The UNC-system Board of Governors passed a $1 systemwide fee increase Wednesday to fund the ASG with the understanding that the organization will review the proposed 2002-03 budget and re-examine the format for assigning professional staff positions.
The fee increase will cause the ASG's operating budget to increase from about $2,500 to more than $165,000. Of this amount, $95,000 is provided for the hire of professional staff members, including a managing director.
Addison Bell, chairman of the BOG Budget and Finance Committee, said if the ASG revises its budget, the organization must present it to the BOG in May for approval. ASG representatives are not required to revise the budget because the BOG did not officially request they do so, he said.
Bell said the BOG was caught off guard by the money the ASG wants to spend on full-time staff. "(The plan) came to us so fast, and we have not had time to study it," he said. "We are going to be sure the structure of the budget is satisfactory."
Bell said BOG members expressed concern that the ASG's power will be subdivided between the students and the professional staff. "Right now, we don't want to spend money on building a bureaucracy for the sake of building a bureaucracy."
Jeff Davies, UNC-system vice president for finance, said the BOG suggested that the ASG revise its budget because members want the ASG to be run by students and it fears a professional staff might have influence over the student leadership. "The concern of the board was that (it) did not want professional people running the organization," Davies said. "They want students to run the organization. They want student leadership to be present."
ASG President Andrew Payne said he will meet with Davies to finalize plans to hire full-time employees. "We're meeting ... to go over the exact details of our staff and how to hire them," he said.
Payne said the ASG will benefit from full-time employees and, in turn, so will the students from all 16 system campuses. "In the end, the students will win out."
Bell said the board granted the ASG's fee request, even if no revisions are made to the budget. "There's no guarantee that there will be any change (in the budget)," he said. "If the plan is beneficial, and Andrew Payne has said it will be, then it has already been approved."
