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