Don't let us down: Association of Student Governments risks doing a disservice to students with their current input on the tuition debate

The UNC-system Association of Student Governments has a lot more work to do, judging from its recent recommendations for the Four Year Tuition Plan.

ASG President Atul Bhula says he gave no input on tuition at the Board of Governors meeting last week because he was waiting on his tuition task force’s findings.

So one might have expected something powerful to justify the wait.

To be fair, their ideas are sensible — in fact, many correspond to the suggestions we published last week.

They suggest keeping the cap on increases, allowing campuses the flexibility to plan independently and avoiding charging tuition by credit hour, among other ideas.

But it is not what is said that concerns us; it is what these recommendations lack.

The document does not discuss the effect of tuition changes on students, which Bhula has emphasized in the past.

There is also no discussion of the rationale by which these conclusions were reached.

And there is certainly no clear evidence of input from different campuses.

ASG possesses influence because it represents more than 200,000 students — not because of the 40-odd students who attend meetings — and it is the job of ASG to maximize its effect.

It is representation which every UNC-system student has paid for.

Bhula said he intends to provide more context at the next formal meeting and states he is happy with ASG’s output relative to the time pressure.

But sending out bare-bones suggestions to the board, a week after the meeting, is embarrassing.

And though he says multiple universities sent suggestions to ASG, Student Body President Hogan Medlin said Wednesday these recommendations came primarily from UNC-CH. This isn’t good enough.

ASG must do better, not just because students pay for it, but because this issue — the tuition plan — really matters.

Students cannot always rely on having such strong advocates for our interests on the board to pick up the slack ­— as UNC-system President Erskine Bowles has done.

ASG declares itself the champion students’ concerns — Bhula needs to hold the organization to that standard.