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.