So, as you have probably noticed, today is campaign day at UNC. Today is the day when all the candidates are lining up to tell the student body what they want to see happen next year. While today is incredibly important for the direction of Student Government, it is also important to remember that we have a secession movement at Carolina.
A week from today, there will be a referendum that will try to decide the future of our involvement in the Association of Student Governments. The ASG has been a complete failure in its duty to advocate for the student body. There was a clear student voice that was captured in SBP Mary Cooper’s plan to only raise tuition 6.4% (within the 6.5% cap). However, despite this clear student voice, the ASG sided with the Board of Governors and endorsed a 9.9% increase in tuition.
They receive over $200,000 a year to advocate for students, but only allocate roughly 4% of the money to advocacy. Small universities have the same number of delegates as larger Universities, such as ourselves and State, rather than proportional representation. There are systemic and structural flaws in this system along with a long-standing willingness to cave to pressures from the University Administrative System that have made the ASG a failure as an organization. Also, when there is this one, centralized, “representative” institution, the Board of Governors feels less need to pay attention to the outrage on each campus.
Therefore, it is imperative that the Student Body overwhelmingly supports secession on the 21st. With a strong majority in Student Congress supporting secession and a strong majority of the student body supporting secession, the Board of governors will be faced with the choice of a PR disaster by forcing us to stay in the organization or letting us out. When the BOG has to listen to the demands of students at large, rather than just the weak ASG, we will have a more efficient and powerful advocacy tool. Vote “No” next Tuesday!