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OSPIRG raids event at Mills Intl. Center for signatures.

Apparently some OSPIRG petitioners went to a coffee hour event for international students at the MIC and send their petition around in a way that made some people upset, including me after reading about it. I wish you could make this up. From today’s Ol’ Dirty:

“It was not an event that was targeted for them to come and politically try and push their agenda on to people. It was a social event, meant to be talking, learning about international culture,” [University junior Janessa] Nelson said. “I don’t think they were fully telling the students what they were, who they were, what it was for … they speak English, but maybe not the best English, and to have them sort of be pushed into signing something, they weren’t really spending a lot of time with them.”

And the fun continues:

“There were like three of them (OSPIRG petitioners), and they kind of spread out across the room, and they were all signing; it just seemed really rude to me. We’re there to have coffee and have fun with each other,” [University sophomore Daniel] Hartley said. “And it also just seemed weird, because over half of these people are not citizens of the United States … I know half of them didn’t understand what they were doing.”

Are you that desperate for signatures that you have to crash an event at MIC and get them from people who are just learning about this country and this university? This is the worst kind of manipulative politics. If I was put in that situation under the same conditions as those students and then, after the fact, was given the information I have at my disposal now, I would feel taken advantage of. Whoever’s idea this was has some explaining to do.

  1. Betz says:

    Don’t conflate that which is permissible under law to be equivalent as to that which we think is OK (honorable, dignifiable, cool … insert your own def’n here). This is a forum of opinion, after all…

  2. Miles Rost says:

    That’s what you get, Rockne, with a criminal enterprise.

  3. Rockne Andrew Roll says:

    It doesn’t bother me that OSPIRGers came to an open, public student gathering to collect signatures. It is annoying, but you are correct, so is talking to petitioners on the street. What I find so distasteful about this particular incident is, on top of already providing a miniscule amount of information about their operation and its history, OSPIRG was specifically targeting people for whom english is a second language, making it even more difficult to understand the aims and purpose of OSPIRG. It’s disingenuous.

  4. Ellie Macallan says:

    My apologies, I misunderstood the event, in which case you seem to be correct in your analysis.

  5. Seriously, it’s just a room where there is free coffee and people happen to be. There is also sometimes a speech.

  6. Ellie Macallan says:

    seems to me ’twas “international coffee hour” not “OSPRIG” hour, it was a bit rude of them to crash the party (though I do suppose “everyone” was invited but it’s discourteous to partake in your own event as opposed to what’s going on).

  7. In all honesty, this is not a big deal. It was International Coffee Hour, which is basically just a big social to which everyone is invited. I can imagine being bothered by canvassers would be annoying there, but it’s annoying on the street too, isn’t it? This wasn’t really against the rules. I think the comments about international students are kind of patronizing.

    These comments, though, are entirely independent of the idea of OSPIRG.

  8. Ellie Macallan says:

    LOL.

  9. Heh. says:

    If OSPIRG were a man, he’d be a serial rapist, since apparently OSPIRG doesn’t understand that “no” means “no.”

    Just say no to the culture of rape on campus. Say no to OSPIRG.

  10. monalisasmiles says:

    OSPIRG has GOT TO GO!! They’re a waste of money and time. Their lobbying is annoying and they seem desperate to get anything accomplished. They haven’t done anything for UO students, except taking our money.

  11. Ellie Macallan says:

    If OSPRIG were a man, they’d be picking up women at the district.

  12. NGA says:

    OSPIRG: So many strikes, if they were based in CA the 3 strikes law would have remedied the problem years ago. Permanently…

    *DISCLAIMER* I am in no way advocating the death/life imprisonment of OSPIRG members. Don’t do it

  13. Just sayin' says:

    OSPIRG: more strikes against them than the Chicago Cubs batting order.

  14. Voldemort says:

    I could totally have made that up. Just saying.

  15. Cameron says:

    Just one more strike against them…

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