By By Kayla Walker
University President Stuart Rabinowitz has opened his office doors for one-on-one interviews with the University’s community.
He hosted the first open office hours of the year on Sept. 21 from 11 a.m. to 12:30 p.m., with vice president M. Patricia Adamski, and will have another set in October.
This is the second year Rabinowitz hosted open office hours after receiving a positive response last year; appointed hours were full after two weeks.
Other institutions that have open office hours with their presidents are Harvard University, Princeton University, Johns Hopkins University and the University of South Dakota. University students are divided on the idea.
“It’s a good attempt to make the president more accessible to the student body,” sophomore Brian Watson, an anthropology major, said. “It won’t be of use to me,” freshman Chelsea Chrostowski, a drama major, said. “I’d feel more comfortable talking to the student government.”
“I think it’s a good idea,” said Alex Buono, a junior film and history major. “But I’m unsure of what I would ever approach him about.”Jenn Wood, a senior set design major, has visited to office hours before. “We just talked about a few things, I found out he’s a Mets fan,” Wood said. “I think it’s a great thing that students don’t take advantage of; it’s a great opportunity to get to know the administration better.”
“As part of SGA, we’ve worked with him a lot,” said Joanna Sieben, a junior. “I think that it is a wonderful opportunity for students to express their opinions and get to know him on a personal basis.”
“I think he’s doing this so that people can get to know him,” said Jovan Collins, a freshman. “It would make us feel that we are welcome and part of this community.”
Many students were unaware that the president even had open office hours in the past.
“It’s a step in the right direction,” said Gene Porcelli, a junior political science major. “But it’s a small step.”
Chronicle Q&A With President Rabinowitz
Chronicle: Why did you decide to have open office hours?
President Rabinowitz: Students wouldn’t come to see me otherwise. So I thought I’d provide a set time once in a while where it is advertised that if you wanted to come talk to the president, you could. That still doesn’t mean if a student can’t make it to the open office hours they can’t speak to me. Students can just call my office and schedule an appointment to speak to me directly and I would be happy to talk to them. Vice President Adamski: The open office hours do provide a mechanism where the students know the president is available. We know it’s not always possible for a student to call and then immediately walk in. This way, they know that if they choose to come in during this time, they’ll actually get a chance to speak to the president
Chronicle: What sets the University apart from other colleges and universities?
Rabinowitz: The University is unique in that it combines a very scholarly and productive and cutting-edge faculty, but a faculty that understands students and sees them as their number one priority. That is a relatively uncommon phenomenon. Also, undergraduate students have many different choices offered to them. We have some 130 programs and you can major in this and minor in that. You can really pick courses from all over the place. One of the other things I would say is we have a beautiful physical campus.
Vice President Adamski: It really does combine the best attributes of a large university with small classes and a more comfortable feeling than some of the larger schools out there.
Chronicle: Is it bad if you don’t decide on a major right away?
Rabinowitz: I am a strong believer in choice and figuring out what you want and not locking yourself too early into anything. The majority of the students I’ve seen, including myself, start out being interested in one thing, then wind up getting a job in a different area and going to graduate school in a third area and then changing there too. So I think its fine to pace yourself in choosing a major.
Chronicle: Are there things you’re doing to create a bigger sense of community on campus?
Rabinowitz: I’ve been determined for four years, since I’ve been president, to do so. We have some first year programs that are designed to enhance a sense of community among faculty and students, administration and students, but also students and students, in smaller groups from the get-go. . . We also opened a commuter office this year, to give commuter students a place to go and to get the message across that commuter students are as much as a part of a sense of community as a resident student. We’re trying to enliven the campus life, we’re trying to listen to what concerts students want to go to. We’re working with SGA, they have a concert committee and I told them “Go, get them.” A sense of community is really important to us.
Chronicle: Do you feel that the campus is safe?
Rabinowitz: Last year we hired the premier security consulting firm Kroll and they did a complete and thorough audit of all major universities around the country, and they were quite positive about what we were doing. They made some constructive suggestions and we have implemented them. We added blue lights and so on. I think safety is my number one concern. We have made improvements and have hired more security personnel over the years.
Chronicle: Students are wondering why tuition increased at Hofstra this year.
Rabinowitz: The Board of Trustees discusses tuition and they are very sensitive to raising tuition and understand the burden it puts on students. We always increase the scholarship budget by the same percentage that we raise the tuition by. Our tuition was so low compared to all the other private schools we didn’t have the money to fund the programs. Even though we raised tuition, it’s still a great deal. If you look around, we’re less expensive than Post, about the same as Adelphi, and in my opinion we offer more than those intuitions. The fact of the matter is, we wanted more full-time faculty, students wanted more full-time faculty, which costs more money. If you look at our five year plan, we’re not anticipating the kind of tuition increases we’ve had in the past couple of years again.