Student Government Needs to Speak Out on Students' Behalf

It now has been almost two years since a student government leader has stood up publicly to the folks in South Building over a major campus issue.

And administrators are getting used to expecting dispassion and complacency from the student government leaders charged with the task of bringing student concerns to the table.

If things do not change, pretty soon no undergraduate on this campus will remember that student leaders once considered themselves legitimate sources of power at UNC.

And some key administrators and trustees would be just fine with that.

Do you realize that in March of 1966, 12 students, led by Student Body President Paul Dickson III, filed a lawsuit against top University administrators who refused to allow two prominent Communists give speeches on campus?

Just two years ago, a student government-led fight against the wishes of the Board of Trustees helped get a proposed five-year tuition increase knocked down to only two years.

Both scenarios are examples of strong student leadership.

I can't imagine our current student leaders having the gumption to act similarly.

I recently heard a former chancellor describe the essence of strong leadership as the ability to identify a set of values and to stand up for those values, whatever the cost.

Recent events have prompted me to wonder whether current student government leaders have abandoned their values, or worse yet, if they ever really stopped to think about what those values were to begin with.

In the leadership sense, having values means having vision -- knowing the difference between those issues that ultimately are inconsequential (whether the student body president gets a stipend) and important long-range issues that are essential to the future of the University (free speech on campus, tuition).

Since August, three major issues have come up that have the potential to drastically alter the direction in which the University moves in coming years.

These issues are tuition, student parking and the question of whether UNC will establish a satellite business school in Qatar. Student concerns have been virtually unrepresented as of yet on all three topics.

Now the blame cannot be placed on students alone (Lord knows, there is little, if any, evidence to suggest that administrators -- namely Chancellor James Moeser -- are at all concerned with students' opinions on University issues).

But I think it is irresponsible for students to fail to ask their elected student government representatives why student government has not made a bigger stink about routinely being ignored.

Perhaps the most blatant example is the parking issue. Administrators recently announced that all on-campus parking spaces for students who live on campus will be eliminated in the near future.

Input from the two students who sit on the Transportation and Parking Advisory Committee was never solicited in the decision. But what is even more shocking is the sedated student government response. Although leaders have said they are disappointed with the decision, no large-scale action has been taken to mobilize student opposition on one of the few issues students on this campus genuinely care about.

Similarly, on the issue of Qatar, it shocks me that student government is not publicly outraged by the fact that Student Body President Justin Young -- a voting member of the BOT who legally is afforded the same rights as every other BOT member -- was told he could not participate in a recent trip to the Middle Eastern nation.

Although UNC students might never attend classes at the satellite campus, it still seems as though they should have some input about whether their business school professors are shipped to the other side of the world to teach Qatari students instead of UNC students.

Student Body Vice President Rudy Kleysteuber said Wednesday that he believes any trustee other than Young would have been allowed to go to Qatar.

But what concerns me more is that Kleysteuber also admitted that student government did not think it wise to exacerbate an already "tense" relationship between student government and Moeser and therefore settled for Wednesday's forum as an adequate way to gauge student input.

Unfortunately, student government and the Campus Y allowed the forum to present just one side of the issue to students. Not one of the five panelists was opposed to the satellite campus.

And on the issue of tuition -- perhaps the issue that is the most germane to students at this University -- student government officials again have yet to take a firm stance on a tuition increase that -- when you take away the smoke and mirrors -- everyone knows the BOT will act on in January.

Today the trustees are slated to hear how UNC's tuition compares to similar schools' and are expected to set up the committee that would draft a tuition proposal. It will be interesting to see how student government representatives approach the meeting, the outcome of which could greatly affect students.

It is time for student government representatives -- namely Young -- to display strong leadership and strong values.

It is time for student government to take a public stand for students -- whatever the cost.

DTH Editor Katie Hunter can be reached at krhunter@email.unc.edu.