OSPIRG Might Get The Ax
OSPIRG’s budget hearing is today, and a lot of people are calling for its head. (I’ve always been partial to a good ol’ “draw and quarter,” but that’s besides the point.)
OSPIRG, for those not in the know, is a “public interest group” that funnels money from college campuses into statewide lobbying efforts. For example, the OSPIRG chapter at the University of Oregon gets more than $100,000 in student money each year. Once again, that’s 100k of student money forcefully taken and spent off campus for lobbying purposes. (OSPIRG also has the gall to send volunteers to campus to shake down students for even more cash.)
Portland State and Oregon State have already defunded their respective OSPIRG chapters citing the aforementioned money-funneling. Even some ODE columnists have gotten into the act.
We here at the Commentator have been railing against OSPIRG and its nefarious ways for nigh on 25 years now. In fact, we spearheaded a campaign that got it defunded back in 1998, but the ASUO brought the group back through dark, political magick. I, for one, eagerly await tasting the yummy, sweet tears of its supporters.
The hearing is at 3:30 p.m in Straub 154, for all those interested. I will be twittering the proceedings.
I’m pretty sure that’s still the money laundering method of choice.
“If we judged organizations based on what they do, it would violate viewpoint neutrality.”
Please, random-guy-who-might-be-a-joke, think this statement through.
“Also the student PIRGS are not the ones with clipboards asking for money, that is Oregon State PIRG, which is a different entity entirely.”
Do the students still pay the rent of OS(tate)PIRG, or did that loophole finally get closed? I haven’t been keeping up.
And yet, Cimmy-boy, what is the name of the group that comes in with one hand outstretched and the other in your back pocket? O-S-PIRG. The same group with the clipboards. They are one and the same.
Defund these assholes. It’ll give people like me the time to get a case to have it shut down for violating RICO statutes.
Cims: In ’83, all the state PIRGs banded together to make a national lobbying organization. They picked up the student PIRGs as their recruiting tool. It’s been tainted ever since. Do the research instead of going by what you’re told. The “disassociated with the state PIRG” argument just doesn’t cut it anymore.
The argument that you don
That wasn’t the point at all. Our point is that OSPIRG spends the vast majority of its money off campus for explicitly political purposes. They don’t provide a service on campus. It’s a racket, pure and simple.
P.S. If the student PIRG and the state PIRG are entirely different, why do they share the same office … and same telephone number… and same staff members?
The argument that you don’t like what they do and therefore they should be defunded is absurd. There are many services on campus which I don’t use or particularly like, but that is not why they are funded. They are funded because they contribute to the cultural and physical development of the university. If we judged organizations based on what they do, it would violate viewpoint neutrality.
Also the student PIRGS are not the ones with clipboards asking for money, that is Oregon State PIRG, which is a different entity entirely.
I am praying that the pig gets defunded.
I always forget that you were a geography student.
I was once taking a class in Hydrology and an Ospirg rep. came in to ask for our money, tell us about something ‘important’ and to claim that we need to help them for many reasons…among which was that the Willamette River is the most polluted river west of the Mississippi.
My Hydrology prof. asked the person where they got that information.
The Ospirg rep had no idea (obviously a talking point gone awry) and backed out of the room to us stifling our laughter.
The answer is next time ospiggglets spare change you on campus offer them a half finished cup of coffee. If they do not accept it then yell in their face that they are causing global warming.
I actually liked Navarro’s analogy. It only takes 1 cup of coffee to fund OSPIRG. If that’s all it takes, students who want to fund OSPIRG should give 2, 3 or even 4 cups of coffee. Heck, make it a point to buy them a coffee once a week.
But I shouldn’t be forced to give my cup of coffee to a group who tries to enact policy that I may not agree with.
If OSPIRG were as big and vital as they claimed to be, then surely on a campus like the University of Oregon they would be able to get as much money in donations as they need. But maybe they’re not as important as they think, and maybe students either don’t want OSPIRG enough or care about it enough to donate their coffee to keep OSPIRG running. If that is the case (and I’m pretty sure it is), we don’t need OSPIRG on campus.
Why not make some apt analogies?
Would the U of O hire an Economics professor at 120K a year and then be happy if he taught 25K worth of classes with the requisite office hours, etc. Then, to justify this discrepancy, the professor rambled on about how he/she was an expert in Economics and it takes an expert to navigate the hallowed halls of Academic Econ and that this somehow benefited the U of O in the long run…and not the professor? Oh wait…that might actually happen.
We could simplify it further.
Would anyone be ok with buying 120 beers and then arrive home after a long day to see that there are only 25 in the fridge? I guess this could happen if you had asses for roommates.
Further?
You win $120, but only receive $25 (before taxes). Wait, that’s exactly the scenario. Hmmmm.
Ok. No wonder this meeting arrived nowhere.
cut cut CUT!!!!!!
The worst part of the whole thing was that shitburgler named Chris Navarro. He kept standing up holding some shitty cup of coffee and comparing the costs of that to ospirg. Yea, they both give me headaches, great fucking analogy.
Chris navarro needs to wake up and realize he is a sophmore in the dorms with no friends of his own, this is why he needs to find a “community”, because he has no friends.
This goes to prove the long-believed theory that most of these radical money lovers are actually anti-social idiots who need to rally together to be accepted.
NAVARRO: Your rhetoric makes you look super dumb, so shut ur pie hole.
Time constraints? No vote?
I knew it was a good move to not bother going to that meeting. And to think that I hoped something would get done.
I’ve got my pitchfork, tar and feathers… I’ll be there!
The ospiggg must be gutted.
Here is my problem with OSPIRG:
With other similar contract’s (OSA) their stregnth is drawn from the student’s working together.
With OSPIRG, both the student members and Mike Reagan their campus organizer, talk about the power is in their professional staff. (This is their excuse of why they can’t be a student group.)
The Incidental Fee is defined as working towards the cultural, physical, and educational development of the student body, NOT, a bunch of adults in Portland.
The ASUO needs to defund OSPIRG and put this long storied issue to rest!