Just over 90 students were gathered for the recent Oregon Student Government Conference, held for the first time at Linfield University on Feb. 25. But together, those 94 delegates represent the voice and interest of more than 91,000 college and university students around the state — from the largest public universities to the smallest liberal arts colleges.
Organized by ASLU President Emma Campbell ’24 and Vice President Faith Sposito ’24, the daylong conference was held in the W.M. Keck Science Center on the McMinnville campus.
It included a morning of workshops in leadership, communications and finances from senior-level professionals. After lunch, the students first gathered in position-specific breakouts. One was for presidents and vice presidents; one was for communications officials, etc. Then individual delegations reconvened to discuss major takeaways and next steps.
Campbell was inspired to host the conference after attending the prior two, held in the fall of 2021 and 2022 at the University of Portland.
“Their then-president and I were really close — she is also named Emma, so natural connection there — and for the second one I attended, I worked alongside her starting in the summer to prepare for the conference,” Campbell said. “I really love Linfield, I love showing it off and I love having people here, so when I was talking to their new president, I said, ‘Do you think maybe I could take this on and Linfield could host this year?’”
Under Campbell’s leadership, the conference grew vastly in scope, including attracting large public universities for the first time. While it was a lot of work coordinating with her counterparts at eight universities and lining up speakers, Campbell said the collaboration, inspiration and discussions from the day were excellent payoff.
“Leadership can be a lonely position, and it’s great to learn what other people are doing — student government has so many shapes and sizes,” she said. “There were a lot of, ‘Oh, we need to do this, it’s a great idea!’- moments. Being able to collaborate with each other, bounce ideas and see what we can bring back to our school is really cool.”
Guest speakers included Lee Weinstein, founder of Weinstein PR and former Nike director of global employee communications; Doris Towery, executive director of the McMinnville Downtown Association; Heather Miller ’07, director of community engagement and media relations at The Ground, plus two familiar faces. Linfield’s Mike Wenz, vice president for finance and administration and CFO, plus Joseph Hunter, vice president for university advancement, partnered for a discussion on higher education finances.
Divenson Willis ’24, ALSU’s vice president of student events, was one of the attendees. He said he was really struck by Weinstein’s emphasis on sustaining relationships during his presentation on communications.
“It definitely resonated with me. You never know the people who will be doing great things down the road, so you need to keep those doors open, keep those relationships going and be a great person,” he said. “The relationships you build are your future success.”
Learn more about ASLU and student leadership at Linfield.
