Council seeks to coalesce groups

Independence and individuality are hallmarks of many UNC organizations, but many soon will come together under the umbrella of the new student organization council to foster better communication between groups.

The council will hold its first monthly meeting at 5 p.m. today. The group will eat together at Top of Lenoir and break up into small groups for discussion and debate.

Overall, the council hopes to make a better assessment of campus and student group needs and thus make better use of the resources of those groups as a whole.

The purpose of the first meeting will be to identify campus issues that need to be addressed by the council and to prioritize those issues in order to develop a preliminary plan.

Ryan Tuck, editor of The Daily Tar Heel, founded the group along with Don Luse, director of the Student Union.

"I started it because I see so much inefficiency on campus - different groups doing the same things, not communicating, and a lot of animosity between groups because they're not really aware of what the other groups are trying to accomplish," Tuck said.

One example of a failure to communicate between campus groups centered on Hurricane Katrina relief, he said.

"If we had been able to sync up relief efforts, it would have been a lot more effective," Tuck said.

But public service is not the only issue that the council plans to target.

It may address such issues as tuition levels, the need to involve students in municipal politics, campus environmental issues, workers' rights and improving Chapel Hill residents' image of UNC students, Tuck said.

Leaders from approximately 24 different student organizations were invited to be part of the council.

"We wanted to keep the number manageable," said Tuck. "If we wanted to involve every student organization on campus, it would get unwieldy."

Aside from the leaders of major student organizations, the council is considering developing an application for students who want to be part of the group but are not involved with the member organizations.

The council would select between five and 10 students at large to give the group an outside perspective on student life.

"We need to drop the official hat, drop our official agendas and say, 'What's going on on campus? What are students caring about?'" Tuck said.

Student Body President Seth Dearmin also expressed his excitement about the formation of the council.

"This is the first step in bringing groups together," he said.

Dearmin said that such a council has existed at the University in previous years and that this organization's revival will help facilitate discussions between campus groups.

"Having this body together is a great way to start communication about significant events or about different things going on around campus," he said.

Blakely Whilden, co-president of the Young Democrats, said her organization will be involved in the council in some capacity.

"I think it's great to pool resources to pull these different organizations together that have such a voice on campus," she said.

Thomas Merrihew, president of the Interfraternity Council, said he sees the council as a tool for establishing a firm base of institutional knowledge.

"We can pool our resources so that people don't have to reinvent the wheel every year as far as where to get information and how to do things," he said.

The council's main goal is to provide opportunities for group leaders to have a broader perspective of the student body as a whole, rather than having a single student group focus.

"We need to step out of our silos that we all have as busy students and really work together to get things done," Tuck said.

 

Contact the University Editor at udesk@unc.edu.