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| 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.
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