Editors’ Note: In the interest of full disclosure, the Emerald has not yet had its PFC hearing. We wanted to review the committee before our own hearing, so we gathered information for this editorial by questioning other student groups about their experiences.
Every winter term, the Programs Finance Committee, the campus group that controls the purse strings of all student groups, holds hearings to determine how to divide nearly $5 million in student incidental fees among the various programs and services.
Many years, the process has been a circus, with groups complaining about poor communication and capricious budget decisions. Some years have seen repeated appeals and recalls.
This year, however, there seems to be little of past years’ problems. Student groups have said that while they weren’t always satisfied with the amount of money they received — although most have received increases — they generally found the process fair, efficient and professional.
From all accounts, it seems that this year’s PFC is knowledgeable and professional. We were most impressed to hear that members took the budgets home during winter break so that they would be familiar with the numbers. Also, comments indicate that the ASUO Executive has substantially improved communications among all parties, making sure that groups are not left out of the loop.
Our one concern is PFC’s treatment of OSPIRG. The story is complicated, but here’s how we understand OSPIRG’s funding mechanism to work: PFC divides OSPIRG’s total costs by the total number of Oregon University System students at participating schools and arrives at a per student cost, then multiplies that by the number of students.
This year, however, OSPIRG created a stir. The group requested a budget increase and was going to pool that money with increases from other OUS schools to pay for a new director position in Corvallis, in the hopes of building support to start a chapter there.
We wholeheartedly oppose such a move. While we recognize there are some complexities involved in running a statewide organization on a campus-by-campus basis, we don’t think University student fees should pay for work done on another campus. When students wanted to start the PIRG group here, volunteers collected signatures and put it to a vote, and the students supported it. The same can be done at Oregon State University if OSPIRG volunteers so desire.
Our objections to the proposed increase, however, don’t excuse what happened next: At OSPIRG’s hearing, PFC members, rightly concerned about sending money off campus, declared that an OSPIRG director’s visits to Corvallis — which OSPIRG says was done on his own time — means that OSU suddenly has an OSPIRG chapter. So PFC added the total number of OSU students into the mix, divided it out and reduced OSPIRG’s funding by that amount, leaving the group short of what they need for this campus.
This is ridiculous. Surely OSPIRG employees can spend their own time rallying for whatever causes they want. If they rally against the looming war, that does that mean Iraq suddenly has an OSPIRG chapter, and we should add their population into the formula? Hardly. OSPIRG should be funded at last year’s per-student cost — which didn’t include an increase for any other campus.
So far this year, we’re impressed by the PFC’s professionality and the ASUO’s involvement in keeping student groups appraised of the process. We hope that OSPIRG’s budget can be fixed so that it doesn’t reflect punishment for a bad idea that never took flight.