Student Congress to divide South Campus into two districts

Student Congress passed a bill Tuesday that will divide South Campus into two congressional districts.

Effective April 1 of next year, the redistricting bill proposed by representative Paige Comparato will divide South Campus into South Campus-East and South Campus-West.

“To have representation at the local level is a very good thing,” said Speaker Zach De La Rosa, who cosponsored the bill.

Some representatives expressed concern that the bill was making too strong of an effort to create seats for freshman students.

“To a certain extent, we shouldn’t set up a system that caters to one class or another,” De La Rosa said.

“But it is not necessarily mandating that there will be free vacancies in the fall for first-year students. It’s just more likely for first-years to be in Congress.”

Adam Horowitz, speaker pro tempore, suggested creating a district that would be even more likely to have freshman representatives, proposing that Ehringhaus, Hinton James and Craige residence halls have their own district.

Freshman representative Brittany Best argued for the districts to remain split between the east and west sides of South Campus.

“I don’t know that having a completely freshman-dominated district would be a good idea because we don’t know everything about the campus yet,” she said.

The bill was passed with South Campus remaining split as originally proposed.

Also on the agenda for Student Congress was appropriations for student organizations.

Carolina Creates, an Innovate@Carolina initiative seeking to foster UNC’s creative potential by connecting students, faculty and the community, received $4,000.

The money will go toward a fundraising program allowing UNC students and groups to reach out to alumni and supporters to fund specific projects.

Some student representatives questioned if student fees should be appropriated for such a program.

“While it is a great idea, I don’t know that money that is going to student groups should be used to fund this,” representative Leah Josephson said.

Group members said they were happy with Student Congress’ decision.
“We’re in a unique position to execute this in ways that it hasn’t been done at other universities,” said junior Hudson Vincent, president of Carolina Creates.

National Medical Association and the First Amendment Law Review also came before Congress requesting money.

National Medical received $1,737.52 and the law review received $8,045.

Contact the University Editor at university@dailytarheel.com.