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Association of Student Government proposes updates to Four Year Tuition Plan

FAYETTEVILLE — Student leaders from across the state met this weekend to discuss their role in future tuition decisions by the UNC-system Board of Governors.

Members of the UNC Association of Student Governments, which is funded by $1 in student fees from UNC-system schools, decided to form a special committee by Tuesday to develop ideas for revising the Four Year Tuition Plan.

The system’s Board of Governors is in the process of updating the plan, created in 2006 to make tuition more affordable and predictable for students. It set caps on campus-initiated tuition increases and laid out a framework for campuses to use the resulting revenue.

“The structure of tuition is changing,” said UNC-CH Student Body President Hogan Medlin. “ASG needs to take a stance on how we think students should be involved in the tuition decision.”

The committee will develop a written proposal to present to the board in October — a month before the board is expected to make an ultimate decision on revising the tuition plan that expires this year.

“Oct. 22 is my plan that the task force have something finalized on paper,” said ASG President Atul Bhula to fellow council members.

“At the next BOG meeting, I take that resolution and tell them this is how students feel about tuition,” he said.

The special committee, which is picked by the president and two other executive officers, is prompted to focus on what to do about a cap on tuition increases. The committee will also come up with solutions for recommendations that have been made to the board.

ASG Senior Vice-President Dakota Williams said that the council is focusing on adding student perspectives to the revisions.

“We are not asking student body presidents what their universities are doing. We’re seeing what SBP’s want to see done,” Williams said.

Medlin, who suggested the creation of the special committee in a conference call earlier this month, said the committee will have little time to come up with its revisions, and it’s important that all student body presidents take part in the effort.

“The meeting itself was good in that we came up with some concrete suggestions and generated conversation, but sending proxies in place of SBP’s makes it difficult to make a lot of progress,” he said.

Many student body presidents did not attend the meeting and sent representatives instead.

Because the association only has three weeks before Bhula presents the formal proposal to the board, many council members suggested holding Saturday meetings for schools in the same regions.

“We’ll have to look at it from a budgetary perspective and when we’ll actually be able to do it,” Williams said.

Medlin said regional meetings made more sense than conference calls.

“We get more accomplished face to face,” he said.

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

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