UHHSA to Host Open Forum for College of Business and Economics

UHHSA looks to connect with students during first forum at CoBE

Editor-in-Chief Peter Holden Chao
Photo Courtesy of Leah Wyzykowski

Senator of CoBE Caesar Mendoza (left) and UHHSA Executive Senator Michael Taylor (right)

UHHSA will be hosting an open forum at the College of Business and Economics on Wed. Oct. 17 in the CoBE multi-purpose room from 4:30-5:30 p.m. “The open forum is to help gauge where our students have issues and things that we can continue to do as they’ve enjoyed,” said Senator of CoBE Caesar Mendoza. “It’s really open for students to give us feedback and to really get to know what it is that they want.”

According to Mendoza the forum gives students an opportunity to speak directly to him, Interim Dean of CoBE Dr. Tam Vu, as well as Professor and Head of Student Relations Terrance Jalbert. The event has been promoted through a survey aimed at helping students prepare questions and is targeting students in CoBE. “We want to establish communication between UHHSA and the students,” UHHSA Executive Senator and Senator-at-Large Michael Taylor told Ke Kalahea. “We want to maintain contact and connection so that Caesar can introduce initiatives to UHHSA on behalf of CoBE.”

Mendoza stated that things he believes CoBE needs are resources, such as calculators, and improved communication with professors. “The events that I surveyed I didn’t know about because I wasn’t informed. There was just poor communication,” said Mendoza citing the shortcomings of emails and fliers. “I wasn’t made aware of entrepreneur workshops and networking events.” He continued to state that the most effective way to connect with students is for the professors to communicate with them directly.

Additional issues brought forward by students have been the lack of financial institutions, real estate companies, and marketing agencies represented at the Career Fair. “We represent the student body. We’re going to take what they have mentioned to us and try to strategize a way to solve that issue,” said Mendoza. “If there are resources that they need, can we fund for that? If there is a structural thing that needs to be changed, how do I approach that with faculty to make those changes for the betterment of the college and the students?”

“What we hope from all of these open forums is to improve UHHSA’s presence on campus. We want to see more student’s walk by UHHSA, come into our office, and let us know what they have issues with,” Taylor told Ke Kalahea. “At the end of the day we are serving students.”