Oklahoma City University was chosen to host the Oklahoma Student Government Association fall congress.
According to Levi Harrel, dean of students, student governments from across the state will come together at the OSGA fall congress Nov. 9-10 to discuss important matters and develop future policies and resolutions for their respective campuses.
SGA President Trae Trousdale said anywhere between 25 to 30 delegations will attend.
“They will all be coming onto our campus and passing legislation for state-wide implementation,” Trousdale said. “If we’re talking about firearms and their place on a college campus, that’s decided at fall congress. The same goes for gender neutral restrooms, sex education and all the hot button issues. These are all decided from the student perspective for the entire state.”
Harrel said SGA has been interested in hosting the fall congress since last spring.
“Oklahoma City University is such a central location in the state,” Harrel said. “It gives an opportunity for folks from across the state to meet up while providing them a reasonable and cost-effective travel schedule.”
Harrel said he is excited for the idea to come into fruition.
“Hosting events like this one gets our SGA’s name out there,” Harrel said. “It gives us great representation in our state’s higher education community and provides a terrific setting and environment for student leadership to take place.”
SGA Vice President Abigail Banks said she believes hosting the fall congress will benefit not just SGA, but the university as a whole.
“We’re so ready to have students from across the state come on our campus and get to experience OCU’s values and culture,” Banks said. “Overall, I know SGA is really excited to host the congress and network with other schools and student governments.”
Banks said the event will be a great learning opportunity for SGA.
“We have the chance to learn from other SGA chapters and, in turn, become a better student government and serve our student body to the best of our abilities,” she said.
Banks said SGA is thrilled and grateful for the opportunity.
“We’re so excited to get the ball rolling and start planning and organizing,” Banks said. “It is truly such a great event, and we couldn’t be happier to have been chosen to host it.”
Trousdale said the university is one of the only private institutions to have been chosen to host the fall congress.
“The fact that we’re one of the only private universities to ever be chosen is really important in the grand scheme of things,” Trousdale said. “There’s definitely a disconnect between student governments and student bodies as a whole between public and private systems. Private systems are generally viewed as high sidity or that we’re the kind of people who have our noses in the air, and that’s an assumption we strategically want to defeat.”
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