The University of North Carolina ACS Chapter was proud to host a reception with Senator John Edwards on February 14, 2006. Approximately 40 leaders from a number of progressive student organizations had an opportunity to meet Senator Edwards, who leads the Center on Poverty, Work, and Opportunity at UNC.

The student leaders included representatives from groups including the American Civil Liberties Union, Death Penalty Project, Disability Law Organization, Feminist Action Initiative, Innocence Project, Lamda Legal and the Latino Legal Initiative. The students questioned Senator Edwards on a wide variety of issues, such as the conservative fight against the middle class and corresponding need to raise the minimum wage; the struggle for equal rights for homosexuals, not just with marital rights but also with individual rights like employment and housing; the problems with motivating progressive voters who feel their voices went unheard (and possibly that their votes went uncounted) in the last presidential election; the shortcomings of FEMA and Homeland Security in the wake of Hurricane Katrina; the implications of a federal budget which presumes that the military and tax cuts are higher priorities than education and healthcare; and the danger the conservative movement poses to core democratic principles, such as the separation of church and state.