Student Government Association recently created the new position of attorney general.
Patricia Ashford, political science/philosophy junior, is serving as the first attorney general in SGA. Ashford was appointed by SGA President Trae Trousdale at the beginning of the spring semester. Ashford had been recommended to sit on the SGA executive board for the past two years.
“My responsibility is making sure the SGA branches are operating in accordance with the constitution,” Ashford said. “I’ve wanted to be part of SGA for a while now, and this job is something I’m especially interested in since I’m a political science major.”
Ashford says she uses the constitution to advise members of SGA, including the student body president.
Trousdale said creating the new executive position was a result of many changes in SGA this past year.
“Something on the back-end of things students may not have seen is the entire executive cabinet has been working on re-doing all of our governing documents,” Trousdale said. “Since I was inaugurated last April, we have a new constitution, new bylaws, new election rules, and new standing rules for SGA in all three executive, legislative and judicial branches. With that, there’s a lot of change to monitor, so the executive board created the attorney general position to keep SGA in line with the updated version of the constitution.”
Trousdale said the attorney general position promotes internal balance and accountability within SGA.
“The attorney general is responsible for ensuring the SGA officers and branches are operating within their parameters outlined by the constitution,” Trousdale said. “They’re responsible for verifying the language of SGA constitutional bylaw changes to ensure there is no conflict between governing documents. They also work with General Council Casey Ross to ensure SGA documents are in line with university practices, as well as work specifically with the student body president in forming executive orders and proclamations.”
Trousdale said the position adds an extra voice to SGA that represents different students.
“I think among students, this position has the ability to act as a counterbalance to SGA,” Trousdale said. “It ensures SGA is operating equally and fairly in everything we do.”
Ashford also said adding another voice to the executive board advances communication.
“I think it’s a good precedent to set for SGA,” Ashford said. “Even just one more person on board helps Student Government run as smoothly as possible.”
Nick Atkins, music junior, said the new attorney general position promotes effective communication.
“It’ll be good to have more direct and more accurate communication between the student body, SGA and the employees,” Atkins said.
Atkins also said the position will serve as a good buffer.
“It’s good SGA is being held accountable,” Atkins said. “I know things have been a little rocky the past couple of years between the student body and SGA. I think this is SGA’s attempt of showing the students they’re being held accountable.”
Trousdale said the new position also promotes transparency.
“Something I personally value as SGA president and something we saw through the election process that students value is transparency,” Trousdale said. “We’ve tried to be transparent in budgeting practices this year and in our executive legislation practices by holding open meetings.”
Creating the attorney general position aids in professional development, said Trousdale.
“One of SGA’s main goals is preparing students to be servant leaders in whatever environment they’re in. SGA needs to be striving for this in everything we do,” Trousdale said.
Trousdale also said by ensuring changes made by SGA are in line with the university, the attorney general helps prevent conflict.
“Something I think we’ve seen in the past that’s ineffective is when you have a head to head combative relationship between what SGA wants to abide by and what the university is abiding by,” Trousdale said. “We need to be operating within the parameters of OCU. This position adds to the continuity in administration.”
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