POLITICS

I am not sure how to describe the feeling that overwhelms me every time AUBG elections are coming up. Whether it is senator, SG president, Student Representative, MoreHonors or Miss AUBG elections (or defacto polls, for that matter), something in the idea of "I get to decide" gets me more than excited. So, like a responsible and involved student that I am, I participate and click on someone’s name every time, and keep my fingers crossed.

Effective from Fall 2010 semester, a new curriculum for the Journalism and Mass Communication (JMC) major has been introduced. The JMC faculty worked on it for the past two years, but most of the work has been done this semester.

The recession definitely lowered the chances of graduating seniors to get hired. We, the seniors, are also anxious about the upcoming graduation. But one way or another there is something we want to say before we put on our caps and gowns. While still here, we asked ourselves a question about the quality of education at AUBG, in particular of the Business Administration (BUS) major that we had chosen a few years ago.

Traycho Traykov, the Bulgarian Minister of Economy, Energy and Tourism, gave a lecture in the New Academic Building (NAB) Auditorium on April 22. The topic of the presentation was "How can the government stimulate the sustainable growth of the Bulgarian Economy?" The event was organized by AUBG Business club.

The Academic Policies committee will make the final recommendation to the president by the end of the semester regarding the removal of D- and D+ grades from the AUBG grading scale. The recommendation, if accepted by the president, will be effective as of the Fall semester, Dean of Faculty Steven Sullivan said.

Dr. Cyrus Reed, a candidate for the AUBG provost position met with students on April 9. Around 10 students attended the meeting which lasted for an hour and a half in the NAB Auditorium.

Dear Future SG President,

I am writing to you from the United States because I care about what type of SG executives we will have next year. In my letter, I will neither try to be a smart guy who tells you what you are supposed to do, nor will I criticize what our previous SGs have done. I will give an objective assessment of what could be the needs and challenges of our future SG.

As part of the student media, the main of goal of defacto is to promote transparency between the administration, faculty and students. But how can we expect transparency from the administration, when candidates to our own Student Government choose to stonewall the press when it comes to issues the electorate might find useful when electing their representatives?

 

Milen Veltchev, a former Bulgarian finance minister, gave a lecture on financial bubbles and the current condition of the Bulgarian economy to over 100 AUBGers on March 9, in the New Academic Building Auditorium.

 

After four Student Government (SG) senators left the SG at the end of last semester, SG managed to fill three of those seats withcandidates having the greatest number of votes in the Fall 2009 SG elections. Students will have to elect one senator to fill the remaining seat because the remaining candidates who ran in Fall 2009 refused to join the SG. Three students submitted their candidacy for the Senate.

 

There are not enough senators in the AUBG Student Government (SG). This is why on February 9th the students will be given another opportunity to vote for their desired candidate to become a new member of the SG. Out of 12 senators, three have left to participate in exchange programs and are now busy developing their leadership skills outside AUBG. One other senator left for personal reasons.

 

Student Representative to the Board of Trustees (BoT) Edlira Dashi presented her report on the January 29 BoT meeting in Washington, D.C. The report addresses the educational, residence, political and cultural life on campus. "The idea of this report is to tell about things that students are actually concerned about", Dashi said. However, some points in the report need clarification.

 

Over 250 faculty members and students attended the lecture "The main priorities of the Bulgarian government in the areas of economics and public finance," presented by Simeon Djankov, deputy prime minister and minister of finance of Bulgaria, who talked about Bulgaria's position in the European Union (EU), the country's fiscal discipline, the adoption of European funds and the condition of the educational system.

 

In a secret meeting of the Floorboard of Thrusters (FoT), a crucial decision as to the further development of AUBG has been reached. Aided by 45 thousand billion Zimbabwean dollars from the Zimbabwe government, and another $5 from the SG, the unanimous decision of the FoT was to start building an international airport that will serve the AUBG community.

Three years and some months ago I decided to go out exploring. I was a freshman. Trotting around, I could not help but notice a considerable number of banners hovering around Blagoevgrad. These banners were celebrating AUBG's soon to come 15th anniversary. Yet, the university would not have been celebrating much, had it not balanced its budget.