your service and for making this
place what it really it is even more
than that we say thank you for creating
a unique example to the world of what
higher education in the 21st century
could be some people thought you would
create Swat Murray in the desert but I
would argue that you created something
much bigger much stronger and much more
impactful and why you love it
thank you for that
[ Applause ]
- Please welcome please welcome back to
the stage Provost Fabio piano with Vice
Chancellor al Blum Fabio
[ Cheering ]
[ Applause ]
- Fabio will now present a gift on behalf
of the NYU Abu Dhabi community.
- So it's really my honor to be the one telling
you that we have a surprise for you I'm
about to ruin the surprise by describing
it before we unveil it this stamp has
been designed by a local artist an
Arabic calligrapher with some shewhart
based upon a quote from you now together
we have made educational history.
[ Applause ]
- As you know for me
stamps often carry expressed the
quintessence of a culture and the best
parts of that culture and I see in there
an amazing complexity amazing vitality
and amazing accomplishment and so that
will remind me of always of how amazing
this community is and talking about
amazing what an amazing tribute tonight
never imagined it it's exactly what
you're talking about in something
happening that's way beyond went so I
envisioned it was so moving it was so
meaningful
it was so personal it was so beautiful
thank you everyone who participated in
it and made it such an immense antastic
evening for myself for Peggy and for all
of us and what an amazing community this
is in its vitality the mutual respect
people have for each other and the care
they have for each other and the world
and what an amazing University this
community has produced unparalleled in
excellence in undergraduate education
increasingly remarkable in graduate
education exceptional in the quality of
its research scholarship and artistic
work and at the same time shape to
prepare each of us to contribute to a
more responsible inclusive cooperative
and peaceful globe
I want to thank NYU Tom Kean the
government and people of Abu Dhabi and
the UAE but most of all you the members
of the NYU AD to community
for this truly historic achievement and
for your continued dedication to this
institution a dedication that will
safeguard the distinctiveness of the
model that it offers the world, for Peggy and me being part of this community
for the past decade has been the source
of unmatched joy and if I matched
significance thank you so much everyone of you.
[ Applause ]
