The University of North Carolina Association of Student Governments will be setting up petitions for students to sign in opposition of the tuition increases that were authorized by the state for the 2010-2011 school year. Each campus will have the opportunity to plan events in order to increase interest for the petition and get as many signatures as they can.

The petition states that each signee opposes the 8 percent (or $159.52) tuition increase currently included in the 2010-2011 state budget, because the current increase exceeds the tuition increase cap.  Furthermore, if the N.C. General Assembly cannot repeal the increase, petitioners request that all money raised through the tuition increase stays within the individual university budget, instead of the State budget.

The association is made up of student body presidents and delegations from each of the system schools and represents the students to the state legislature and the UNC-system Board of Governors. Greg Doucette, president of UNCASG, said that the seventeen campuses just got back from winter break, but each campus is free to run petition drives or any event that they choose to get more signatures. He will be meeting with the ASG Executive Branch and board officers to oversee the petition process.

“We are trying now to get the ball rolling and getting our presentation ready for the talk with the General Assembly. We will also be collecting signatures next month. We started last Friday officially.”

Doucette also stated that representatives from the seventeen campuses will meet on January 30 with the University Board of Governors to adopt an alternative recommendation to the increase. An additional meeting will take place on February 12, and the final number of signatures on February 27.

Valerie Dudley, Vice President of Internal Affairs, said that she discussed the ideas for events at the interest meeting last night and will discuss them again at the Senate meeting tonight.

“We are planning dorm storms and will encourage Senate members and other students to encourage people in their classes and around campus to sign. We will be putting up flyers and using verbal communication to get the word out.”

The UNC Association of Student Governments passed a resolution in October, opposing the tuition increases that were authorized by the state for the 2010-2011 school years in August.

They recommended that the UNC system retract the 8 percent increase. If the tuition increase can’t be rescinded, ASG is requesting that funds that come from the increase should go back to the schools, rather than the state’s budget, as planned.

Students can come to the tuition petition meetings every Tuesday or go to the SGA Office in room 213 of the Student Union if they want to sign. The next ASG meeting with all 17 colleges and universities will be on January 26.

• laporsha lowry