Adriana Sandoval

Adriana Sandoval ( October 2010-Present)

Hometown: Hood River, Oregon

Major: Exercise and Sport Science-PTAH

Year in School: Senior

Fermin Martinez

Fermin Martinez (Ferbruary 2013-Present)

Fermín Martínez was born in Portland, Oregon. He enjoys staying active whenever he can by jogging, playing tennis or badminton. Fermín has a pet rabbit who he cares about and has a great family. Fermín hopes to earn his bachelor’s degree in Marketing and travel the world, specifically in South America and Spain.

Fermín participates regularly in other activities such as The Native American Longhouse, The Centro Cultural César Chávez and he is also a member of the Delta Chi Fraternity.

Fiona Bai

Fiona Bai

Fiona Bai (February 2013 - Present)

Fiona is a junior studying Marketing with a minor in Biology and an intended option in International Business. Fiona is of three nationalities coming from a Chinese heritage, born in Canada and raised in Salem, Oregon. Her hobbies include traveling, snowboarding, piano, fashion, and social media. In the future, she would love to combine fashion and event planning as her career to promote culture, community, and help others create awesome memories. She is part of the Alpha Kappa Psi Business Fraternity and Fashion Organization. During the school year, she likes to go to various events, bake, and go on spontaneous road trips. 

Haley B Jones

Haley Jones (October 2010-Present)

Hometown: Cherry Valley, Arkansas

Major: Philosophy

Year: Senior

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THE ASOSU OFFICE OF ADVOCACY

Welcome to the official website for the ASOSU Office of Advocacy.

The Office of Advocacy provides advice and guidance to students who have a dispute within the university. In addition, the office serves as policy advisor and researcher to the ASOSU President and Vice-President. Furthermore, we seek to function as a problem solver for all 24,000+ students who are currently enrolled at OSU.

Please check back here frequently for updated information and further resources to help you, or others, overcome any obstacles that may hinder your academic success or fulfillment of collegiate goals.

About Us

The Office of Advocacy has helped and advised hundreds of students in a wide array of conflicts. Since 2000, the Office of Advocacy has served to empower and support students within the university. In addition to helping with conflicts, researching and providing general assistance to students, we work to support and further the best interest of students throughout the university. We encourage all students to contact our office with any questions or disputes that involve the university.

Confidentiality

The Office of Advocacy strictly adheres to the practice of maintaining client confidentiality. All staff members are trained and well-versed in upholding a high standard of privacy regarding all of the information pertaining to our clients and their matters.

PROMISE Internship 2012: Claudia Mata

Summer PROMISE Internship at the ASOSU Office of Advocacy

My experience at the ASOSU Office of Advocacy has been a good one, I can’t believe more than 2 months can pass by so quickly. What sparked my interest in this internship was that it focused on students and advocating for their student rights. I had been contemplating in going to Law School after graduating from OSU and thought this internship would be a great opportunity for me to get more insight on the field by exposing myself to a similar environment. No less did I believe Patricia Lacy would be a good resource and mentor for me based on her experience and education as a juris doctor. I was grateful that she considered me for this internship position and gave me the opportunity to be part of many learning experiences.

Throughout the internship I had the opportunity to sit in appointments and take notes with Patricia Lacy and her student clients where she served as a policy advisor to those students that had a dispute within the university. I found this part very interesting and enjoyed following up on cases that initiated at the beginning of my internship. This also allowed me to familiarize myself with the school policies and procedures taken to resolve a dispute. Since the beginning I knew that a big part of this internship was confidentiality, in order to have the clients trust us to help them with their dispute it was important that each procedure taken to handle the case be done with discretion, never doing something the client wouldn’t consent to. In addition to helping with conflicts, researching and providing general assistance to students, I worked on other projects. One of the projects included giving a presentation at the 4-H International Camp to Hispanic/Latino High School students on Obama’s Deferred Action Immigration Policy. This was a way to practice community outreach to those students closely affected by this policy by informing them on what the policy is and what it is not so there is no misunderstanding and they could also inform others accurately. I also learned and did research on the differences of how law enforcement handles situations of Minor in Possession (MIP) and Marijuana possession by getting in contact with people that knew about local ordinances. I also got in contact with Financial Aid to determine whether these citations would affect getting financial aid. Other projects included being part of a resource video on the Office of advocacy done by the Office of the Student Dean of Life, creating a ASOSU Constitutional and Statutory Timeline and being part of a service project at the Trilliums Children’s Home where the other interns of the office and I restored the landscape of the property.

I was delighted to have worked alongside Patricia Lacy and have been welcomed by the other interns in the office, Adriana Sandoval, Stephanie Castaño, and Haley Jones. I got the opportunity to collaborate with them on the creation of a new brochure for the office and a poster to promote the office to the new 2012 students in the resident halls.

I have learned so much throughout the internship being in the office and participating in the PROMISE events. I have worked on my communication skills by the flow of communication that the current interns already had where they stayed in constant communication with each other regarding different projects and the progress of each of their work. In the PROMISE events I have received information regarding graduate school, professional poster and portfolio creation, as well as ways on how to manage stress and exemplifying my strengths.  All this aspects of the internship are a great tool toward my future endeavors after finishing here at OSU.

I can’t thank enough all the support I have received from Patricia Lacy and the interns at the ASOSU Office of Advocacy. I will take with me many laughs, growing experiences, and friendships. One thing that this internship has allowed me to do is extend my network of people who have experience and knowledge on different aspects of the university from the ASOSU Executive Staff, Student Legal Services, University Ombuds, and other important affiliates that help support the Office of Advocacy in its goal to create equality between the student and the university.

Patricia Lacy, J.D.

Patricia Lacy, J.D.

Patricia Lacy was born and raised in the Blue Ridge Mountains of southwestern Virginia. She attended Mary Baldwin College in Staunton, Virginia, where she majored in philosophy and theology.  During the course of her studies at Mary Baldwin, Patricia was afforded the opportunity to study at St. Anne’s College, an integral part of Oxford University, located in Oxford, England.  After attaining her undergraduate degree, Patricia attended graduate school at Yale University, further pursuing studies in philosophy and theology. Upon completing her studies at Yale, she took a 20-year break from attending school to pursue business interests.

Patricia has worked, to a varying degree, across a broad spectrum of business ventures. After Yale, she served the likes of President Gerald Ford and the King of Norway while working in Anchorage, Alaska. After living in Alaska, she owned and managed properties for investment purposes in southwest Virginia. In addition to the real-estate industry, her business ventures have included selling antiquities, particularly those of the pre-Victorian era, as well as working as the Director of Education at a Presbyterian school in Wytheville, Virginia. In August 1994, she entered University of Oregon School of Law, to pursue her Juris Doctorate. She graduated in 1997, and has since completed a judicial clerkship with the Honorable Lyle Velure of the Lane County Circuit Court. She worked briefly in a law firm in Lebanon, prior to arriving at Oregon State University in October 2000. 

Currently, Patricia works for the students of Oregon State University at the ASOSU Office of Advocacy.  She represents the interests of students when they are engaged in a dispute or misunderstanding with the university or any of its administrative units.  Her clients’ issues cover the areas of academic advising, campus OSP & Public Safety, discrimination, faculty misconduct, financial aid, grade dispute, Greek life, harassment/ sexual abuse, parking, privacy, residency, student conduct, student health insurance, student accounts and University Housing & Dining Services. In addition to handling issues of conflicting interests, Patricia also works with students to enrich and strengthen their educational experience.  She meets with students interested in attending law school and speaks to student organizations in addition to presenting trainings on the issues of supervising peers and resolving conflict. Advising students and fellow ASOSU staff members as they work on projects and assignments is another critical aspect of Patricia’s job, which helps ensure the success of students who otherwise might not have known how to proceed.

Patricia is the mother of three grown children. Her daughter has graduated from college and taught English overseas in Japan. She is now married to an OSU professor. The older of her two sons recently graduated from the  University of Oregon, with a major in Environmental Studies. Her younger son is currently completing a study abroad year in Norway and will return in the fall to complete his degree at the University of Oregon, where he is majoring in philosophy and psychology. Patricia has been married to Norman Carlson for nine years.

Stephanie Castano

Raul Munoz

Raul Munoz (October 2011-Present)

Raul was born in Jalisco, Mexico and raised in Hood River, Oregon. He is currently a Sophomore UESP student at Oregon State University, and plans to major somewhere in the engineering field. He aims to one day utilize what he leaned at OSU to aide in finding solutions to the never-ending problems we face in our everyday lives alongside bright individuals around the world. Raul is currently involved in the Phi Kappa Psi fraternally chapter and really enjoys drawing, watching films, and rooting on Portland Trail Blazers.