About 100 students from Binghamton University’s School of Management attended a question-and-answer session followed by a meet-and-greet with President Harvey Stenger Friday evening.

The series of questions came directly from SOM students, who discussed long-term plans for the University as well as more personal inquiries.

“It is a good chance for students as a body to get to know President Stenger better,” said Janine Bautista, president of Binghamton’s Omega Zeta chapter of Alpha Kappa Psi and a senior majoring in accounting.

Alpha Kappa Psi, a professional business fraternity, hosted the event to provide students with an opportunity for them to learn more about the University’s new president.

Stenger said talking to students has been his best experience at BU thus far.

“I have been completely impressed with their professionalism,” Stenger said. “It’s about these kinds of conversations that I have learned a lot about the campus and I am looking forward to many more of them.”

Stenger also commented on what makes Binghamton unique to other SUNY schools.

“We are much better than them,” Stenger said. “I say this with deep respect to my SUNY brothers and sisters … We really are a national university, our students come from around the world, our faculty are some of the best in the country.”

As for long-term plans for the campus, Stenger said he has yet to showcase his concrete goals and is focused on becoming acquainted with the University.

“I have to be careful what I say my long-term plans are because I still really have to work through a process at BU,” Stenger said. “But I believe at the end of that process it will get better. I am more a continuous improvement type of person, I want to benchmark against our peers, set goals.”

Stenger said he plans to increase the size of the University, which will, in turn, increase BU’s recognition on a larger scale.

“It is very hard to find a public university of our quality, of our ranking, that is as small as BU,” Stenger said. “But a lot of people don’t know who we are because we are small … so growing makes sense.”

Over the next six months, Stenger said he wants to identify exactly which areas of the University are in need in order to provide sufficient resources and make growth possible.

Stenger also stressed the importance of BU giving back to the greater Binghamton area, a role he believes is imperative for the public university. Because of this role, Stenger said he does not see Binghamton changing from public to private education anywhere in the future.

“I don’t want to be a private university, I really don’t,” Stenger said. “I want to have an obligation to the community, to the state of New York. I really feel that education is part of the public good.”

Stenger answered a question about the possibility of different tuitions applied to the University’s individual schools.

“It’s politically unpopular because we don’t want to force students into making their career decisions based on what would be a large amount of money to them, for a trivial amount of money for us,” he said.

While there will not be differential tuition at BU in the future, Stenger said fees for certain programs based on student’s majors is an inevitability.

Stenger was also asked about merit-based scholarships. While the school’s SUNY price tag is affordable for most who attend BU, he said there still is a need gap to be met.

“You will never be able to not pay back that $5,000 with the increased potential you have being here,” Stenger said. “I would want to use all of our money until we meet that need gap … We are affordable for students who have the ability to pay, but we are not affordable for students who do not have the ability to pay.”

Stenger noted that Binghamton has never budgeted a large amount of money for merit-based scholarships. However, he wants to get the attention of alumni through showcasing the school’s success in the hopes that their monetary support will aid in better meeting student need.

“I thought it [the Q-and-A] was very cool,” said Rodney Rebello, a junior majoring in management with a concentration in financial engineering. “I feel like it is really hard to get an opportunity to talk to the president like this.”