The Undergraduate Business Council kicked off its Staff and Faculty Appreciation Week with a Flowers for Your Professor event Monday.

Students had the opportunity to take a flower from a table in the atrium of the McCombs School of Business and give it to a teacher or someone they appreciate.

“The purpose of (this) is to appreciate the people that make McCombs as excellent as it is and cultivate relationships between students and (staff),” said Camila Bohorquez, management information systems and Iberian and Latin American Languages and Cultures sophomore.

Along with giving a flower, students will have opportunities throughout the week to write notes for faculty and staff they feel has impacted them, Bohorquez said. 

“Every day (this week) we have some sort of thing where students can interact with faculty,” Bohorquez said. “All of the events have to do with giving faculty and staff tangible examples of the way that they’re appreciated.”

Lauren Johnson, business honors, management information systems and Plan II junior, said she felt the Flowers for Your Professor event helped remind students that faculty and staff of McCombs are there for them.

“A lot of times when students interact with faculty, it can be negative,” Johnson said. “This is a reminder that so many of the interactions we have with faculty are (also) positive, and we should make more of an effort to remember that they are people who are here to help us.”

Accounting junior Abigail Arvisu said she got flowers for professors who encouraged her in the classroom and felt that showing professors appreciation helps them see the importance of supporting students.

“It’s important so that they keep (encouraging students) so other professors will follow,” Arvisu said. “Not all professors are encouraging in addition to pushing students to do their best.”

Unspecified business freshman Christina Lowe said she gave her flower to a professor who helped her decide she wanted to minor in marketing. Lowe said events such as these help encourage a healthy relationship between students and faculty.

“It’s a reminder that professors are teaching because they want to help students,” Lowe said. “They want to help uplift them and help them learn more and just by giving them a rose and having a personal communication with them is very important to show that students appreciate what they do.”