ASG to review budget needs

WINSTON-SALEM — Members of the UNC Association of Student Governments are re-evaluating their use of a $1 fee paid by every student in the UNC system.

ASG held its monthly meeting this weekend at Winston-Salem State University, where members discussed the organization’s recurring budget for next year.

The association is composed of delegates from all 17 UNC-system campuses who meet monthly at different locations in the state.

The council of student body presidents decided to wait until its April meeting to vote on the budget because some delegates encouraged decreasing officer stipends.

UNC Student Body President Hogan Medlin asked the council to consider lowering officer stipends.

“I really want to challenge everyone in April to really consider — ‘are these stipends at the correct number that they should be?’” Hogan said at the meeting.

Executive officers of the organization are paid stipends ranging from $1,000 to $7,000 annually. The money comes from student fees.

The council formed a committee to review officer stipends and whether they should be decreased.

The committee — headed by Medlin, his student body president successor Mary Cooper and Jenna Roney, a UNC-Wilmington delegate — will report back to the council at the next meeting in April.

Other association members voiced concerns about the cost of ASG’s office in downtown Raleigh. The association pays about $30,000 annually for upkeep of its office that only two people use.

“We have one person that is using it on a daily basis and in today’s economy it is not the most efficient,” said Wayne Kimball Jr., chairman of the council.

But limitations the UNC General Administration puts on the association have kept them from being able to look for a cheaper location.

“I understand that when (General Administration) allowed us to get that dollar from every student we therefore were under this umbrella of GA, but I do think it is worth looking into how they treat us because they are taking a dollar from every student,” said Courtney Galatioto, student body president from UNC-Asheville.

In the past, members of ASG encouraged more projects like their campus innovation grants, which are monetary awards given to select UNC campuses that apply for funding for campus improvements.

But the General Administration has advised against these projects in the past.

“We are wanting to fund the money back to the campuses and help them do things,” Galatioto said. “If we have a lot of control over how we are allowed to run our offices, it limits the amount of money we have to fund back to the campuses.”

ASG President Atul Bhula said he also thinks the association should look into cheaper options for the office.

Bhula is running for re-election with UNC-Pembroke delegate Arjay Quizon.

They will campaign this month against UNC-CH delegate Kevin Kimball and Ethan Harrelson from N.C. State University.

President and senior vice-president will be chosen at the next April meeting.

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