ASG seeks to 2nd balance between 2 lobbying efforts

A trip to Washington, D.C., last week by delegates from the UNC-system Association of Student Governments has left student officials firmly resolved to continue their efforts at federal lobbying.

“We’re still focusing on the state,” said UNC-Chapel Hill student Matt Liles, the association’s vice president for legislative affairs. “But we do have a capable legislative affairs division, and we will not ignore the national level.”

The trip to Washington by 49 ASG delegates was a way of building the organization into a more recognizable voice at the national level, said Jonathan Ducote, ASG director of federal relations.

The goal now, he said, is to stay heavily involved in the federal debate.

“We just need to stay in contact with our members of Congress,” Ducote said.

“We’re not just some random

e-mail from North Carolina anymore. We’re somebody they’ve met.”

Liles said he will meet this week with ASG President Amanda Devore to update the group’s federal legislative priorities and put them into a more presentable layout that can be mailed to lawmakers and education officials.

“We’re making it more akin to USSA’s little one-sheet deal,” he said, referring to the pamphlet used by the U.S. Student Association. USSA is a national student advocacy group with a professional lobbying operation in Washington, and ASG delegates met with the organization last week.

USSA President Ajita Talwalker said the association allows student groups to pool their influence on national policies, but Ducote and Liles said ASG won’t be joining.

“We’ll work with them when we can,” Liles said, adding that the decision not to join was largely because it would require ASG to cede 5 percent of its budget to USSA.

Ducote said he is reluctant to contract out ASG’s national lobbying effort.

“I’ve never been a fan of ever letting someone else do my work for me,” he said. “I think if we want to have any type of influence in Washington, D.C., then we need to be there.”

Alexa Marrero, spokeswoman for the House Committee on Education and the Workforce, said it’s not uncommon for individual state student associations to lobby at the federal level.

“There are some states in particular that come to my mind that have been active in targeting the committee,” she said.

ASG will continue to focus on North Carolina’s congressional delegation, Ducote said, relying on those lawmakers to carry the message to their colleagues.

Talwalker said even organizations that lobby nationally tend to maintain a focus on state-level advocacy and cautioned that federal and state priorities can be “a hard thing to balance.”

“The state stuff is where so many of the bread-and-butter decisions around tuition are made,” she said.

Liles said that while ASG officials are excited by their progress in Washington, they aren’t losing focus.

“I don’t think anybody disagrees that the states are responsible for education and are responsible for funding higher education,” Liles said.

“But we’re not going to let the federal government cop out on their portion.”

 

Contact the State & National Editor at stntdesk@unc.edu.