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- 2018-02-13 12:04:58
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On Feb. 7 the Andrey Delchev Auditorium hosted the Town Hall meeting led by current AUBG Interim President Steven Sullivan. The most deliberated topics were the meetings of the AUBG Board of Trustees (BoT) in Washington DC on Jan. 26 - 28 and that of the AUBG Alumni Association (AAA) with the trustees in May 2017. This lead to the Town Hall meeting turning into a refutation to most of the alumni's claims.
[caption id="attachment_38446" align="aligncenter" width="1024"] President Sullivan at the Town Hall Meeting, Steliyana Yordanova for AUBG Daily[/caption]
"I think this meeting was more productive than the previous one," said Karina Barambayeva, the student representative to the Board of Trustees of the meeting in Washington DC. "The trustees were more efficient and open for discussions. The AAA and the Board had disagreements during the previous meetings, mainly about how money is spent at the university. However, I think the relations between alumni and trustees are slowly getting better, at least from the outside. Unfortunately, the session where the president of the AAA was presenting his report was closed."The financial situation at the university was once again the center of discussion."There was never any financial crisis last year," confirmed Sullivan. "Last year we finished with a budget surplus of about $800 000." The president reassured that at the end of this calendar year there will be a surplus as well. Half of the university loan of about $6 million withdrawn last year was pre-paid during the Fall 2017 semester. "This year's total expenses would be the lowest of the last five years," said Sullivan. The president denied that any withdrawals have been made from the endowment for covering loans and expenses and said that the AUBG endowment balance has reached its highest point last month. The $3 million that was used to cover half of the loan, was in cash at the bank. The rest of it is expected to be paid off at the beginning of next calendar year.
"The endowment fund is going pretty well. As of last meeting, in October, it did better than Harvard. The actual numbers are in the report, everyone can see them," commented Barambayeva.[caption id="attachment_38448" align="aligncenter" width="1024"] The graph showing the admission standards rate, Steliyana Yordanova for AUBG Daily[/caption] Another claim the AAA regarded was the low admission standards which have allegedly experienced a downturn due to the cancellation of the SAT as a requirement of admittance. Sullivan displayed a graph showing that the standards have gone up for the last seven years. Moreover, AUBG class of 2021 has the highest admission standards since 2011, according to Sullivan.
"I think I agree with Sullivan," commented Georgi Leshkov, a senator in the Student Government. "Overall, the average intelligence of the students is good and it is what in university should be."President Sullivan acknowledged that enrollment is below desired levels, however, the institution has made a strategic plan for taking on a higher level. Their tactic mainly focuses on advertising the university and maintaining the quality. Some of the announcements included the no increase in tuition and fees, the approved psychology program proposal, and the hiring of a new Development Director. "The weakening of the US dollar will put limits on what we can afford to do next year," said Sullivan. Officially, the Psychology major and minor will be in the catalog for the 2018/2019 academic year. [caption id="attachment_38447" align="aligncenter" width="1024"] Steliyana Yordanova for AUBG Daily[/caption]
"The Board was not satisfied with the amount of work Rosen Plevnenliev, the special envoy, is doing, said Barambayeva. "They were trying to find a way to involve him more often and make more events in which the students and the alumni could participate. There is also this land that AUBG owns. It is somewhere in between Blagoevgrad and Sofia. So the trustees have owned the land for a long time and they are trying to see if it's a better option to sell it, because right now they are not doing anything there and are just wasting money on taxes. The trustees had some disagreements and there is still no final solution."This article was a joint effort of AUBG Daily’s Owls Kamy Stefanova and Leda Dragieva