The ASUO Programs Finance Committee denied OSPIRG’s request for a 24.2 percent funding increase Tuesday night, and instead slashed the group’s budget by 31.87 percent, allocating $82,320 to the group for 2003-04.
The Oregon Student Public Interest Research Group has been advocating environmental and consumer interest issues at the University for more than 30 years. OSPIRG has five chapters at colleges across the state, and the group has recently engaged in efforts to start a new chapter at Oregon State University. PFC members said they did not support using student incidental fee money to contribute to a new OSPIRG campus organizer position at OSU.
Representatives for OSPIRG pointed out the other four college chapters would also be contributing to a chapter start-up at OSU. Tim Johnson, an OSPIRG intern, said the public interest organization operates at a statewide level and pools the resources it receives from each university to fund one overall budget for the organization.
“It allows us to buy in bulk,” Johnson said. “We’re the Costco of students, you might say.”
PFC members were wary of this type of funding system because it prevented the committee from examining OSPIRG’s budget for exact figures dealing with how much funding goes to programming at the University. OSPIRG representatives tried to address PFC concerns and pointed out that even though some of their funding is sent off-campus, students all over the state, including University students, receive the benefit of their efforts.
Johnson said the group is valuable to University students because it uses statewide resources to advocate for public interest issues on their behalf. He argued that the most effective way for the organization to accomplish its goals is to organize and fund OSPIRG at multiple locations.
“We don’t have geography on our side when we want to address issues that are statewide,” Johnson said.
Representatives for the group said the University chapter of OSPIRG is expected to contribute 35 percent to the overall statewide budget for the organization based on student enrollment numbers at participating colleges.
But PFC Programs Appointee Joy Nair said her calculations indicated the University should only be responsible for contributing 25 percent to the organization’s state budget pool.
Nair said she based her numbers off a belief that OSU should be contributing funding to OSPIRG because they benefit from the resources of the organization.
Ben Unger, the campus program director for OSPIRG, countered that there is no established chapter at OSU, and it is the organization’s goal to improve the quality of life for all Oregonians without having to demand financial backing from every citizen.
“You could add up all the people in Oregon and say they’re receiving resources, and it would be true,” Unger said.
PFC remained firm in their convictions however, and voted unanimously to downsize OSPIRG’s budget to $82,320, a 31.87 percent decrease.
Johnson said he couldn’t predict whether OSPIRG members would appeal the budget.
“It’s definitely going to affect the range of our activities, but we’re devoted to helping out people and improving the public sector,” Johnson said.