After retuning from the November meeting of the UNC Association of Student Governments there were definitely some signs that the organization was doing something after the former ASG president resigned, the new ASG president Cody Grasty has the organization clearly heading in a direction other than straight downhill. But that direction seems to be nothing but stalling for time until the UNC General Administration steps in to find a new method of state level student governance.

After months of inaction, business was able to occur because the group had quorum with around 40 members present. The budget was approved. Ideas were thrown out and a tentative plan for the year was discussed. All that seems like an organization recovering from years of wasted potential right?

It was the very method in which these minor accomplishments occurred that showed the true problem with the organization, the organization itself.

UNCASG has trouble meeting quorum because the “General Assembly” where all business must be approved is huge in size, bloated and ineffective. Far too large to combine students from across the state who are all informed on various levels of state wide UNC system initiatives to properly discuss anything. The whole session always turns into a parliamentary procedure free for all with people thinking that they know more than the chair throwing out suggestions at will, confusing everyone in the process. It took more than an hour to merely elect a secretary for the year. Not because there was so much debate over the candidates or their specific qualifications, but because there was so much debate on the process. Business can not be accomplished by such a large group that is dissonant in every way.

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The first thing this organization must do to survive is scale down.

The budget was approved, after hours of debate on anything of little relevance. The budget presented to us was inadequate at best, with little description for any of the initiatives which would be allocated thousands of dollars… and the initiatives presented were hardly worth the time or money of the group. Such as… getting business cards for every single one of the 68+ members of the organization. Or sending out a mailer to many of the residents of NC explaining the UNC Tomorrow campaign. The budget was passed because of frustration from the group in not doing anything, and so that we could all leave. We did not do our job with this budget, the money was allocated without proper oversight procedures being put in place, as NCCU president Larry Tomasi clearly explained to the group.

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The organization must have its budget decreased, the budget serves as a distraction and the main point of dissension among the group.

The plan for UNCASG discussed this meeting is merely little more than a rubber stamp for the Board of Governors. Why should we research the same things the BOG is researching? The UNC GA has resources to research these topics far more than this group. Yet, our platform for the rest of the year is all but the entire list of BOG initiatives.

The organization has no unique or beneficial initiatives for the students of NC.

But worst of all is the inability of the ASG members to admit that the organization is rotten to its core with layers of ineffective bureaucracy. Constant denial is apparent in the inability for the ASG Restructuring Task for to be called an Improvement Task Force. Add to that, the abuse of closed session meetings to keep the media out of what should be public knowledge. Politicians always fail when they try to control the media. Many of the initiatives discussed were justified by stating that they would “look good in the media” or would “bring a good image to ASG”. Image is only a problem for the organization because of the inability to produce tangible results.

I don’t know how the organization is still allowed to exist by the UNC General Administration. State level advocacy for students is important and we need a voice on the Board of Governors, but ASG is not currently the answer. I hope to work with every willing student and administrator in developing a future organization for students to serve the students at UNC schools… but UNCASG will need to change drastically, or at least admit that it has a serious problem if this is ever going to occur.

Now that a motion is on the table to dissolve the ASG General Assembly, we’ll see where we can go from here.

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Cody Grasty sworn in as ASG President

The General Assembly

NC State did a good job hosting, everything on their end ran smoothly