Student leaders in the UNC-system Association of Student Governments are working to get money garnered by student fee increases returned to the UNC System. Currently, those funds are in the state General Fund.

The N.C. General Assembly passed a mandate last summer increasing 2010-11 tuition by 8 percent or $200, whichever is less. Across the campuses, the average increase would be $180 or 7.2 percent.
 
According to the mandate, the revenue generated by that increase would go to the state’s general fund to help close the budget shortfall.
 
Jasmin Jones, student body president of UNC-Chapel Hill, first proposed the petition idea in November.
 
ASG Prsident Greg Doucette aims to get students more engaged in the tuition process, and to have something solid to hand to legislators during meetings later in the semester.
 
“After awhile, legislators kind of get sick of me saying the same thing over and over again,” Doucette said. “When you’ve got something you can hand them…it carries more impact.”
 
Jones has already scheduled meetings with 20 legislators before the legislative session in May.

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