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About Oregon daily emerald. (Eugene, Or.) 1920-2012 | View Entire Issue (Feb. 25, 1981)
daily&merald Vol. 82, No. 108 Eugene, Oregon 97403 Wednesday, February 25, 1981 IFC slashes OSPIRG’s budget Fee committee chops request - By ANN PORTAL Of the Emerald More than 20 Oregon Student Public Interest Research Group (OSPIRG) members watched the Incidental Fee Committee fulfill predictions of a drastic cut in their budget Tuesday night. Acting on a recommendation from ASUO Pres. Dave Eaton, the committee voted 4-3 to slash 75 percent of OSPIRG’s 1981-82 budget The IFC ap proved a $10,000 budget — OSPIRG had requested $42,294. Responding to charges by IFC members that the group does not repre sent local student interests, the commit tee adopted an ammendment requiring half the amount go to the local board and half to the state board. In the past, funds allocated by each school have been pooled at the state level and disbursed by the OSPIRG state board of directors. This year about $4,000 of the University’s $42,294 con tribution was returned to the campus group. Tuesday's cut will affect the state or ganization far more than the local, OSPIRG’S state director believes. Executive director Tibbett Speer said the state OSPIRG offices may be forced to close and state positions may be cut back. As a result of the cut, the local board will lose two of its three state board positions. This will drastically reduce University influence on the state board, Speer said. Eaton said he recommended the cut as an effort to ‘'cleanse” the program of problems it has had in the recent past. "For the past two or three years there has been some problems in the state wide organization,” he said. Local OSPIRG director Dan Pyle said the program had struggled under the previous state director, Ross Williams. Since William’s firing, the organization has become effective again, Pyle believes. Pyle said the cut would make the state board totally ineffective. ''We provide students with the only organization they can come to state wide.” "This is enough to get it going in the right direction, and to remind them to be more student oriented,” IFC member Ann Alexander said But Richard Sontag, the IFC member who reviewed the program's budget, said he had already seen a “change in direction” toward more local emphasis. Several committee members indicated the program could receive higher fund ing at a later date if it proves effective In other business, the IFC gave the Muslim Student Association $1,712, 63 percent less than they requested. The program has had trouble managing money during the past 18 months, said ASUO Vice Pres. Chris Moore, but does maintain a high level of activity on cam pus. The IFC allocated $860 to the Political Science Student Union, $3,969 to ME ChA, and $204 to the Psychology Club. Members of the Chinese Student As sociation did not attend the meeting. Photo by Dennis Tachibana IFC chairer Jon Neiderbach, consulting here with fellow IFC member Susan Harris, said he was "not disappointed” with the OSPIRG funding cuts, but that $10,000 was “still twice as much as they should have gotten." Fraternity orders investigation following injury of pledges An accident in which two University fraternity members were seriously in jured has prompted an investigation by the Oregon Kappa Sigma alumni com mission, says dean of students Bob Bowlin. The commission will meet this week and report its findings to the national Kappa Sigma alumni board and the University, says Bill Engle, a member of the state group Two Kappa Sigma pledges were hos pitalized — one in serious condition — after being struck by an automobile while walking on a dark road with seven other pledges near Marcola, a county sheriff’s office representative says. A McKenzie-Willamette Hospital representative said Tuesday that Mark Roiser was still in serious condition in the intensive care unit with head injur ies and a fractured left leg. Ron Pierce was moved from inten sive care Tuesday and is in stable con dition with multiple cuts and bruises, the representative said. The pledges reportedly were taken by other fraternity members to Shotgun Creek Park at about 11 p.m. Sunday and were told to walk back to Eugene. They were walking back on Marcola Road when they flagged down a Mar cola Volunteer Fire Department truck and asked for a ride to the nearest telephone. While driver Bruce Larson was ex plaining that he couldn’t give them a ride, another car came around a corner, causing the students to scatter. The car, driven by Herman Cook of Marcola, struck Pierce and Roiser, the sheriff’s office said. Sheriff’s deputies have issued no citations in connection with the ac cident and none are anticipated Both University and Kappa Sigma regulations prohibit student hazing Other schools cut OSPIRG By PAUL TELLES Ol the Emerald Far from an isolated incident, the In cidental Fee Committee’s slashing of the Oregon Student Public Interest Re search Group (OSPIRG) budget is part of a state-wide re-examination of the group’s structure. Of the seven Oregon campuses that contribute to OSPIRG, Lewis and Clark College and Portland State University have joined the University in substantial ly cutting OSPIRG’s 1981-82 budget. Earlier this month, the student senate at Lewis and Clark allocated $2,500 to OSPIRG for the coming year, a $3,000 decrease from last year. • Although Lewis and Clark student leaders believe “the idea behind OSPIRG is a good one,’’ they feel the group is floundering after firing its state director last term, says Rob Alvarez, student government vice-president. Earlier this quarter, Lewis and Clark student government Pres. Lee Weinstein recommended that OSPIRG be zero funded during the current budget-setting session, but Weinstein probably won’t veto the appropriation, Alvarez says. According to Tibbett Speer, OSPIRG executive director, the PSU Incidental Fee Committee Monday night allocated $15,000 to OSPIRG, almost $15,000 less than the group’s 1980 budget. The al location will now have to be approved by the PSU student senate. Such cuts mignt De a Diessing in disguise” because they will make OSPIRG more responsive to the cam puses that fund it, says Portland State University student Pres. Dave Urmann Like Alvarez, Urman says he is a "proponent" of OSPIRG. But he is con cerned that the group has spent too much time and money on state-wide projects instead of concentrating on projects initiated by students at the member schools. On a more postitive note for OSPIRG, student government leaders at Oregon State University and Southern Oregon State College say they support the organization and feel it performs a valuable service for Oregon students. Although both OSU's !FC and student senate cut OSPIRG s summer budget because of dissatisfaction with the group’s performance, the quality of the new leadership in OSU's OSPIRG chapter will prevent major cuts, says Brad Bullock, OSU student government treasurer. Bullock says the Associated Students of OSU is committed to "doing everyth ing we can to get them (OSPIRG) off the ground.” OSU students contributed $10,620 to OSPIRG in 1980, and a similar allocation is likely this year, he says. At SOSC, a recent poll indicated that 54 percent of the students supported a "state-wide student group like OSPIRG," says Peter Barry, SOSC student govern ment president. Earlier this month, a budget committee at the college recom mended that the group receive $4,500 — $500 less than its current allocation. Barry says he expects no strong op position to the recommendation.
