ASUO begins battle over
OSPIRG’s student funds
By PAUL TELLES
Of the Emerald
A long battle may begin to
night when the Oregon Student
Public Interest Research Group
presents its goals to the In
cidental Fee Committee.
Although OSPIRG's goals are
likely to be approved, some
student government members
have expressed doubts about
the group’s effectiveness and
value to University students.
Consequently, the group may
have difficulty maintaining its
current funding level when the
committee begins dishing out
funds winter term.
IFC Chairer Jon Neiderbach
says students may not be
receiving service worth the
group’s $42,000 budget and
that perhaps student
government should not be
funding a general lobbying or
ganization like OSPIRG.
“It's very nice to spend money
on things that help the state as a
whole, but you shouldn’t spend
mandatory student fees,”
Neiderbach says, explaining
that OSPIRG works on a variety
of non-educational issues.
ASUO Pres. Dave Eaton says
funding OSPIRG directly
through the IFC may subject
students to a conflict of interest.
For instance, Eaton says
many University students dis
agreed with OSPIRG’s op
position to field-burning, yet
helped pay for the group’s lob
bying efforts.
To prevent students from fin
ancially supporting opinions
they don’t share, Eaton says he
will suggest a "check-box” sys
tem when the groups applies for
IFC funding in January.
Under that plan, students
would check a box on their
registration form to have any of
their incidental fees spent on
OSPIRG. The plan would have
to be approved by the State
Board of Higher Education, but
Eaton says it shouldn’t be
difficult to obtain the board’s
consent because Oregon State
University, which currently
gives much less to OSPIRG than
the University, would probably
agree to the plan.
Eaton says local OSPIRG
groups don't have sufficient
control over locally generated
funds and that the groups have
recently proved ineffective.
r
Currently, OSPIRG funds are
pooled by the group’s state of
fice and spent according to its
decisions. Consequently, the
money allocated by the IFC may
not be spent in the University
area.
The group wants to improve
its effectiveness by spending
more money, Eaton says, but he
doesn’t think that’s a good way
to revive a failing program.
The ASUO won’t recommend
continuing OSPIRG's $1
per-term funding from each
student, Eaton says. He voted
against the proposal as an IFC
member iast year.
In the goal proposal submit
ted to the IFC, the group admits
it recently has been plagued by
internal divisions and poor con
trol of expenditures. But Bob
Jenks, OSPIRG’s state chairer,
says the group was very effec
tive in the last legislative ses
sion.
Jenks points to revision of
renters' rebate requirements,
near-passage of a bill requiring
insurance companies to con
sider only driving records when
insuring new clients and pro
tection of the Crabtree Valley
wilderness as proof of
OSPIRG's effectiveness.
Jenks said the lobbying group
is not over-funded, but rather is
just beginning to recover from a
long period of declining reven
ue. State-wide funding has
dropped from $150,000 five
years ago to its present
$100,000, he says.
Local OSPIRG chairer Linda
Eisenberg says the group has a
broader scope than the Oregon
Student Lobby, an education
lobby. “We are students work
ing in the public interest,” she
says.
Both Eisenberg and Jenks
say students who disagree with
OSPIRG priorities are free to
join the group and try to redirect
its efforts.
“You’re not funding an issue,
you’re funding an organiza
tion," Jenks says.
University students don’t lose
control of their money when it
goes to the state-wide office
because the University has
three delegates on the board
that determines expenditures,
Jenks explains. Many OSPIRG
services would be impossible
without centralized funding, he
adds.
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OSPIRG won’t oppose the
“check-box” funding system if
it’s suggested, Eisenberg says.
“It would be a good way for us
to get feedback on how
students feel about how we’re
doing.”
Despite the potential funding
problems, Eisenberg says
OSPIRG is confident it will have
a good year in the Legislature
and will find broad-based
student support for its efforts.
“We have really good things
going on. We feel real good
about where we are.”
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