The deadline to file measures for the ASUO ballot is today, and OSPIRG is certain to make an appearance.
For the first time in two years, students will decide if the Oregon student chapter of the national Public Interest Research Group will receive student fee funding and remain on campus for another year. OSPIRG is working to inform students at information tables and by distributing handouts on campus about how it spends its money.OSPIRG wants to make sure students are informed so the group will receive its money and avoid the funding controversies that have haunted it in previous years.
This year, OSPIRG will ask for $149,904 — or $2.88 per student per term — in the ASUO general election, set for March 5 to March 8.
Students granted OSPIRG two years of incidental fee funding two years ago. But last year, the group discovered that revisions to Oregon’s Clark Document restrict ballot measures to only one year of funding.
“Any group receiving incidental fees cannot get multi-year funding through a ballot measure,” ASUO Accounting Coordinator Jennifer Creighton said.
To solve the problem, the ASUO Student Senate approved OSPIRG’s 2000-01 budget last year for $128,000.
Creighton said OSPIRG gets the vote of the students one year and the approval of the Programs Finance Committee the next year. But the Senate had to approve the budget last year because PFC meetings had already concluded by the time OSPIRG members realized they needed to reapply to receive funding.
Although OSPIRG, which has been on campus since 1971, is asking for $149,904 this year, its total budget will be about $329,724. OSPIRG will receive its remaining funds from a pool of resources at a statewide level with Portland State University and Lane Community College.
OSPIRG also went to the ballot three years ago, when students voted to revoke the group’s campus funding.
The group faced opposition from a variety of students who, according to OSPIRG State Board Chair Melissa Unger, used OSPIRG’s budget as a way to confuse people about how OSPIRG spends its money. Opposition in the past has centered around the fact that OSPIRG sends some of its money off campus in its lobbying campaigns.
According to Unger, at the time, OSPIRG members didn’t clearly explain to students how the group was funded and the issues it represents, including the environment, public safety and health.
“Our money goes to Portland to make sure we can win issues on a statewide level,” Unger said. “When we talk to students, we want them to understand how we operate on a statewide level.”
Unger said the state PIRG in Portland has allowed the organization to have the resources to hire a professional staff that works to protect the environment, consumers and democracy.
This year, OSPIRG members have a different plan of action to keep their message from being skewed.
OSPIRG secretary Alysa Castro said OSPIRG members are working through tabling and increased visibility of information to educate as many people as they can about the group’s campaigns.
“The students vote on us because we work on issues that affect them,” Unger said. “When students vote on OSPIRG, they tell people they care about [issues such as] the Arctic National Refuge.”
Along with the campaign to inform students about the ballot measure, OSPIRG members are refocusing attention on environmental campaigns because of President George W. Bush’s recent declaration in support of oil drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge.
OSPIRG members will protest today outside the EMU Amphitheater, along with students nationwide, against British Petroleum stations, which promote drilling in the ANWR. Castro said students will be able to sign an EcoPledge, or an agreement not to buy, invest in or work for BP.