Correction appended
OSPIRG will likely go a second year without funding from University students, following a decision by the University’s contract negotiators Wednesday night against funding it in 2010-11.
The decision may mean a greatly reduced presence on campus for Oregon Student Public Interest Research Group next year, but that is unclear. OSPIRG, a statewide political advocacy organization funded by student fees, first lost its funding in 2009, when a conservative student government voted to strip the left-leaning group of its almost $120,000 contract with the ASUO.
However, the group retained its presence on campus after the decision through an $80,000 infusion of cash from its sister organization, the Oregon State Public Interest Research Group, a Portland-based lobbying organization with which OSPIRG shares staff and offices. The student OSPIRG’s board chair, Charles Denson, said a decision on whether that will happen again is not yet made.
“That’s for OSPIRG, State, to decide,” Denson said.
The student PIRG, which runs political campaigns on behalf of issues selected by its student board, was able to continue its campus operations because of the state PIRG’s funding. Members of the Athletics and Contracts Finance Committee, which made the decision not to grant OSPIRG money, said they were impressed by the group’s efforts this year using the funding from the state PIRG.
However, they criticized the way OSPIRG conducted its efforts to regain funding. The ACFC’s first hearing on OSPIRG’s funding, on Thursday, ended without a decision after committee members voted narrowly to postpone a decision until they could get answers to their questions from OSPIRG.
Committee member Ben Eckstein said he envisioned the time between the two hearings as a time during which the two groups would come to a compromise.
“I was ready for a compromise,” Eckstein told the students arguing OSPIRG’s case, “but I felt like you guys were ready for a fight.”
Both Eckstein and Hailey Sheldon, a fellow member of the five-person committee, had said they were prepared to offer OSPIRG part of the $117,000 it was requesting. That was also the request of ASUO President Emma Kallaway, who called for partial funding for the group, followed by incremental increases from year to year. The full $117,000, Eckstein said, didn’t make sense all at once “from a business standpoint.”
But both Sheldon and Eckstein said what OSPIRG’s leaders had told them had convinced them OSPIRG would be unable to function using the amount of money they were prepared to offer. The group’s first priority, its members said, would be the salary of its statewide director, while ACFC members said they would prefer only the group’s campus staff be funded.
“It just feels like any less would be a waste,” Sheldon said.
In the end, Eckstein voted to fund OSPIRG, saying he believed the ACFC could convince the group to compromise with the ASUO during contract negotiations. However, Sheldon voted against the group, leading to its narrow defeat by a vote of two votes for, three against.
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ACFC refuses to fund OSPIRG
Daily Emerald
February 17, 2010
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