OSPIRG issues estimated budget
The organization seeks to
improve its image after
being defunded last spring
By Kristina Rudinskas
Oregon Daily Emerald
The Committee to Re-establish
OSPIRG wants students to know
it’s still on campus after the Uni
versity chapter of OSPIRG lost
student funding last spring.
“We need to improve our im
age to make people want us
back,” said Jereme Grzybowski, a
member of the committee.
OSPIRG, the Oregon Student
Public Interest Research Group,
is a statewide student-run organi
zation that works to protect the
environment, consumers and stu
dent interests. There are chapters
at Portland State University,
Lewis and Clark College and
Lane Community College.
OSPIRG was founded 27 years
ago by University students to get
students organized around issues
important to them. Today there
are 16 states with at least one stu
dent PIRG chapter, 70 college
campuses with chapters and 46
states with either a citizen or stu
dent PIRG.
During ASUO elections last
spring, a ballot measure renew
ing OSPIRG's funding at
$147,390 a year, approximately
$2.88 per student a term, failed to
receive enough student votes.
“It made a huge dent in what
we can do this year,” said Merri
ah Fairchild, committee member.
“Not that students made the
wrong decision; they made the
best decision with the informa
tion they had.”
The committee was estab
OSPIRG’s estimated
1997 expenses
Each student pays $2.88 per term. It
is broken up approximately as fol
lows.
49 cents for the Toxics and
Clean Water Program
3 cents for fundraising
20 cents for administration
43 cents for recycling
40 cents for the democracy
program, which includes voter reg
istration and watchdog government
and elections
37 cents for consumer watchdog
35 cents for higher educa
tion campaigns like saving student
aid and control of the incidental fee
32 cents for service projects like
Stream walk and the Campaign
Against Hunger and Homelessness
29 cents for saving endan
gered species
SOURCE: OSPIRG
lislied after about 200 student
leaders and faculty members
signed a letter of support to get
an OSPIRG chapter back on cam
pus. The EMU Board voted to
continue to allow the committee
to retain office space in Suite 1
in the EMU.
“I don’t think we did the best
job communicating,” Fairchild
said. “I bet money that the major
ity of students agree with the
work OSPIRG does.”
Money was part of the contro
versy surrounding OSPIRG. Stu
dent groups that receive funding
through ballot measure lump
sums are not required to submit a
line-item budget outlining how
ballot measure money is spent.
OSPIRG does submit a budget
to the Programs Finance Commit
tee, but the Honesty Campaign
requested that OSPIRG explain
where all student money was be
ing spent.
“They were really extraordi
narily unaccountable,” said
Jonathan Collegio, who spear
headed the Honesty Campaign
last spring.
The campaign demanded that
OSPIRG release a line-item bud
get detailing how much money
stays on campus.
“All other student organiza
tions had a line-item budget.
That was really their death
knoll,” Collegio said.
Fairchild said the Committee
to Re-Establish OSPIRG is trying
to focus on changing its image,
educating students about its cam
paigns and building student
coalitions and support.
"Doing all these things is what
it takes to get re-established,"
Fairchild said.
Today the committee receives
money from the state OSPIRG
board, so it can continue to oper
ate on campus.
“It’s a stretch, but this is the
birthplace, and this is a priority,”
Fairchild said.
The committee will be handing
out fliers with the approximate
estimate of OSPIRG’s 1997 fiscal
year expenses along with infor
mation on OSPIRG campaigns.
The committee wants to gener
ate enough student support to
pass another ballot measure in
ASUO elections this spring to re
new funding.We wouldn’t want
to do it any other way,” Fairchild
said.
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