It’s a bad idea whose time should never come.
Carolina’s is not the first student government to consider withdrawing from the UNC-system Association of Student Governments because they believe they “don’t need ASG.”
This is a bad argument for a bad idea because it is predicated on the wrong question. The question is not what ASG can do for Carolina, but what Carolina can do for ASG.
The tired refrain that ASG is “ineffective” or “a waste of money” assumes that ASG is some kind of special interest group or lobbying organization that has failed to do its job of promoting the interests of individual campuses.
That is not what ASG is. It is a constituent body in the system of shared governance of public higher education in North Carolina.
A shared governance body does not represent each of its individual members. It is a participant in a conversation that is meant to produce thoughtful and robust advice to those who are accountable for a public good, in this case public higher education in North Carolina. A shared governance body has a “seat at the table.”
The metaphor is especially apt. An invitation to a seat at the table means you will bring a useful perspective to the conversation. It also means that they trust you will be judicious in your participation and that you will maintain a steadfast dedication to the work, even — and perhaps especially — when the conversation is difficult, contentious and frustrating.
This is the work for which ASG — and the Staff Assembly, Faculty Assembly and the UNC General Administration committees of Chancellors, Provosts and other administrators — exist. Shared governance requires the participation of every institution because each has a unique and distinctive mission.
This is why staff, faculty and administrators do not threaten or act to withdraw from their shared governance bodies. They know that to abandon this work would be reckless, negligent and narrow-minded. What is baffling is that student governments are the only participants in shared governance who don’t grasp this fact.
