Don’t be surprised if you see Susan Hopp wandering around the Oak Grove with a “furry little thing” (her
words) on a leash. Hopp said she walks her dog Charlie, a Lhasa Apso, around campus several times a
day. And the Oak Grove is one of her favorite spots on campus.
“It’s just really nice to be able to stand in the grove and look at the original buildings,” she said. “They’re
so full of history.”
Hopp, a Florida native, went to undergraduate school for English and humanities at Stetson College in
Florida, where she was a member of the Zeta Tau Alpha Sorority. She received a master’s in student affairs
at Indiana University Bloomington and a doctorate in public policy and administration at Portland State
University.
Although she doesn’t have a long commute from her rental home in McMinnville to the campus, Hopp
said she has her radio dialed to NPR.
When she’s not settling into her new job as dean of students, she likes to garden, cook and travel, she
said.
Hopp’s many years in student affairs provided her with experience connecting to students, but the mother
of three can relate to parents as well. Her oldest daughter is an urban planner back in Florida, and her
middle daughter is studying graphic design in New York.
As for the youngest? She’s finishing up high school in Lewisburg, Pa., where Hopp worked at Bucknell
University.
“I’m doing the empty nest a year earlier than I had planned it,” Hopp said.
She said she’s encouraging her daughter (and her daughter’s friends) to attend Linfield after graduation.

~Complied by Kelley Hungerford