Hopp: efficiency and

energy in student services

Melissa iiopp is the third side of the
triangle of primary SGA policy
makers. With President David
Kramer and Vice President George
Tumbull, she is among the most
powerful people on the SGA cabinet,

Her job involves coordinating all
SGA student services and service pro-
jects; she is co-chairwoman (with
Social Coordinator Julie Rogers) of
the Campus Coordinating Committee;
she also is the designated campus om~
budsman.

Her duties keep her very busy; in
fact, one staff member described her
as a workaholic. Most everyone in the
cabinet and outside of it agrees that
she has been doing an exceptional job
in her position.

She feels that her office has been
working well this year: "rm very .
happy with the way my office is run-
ning; we‘re working well as a team,"
she says.

This team effort could be one of the
reasons for the successes some of this
year‘s services have had. The
refrigerator rental program that was
started last year has doubled the
amount of units rented to students this
semester, and Hopp hopes to do better
next semester. She adds that the ren-
tal company the college is dealing
with this year is much better than the
one used last year.

The blood drive this year was also

* more successful than last year. She
a

points out that “we ve gone from two
ﬁ full days last year to three this year. "
In the area [If new services her of-
; iice is currently finishing up the first
0 student services directory. She says
s, the directory includes “everything you
could possibly need to know in Grinr
nell." She hopes that the directory will
be available within the next two
weeks.

She is also planning to “ take a hard
look at the Student Handbook.” She
hopes to make the book more readable
and less confusing than it is now. This
is still a very tentative aim, though,
because the book is actually put out by
the Office of Student Affairs.

Some of the ideas Hopp has for pro»
jects were picked up at a coordinators
convention held recently in Chicago.
There she met and exchanged ideas
with students andvadministrators from
colleges across the country.

Another idea that came out of that
convention is a plan to do an evalua
tion of her performance and the per-
formance of her office. By doing this,
she hopes to come up with new
methods and areas of consideration.

Besides duties as services coor»
dinator, the coordinator position is
also charged by the SGA constitution
with being the student ombudsman.
This, Hopp feels, is one of her duties
that students know least about.

“when people want to complain,"
she says, “they often don’t know
where to go. But that's one of the
things rm supposed to be doing.”

She hopes to make the slate of ser-
vices provided by the coordinators of.
(ice more well-known to students
through better publicity methods,
methods that she learned at the
Chicago conference. When students
know where to complain, she reasons,
things will get done more efficiently

when the year is over, she hopes to
have left her mark on the student .
Coordinator's office, in the form of
new student services and improved
operating procedures

All~inrall, Hopp feels her office has
done a good job so far this year; very
few people on campus would disagree
with her. “But here's always room
for improvement," she says.“ Part of
the reason for doing the evaluation is
to find out what things we should
change so as to do an even better
'obl”

Smooth sail

This year‘s Student Government
Association (SGA) cabinet had the
makings of what could have been a
very noisy and unpleasant year,

President David Kramer was
elected on a joke platform and no one
was sure how he was going to act in
office. The person who lost to Kramer
in the presidential run-off, Melissa
Hopp, became student coordinator
(one of the three members of the SGA
power triangle),

The third member of that triangle
was George Robert Tumbull, who was
elected vice president. Tumbull, a stu»
dent with activist leanings, was
thought to take student government
very seriously—an attitude that seemr
ed in conflict with Kramer’s.

To top that off, the treasurer, Jeff
Cronin, had run for vice president,
and lost to Tumbull. The other cabinet
members, the social coordinator and
the administrative assistant, both
resigned before the administration
had gotten off the ground.

Tumbull maxim

Last year, the relationship between
then-SGA President Greg Youtz and
his vice president, Lynn Boughey, was
anything but ideal. Many felt that the
same situation would occur this year
between President David Kramer and
his vice president. George Turnbull.

This prediction, however, has no
basis in reality. Kramer has nothing
but praise for Turnbull's perfor-
mance: “George and l frequently

Competent staff mak -.

Julie Rogers, SGA’s social coor-
dinator, enjoys her work but wishes
:that there was more of it.

The social coordinator is charged
with overseeing the film and concerts
committees—so when the committees
are operating smoothly, the coor»
‘dinaoor can have very few duties,

This year, Rogers reports, the come
mittees are working well ”My job is
easy,’ she says, “because I have a

Scarlet 8. Slat

 

