More than 500 students actively engaged in extracurricular activities at American University of Sharjah (AUS) attended a series of forums held by the Office of Student Affairs during the month of October. The students represented various on campus student groups including the Student Council, leadership focus groups, interest-oriented and ethnics clubs, sports teams, peer mediation coordinators and community services volunteers.

The panel was headed by Dr. Moza Al Shehhi, Vice Chancellor for Student Affairs, with her team of directors and managers from different Office of Student Affairs departments. "It has become customary for us to start the academic year with a dialogue with students. This productive channel of communication between the Office of Student Affairs and the students guides us in understanding our students' evolving needs for activities and enables us to share our views regarding their concerns," said Dr. Al Shehhi, addressing the students. "We consider the forums as one of our assessment tools in evaluating our programs and services," she added.

Prior to the discussion, the students arranged a brief presentation to showcase their experiences with student activities and programs and how they have benefitted from them. 

Following the presentations, the students highlighted concerns regarding student life; including the new AUS website, sports facilities, health insurance for student-athletes, quality of sports equipment, event sponsorship, international trips, tournaments, volunteering opportunities, food court restaurants, air conditioning, Wi-Fi and computer labs in the residential halls, new student lockers, opening the library for 24 hours and the tuition fee increase among others. The students also discussed Global Day, their biggest event at AUS, and suggested ways on how they can help improve the designs of the pavilions.

The Office of Student Affairs organizes student forums at the beginning of each semester to discuss issues affecting student life and to further extracurricular activities in the university. The student forums were organized by the the Office of Student Affairs' Student Development and Organizations Department.