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SOURCE: The Daily Tar Heel
02.23.07
School withdraws from ASG
By: Eric Johnson
Already coping with deep frustration among student body presidents and a disastrous monthly meeting in January, the UNC-system Association of Student Governments was dealt another blow Thursday.
John Noor, student body president of UNC-Asheville, resigned his position as chairman of the ASG's council of student body presidents and announced that his campus would be withdrawing from the association.
"It is my opinion that the association must be entirely redesigned from the bottom up or dissolved," Noor wrote in his resignation letter. "I feel that my time will be better spent attending to other priorities in the last months of my presidency."
Citing what he called "the ineffective and unproductive operations of the ASG," Noor attached a resolution from UNC-A's student senate declaring an end to the university's relationship with the ASG.
All students in the UNC system pay $1 in student fees to support the organization. UNC-Asheville will not be exempt from the fee even if the campus doesn't participate.
Though Noor's stormy departure marks a low point for an already troubled council, ASG President Derek Pantiel suggested new leadership might help clear the air. Council meetings broke down amid wide-ranging quarrels last month, and a number of presidents criticized Noor's leadership.
"Some of them will be relieved," Pantiel said of the remaining council members. "The council needs someone who is more objective, more open to everyone's views."
Selecting a new chairman will be at the top of the council's agenda when student body presidents gather today in Greensboro.
A number of council members already were expecting a contentious meeting because of what happened last month, when a dispute among student officials led to a walkout of delegates from all of the system's historically black colleges and universities, along with UNC-Pembroke and UNC-Chapel Hill.
Now, with the criticisms outlined in Noor's letter, council members could be forced into a deeper discussion about the ASG's purpose.
