Crickets in Elizabeth City: If ASG wants a chance to prove its worth, a good start is getting enough people to show up

We want to have faith in the UNC-system Association of Student Governments, but its members are making it hard.

If there was ever a time when UNC-system students needed someone to fight for them, it is right now. But the organization’s inability to get enough members to show up at meetings hardly reflects that.

North Carolina is faced with a multi-billion dollar state budget deficit and funding for public universities is on the chopping block.

ASG, which is funded by student fees, is supposed to unite UNC-system schools and advocate on behalf of students to system administrators and North Carolina legislators.

However, ASG’s inability to make quorum at its most recent meeting at Elizabeth City State University confirms that ASG is at its most useless when it is most needed.

ASG only needs 35 out of 68 active delegates to show up in order to meet quorum. That’s one more than half.

President Atul Bhula said that distance and campus student elections had the most influence on low attendance rates and that he had communicated privately with many of the delegates.

We don’t want excuses from ASG. We want action. It’s no mystery that students sometimes have to travel far to meet. Whether or not it’s a good model is irrelevant — delegates signed on to it.

Former ASG president Greg Doucette said that “getting quorum usually isn’t a problem if folks feel like the group is doing something.” ASG’s failure to meet quorum is a sign that they aren’t doing much to fight for the students right now.

ASG delegates need to take their jobs more seriously and, at the very least, show up for meetings. We would like to see that ASG is actually being effective in its advocacy efforts, and making quorum would be a good start.

Currently there are no accountability measures in place. ASG receives student funding whether or not the organization actually does anything of value.

If ASG continues to demonstrate its ineffectiveness, then it might be time to consider measures to make the organization more accountable to the students who fund it.