Panhandle State Sends Delegation to OSGA Spring Congress

Goodwell, Okla. — Oklahoma Panhandle State University sent eight students to the Oklahoma Student Government Association (OSGA) Spring Congress hosted by Langston University February 23 and 24.

Students attending the congress were Jasmine Brown-Jutras, Madison Linton, Autumn Wigley, Mariah Morigeau, Sean Skipton, Jorge Rosas, Jack Hudgins, and Thomas Casper.

The students had a chance to hear about important characteristics of a leader from Oklahoma State Regent Andrew W. Lester as he delivered the keynote address during Friday night dinner.

On Saturday morning, students split up into committee meetings. Students received hands on experience of writing legislation in the form of bills and resolutions through these committees such as academic affairs, congressional affairs, external affairs and university affairs.

Any legislation that made it out of committee meetings was then heard during General Session on Saturday afternoon. The legislation topics included many hot topics among college campuses such as gun control, mental health, safe spaces, Title IX rollbacks, DACA, and the state-wide budget crisis.

Madison served as the Assistant Floor Leader and Parliamentarian for congress and when reflecting on the weekend stated, “I was honored to represent OPSU at the OSGA Conference. I learned so much about what the students in Oklahoma want to see happen to our education system. We really need to be making a difference on our campuses. I look forward to working with the other delegates in making some changes on campus.”

Jasmine completed her term as Vice President of OSGA and chaired the entire Spring Congress. When speaking with Jasmine, she has an obvious passion for chairing congress and teaching others about the proper way to address the body, bring up questions, and make motions.

She said, “It was an amazing experience to be able to serve as a State Officer! And an even better opportunity to be able to chair a 140 person Congress!” 

The networking opportunity provided by this weekend event is a huge advantage to the students; 21 universities from across the state were represented through 137 students and 14 advisors. This was one of the largest Spring Congress sessions OSGA has seen.