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About Oregon daily emerald. (Eugene, Or.) 1920-2012 | View Entire Issue (Feb. 13, 1981)
emerald Vol. 82, No. 100Eugene, Oregon 97403__Friday, February 13.1981 Eaton warns OSPIRG funds may drop 75 % By ANN PORTAL Of the Emerald ASUO President Dave Eaton has recommended a reduction of approximately 75 percent in next year’s Oregon Student Public Interest Research Group budget. The ASUO’s $10,000 recommendation falls $36,557 short of the budget OSPIRG had proposed. In Portland, Portland State University and Lewis and Clark College have recommended that OSPIRG receive no funding at all next year. Dan Pyle, local OSPIRG board director, says the move to reduce funding is a centralized effort that could result in domino effect. A severe cut in University funding could jeopardize more than 75 percent of the total state budget, Pyle says. "We’re in trouble - there’s no doubt about that." And the drastic reduction in funding could result in the demise of OSPIRG within a year, Pyle says. OSPIRG state board chairman Lee Schissler is equally concerned because University funds have traditionally com prised about 40 percent of the group’s total state budget. Schissler says the cut in University funding "make us pretty ineffective as a statewide organization,” and "just a collection of independent local boards”, he says. “I can’t conceive anyone would misunderstand OSPIRG so much they’d reduce the budget by that degree,” Schissler adds. Last year OSPIRG received a “large chunk of money based on a reputation they had four years ago,” says Eaton, but lately the program “has been floundering.” “We just don’t see University students getting $42,000 worth of service for the money we’re giving them," he says. But Eaton says OSPIRG is basically a good program that just needs to reorganize and “start from scratch.” There is virtually no chance, Eaton says, that OSPIRG will receive more than $10,000. "I don’t think students are getting their money’s worth and that’s the bottom line.” OSPIRG emphasis shifts to research In spite of a dismal budgetary situation, local OSPIRG director Dan Pyle is convinced the program is not dead at the University. OSPIRG has already drawn an "incredible" response from students this term, Pyle says. "OSPIRG’s starting to move again. We've got a plan and ifs really happening.” The University OSPIRG program has developed a new structure this term. OSPIRG has divided into several new "task forces” on which to focus research efforts, and hopes to draw in students by offering credits for work on OSPIRG projects. The task forces include campus and community outreach, handicavped issues and community and economic development. Criticized in the past for concentrating too heavily on lobbying efforts, the program will now turn toward becoming the "research arm of the Oregon progressive research movement,” Pyle says. OSPIRG will give completed research to public interest grouvs who can use the information for their lobbying efforts, he says. OSPIRG is hoping to achieve a better balance between lobbying and research, says state board chairman Lee Schissler. Pyle says he wants some lobbying done, but there will be little local advocacy. The program will follow certain bills in the legislature — but the thrust will be in research, he adds. OSPIRG is the only organization that can bring students together on a state-wide basis and the research will probably continue to focus on issues that involve students on a positive level, Pyle says. T avern gets new name, new home Taylor’s Coffee Shop, the noisy taphouse just off campus, picked up its tape player and beer license Thursday and moved down the street. The owners of the well-known watering hole will open their new tavern — called Rennie’s Landing — for business Saturday at 1214 Kincaid St. Tavern owners Jon LaBranch, Steve Hessel and Nate Bartholomew leased the old Taylor's building from its owner Rod Taylor who reportedly will open a new establishment in the old building. Rennie's Landing is a large, two-story home built around 1920. LaBranch and Hessel bought the building last year when they decided not to renew the lease with Taylor. The owners plan to expand the sandwich menu, and serve breakfast and dinner. But maybe most important of all, as one Taylor’s employee said, “it will have clean bathrooms and a plumbing system that works." Photos by Steve Dykes
