Zamalek Dorms to be ‘Repurposed’

Executive Vice-President for Administration and Finance Brian MacDougall said at a University Senate meeting last week that the Zamalek dorms will be repurposed instead of sold.

MacDougall had previously told The Caravan that, “one might make the decision to sell the building, and use the proceeds from the [property] to pay down the debt of building this campus.”

However, following last week’s Senate meeting, he said that this was no longer the case.

“The Board of Trustees have acknowledged the long-term value of the property and we are now looking [at] how best to use the property,” he said. Last March, President Lisa Anderson said that the Zamalek dorms would “suspend operations” by July 2015.

The Zamalek residence is an 11-story building that has housed students and faculty members since it was built in 1991. MacDougall last week added that the administration was thinking about using the property as an apartment building and not as a student dormitory.

Associate Director of Residential Life Maissa Ragab told The Caravan that she believes it is unmanageable to turn the Zamalek dormitory into apartments.

“The design of the building consists of common bathrooms and several services for dorm residents; therefore, I don’t think international students would be happy to stay there if there are no dormitory facilities,” she explained.

But it isn’t necessarily a better deal in the New Cairo campus dorms. Becca Giovannazzi, an international student from the US, says that she and her colleagues face many challenges living at the New Cairo campus dorms.

“The dorms here are far away from everything and are more expensive than they were before, so that’s why many international students choose not to come to AUC anymore,” she said.

But MacDougall revealed that there were more international students living on the New Cairo campus than in Zamalek last year. The preference was then rather to be living in the dorms on campus.

In the meantime, “the administration will be developing a feasibility [study] over the next several months to decide on the size of investment necessary to change the use of the building,” MacDougall said.

He added that the university was currently focusing on bringing the Zamalek property up to current building codes, and estimating the revenues that it could generate.

“The final decision [of the Zamalek dorms’ new purpose] should be made in 2016,” MacDougall said.