President and VP go online

Huwiler posts on the forum under the nickname aubgprez. (Photo from aubg.bg)

AUBG President David Huwiler and Vice President for Finance and Administration Alexander Alexandrov have turned to the Independent Forum of AUBG this semester to address the student complaints and get feedback from students and alumni.

Huwiler wrote on the Independent Forum of AUBG (www.aubg.org) for a week in July 2008, but did not have new posts until February 9. He said he usually posts on the AUBG forum after Board of Trustees meetings, when he has more free time. "After I came from last February Board Meeting, I saw some interesting threads," he added.

Alexandrov said he was encouraged to go on the forum by Huwiler. "The President said [...] there are things that are boiling there for no reason," Alexandrov said. "I found last week that somebody in 2006 was going to get a protest march in my office, get physical with me [...] on forcing the deadline for payments. I didn't know. If I knew at the time, I would just say, ‘What is exactly the problem?'"

Huwiler said he started posting on the forum to clarify some misconceptions the students had at the time, and also to learn the problems "people just don't tell you about."

"The students grew up with a conspiracy theory and how dark we [the administration] are."

Many forum members are a very committed group, Alexandrov said. "There's people with 5,000 posts there, and we cannot tell that those people don't care about AUBG," he added. "My idea is to work with them and see whether we can fix some of the things that they are suggesting, so that [the forum] doesn't become or doesn't stay the complaint mechanism."

One of the issues the forum helped to solve was the new AUBG website, Huwiler said. "There was someone who actually took the design and redid it." Huwiler said some of those suggestions were used in the redesigning process.

The forum is a good way to learn of the complaints which students are afraid to voice, Huwiler said. "It seems odd there would be that fear," he added. Huwiler said nobody can get kicked out of AUBG because of complaining.

"I think the forum is a great place because these are students and alumni that really care," Alexandrov said. "Of course there is the occasional whining, and that's natural," he added.

Huwiler said the forum is "surprisingly good," despite some comments which are "off the wall." Huwiler added he had seen "no forum as organized as AUBG's."

Founder of the forum Darin Kaloyanov (known as Hex on the forum), class of 2006, said he completely approves of the AUBG Administration posting. "They have been very supportive and read through a huge number of old posts to see what students were unhappy with," he said. "So we had a long and fun discussion with them, which helped clear quite some misunderstandings."

Alexandrov said he spends on average 10 to 15 minutes a couple of times a day on the forum. "To the extent that there's benefit in me being there, I will be there," he added.

"Students should be aware that they can seek advice about their problems on the forum, and there will be all kinds of forumers to help them - be them students, faculty or administration," Kaloyanov said.

"The AUBG administration has always been a strange beast and, as I've always ranted, the reason is the bad communication with the students," Kaloyanov said. "This is the reason why I am really happy when I see some of the most important people at AUBG pop up on the forum and talk with the students about their problems."

"Although I am no longer an AUBG student, I think that the university is moving in the right direction, and much credit should be given to the current AUBG President," he added.