An open letter to the Daily Tar Heel

Dear Editor,

Since my term began last July, we have always welcomed public scrutiny to ensure our activities stay in line with student interests. But I echo most of the delegates and officers of the UNC Association of Student Governments in saying I'm mystified by the bulk of your editorial "We need an effective voice."

We're all genuinely excited to be working with Jasmin Jones as UNC's next Student Body President. She made her presence felt at our meeting this weekend, and her candor and good humor will both be needed in tackling the difficult issues students face next year.

Yet your argument that the meeting "could mark the beginning of a change in ASG" comes about 9 months late. The beginning of those changes began in July.

The call for an annual report on expenditures and accomplishments has been done monthly since we took office. The entire budget, with every expense down to the penny, has been available for public review for the entire fiscal year. My March report to the UNC Board of Governors on ASG's activities spanned 212 pages -- and only covered the activities of one fiscal quarter.

Similar strides have been ongoing with respect to campus publicity. The Campus Outreach Initiative we started before we even took office has put Association officers on the ground of every single UNC campus multiple times apiece; a graphic of just my own personal outreach efforts is attached for your information.

These and many, many other accomplishments -- including the Campus Innovation Grants funding Get Out The Vote efforts in September, the Association's work on tuition and fees in October and January, its successful Students' Day at the Capital event in March, and more -- have all been well-documented in officer reports, well-documented online in our publicly-available Facebook group and website, and well-documented in over 25 separate news articles in this very paper throughout the academic year.

And while the current Student Body President declined to participate herself, UNC was with us every step of the way with its other delegates and our 3 Executive Officers (of 10) who attend your institution. Any UNC student can also offer their thoughts and opinions directly through our feedback site at <http://www.iwantmydollarback.org/>.

The Daily Tar Heel has earned its reputation as the premier college newspaper in this state through its high-quality journalists and competent editorial columnists. Poorly researched editorials like today, however, not only injure that reputation but also grossly misinform the Student Body. For everyone's sake, I hope you will be more thorough with your research in the future -- or at least read the contents of your own paper.

With warm regards,
T. Greg Doucette, President
UNC Association of Student Governments

3910 Jackson Street #J-25 / PO Box 50175
Raleigh, NC 27650-6175
Phone: 919.606.7158
Email: president@uncasg.org


Attachments:

The UNCASG Campus Outreach Initiative: One Year Later