State of University Address: Speaker of Congress Tony Larson

When you read about Student Government in the Daily Tar Heel you run across terms and positions that are familiar from your high school civics class or Political Science 41. Our structure is patterned after the United States Government and its three branch government with an elaborate system of checks and balances, but Student Government is not the United States Government, so let's clear up a few possible misconceptions.

There are no political parties in student government. Student Government officials have only one constituency - the student body. Even when we have differences of opinion, we are still on the same team. This is not to say that student government leaders have not or do not bring their party identification to the job or pander to segments of the student body for support - what I am saying is that these practices are a disservice to the student body and this stage of leaders has recognized that and I hope that Student Body President, Graduate and Professional Student Federation President, and Speaker hopefuls who are now beginning their campaigns will keep this in mind.

That being said, let me talk about the 84th UNC-Chapel Hill Student Congress. This is my third year on the Congress and until now I've been known to refer to the body as the black sheep of Student Government, the 2nd cousin that everybody knows exists but nobody wants to invite to the reunion. The decisions of prior Congress' to appropriate more student fee money to organizations than was available resulted in years of insufficient budgets for later Congress'. The decisions of prior Congress' to hold marathon debates on topics irrelevant to daily campus life such as Capital Punishment and Sanctions in Iraq demoted the status of the institution and dissuaded students from running. That has all changed.

Beginning last year with the 83rd Congress we put an end to deficit spending of student activity fees and set firm spending limits to ensure that not only would we not overspend last year's fee revenues but we would also eliminate all student government debt we had inherited. We succeeded, and last February we were able to pass a $190,000 annual budget and reserve $28,000 per semester to give out during the academic year. Perhaps more importantly, not a single organization that came to us with a legitimate funding request was turned down - many events were scaled down or partially sponsored but nobody went away empty-handed.

The 84th Congress was sworn in April 2nd, 2002 and went to work April 3rd. Within one week of inauguration we had accomplished three important things. First, we created the Select Committee on Textbook Pricing that has been led by a very capable Sophomore Jennifer Orr. That committee has worked with the management of Student Stores and UNC's faculty to ensure that you will be able to sell back more of your textbooks, that when you purchase your books for the spring semester used books will be in greater supply, and that when you purchase books you are not purchasing optional accessories that won't be used in the class. We are hopeful that as a direct result of this committee's work an additional $20,000 or more will be paid out during Student Stores' buyback period.

Second, we issued a formal invitation to the Chancellor to come to Congress, to speak to us, and to answer our questions. On October 1st that happened. Chancellor Moeser came to Congress and in an unrehearsed public setting answered the questions of your elected representatives. One of these questions was of particular importance. Representative Tim Hensley, a Junior Transfer student and first term member of the Student Congress has been concerned about the Carolina Computing Initiative or CCI for a long time. His concerns are many and wide in scope. They range from; do all students really need a computer with a CD-Burner, a massive hard drive, and an abundance of RAM? Do classes at UNC really require student to bring their laptops to class? Is the requirement of an Intel processor necessary when many other processors used by non-IBM machines are equally compatible with the campus network? Is having a CCI machine sold by Student Stores worth a $700 tuition increase? Rep. Hensley asked the Chancellor if he would support the creation of a task force to re-evaluate the CCI since the program has not been evaluated since its inception and student input has been lacking all along. The Chancellor said yes, and last Tuesday we passed a resolution calling upon the Chancellor to follow-up on the yes and create the task force - we also created a Select Congressional Committee composed solely of students to create a document evaluating the CCI from the student point of view so that when the Chancellor's task force is assembled - student leaders will be prepared to take the lead in re-shaping the CCI to meet the needs of all stakeholders.

The third important action taken at our first Full Congress meeting was the placement of a referendum on the special election ballot. The referendum sought to increase the Student Government Student Activity Fee from $11.50 per semester for undergraduates and $9.50 per semester for graduate and professional students to $19.50 per semester for all students. This increase would have only compensated for the loss in real dollars student government has experienced as a result of inflation. This fee provides funding for WXYC, STV, the Carolina Union Activities Board and Student Congress who in turn funds all other officially recognized student organizations who participate in the appropriations process. When the referendum came to a vote the majority of students who voted approved of the increase, however an insufficient number of students voted for the measure to be adopted, this has been a setback for my vision of how Student Government can serve you.

I spoke with the President of the Union last week and he told me that the Union Activities Board like WXYC, STV, and Congress has essentially been operating with the same budget for 20 years. In 1984 the Activities Board was able to bring Prince, The Talking Heads, and Neil Young to campus. In 2002 one act of similar prominence would be beyond the purchasing power of the Activities Board. In the early 1980's an already well known Maya Angelou's honorarium was $3,000 now getting her for under $30,000 would be a miracle. Similarly, WXYC has had to cut its news service and STV programs are put together on a shoestring budget severely hampering the ability of either of these organizations to provide the same quality of programming that they could offer 20 years ago. To further drive this point home. During the annual budget process in February as Finance Chair I received over a half million dollars worth of funding requests from student organizations and we had to cut over 60% of the money requested from the budget. Student organizations are vibrant and active on this campus and they have become accustomed to doing great things with minimal budgets - creativity in event planning and negotiation has flourished. However, we have reached a point where creativity is no longer enough to get the job done - in order for student organizations to continue to create an atmosphere of activity in intellectual and cultural exchange they need more resources.

The good news is that tonight the Rules & Judiciary Committee will begin the process of putting a similar referendum on the General Election Ballot in February. If the measure passes committee and Congress, which I am confident it will, and is approved by the Student Body the additional resources will still not be available to the student body until the 2004 - 2005 school year. Half the student body with the opportunity to vote on this issue will neither pay the fee increase nor receive its benefits, but you have the opportunity to insure than Carolina's student body will be as vibrant for the inheritors of this campus as it was for you.

Certainly, I do not expect the vote to be unanimous. A few students have had discussions with me in which they have shared the opinion that the average student does not get $11.50 worth of value from the activity fee now so there is no reason to increase the fee. I would say that a student who does not get his $11.50 worth of student activities is trying really hard not to. If you attend just two of the free of $1 movies in the Union Auditorium of the weekend you've gotten back your $11.50, if you walk through the pit and take notice of the organizations championing causes and learn something new or expand your world view - you've gotten your $11.50. If you listen to one or two speakers such as David Horowitz or Senator Russ Feingold brought to campus by student organizations, if listen to WXYC, if you watch STV, you've gotten your $11.50 back. But if you want Carolina to remain a leader in the public forum, the intellectual forum, and the cultural forum and if you want that leadership to be student driven then you need to vote to provide the necessary resources to make it happen.

There is one other notable accomplishment of the Congress I'd like to talk about. The Student Congress met on the eve of the day before classes to consider a Resolution in Support of Academic Freedom, I am happy to say it passed overwhelmingly. Although every member had someplace they would rather spend their last hours of summer recess we recognized that amidst the floundering of our Board of Governors and State Legislature it was important for the student body's elected representatives to debate the issue and make a statement.

There are also several important items on Congress' agenda between now and the end of the 84th. First, we need to redistrict congressional districts in such a way that students can understand where there districts are and run without confusion or fear of having to resign. Second, in the next week President Daum and I will co-introduce an Election Reform Act that if enacted will shorten the period of time spent conducting student body elections and equalize the campaign field by mandating congressional funding of all elections accompanied by strict spending limits and stringent accounting. The past three student body presidents have come from relatively wealthy families; one enjoyed so much financial support from home that one of his platforms bullets was setting aside the Student Body President's stipend of $2,400 to fund student organization initiatives. The fact is to run for Student Body President you currently need to be willing to spend $750 of your own money to make it happen - most students do not have the resources to do this. The act will seek to give everyone an equal opportunity to run, to lower the amount of money spent on campaigns, and to shorten the period of time during which students are bombarded by campaign posters, placards, and handbills.

Finally, in the Spring the Congress will vote upon changes to the Honor Code and the Instrument proposed by the Committee on Student Conduct. Congress is already working in conjunction with Student Attorney General Spillman to become educated about the Honor System at UNC and the proposed reforms to the system. I strongly encourage each of you to do the same. Decisions will be made that will alter that Honor System at UNC and we all need to be informed so that we can be sure those changes preserve both academic integrity and the rights of students to a fair trial.

Now as I work towards closing this address I want to talk about three things - criticisms leveled at Student Government leaders this year, the things that keep me awake at night, and my vision for this Student Body and this University.

The most prominent criticism aimed at this current slate of student government leaders has been that we do rally the student body to go and protest. This was first raised in reference to lobbying efforts at the General Assembly and most recently with regards to the new Chapel Hill Land Use Management Ordinance's ban on duplex construction. As someone who has worked for the General Assembly and had many interactions with public officials I can assure you the measures that have been taken by your student leaders have been more effective than any protest.

When I went to the General Assembly a few weeks ago to talk to legislators several members expressed to me their appreciation for the way in which student leaders at Carolina made voiced their needs and opinions. We made small trips with a concentrated message, we mailed letters and sent emails and approached State leaders with the respect they are due. This approach stood out in stark contrast to the approach taken by leaders at NC State who led students in a protest at the legislature they was confrontational and threatening to legislators and made it difficult for them to get their jobs done during the duration of the protest. Yelling and beating on windows may be entertaining at the zoo, but it is not the way to protect the University's future.

The same reasoning applies to the duplex plan. The residents of the Northside neighborhood have very legitimate concerns about maintaining the character of their neighborhood. They have been seeking relief from the Town Council for years from students taking over their traditional single-family affordable housing neighborhood. Jen, Branson, myself, and other went to the Town Council meeting last night and made it clear to the council that a permanent ban on duplexes all across town was not an ordinance they really wanted to pass and they listened. The ban expires on June 30 giving the Council time to deal with the concerns of the Northside neighborhood and abuses of duplex properties in other parts of town.

The issue however raises two more important issues. The University's obligation to provide affordable housing for the students it chooses to admit and the obligation of students to be good neighbors and responsible citizens within the Town of Chapel Hill.

The University just completed four new residence halls on South campus, the first new university residences in many years. However, at the same time the University increased enrollment so the new construction did absolutely nothing to alleviate the housing crunch. Apartment style University Housing and additional dormitories would go a long way to improving the campus climate and town-gown relations.

And yes, we as students need to be better citizens and neighbors. Parking congestion, litter, noise, maintenance of property - these are factors that affect property values in the town and the perception of students and we need to be aware of these issues in deciding where to live and how to use and maintain the property while we occupy it.

Now the vision, the late Charles Kuralt whose voice washes over us at basketball games...."What bring us to this place, it's not the well or the bell..." etc. that speech ends with the declaration that this place, this University is the University of the People. That was the vision of the founders of this State and it is my vision today and what keeps me awake at night is the thought that poor fiscal management by State leader's and political pressures by interest groups will allow this vision to be sold away.

The University system has been fostering leaders and driving the economy of this state for over a century, but that is a direct result of a high level of support from the General Assembly allowing a low level of tuition. The current fiscal situation of the state puts that all in jeopardy - I want this to be the University of the People, not the university of the elite - that is 10 miles down the road.

The Greek word for those who do not participate in public service and public affairs is translated as Idiot. Students you need to register to vote. You need to go to the polls and vote. You need to get to know your state representatives from your home county. If this is to remain the University of the People, then we the people need to demand it of our leaders. Thank you.

To read the State of University Address of Student Attorney General Amanda Spillman, click here