Student Congress considers redistricting South Campus

The rules and judiciary committee of Student Congress considered a bill Tuesday that would divide South Campus representation into two separate districts.

The bill, proposed by Paige Comparato, vice chairwoman of the committee, was brought forth in an effort to make Student Congress more representative of its South Campus constituents.

“If you think about the South Campus population, it’s mostly freshmen,” said Comparato, adding that the only freshman member of Student Congress lives in Granville Towers.

Currently, South Campus has six representatives, who are dispersed among Morrison, Hardin, and Craige North Residence Halls.

Despite the fact that South Campus is populated predominantly by freshmen, there are no freshman representatives in the current South Campus district, she said.

If passed, South Campus’ first district, titled South Campus-West, will include Craige, Craige North, Hardin and Morrison Residence Halls.

The second district, South Campus-East, will represent Ehringhaus, Hinton James, Horton and Koury Residence Halls.

The bill would split the current number of South Campus seats evenly between the new districts, resulting in three seats for each district.

The bill would also take away one seat from mid-campus, which would provide the off-campus district with an additional seat.

“It should be obvious that the school is more off-campus than it is on-campus now,” said Zach De La Rosa, speaker of Student Congress and a co-sponsor of the bill.

Members of the rules and judiciary committee responded to the bill favorably overall, but there was some opposition to certain provisions.

Representative Christy Lamden of the mid-campus district said he opposed the provision that allowed one seat to be taken away from his district.

Despite this opposition, the bill was approved to be presented to the full Student Congress next week.

“There are a lot of reasons to split South Campus,” De La Rosa said. “I’m not a fan of large districts.”

Evan Ross, chairman of the committee, voted in favor of the bill as well.

“I think it will encourage a broader range of representation across South Campus, not just confining it to one or two dormitories,” Ross said.

Ross added that he thinks the South Campus-East district will encourage freshman students to represent their class.

Contact the University Editor at university@dailytarheel.com.