System's student association gives funds

GREENSBORO — UNC-system student leaders spent their Saturday afternoon allotting funds to encourage voting and registration on campus.

At the September meeting of the UNC-system Association of Student Governments the government operations committee allocated $11500 allotted for Get Out to Vote campaigns" which encourages nonpartisan voting activities on campus.

""It's going towards a very popular cause"" said Dexter Mullins, vice chairman of the committee. This money's going to be used not just on the campuses"" but to reach out.""

Ten universities requested between about $1"000 and $2000 to fund items such as buttons and banners food and guest speakers for events and vans for transporting students to the polls.

The committee decided the grants based on how well-organized the applications were and whether the sponsoring delegates followed guidelines. Some universities were granted their full request while others were given partial funds.

The committee disqualified two requests because they violated guidelines. Fayetteville State University and N.C. State University both had their proposals thrown out for failing to include a signature page losing out on $2000 and $1000 respectively.

Greg Doucette the ASG president said he was sorry to see his own school lose the money but was proud of the committee for adhering strictly to guidelines" which include a balanced budget and the sponsoring delegate's signature.

""I'm very ecstatic that they held N.C. State accountable"" he said. Hopefully it will be a sign of things to come.""

Doucette also said he was impressed by the number of schools that actually took the initiative to apply for the funds. UNC-Chapel Hill was not one of them.

""To have the majority of schools fill out the forms — I was very surprised by that and impressed by it.""

The allocations were decided in the span of about two hours"" with considerable debate about the guidelines and about whether universities were qualified.

Mullins said the meeting was proof of the drastic improvement the ASG has made from previous years.

""I think that sometimes we can get caught up in debate a little too much"" Mullins said. But this is not the ASG from 2006 and 2007.""

David Mofford" Appalachian State University student body president said he believes the committee awarded ASU the $1835 they requested because their proposal was strong and organized.

ASU student government is planning on spending the money on buttons" T-shirts and banners to distribute on campus.

""This is a very politically active campus" he said. We don't care how you vote" as long as you vote.""



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