Heciel Nieves Bonilla, News Editor
As peace talks between the United States and Iran continue on an unpredictable path, a student from VCU’s Qatar campus spoke to The CT regarding his experiences of living through threats of bombing and a peace in the balance.
VCUarts Qatar shut its doors to the public on Feb. 28 in response to hostilities in the area when the U.S. and Israel began a bombing campaign on Iran, according to previous reports by The CT.
The conflict went on to impact the entire region through retaliatory strikes and the closure of the Strait of Hormuz. Qatar lies beyond the strait in the Persian Gulf and has been the target of Iranian strikes on industrial, military and natural gas infrastructure.
Second-year VCUarts Qatar graphic design student Anirudh Anil Kumar said the university had students limit entry to the campus as much as possible for several weeks afterward.
“They told us not to come to campus, like ‘come only if necessary to take important items, and just don’t come in as a group, so you don’t get crowded in here.’” Kumar said. “So we had a system to come one by one or something like that, and have a schedule.”
According to Kumar, students living in the dorms were made to evacuate to a hotel toward the beginning of hostilities, and given the choice to return to other countries if they were not from the area. Kumar himself is from Qatar, and has stayed with family.
Since that time, Kumar has taken several classes remotely, and has had to adapt his hands-on coursework. One project involved creating wayfinding signs for the campus with acrylic and other materials, but during the pause the project became to create these signs digitally instead.
“At the beginning, people were a bit negative about [the war],” Kumar said. “They were like, ‘Oh no, the situation is very dire. What could happen? What would be the state of Qatar? Are we running low on resources?’ But over time as the attacks go lesser we don’t hear much, and we hear that it’s safer now and everything is going back to an offline state — people are slowly getting out of their comfort zones. But even then we still have that little spark of fear.”
The recent closure is not the first this academic year. An Israeli airstrike in Doha, about 12 kilometers from the campus, resulted in a shelter advisory and cancelled classes in September, according to a previous report by The CT.
“That was very intense because people were not sure what was going on,” Kumar said. “We got warnings and safety alerts, but we weren’t sure what was the situation. So after everything calmed down, we got to learn that civilians were at the safest space because they were not aiming for us.”
Classes were moved fully online for the third time on March 30, according to a previous report by The CT. Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps made a post on X stating all American universities in the region were “legitimate targets,” warning students, faculty and staff to stay away for their own safety.”
Kumar described current opinion on the matter as mixed but improving, with some people much more positive about the end of hostilities and a return to “the same old Qatar.” He said people are less focused on blame and more focused on looking out for each other, and gave an example of students sheltering a delivery driver until a strike situation calmed down.
Kumar’s sense of camaraderie extends to the VCUarts campus, which he described as familial, tightly-bonded and warm. The campus is much smaller than Richmond’s, as he saw when he visited on a trip with VCUarts Qatar’s Student Government Association.
“When I think of a university life, I think of a life like how [in] Richmond, the campus is humongous and there’s so many people that everyone’s here, and I feel like every day you see a new face,” Kumar said. “You don’t see a familiar face as much like that commonly, but it’s pretty much very different here because our campus is very small. I would say it’s just as big as the Commons.”
Many students at VCUarts Qatar are Muslim and honor Eid, a holiday to mark the end of Ramadan. This year, the holiday was punctuated by ongoing hostilities. Kumar is not Muslim himself, but was happy to join the celebration for something he said many friends and fellow students cherish.
“The celebrations, they still go on,” Kumar said. “It feels a bit restricted sometimes because people are waiting for an alert or something, but it still went on safe, you know. So thank God everything was fine.”
Limited, optional campus access and virtual learning at the Qatar campus will continue through April 30 according to VCU spokesperson Mike Porter.
“Commencement is intended to be held in person on May 4 in Doha,” Porter stated. “In the weeks that follow, VCUarts Qatar anticipates a gradual return to more regular on-site activity and the resumption of in-person summer and community classes.”
The current U.S.-Iran ceasefire began on April 8. President Donald Trump cancelled a planned visit by Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner to Pakistan last week, where they were expected to discuss issues including the continued blockade of the Strait of Hormuz, according to Al Jazeera.