By Emnit Birega, Staff Writer

Published in print Mar. 17, 2015

The Spartan Legislative Network (SLN)— an organization consisting of students, parents, faculty, alumni and community members— met two weeks ago to discuss UNC-Greensboro’s current successes and challenges.

SLN has existed since 2012 and it falls under the purview of the UNCG Alumni Association’s Legislative Advocacy Committee.

According to the organization’s official website, SLN’s charge is “to promote the university as one of the flagship institutions of the UNC system and a leader in higher education globally.”

SLN strives to make the university’s accomplishments visible to North Carolina’s legislators and to demonstrate for them UNCG’s relevancy.

The organization has an agenda with four main focuses: local budget management flexibility, financial aid support, capital needs and municipal support.

Wade Maki, a faculty senator and member of UNCG’s chancellor search committee, attended SLN’s most recent meeting and said about the organization, “The main goal is to raise awareness among elected officials of the positive impact UNCG has on the people and state of NC.”

“UNCG has a lot of community connections and impacts that are not obvious to legislators when they think of us,” Maki explained.

“By getting them a full picture of what we do,” he continued, “they can make informed decisions of how to best support UNCG.”

Maki said he was impressed by how the SLN event brought together a large pool of UNCG community members who were all eager to connect with elected officials and show their support for the university.

“What struck me most,” Maki asserted, “was how broad that support was. For example, students, staff, faculty, administrators— including the chancellor— and many members of the Board of Trustees went. In fact, we all road on the same bus.”

He continued, saying, “To see people from all levels of the university give their time to help convey UNCG’s importance to legislators is a sign of the commitment we have to our university.”

Maki said he had a positive experience talking with legislators, saying, “We discussed many of the positive things UNCG does that aren’t as well know. I found the legislators very curious about what a university is like today and how things are changing from when they were in college.”

“This was a great event,” Maki declared, “The staff who organized it did a phenomenal job. Those of us attending were given great talking point to help make it work.”

“Seeing so many people and hearing from the chancellor and Board of Trustees speaking at the event really shows the commitment all stakeholders have for UNCG,” Maki said.

“It is imperative for all of us to actively engage legislators on who we are, what we do and how they can help support us,” Maki concluded.