Student Groups Urge Campaign Finance Reform

The press conference kicked off plans for a student referendum urging state legislators to pass "meaningful campaign finance reform."

The UNC Common Cause/ Democracy Matters Student Alliance for Campaign Finance Reform is composed of members from organizations including UNC Young Democrats, College Republicans, Student Environmental Action Coalition and Students United for a Responsible Global Environment.

Organizers said the cost of political campaigns has tripled in the last 10 years and that politicians have become more dependent on corporate money.

This leads state lawmakers to increase tuition while still giving millions of dollars in tax breaks to many contributing constituencies, said Dennis Markatos, a recent UNC graduate and organizer of the alliance.

Markatos said the group hopes to collect 3,000 signatures on a petition asking for a referendum on UNC's Feb 12 student elections ballot. The petition states that students do not feel their interests are represented in the state government because they are not part of the special-interest sector funding increasingly expensive political campaigns.

Markatos -- dressed as a "fat cat," wearing a padded business suit, a cat face mask and carrying a bag of fake money -- said legislators often cater to special-interest groups that make large contributions to political campaigns while largely ignoring the needs and concerns of students.

Markatos said he is concerned that students' voices were not taken into full consideration during the recent tuition battle. The N.C. General Assembly passed a retroactive tuition increase last August, and Chancellor James Moeser plans to present a campus-initiated tuition increase proposal to the UNC Board of Trustees on Jan. 24.

Markatos said increasing tuition affects whether prospective students believe they can afford to attend UNC, compromising the quality of students at the University.

"It makes lower-income students feel they can't attend UNC," he said. "Not because they aren't brilliant, but because they can't afford it."

Jim Doggett, a member of Young Democrats and the alliance, said he wants to educate students about the effect of special-interest groups on the University and get them involved in the process of communicating with legislators.

"I don't think many students realize to what extent the shape of our University is affected by big money," he said.

Junior Tara Purohit, student coordinator of the alliance, said one of the group's goals is to encourage dialogue on the ways students interact with the government.

Purohit said she believes such interaction is necessary because UNC is a public university and legislators have a direct effect on students' lives.

"We can't pretend they don't have an effect on us," Purohit said.

"(Tuition) just seems to go up, up, up with no end in sight."

The University Editor can be reached at udesk@unc.edu.