ASG makes final push for system-wide tuition increase return

GREENSBORO — As their terms wind down, student body presidents from across the UNC system are making one last push to get the money from tuition increases returned to schools.

The UNC Association of Student Governments met this weekend to discuss strategies for convincing N.C. legislators to swap the state- mandated tuition increase with the UNC-system Board of Governors’ campus-specific requests.

The revenue from the tuition increase — the lesser of $200 or 8 percent — instituted last summer by the N.C. General Assembly goes toward the state’s general fund instead of the UNC system.

Student body presidents support the board’s lower-cost proposal, which increases tuition by an average of 5.2 percent, or $131.

UNC-CH Student Body President Jasmin Jones is leading the effort by drawing up plans to present to legislators before the General Assembly convenes in May.

“It’s not a one-step thing. To lobby, it goes on and on. We only have so much time and resources,” Jones said.

Jones said she wants to draft a press release this month requesting the legislators to return the revenue from the tuition increases back to the UNC system.

The press release will include the number of students who signed a petition against the state-mandated tuition increase.

The student petitions totaled over 22,000, surpassing the goal of 21,500 from all 17 UNC-system schools.

UNC-CH had the highest number of student petitions with about 2,400 signatures.

Jones also said she wants to get more students, parents and members of the UNC community involved in the process by encouraging them to call and e-mail legislators.

Jones said that they will be coming up with creative ways to increase student and parent participation.

“Everybody has to think of the culture at their school and say what would get them to make that phone call,” she said.

Students at UNC-CH love free food and T-shirts, so they can use that as an incentive for students to call legislators, Jones said.

“We’re coming up with creative ideas on how to inform constituents that deal with this,” she said.

 In order for students to have an impact upon legislators, they need to be registered voters, said Greg Doucette, the ASG president.

The committee on academic and student affairs discussed ways to advocate voter registration to students.

PA Rowe, chairman of the ASG academic and student affairs committee, said many of the schools are using programs similar to those they used last year to get students to vote in the presidential elections.

“If a large percentage of them aren’t registered voters we won’t have leverage when we go to lobby.”


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