Students Question ASG Purpose
by Lindsey Ellerson

UNC-CH President William Friday founded the Association of Student Governments (ASG) in 1972. But today, students are questioning whether the association serves a functional purpose.

Through tuition and fees, University students are footing the bill for the association. Students want to know where the money is spent. The association’s Vice President, Matt Liles, said ASG allocates a majority of its funds toward travel costs.

“If you have an association based on interaction, you have to be able to interact,” said Liles. “So, a lot of the money goes to travel to get people places.”

Currently, students only contribute one dollar toward the association. But, if the University makes the fee optional, would students still pay? Student body president candidate Seke Ballard says “no.”

“If you ask students right now in this union, you would probably get a low percentage of people who actually know what ASG is,” Ballard said. “And if we make it optional, ASG would lose funding substantially.”

Candidate Tom Jensen does not think ASG deserves to be student-funded.

“I think it’s really a problem when you have 27,000 people’s student fees paying for the stipends of only seven people,” Jensen said.

Jensen believes that some of that money could go toward financing other student groups on campus that lack support. With candidates clearly divided on the issue, the association’s funding may prove to be a determining factor in this year’s election.