Making ASG more effective

New leadership is coming to what is largely viewed as an ineffective statewide student organization. But a low public opinion doesn’t necessarily mean the UNC-system Association of Student Governments isn’t capable of being effective in its limited role.

Junior Robert Nunnery of UNC-Pembroke and sophomore Olivia Sedwick of Winston-Salem State University were elected this week as ASG president and vice president, respectively.

ASG is composed of four delegates per school for each of the 17 UNC-system schools, giving UNC’s roughly 29,000 students the same representation as the North Carolina School of Science and Mathematics’ less than 700 students.

One year ago, a referendum asked UNC students if they’d like this University to stay a member of ASG. Although students voted to stay in the organization, it was begrudgingly done. While it might have been deemed worth staying in the association, no one doubts that ASG is an organization that could use some improvements.

The organization’s reputation for petty politics notwithstanding, its main problem is its structure. Although its large budget is footed by the $1 student fee each student in the UNC system pays, ASG is restricted in what it is allowed to do.

Despite ASG’s purpose, as outlined by the Board of Governors, to act as a representative for student interests, it is restricted from hiring a lobbyist. And, although some might argue the officers’ stipends are too high for the contribution they do now, they are also far too low for officers to treat ASG as a full-time job.

Given that ASG leadership changes every year as well, the end result is a lack of institutional capacity for lobbying on behalf of student interests.

This is especially relevant given the state legislative and executive branches’ recent hostile attitude toward higher education and the UNC system especially.

Gov. Pat McCrory’s recent budget proposal chops $55 million of money out of what was available to the UNC system last year. We are already feeling squeezed by cuts in federal funding and past cuts in state funding, which will be worsened by this recent development, along with the out-of-state tuition increases they would include.

Given the circumstances, the new ASG leadership needs be the most powerful advocate possible. ASG might not be capable of effectively organizing broad coalitions of students across multiple campuses in a large geographical area, but it should be capable of being experts on higher education issues — even the nitpicky, unglamorous ones.

This means traveling to other system campuses as much as possible to gather opinions and understand issues local to specific campuses, building relationships with constituents and education policymakers, following higher education news religiously, and keeping a specific and attainable vision. And, importantly, this means actually attending Board of Governors committee and legislative committee meetings.