The American Association of University Professors says it is “deeply troubled” that a New York University professor, Andrew Ross, was
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The American Association of University Professors says it is “deeply troubled” that a New York University professor, Andrew Ross, was denied entry to the United Arab Emirates on Sunday, according to a statement released on Thursday. Mr. Ross has been a vocal critic of the treatment of migrant laborers who built the university’s campus in Abu Dhabi, the emirates’ capital.
In its statement, the AAUP says the denial has “ominous implications” for academic freedom at the branch campus. “The AAUP urges the administration of NYU to make every effort to get the ban on Professor Ross lifted and, should such efforts fail, to work with its faculty to reconsider its role in the emirate,” the statement goes on to say.
In a column for The Chronicle on Wednesday, Mr. Ross agreed that academic freedom on the campus could suffer as a result of his experience this week. “Faculty and students may think twice about expressing their thoughts and opinions on a whole range of topics, but especially on the conditions of the migrants who represent up to 90 percent of the U.A.E. work force,” he wrote. “That would be sad.”
The university has said that while it supports “the free movement of people and ideas,” it has no power over who is admitted to the United Arab Emirates. “Regardless of where NYU or any other university operates, it is the government that controls visa and immigration policy, and not the university,” a university spokesman, John Beckman, wrote in an email earlier this week.
