During the week of February 24, Texas A&M was the site of the annual Conference on Student Government Associations (COSGA), an event designed to improve the quality and effectiveness of student government organizations. Several Plymouth State University students participated in the conference’s leadership development workshops, roundtables and keynote speakers.
“COSGA will provide student leaders from across the nation the opportunity to come together in an exchange of ideas to further develop leadership potential, strengthen student government and establish networking contacts,” says the COSGA mission statement. COSGA has become the largest student-run conference of its kind in the world.
PSU was represented by student body President Peter Laufenberg, student body Vice President Andrew McLean, Class of ’10 V.P. Kris Cere, Student Senate Parliamentarian Gene Martin, Finance Chair Danny Lieb, Communications Chair Trevor Chandler, and sophomore class representative Ezra Xavier Dalton.
“COSGA was an opportunity for student government leaders to gather and have a free exchange of ideas and to build upon their own experiences and to learn new ways of doing things,” said Dalton. “At this conference there were over 500 students present from about 100 different colleges throughout the country.”
What makes the COSGA events unique is that they are designed around a particular university and use that institution’s student government techniques to help teach other universities. The events ranged from the budgeting process of North Dakota State University, to how the University of West Florida maintains equal in its student government.
Laufenberg and Dalton presented on how the allocations process takes place at PSU and how schools could potentially learn from their experiences. McLean presented on how Transgender issues influence this campus and how student government organizations can handle those issues.
“At the conference, both presentations were highly attended and received a lot of recognition from the attendees of the conference. Plymouth shined in the small group sessions. At the roundtable discussions, the other schools looked to Plymouth as a model school for how an effective student government is run,” said Dalton.
When asked what elements of the conference would help benefit PSU, Dalton said, “The information what was brought back to Plymouth was priceless. We are planning on bringing a conference similar in content, but not in size, to PSU in order to cater to northern schools that could benefit from discussions about issues that are regional as well as national.”