When Angela Groh first started as president of the Government of the Student Body, she said she thought she’d have to work about 20 to 30 hours per week.

After settling into the position, she said that has hardly been the case.

“I love it, which is fine and I’m not complaining,” said Groh, senior in political science. “Anyone who says GSB is a resume padder doesn’t know what they’re talking about.” Groh said she typically spends at least 50 hours per week involved in her presidential duties, which include meeting with students, administrators and other GSB members.

As her tenure as GSB president draws to a close, Groh said she believes her administration accomplished plenty since her inauguration last April.

“We tried to touch on tangibles in each area we wanted to focus on,” she said. “It’s really hard for students to see the impact of the leadership and the work you are doing.”

According to the Groh/Deal Executive Branch Status Report, issued last week, her administration launched the Pick-A-Prof professor rating Web site at Iowa State, redesigned the GSB Web site, launched a GSB newsletter sent to students, developed a strategic plan for GSB, established a Graduate Student Mentoring Program and worked with state legislators to communicate student concerns.

“Rather than saying we were going to save the world, we said we would be realistic and say there are some important things we can do for students,” Groh said.

Although Groh is proud of her administration’s accomplishments during the past year, she said more could have be done.

“There’s always more you can do and more projects you can take on,” she said. “We were starting fresh and had to sit down and ask what we can realistically accomplish in a year.”

Emily Jensen, GSB presidential candidate and junior in political science, said that she feels Groh has been very successful accomplishing her goals.

“Of course there is always room for improvement, but as far as her individual goals, she has really tried to live up to those goals,” said Jensen, Groh’s chief of staff.

GSB Presidential candidate Henry Alliger, who also ran in 2005 against Groh, said that Groh’s Cabinet has made some achievements during its tenure, but it could have accomplished more.

“Maybe I haven’t been looking hard enough, but a lot of stuff hasn’t come out of their Cabinet,” he said.

“I don’t think [the report] gives enough credit in some areas and enough criticism in others.”

With at least 15 GSB Senate seats to be filled by write-in votes because of a lack of candidates, Groh said she doesn’t entirely know how to generate further interest in student government.

“It’s personally frustrating and it’s one of those things where I feel my hands are tied,” she said. “I can publicize GSB all year long, but it comes down to individual senators working with their constituencies and students actually wanting to be a part of the Government of the Student Body.”

Alliger, senior in animal science, said he doesn’t exactly know why there has been lackluster interest in GSB this year.

“I’m not saying I have the answer to [lack of participation], but we . sure have to be asking about it,” he said.

Although Groh said there could be a lack of interest in the GSB Senate, there was widespread interest in applicants for her Cabinet last spring.

“Last year, for Cabinet positions when we sent out applications, we had almost three times as many applicants for those positions than we wanted,” she said. “I think it may have something to do with the position of senator itself where you have to attend meetings every week and you don’t have as much flexibility as Cabinet. I think there is interest. There just is a challenge to find it.”

Alliger said communication with students needs to be better addressed by the next executive.

“There are huge communication problems,” he said. “You don’t need to create communication if you’re already doing things to facilitate it.”

Jensen agreed that communication was a concern.

“[Communication] is GSB’s biggest problem as a whole,” she said. “That and visibility of GSB projects to the student body.”

Groh said creating a smooth transition to the next administration has been a problem for GSB executives in the past, but she hopes it will change this year.

“Our organization has done a horrible job of transition in the past,” she said.

“People start a lot of things, but actually finishing projects and relaying that to the student body – I think that is pretty important.”

Alliger, who has also served as speaker of the GSB Senate, said he agreed that transition for GSB has been a problem in the past.

“Transition is where GSB sees most of its problems,” he said. “You have to teach people how to do their jobs.”

As the Statehouse considers funding state universities for the 2006-07 school year, Groh said making student concerns known to legislators is often difficult.

“It can be frustrating, yeah,” she said. “I’m nervous about how things will end up at the Statehouse this year.”

Groh said legislators don’t always understand issues facing students on campus.

“Sometimes you are dealing with conflicting information and it can be hard to make your case,” she said. “Legislators are picking up their information from all sorts of places – from their constituents, from their hometown newspapers, from students at Iowa State, from the administration – and sometimes they aren’t getting the most accurate information.”

After a year on the job, Groh said she is ready to hand the keys over to the next executive, whether it is Alliger or Jensen. She said she hopes students feel more welcome in the Ames community as a result of her work on GSB.

“It is my hope that when students arrive on campus, they are coming to the Ames community rather than just Iowa State,” Groh said.