This week’s
guests are very well-known to those of us who are members of Bilkent Clubs: they are the
Student Council secretaries or in other words, saviors, Neslihan Doğan and İsmet Ataman.
Without these two valued Bilkent employees, Student Council couldn't function. For about
six years, they have witnessed the growth in both the size and number of clubs at Bilkent.
The university now has 90 clubs that relate to areas ranging from health care to cinema,
giving students many alternatives. But for those who still can't find an organization that
suits their interests, Student Council is always ready to support students' ideas for new
clubs.
Neslihan Doğan started to work at Bilkent in 1998. Her job includes working with the club
presidents and other club members, as well as answering the telephone. Besides the
telephone calls relating to Student Council activities, she also gets calls about all
kinds of unrelated matters. For instance, she gets calls about students' attendance, even
though her office is not responsible for this area.
The Student Council secretaries also hear some unusual requests relating to clubs. A few
years ago a student came up with the idea of having a Pigeon Club at Bilkent for those who
might like to feed and protect pigeons. However, Student Council found this request a
little strange and rejected it.
Like Neslihan Doğan, İsmet Ataman has worked in this office for long enough that he is
always ready for any kind of unusual call or request. We know him well as a secretary in
the Student Council office, but most of you probably don't know that his first job at
Bilkent, beginning in 1996, was at the Sports Center. In 1999 he transferred to the
Student Council office, where his work includes transmitting club activity requests to the
university administration. One of the telephone calls that he remembers came from a woman
who called from outside to ask for the TDP coordinator. He told her that yes, he
could give her Kaddafi's number. The caller, apparently thinking he meant Libya’s leader
Muammer Kaddafi and was playing a joke on her, got angry and complained to another office.
But when she learned that there really was someone at Bilkent named Kaddafi, she
apologized for the misunderstanding.
But putting all of the difficulties aside, Neslihan Doğan and İsmet Ataman say (just
like all of our other "Faces on Campus" have) that it's nice to work in a place
where anything can happen at any time, because they are around young and dynamic people.
We certainly hope to see our secretaries in the Bilkent Student Council office for a long,
long time!
Gülay
Acar (COMD/II)
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