Finance committee
can’t interpret law
An ongoing debate — centering on the question of
whether the University's chapter of OSP1RG should
receive student funds — will come to a head tonight, as
the ASUO Programs Finance Committee hears the
group's budget request,
The debate, which has taken an ugly turn in recent
weeks, is based upon two separate considerations: The
first is whether it is logal for OSPIRG to receive a share
of incidental fees, which are charged of every student
along with their tuition, even from students who dis
agree with the group's various positions — which
include environmental, hunger and consumer safety
issues. The second consideration is whether students are
getting enough bang for the 137.775 bucks they shell out
each term.
The first question, the question of legality, is by far the
stickiest. A group calling itself Students for Legal Gov
ernment has boon organized to oppose OSP1RG, charging
that OSPIRG's activities are political in nature, and
therefore, should not receive mandatorily assessed stu
dent funds. It is illegal, the group argues, to force stu
dents to pay to support an organization which engages
in activities they do not agree with.
Students for Legal Government points to a variety of
court r ases, as well as a 1985 Attorney General’s opin
ion, to support this argument, which may or may not
have merit, This newspaper is not qualified to make that
legal judgment.
Unfortunately, neither are the individual!*) behind
Students for Legal Government. And. for that matter,
neither is the Programs Finance Committee, which is
being asked to do just that — make a logal judgment.
OSP1RG receives a huge chunk of student foes At
SI 37,775, OSP1KG has the third largest budget of ail stu
dent groups, and its budget is not likely to decrease
much in the future.
With that much money at stake, the committee has an
obligation to find a definitive answer from a qualified,
disinterested source to this far from-clear legal ques
tion.
Seeking such an answer carries with it some risks. It
makes the finance committee appear incapable of mak
ing decisions, which is an invitation for the administra
tion to come in and remove students from the foe allo
cation process altogether. At many other universities,
such responsibilities already lie entirely in administra
tion hands.
But the committee members still must take that risk
They cannot rely on laymen to interpret the law for
them, nor should they interpret it for themselves.
They are qualified, however, to consider whether the
money being spent on OSP1RG is going to good use, to
the benefit of students. That second question, which
should bo examined in detail, should ter the committee's
only concern — at least until the legal question receives
some satisfactory resolution.
Oregon Daily
Emerald
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■ COMMENTARY
Activism must remain strong
Kalpana Knshnamurthy
Think about why you come
to sc hool You want to get
an education You want
to get a glimpse of how other
people think about our world
and our c ultures Essentially,
you want to leant. I came to the
University of Oregon to do all of
these things But the more I
learned about the way that stu
dents' concerns are ignored, the
more I learned that if I wanted to
change issues 1 had to get
involved
So 1 looked around it my
choices I could either ignore
the mess and hope it went aw ay
or do something about it fortu
nately. the U of O has a 25-year
tradition of student activism
Twenty five years of students
fighting for civil rights, cultural
diversity, ethnic identity, and a
clean environment Twenty-five
years of students saying that
people shouldn't sleep on the
streets, that wo shouldn't clear
cut our forests, and that we
shouldn't h« rac ist or sexist or
homophobic Twenty-five years
of students fighting to make our
voices heard.
I chose OSPIRG because I
wanted to he heard and wanted
to have a voice in the process If
students want to take on a spe
cial interest, they need to get
organized So in 1972, U of O
students organized a statewide
petition drive that would create
the first Public Interest Research
Group in the nation. Grattan
Koran*, then the editor of the
Emerald, even ran the petition
on the front page of the paper.
The drive worked and ONPIRG
bee nme a reality at the II of ():
since then the PIRG’s have
spread to 35 slates across the
nation.
It was, and still is. somewhat
irrelevant what "public interest”
issues OSP1RG students are
active on. There's no OSP1RG
definition of the term "public
interest " Because students, and
only students, pick OSPIRG's
agenda, any group of involved
students can work to set the
agenda And there's really no
reason why OSP1RG couldn't
work on promoting nuclear
energy or on managed forest
plans Those stam t>s, however,
don't seem to be popular with
students As the Environmen
tal Studies major becomes a
reality. 1 don't think it comes as
a surprise to anyone that stu
dents are making a conscious
de< ision to work on issues like
ancient forests and recycling,
Not only do students control
what OSPIRC works on hut we
also control how OSPIRG is
funded and how that money is
spent Mere at U of O. students
vote every other year to fund
PIRG through the incidental fee
the same fee that funds the
Survival Center, the Black Stu
dent Union, and nearly every
other recognized student group
at the U of O Just last year, stu
dents voted to fully fund
OSPIRG and pool the money
statewide to hire the maximum
number of staffers. No lawyers
in ugly white suits, no fatsuit lob
byists Just a group of recent
college graduates working with
students to organize and educate
around student selected issues.
Students have always felt staff
were the best resources possible
for the issues they work on
Why shouldn't we have a full
time staff at our disposal? Pol
luters and special interests have
staffs working for — staff who
facilitate pollution and the erod
ing of democratic rights. For
example, the American Plastics
Council, an out-of-state lobbying
group, spent $400,000 last year
to gut the landmark state recy
cling law that U of () students
fought to pass.
When all's said and done, the
staff are an integral part of why
U of () students passed the
nation's toughest re< ycling law,
why U of () students i ontinue to
register huge numbers of new
voters, why between 150 and
200 U of O students educate
hundreds of Eugene school chil
dren about the environment
And all of this is funded through
the incidental fiv
The incidental fee if just that,
incidental. And students have
voted for OSPIRG and increases
in the incidental fee because
they support a diverse set of stu
dent programs OSPIRG’s cut
of the fee works out to about
$2.75 per student. If we want to
talk about expenses and ai t ess
to higher education, let's talk
about tuition and financial aid
cuts instead We need student
programs because we have a
right to protect our planet, to
explore out cultural identities,
and to have a voice in the
prot ess We, as students, have a
right to organize and fully fund
all the programs that exist
through the incidental fee. Ulti
mately, we must keep student
activism strong at the U of Q
Just as it's been for the last 25
years.
Kalpana Krishnamurthy is the
State Board Chairwoman for
OSPIRG
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