OSPIRG:
helping the
consumer
against
rip-offs
“It would be really nice if OSPIRG
could make everyone aware of their rights
and of what to do to avoid getting ripped
off all the time,” says the new Director for
the Oregon Student Public Interest
Research Group (OSPIRG), John
Eliassen.
Eliassen explained OSPIRG’s con
sumer-environmental complaint line this
way:
“If you have what you think might be a
violation of environmental law, such as
excessive car exhaust or a stream that
smells, or consumer rights, such as a store
in violation of wage price controls or if you
get a bad deal from the store, call us.
“If you have a valid claim, valid
meaning you have legal rights to stand on,
we’ll talk to the businessman and get his
story. We’ll review it with our committee
of investigators and law students, look up
any laws or statutes that apply, decide who
is in the right and advise both parties of the
decision.
“In most cases that takes care of it. We
can’t take the case if it involves litigation,
but if we can’t handle it we can refer you to
other agencies.
“Aside from writing persuasive letters
telling what the law states, there is no
legal way we can force the business to do
anything. Many times businesses aren’t
aware of what happened, and sometimes it
is the customer’s fault for signing
something without reading it.”
Eliassen named some other things that
OSPIRG will be working on this year or
continuing from last year.
• trying to get OSPIRG-oriented classes
so that students can get credit for working
with OSPIRG.
•working with ASUO Housing Office
concerning tenants’ rights and deposits.
•trying to get an auto fraud study set
up. OSPIRG couldn’t get anyone to certify
a car as mechanically sound last year,
according to the new director.
• working on a water quality study on
the Springfield Mill Race, which may be
continued into the University’s Mill Race
and Amazon.
• working to continue internship
programs to a full year this year.
•doing a land-use study using volun
teers through urban planning classes.
•working on a forest practices study
with the Sierra Club.
Eliassen also said that there is going to
be some reorganization of the local board
function this year. “We’re trying to get the
State Board more responsive to each in
dividual campus and also the individual
campus more responsive to individual
students. We’d like to get more people
involved in the organization, of course.”
Eliassen explained that it was the in
tention of the originators of OSPIRG to
band students together and through money
to hire a professional staff.
“I think the director having all the
power that he does have has hindered
student involvement. That’s one of the
things we’re trying to correct this sum
mer. I hope we do it.”
Eliassen said that the OSPIRG
professional staff consists of lawyers and a
newly hired individual whose only concern
is consumer problems. Other resources
include “environmentalists, contacts
through environmental agencies, faculty
contacts. District Attorney’s office,
general information and hopefully a lot of
volunteers.”
OSPIRG will also be releasing a study of
the fish kill problem on the McKenzie
River in relation to EWEB’s facilities
there, which Eliassen conducted himself.
Last year two University students,
Harold Fay and Dan Mulholland, con
ducted a study on the practice of bait and
switch advertising by Portland car dealers
which may be expanded upon this year.
OSPIRG also plans to set up a watchdog
system this year by attending and keeping
tabs on various meetings such as the City
Council and Lane Council of Governments,
“just to find out what’s going on and if we
think anything should be reviewed,”
Eliassen said.
He said that OSPIRG will be working
closely with the Survival Center on French
Pete and on the Intercept paper recycling
project but that the two agencies differ
basically in modes of action. Eliassen said
that the Survival Center is more action
oriented, while OSPIRG is mostly con
cerned with research. “Wc are receptive
to student ideas for other projects,” he
said.
OSPIRG will have a booth at
registration and at the street faire during
registration week to hand out information.
Impact, the OSPIRG newsletter, has had
some distribution problems in the past, but
hopefully a better distribution system will
be worked out this year, Eliassen said.
Survival Center also battling to save environment
“The Survival Center is an organization set up to work
on environmental projects,” said Tom Lockhart, a
graduate student in an interdisciplinary graduate
program in Public Administration and the Survival
Center’s director this year.
fe are a resource center for anyone who has an idea
project that has anything to do with the en
ment. We have some funds to help pay expenses,
and contacts with other people who may be interested in
the same project. We can get people who may want to do
things connected with people who have already tried. We
want to encourage people to bring their ideas in and we’ll
help them meet their goals.”
In addition to the Survival Center’s flexibility in
helping people with individual or class projects, they
have a number of projects of their own underway.
Intercept, which is an attempt to intercept and recycle
all kinds of paper on campus is one of these. At present
only the EMU, the Library and the Computer Center are
participating. “People were notified through mailings
and the staff newsletter last fall but the program got a
false start.
“Now we are broader in terms of the kinds of paper we
can take because methods to recycle more kinds of
paper have been developed. We will furnish anyone who
calls in and wants their paper picked up with barrels or
boxes and we will make pick-ups. It is more efficient to
pick-up a whole building but we’re responding to anyone
who wants to participate. We don’t want to discourage
anyone, so we make individual pick-ups and then try to
get the entire building involved.”
Lockhart says he hopes to get PLC and Emerald Hall
participating after school starts this fall. He said they
have been getting cooperation from the janitors and the
physical plant but there are two problems that remain.
One is having a truck to go to Northwest Paper Fibers to
turn in the recycled paper, and the other is storage
space. They don’t like to make a trip until they have one
or two tons of paper and it is difficult to find a place to
store that much bulk.
Lockhart said that the Survival Center has not been
involved in recycling Emeralds and other newspapers
because the Eugene Mission has been doing that for a
long time. They have a box behind the EMU “in a not too
prominent place” says Lockhart, “and if any newspaper
comes to us we give it to them.”
lxxrkhart said that two men working with Intercept
this summer are largely responsible for its current
success. “Steve Trimmel and Bill Lingele have built it
up from almost nothing in May to over a ton a week
now.” he said.
Another of the Centers projects, Ridestop, has 31
locations throughout the most heavily travelled areas of
Eugene and Springfield where cars can stop to give
people rides. Lockhart said that this project has been
developed by graduate students in the urban planning
department who have designed booths for the locations
so that people can wait for rides out of the rain. “We’ve
got permission to build the booths, our major problem
now is to get money or donated materials.”
“We also hope to eventually conduct studies on other
kinds of solid waste problems. We are going to look at the
University campus as a closed system or community.
We want to find ways to channel its solid wastes into
directions other than sanitary landfills.
“This would help the University with their garbage
disposal problems and generate new revenue for them.
It would cut costs and cut down on the use of raw
materials such as trees. There are markets for tin cans,
glass, food scraps and plastics. Plastics, for example,
are being used as reinforcement in cement.
“We will also be trying to set up a system of car pools,
with the Survival Center as the intermediate agency.”
Lockhart explained that people who commute to and
from campus that wish to form car pools can contact
Survival Center to find out if anyone else in their area is
in need of a ride or has a ride to offer. He said the
program will probably be in contact with Switchboard
also.
A French Pete Hike-In was sponsored by the Survival
Center recently. All congressional and senate
representatives and local and state politicians were
invited. Wayne Morse, Robert Straub, and Charles
Porter participated in the hike, along with Oregon
Environmental Council Director Larry Williams and
OSP1RG Director Steve McCarthy.
The need for a drive to collect old phone directories
when they are replaced by new ones was brought to the
Survival Center's attention by an administrative
assistant in the Political Science Department. “If we
bring it to the attention of the public and further to the
attention of Pacific Northwest Bell we might get a
favorable response.” According to Lockhart, Pacific
Northwest Bell has been contacted about the problem of
the outdated directories, which amount to tons of
recyclable paper every year, but they have declined to
accept any responsibility for collecting the old direc
tories when new ones are delivered, or to set up
recycling centers where the old directories could be
returned.
‘‘A lot of people don’t realize in day-to-day living how
much waste passes through their lives. It really adds up
and that's the point we’d like to bring up and have people
think about and hopefully they’ll do something about it,”
says Lockhart.
Lockhart said that the Survival Center has had con
tacts with BRING, a local recycling effort, and that they
would like BRING to help them look at the campus as a
closed community because the people at BRING know
quite a bit about collecting cans and bottles.
There could possibly be some sharing of trucks and
transportation between the two groups Lockhart said,
and the Survival Center may be able to recruit some
volunteers that are willing to work for BRING.
Lockhart explained that the Survival Center tries to be
a link between the campus and the community, and also
other organizations involved in environmental concerns,
such as The Sierra Club, Oregon Environmental Council,
Environmental Studies Center, BRING, and also the
Man & His Environment class and other classes in the
urban planning department.
‘‘The Survival Center has a library of pamphlets and
mailings from the Environmental Protection Agency,
and from Senators and Congressmen. Between the
Survival Center and the Environmental Studies Center
there is a good selection of books and information on the
environment.” They also have local contacts with people
from the Sierra Club, the French Pete Committee, etc.,
and although they’re not promoting a speakers’ bureau,
they do have speakers available.
Working with Lockhart at the Survival Center this
year will be his two assistant directors, Mike Dotten and
Pete Sorenson. Dotten is a junior majoring in political
science and he will be primarily concerned with the
Intercept project. Sorenson is a junior majoring in
geography. He has been traveling in Europe this sum
mer and attended the Stockholm conference on the
environment.
I^ockhart said the Center will be hiring one more staff
person for a job that has been clerical in the past but has
been revised to a ‘program aide’ position.
“We’ve tried to move away from a stereotyped
secretary,” Lockhart explained. The job will be funded
partially by work-study funds and partially by the
Survival Center budget, and will involve working with
the speakers bureau, publicity and Survival Center
projects.