For too long, the Association of Student Governments has contentedly kicked the can down the road, sending the delegates who actually attend the monthly meetings home with little accomplished and much delayed. With a newly created task force, the association began to show some semblance this week of the self-criticism needed to address its effectiveness, or lack thereof. The task force must seize this moment as an opportunity to ask tough, even existential, questions — and prove that ASG can be of value to the more than 200,000 students it’s intended to serve.
ASG President Atul Bhula issued an executive order Monday to create the task force, saying that it had been in the works for months. The order was a necessary, albeit unfortunate, formality given that no one volunteered to join.
That disinterest sends a discouraging signal of ASG’s willingness to fix itself, especially considering the progress it appeared to be making at last year’s final meeting. At that meeting, in Chapel Hill, the association approved a 27 percent, or $10,000, cut to stipends. A similar attempt failed in 2009-10, when 97 percent of ASG’s $207,000 in student fees went toward overhead expenses like officer compensation and other operational costs.
It will be the job of Bhula and the task force’s chairwoman, UNC-CH Student Body President Mary Cooper, to draw delegates into this task force. Cooper, noting her first impressions as a delegate, has pinpointed improved coordination as an initial objective for the task force. Her idea of bringing the ASG council and committees together, perhaps through a quorum scheduled earlier rather than later in the day, should be considered as a solution to root out the inefficient “duplicity” of a structure that divides the council delegates from those serving in committees.
The task force must also work to continue its emphasis on lobbying, a task ASG is uniquely suited for that is especially important amid steep state budget cuts.
ASG deserves credit for examining its use of a $1 fee as system universities raise tuition and, at least at UNC-CH, show an appetite for raising fees. This examination is a long time coming — and ASG must make the most of it.
