Oregon Student Public Interest Research Group will be asking for a 97 percent increase in a budget hearing tonight in 229 McKenzie, a request that, if approved by the Athletics and Contracts Finance Committee, will raise OSPIRG funding from the $86,268 that students pay this year to a total of around $170,000 for the 2012-13 year. @@what a scam@@
Funding for OSPIRG has been a controversial topic since the organization was defunded entirely in 2009. Last year, the group was refunded, but only partially.
Zach Mulholland,@@http://directory.uoregon.edu/telecom/directory.jsp?p=findpeople%2Ffind_results&m=student&d=person&b=name&s=Mulholland@@ a board member representing the University for OSPIRG, explained that after the organization was defunded three years ago, it had also only received partial funding.
“This increase will bring it back to the amount was before the group was defunded,” he said. In the organization’s last fully funded year, 2008-09, the program received $117,044, according to the ASUO’s budget book. The most money OSPIRG has received from the ASUO since being initially defunded for the 1998-99 academic year was $144,426 in 2001-02.
OSPIRG has also become a topic of conversation last week, following news of the previously unpublicized two-year marriage between ASUO Vice President Katie Taylor and former OSPIRG chair Charles Denson. The marriage has led ASUO Sen. Kaitlyn Lange to demand the recall of Taylor on ethical grounds, citing Taylor’s undisclosed @@i added undisclosed here@@relationship as a breach of trust and a conflict of interest.
One effect of this nondisclosure came in the benchmark Senate meeting for the ACFC held last November, where Taylor cast the tiebreaking vote in the Executive’s benchmark recommendations, the main dispute of which had been the increase in OSPIRG’s funding. The incident is unethical according to Oregon Government Standards and Practices Laws, which regards Taylor as a public official, and states “a potential conflict of interest exists when an official takes action that could be expected to have financial impact on a relative.”
“I believe the student body has seen her actions, and people have been very supportive of the recall,” Lange said.”A lot of this could have been handled on her part by admitting mistakes, working on transparency in government and moving forward.”
Regardless, OSPIRG’s budget meeting will go ahead as planned and will consist of a 30-minute public forum where anyone can share opinions about increased funding for OSPIRG. Then representatives from the OSPIRG board will present, which will be followed by a deliberation.
Some ACFC members are supportive of allotting more funding for OSPIRG.
“I like OSPIRG because it gives students the opportunity to manage campaigns that affect students and the community,” said Christina Hardesty,@@needs to stick to just student issues@@  ACFC vice president @@http://directory.uoregon.edu/telecom/directory.jsp?p=findpeople%2Ffind_results&m=student&d=person&b=name&s=Christina+Hardesty+@@. “I really love the campaigns they do.”
The group intends to use the increase to hire two new staff members.
“I think the composition of the committee is more favorable to OSPIRG than it was last year,” ACFC Chair Sen. Ben Bowman@@http://directory.uoregon.edu/telecom/directory.jsp?p=findpeople%2Ffind_results&m=student&d=person&b=name&s=Ben+Bowman@@ said. “At the end of the day, the decision is going to be thoroughly deliberated.”