AUBG's New President ?




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  • 2014-03-05 17:22:13
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K.A. Those are the initials of the new possible AUBG President. The first shortlisted candidate was briefly presented at the last SG meeting on Wednesday Feb. 26 and then participated in a Q&A session with students present. His first words when coming to Blagoevgrad were: ''This looks like Hungary.'' Here, Mr. K.A. further explained that he and his spouse are used to living in flats, so the culture shock will be avoided easily. He pointed out that there are only a few adventurous US faculty willing to embrace fully a new environment. After a brief introduction by AUBG's Student Representative to the BoT, Mr. K.A. shared his vision of the future development of the university. He mentioned that he has experience both in the corporate world, with focus on entrepreneurship, and in academia. [caption id="attachment_19424" align="alignleft" width="287" caption="Image: bulgarian-universities.blogspot.com"][/caption] The main focus of AUBG and any other institution, in the candidate's opinion, should be on its integration to the local community. Here, he shared his experience as a consultant with successful results achieved in universities in India, Nicaragua, Botswana, and the US. K.A. and his wife, who is Hungarian by origin, have lived and worked in Eastern Europe—Serbia, Croatia, Moldova and Hungary. He emphasized the fact that they are aware of the specifics of the region and are up for challenges. After the Q&A session began, a number of questions were addressing the improvement of communication between administration and students. Here, Mr. K.A. pointed out that his personal style is always relying heavily on transparency. He believes that in AUBG's particular case the brand needs to be refreshed, and the message sent to students should be clearer. In his view, AUBG should give more details of success stories of its alumni on the official website, and more about their own personal experiences before and after graduation. [ The new AUBG website is expected to be launched late in the spring.] As the situation is right now, ''you should jump on enrollment, faculty, tying in the local community''. The entrepreneurial mindset to him is key in difficult situations, when people need to be united around an idea, and all different types of skills could be useful, so engagement of all sides would be beneficial. [caption id="attachment_19416" align="alignright" width="323" caption="Current AUBG President Michael Easton, source: aubg.bg"][/caption] ''The question I always like to ask students is: How are you going to become a contributing member of society?'', said Mr. K.A. To him, this is the true essence of a Liberal Arts education. When it comes to extracurricular activities, he believes they should be expanded as much as possible, and one of the most important components of education at AUBG should be internship opportunities. In the institution he is currently working at, Mr. K.A. is an adviser to student projects, varying from design to raising awareness about human trafficking. Another key point to him is retaining quality faculty. This leads to getting momentum and retaining a good reputation built, which directly proves the quality of the place. Regarding possible changes in the administration of AUBG, Mr. K.A. explicitly stated that he always tells his team members, ''Get on board or find something else to do.'' His key strategy is always working with ''nice people'', because as he explained ''People who are not nice are a cancer on the organization.'' With that the Q&A session came to an end. There are two more presidential candidates, who will present their visions regarding AUBG in the upcoming weeks.