(ASG's general assembly should be allowed to weigh in on a resolution supporting equal access to college)
The UNC-system Association of Student Governments should vote on a resolution supporting equal access for undocumented immigrants to the North Carolina Community College System.
The resolution was killed last weekend by committee and a full vote by the association was not conducted.
Resolution 19 would ask the community college system's board of trustees to return to the previous open-door policy of accepting all applicants regardless of immigration status.
But a motion to favorably recommend this resolution to the ASG general assembly failed by a 3-to-1 vote in the committee on legislative and public affairs. Only four votes were tallied because several committee members abstained from voting.
A favorable report indicates that the committee supports the resolution. If it had been favorably recommended the resolution would have automatically been presented to the general assembly for a vote.
Since the motion to favorably recommend the resolution failed and no further action was taken the committee effectively killed the bill.
For such an important and controversial issue all of the student representatives should be allowed to weigh in. The committee should revisit this resolution soon and allow for a general assembly vote.
And when voting ASG members must remember that they are serving as representatives of their universities not champions of their own personal beliefs.
Chazz Clevinger vice president of the committee on legislative and public affairs suggested that some committee members might have voted based on personal beliefs not to send the resolution on.
Speaker of UNC-CH Student Congress Tim Nichols was one of the three committee members to vote to prevent the resolution from reaching the general assembly for a broader vote.
Nichols has refused multiple requests from The Daily Tar Heel for comment on his vote.
Without a comment we can't know Nichols' personal beliefs on equal access to education. But he certainly should not have used procedural maneuvering to prevent a full vote on the issue.
Admittedly the resolution would be merely symbolic. An ASG recommendation alone won't change public policy.
But as students of public universities in the state our position on the issue should be clearly voiced.
