ASG expenses are justified for all to attend meetings
November 6, 2009
TO THE EDITOR
We strongly disagree with The Daily Tar Heel editorial board’s views on UNC’s involvement in the Association of Student Governments.
ASG provides an incredibly important service for UNC students, and it is important that UNC continue to stay involved in the organization.
The editorial, “Students should have say,” from Nov. 5, claims that ASG’s expenses are frivolous. We disagree.
The stipends for positions in ASG are important to receive quality applicants, and allow candidates to be considered independent of financial status.
Reimbursing travel costs allows all colleges to be represented. Prior to the reimbursement of travel costs, many smaller schools and historically black colleges had difficulty participating.
If students would like more information on the merits of ASG, feel free to visit www.uncasg.org, where T. Greg Doucette, the current president of ASG, combats the allegations made by the editorial board.
Finally, it’s frustrating that many of the same conservative voices on Student Congress who are attacking ASG as a wasteful use of funds are the same students who supported the recent request of a gavel for the speaker of Student Congress which, if approved, will be paid for by student fees.
This is an example of the kind of frivolous behavior that can be thwarted with creative, realistic solutions, not drastic, unnecessary changes like withdrawing from ASG.
McKay Roozen
Student Congress
District 2 Represnetative
Lee Storrow
Student Congress
District 6 Representative
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This gavel must be granted to
This gavel must be granted to the Speaker in order to fulfill the principles of gavel justice.
Gavel
We go to a University that has a 200+ year history of Student Governance. Are you telling me that there is not a gavel laying around somewhere that the Speaker could use? Have all Congress' prior to this not been practicing gavel justice by the fact that they do not have a gavel? Does this put their law making ability in question? I'm confused why we need a gavel now and if we have needed one all along why there isnt one that could be used.
No, there is no gavel.
No, there is no gavel. Without gavel justice, there can be no order. The Speaker must be one with the gavel in order to produce order in the chamber of the Congress. Long live the gavel.
Yes long live the gavel! I
Yes long live the gavel! I don't want to be paying for another one next year.
Quit wasting our dollars and whining over cents.
If only we fined Congress for every time it gave its 2 cents on ASG, we would never have to worry about that $1 fee again. Congress needs to quit wasting its time and focus on bigger issues.
ASG offers students a voice on the Board of Governors, lobbies our concerns to the legislator, and offers a unique forum for all UNC system schools to learn from each other.
ASG accounts for less than 1 tenth of 1 percent of student fees yet has been given more coverage by the DTH and Congress than perhaps any other fee this year. How can congress claim to be keeping an eye on issues of importance to students when they spend all there time counting pennies, while wasting dollars.
Every UNC student pays $39 in UNC-CH Student Government Fees, but only $1 for ASG. ASG is the cheapest student fee, tied with the Sonja Stone Scholarship Fund (ever heard of that?), but continues to be a target by those in congress who wish tp appear fiscally conservative. This is the same Congress that will approve buying a gavel for Speaker Manning ($7?),hundreds of dollars in flier funding which Congress just last year said it would no longer approve as part of a environmentally conscious appropriations procedure (see Jason Sutton), and $9,675 for the "best abortion debate ever." Someone apparently forgot to tell the new guys that congress is actually supposed to consider the number of students affected before dishing out money. I don't know about you but I believe very few will ever hear the hard wood of Mr. Manning's gavel.
For a congress that has no problem allocating large amounts funds for events that benefit only a select number of students it seems not only petty, but childish for Congress to be so bent out of shape over a $1 fee. If congress really cared about wasting students money they should look into why the University sees it fit to mail out and pay postage for $1 Library Fines, that seems like a much more frivolous use of our money than sending 4 students each month to advocate for our interests at the State level. The postage alone on that bill is 88 cents not to mention paper, envelopes, and personal costs.I thought UNC was smart?
Wake up Congress and drop the vendetta against ASG. It's $1, you can't even get a candy bar in the Pit Stop for that. We'll Live! If you truly care about the student voice, try listening.
Most of the $9,675 was given
Most of the $9,675 was given out during annual budget last year. That was the last congress...
Also, I agree that ASG is a cheap student fee. By your cheap logic, cheap fees should be an excuse to fund things. Oh, look, it's cheap! Let's all band together and purchase a large polar bear. No need to consider what we're getting from the polar bear - it's cheap!
Cheap Fee
I was not suggesting that just because its cheap it should be ignored, only that it should be given attention proportional to its impact on student costs. On the issue of the Polar Bear, there may actually be a group of Carolina students who believe that it is a good idea to save a bear who "may" have "eventually" died from global warming effects. We could consider it a tax on our carbon heavy past.
More to the point though, Congress spends little time looking into the thoughtful use of other student fees and certainly few fees get the microscope examination Congress gives ASG. I am just advocating for a more fair examination of student spending, because Congress is wasting a lot of time on a fee that is very low and has not caused widespread student outrage. Congress should be the voice of the students and right now we care much more about tuition, jobs, basketball, and beating duke tomorrow then we do about ASG.
Student Congress has nothing
Student Congress has nothing to do with jobs, basketball, or beating Duke tomorrow.
There are also Carolina students who think it is a good idea to purchase hundreds of eggs and egg Greenlaw just for being such an ugly building. Does that justify the collection of a special fee for egg justice?
No, I don't want to pay half
No, I don't want to pay half the fees I am being charged. As for the gavel, I don't understand how if a gavel is required for Congress to effectively run we don't have one already. I would hope Congress is more responsible when it comes to University property that such things are not lost from year to year, but if it was lost I guess thats not you guys fault.
I know Congress has nothing to do with Basketball or beating Duke, but there is no reason congress could not be proposing additional measures beyond/UCS to make sure that Carolina graduates are able to find good paying jobs in this economy. Though I am not saying they should, it would be of more interest to students than ASG.
Congress should reflect the will of the students and I'm just not convinced students desire their legislator spending so much time debating our participation in ASG, it's a moot point anyway. No matter what the students decide State law will always trump Student Congress. Why doesn't Congress just take a public opinion poll instead of calling for a campus wide referendum? It would save your time and our time, seems like a no-brainer to me.
Yeah, Student Congress can
Yeah, Student Congress can totally create jobs. Jobs in gavel-making are available where there is good-quality timber nearby.