The Oregon Student Public Interest Research Group was dealt another blow Tuesday when the EMU Board of Directors delivered notice that OSPIRG’s file cabinets have to be cleared from its spot in the east side of the EMU, its professional staff can no longer use incidental fee-funded resources and a recognized student group would soon move in to share quarters with the Survival Center and the Student Insurgent.
The explanation provided was that OSPIRG is no longer a recognized student group and therefore cannot occupy space in the EMU. The inconsistency, as ASUO President Emma Kallaway noted, is that OSPIRG has not been a student group for years. Until July, the ASUO had a contract for membership in the statewide organization. No one ever bothered to mention contracted services should not have been allowed space in the EMU.
The EMU Board says OSPIRG staffers cannot use the phones paid for by the incidental fee. OSPIRG students say they use cell phones because the land line was cut in July. The board says OSPIRG can’t use the computer provided in its former office space; OSPIRG Chair Charles Denson said it was slow anyway.
The whole thing feels like the EMU is mocking the afflicted. Last year the Athletics and Contracts Finance Committee cut OSPIRG’s contract after a year’s worth of notice and low student support, putting the old girl out of her misery. Now the EMU Board is kicking the corpse.
At least that’s what I thought when I saw the e-mail from board chair Elise Presicci posted on the Oregon Commentator’s blog that seemed to imply someone from the contrarian magazine had inquired about OSPIRG’s right to office space.
But in interviews on this issue with student leaders from a wide range of constituencies, I could not find one willing to stick up for OSPIRG on the record. Even on background, most won’t go so far as to say OSPIRG should have a contract again or not be kicked out of the EMU.
“We have a lot of programs who don’t have space,” EMU Board Senator Carina Miller said. “This is absolutely the road I want to go down. They are not a student group anymore. They are in violation of this campus.”
OSPIRG students can still meet in EMU Suite 1 if they want to, Miller said. Keeping students from organizing in the space would be problematic. The Survival Center — as all of Suite 1 is most commonly called — is one big, messy cooperative space that operates without clear borders.
Denson said, without irony, that OSPIRG is officially supposed to occupy “the left half of the back of the room.”
Interestingly, Presicci said OSPIRG would have to clear one-fourth of the office space. Students for the Ethical Treatment of Animals also shares the office with the Survival Center and the Insurgent, she said. In two years I have never seen any activity from such an organization. There might be even more office space opening up soon.
Student leaders said they are not looking to police the space for non-students, or members of non-recognized groups. The concern is mostly about OSPIRG’s paid organizers using resources provided by student dollars.
“For face value I don’t expect it will be hugely different,” Kallaway said, “but if any student feels they are being attacked in any way, the ASUO needs to be there for that.” That’s why she attended a meeting between Denson, Survival Center co-directors and Presicci on Tuesday. Kallaway, a former EMU Board senator, said she was there to help moderate the discussion.
“The culture of the Survival Center is very specific and rooted in the history of the University of Oregon,” Kallaway said. She suggested the committee that allocates EMU office space take into account the unique culture of the center and the opinions of its co-directors when filling the space.
“Both of those things need to happen, and in my opinion, the House Committee needs to be very mindful of the Survival Center during that process,” she said.
So Kallaway is watching out for the student groups that remain in the space and making sure no one gets bullied for sitting on the wrong couch. She still isn’t lifting a finger for OSPIRG, which she said has not offered any guidance for how it would like to return to campus. Both OSPIRG’s outline for a new budget and the executive’s recommendation for it are due this Friday.
When those papers are filed we should have a better idea if OSPIRG has any chance of winning back a contract, though it will no longer have an office. Maybe then we will find out if anyone in the ASUO supports it.
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