Every year, the Programs Finance Committee decides how to distribute millions of dollars in incidental fees. For the past two years, because of the Southworth v. Board of Regents Supreme Court case, the Oregon Student Public Interest Research Group has been required to follow PFC procedure in order to be given fee money at the University.
OSPIRG, according to a story published Jan. 10 in Portland State University’s Daily Vanguard, is planning to ask for a $30,000 increase in its operating budget at University of Oregon. It requested the same increase at PSU, if granted this request will raise the operating budget for OSPIRG at both schools to $150,000. OSPIRG’s intention for the large increase in funding is to open a new office at Oregon State University.
This new office would be an egregious misuse of our fee money. According to the Clark Document, the incidental fee must “provide for the ‘cultural and physical development’” of students. By removing $30,000 from our campus, OSPIRG does not further any goals at the University, but rather diverts money that could be better spent here. The usage of student fees to build an office at OSU should incense any fee-paying student. $30,000 could be well used on campus. To put things in perspective, $30,000 is twice the annual budget of the Oregon Commentator, $12,000 more than the Crisis Center, about twice the budget of MEChA, $6,000 more than the annual allocation for the Debate Team, and about half the budget of Project Saferide. Already the 12th largest, OSPIRG’s annual allocation will jump to eighth largest on campus if a $30,000 is granted.
A $150,000 allocation, most of which is not spent on this campus, exceeds the individual allocations for Legal Services, Recreation and Intramurals, the Women’s Center, and many other prominent campus organizations. These groups, regardless of their function, spend their money here for the benefit of University students. OSPIRG is simply a front organization for the Oregon State Public Interest Research Group. The Student Pirg’s money filters up to the State Pirg to fund offices in Portland and Salem as well as lobbying on behalf of the State Pirg’s agenda. The Student Pirg’s Web site is even linked off of the State Pirg’s (www.ospirg.org).
A quick perusal of OSPIRG’s Web site shows that they are using our money to accomplish what amounts to nothing. For instance, they have an “Enron Fact of the Day.” The saddest part about the Enron “facts” is that many of them are misleadingly stated, flat-out wrong, or are provided by blatantly anti-corporate sources such as United For a Fair Economy. The other sections of the OSPIRG Web site provide similar results. Thusly, student money is being taken from campus and used to further the political agenda of a particular group. This is reprehensible, morally bankrupt and most certainly illegal.
It is time for OSPIRG to lose its place at the table of student funding, the PFC needs to step up to the plate and finally force OSPIRG to comply with the regulations that all other student groups must follow. If OSPIRG is allowed to subvert the proper procedures again, the case for removing incidental fee control from student hands will be closed.