Ouachita Stories

Previously published in the 2021 Ouachitonian yearbook

With the unknowns that carried into the summer, junior political science and psychology major Allyson Oliver from Conway wondered if the internship she had in place would carry through. She had the privilege to intern in the public affairs office of Arkansas Attorney General Leslie Rutledge. Fortunately, Oliver’s experience was only delayed a month due to the pandemic and was virtual only a portion of the time.

“We helped stuff envelopes with newsletters, helped type up letters of congratulations for people who did important things and we helped encode voice mails,” Oliver said. “They deal with anything constituency related but also do outreach. All the events had to be virtual, so I helped put on an elders abuse prevention event and some veteran consumer protection events.”

Not only did the pandemic affect the gathering of people when it came to the work of the attorney general’s office, but it also affected their daily work. Oliver received many usual phone calls dealing with rent and landlord situations, but the number of phone calls increased tremendously when it came to the pandemic. The office averaged about 500 calls a week before COVID-19 then increased to an average of 2,000 calls a week.

“The [first] stimulus check was around that time, so people were confused about that,” Oliver said. “People couldn’t pay rent because they were laid off from the pandemic, so they were wondering what their rights were if they had to pay rent. A lot of what they do is consumer protection,” Oliver continued. “Because of COVID-19, more people were being taken advantage of, so price gouging was a huge thing. At the beginning of the pandemic, there were companies marking up toilet paper eight times what they could. They had to take legal action against these people who were price gouging.”

Oliver desired to go into law, but she still enjoyed her experience within the public affairs department. She was grateful for the connections she was able to make.

“I enjoyed learning more about what the attorney general does, because she really wears a lot of hats,” Oliver said. “Rutledge’s official title is the legal counsel for the state of Arkansas. She had a whole team of attorneys and lawyers who do a lot of legal stuff. I was shocked about how much the attorney general does that people don’t realize, and I learned that a lot of people need help.”

Photo by Abby Blankenship

• Tags:
• Ouachitonian-content