OKLAHOMA CITY — Former Attorney General Mike Turpen has been sworn in as a member of the Oklahoma State Regents for Higher Education.

Oklahoma Court of Criminal Appeals Judge Charles Chapel led the swearing-in ceremony during a meeting of regents on Friday. Turpen’s term as a regent will last nine years.

Turpen served as the state’s attorney general from 1983 to 1987.

He was appointed Muskogee County District Attorney by former Governor David Boren, taking office in January 1978. He was unopposed in his re-election to that position.

A graduate from the University of Tulsa with a Bachelor of Science in Education and a Juris Doctorate in Law, he received the Oklahoma Bar Association’s Outstanding Young Lawyer of 1975. He ran unsuccessfully for the Democratic nomination for governor in 1986.

He is a former chairman of the state Democratic Party.

Turpen is a partner in the Riggs, Abney, Neal Turpen, Orbison and Lewis law firm.

He replaced Cheryl Hunter on the regents’ board.

Muskogee’s Rev. Ben Noble said earlier that Turpen is “a man with a tough mind but a tender heart.”

The State System, which was created in 1941, is coordinated by the Oklahoma State Regents for Higher Education, and each institution is governed by a board of regents.

According to the Oklahoma State System of Higher Education Web site, the State Regents prescribe academic standards of higher education, determine functions and courses of study at state colleges and universities, grant degrees, recommend to the state Legislature budget allocations for each college and university, and recommend proposed fees within limits set by the Legislature.