OSPIRG no longer a student group
By: David Holley
Issue date: 10/9/07 Section: News
Research and advocacy group OSPIRG is no longer considered a student group by the organization that runs all of Portland State's student groups.
OSPIRG will not be classified as a student group because the group's mission statement refers to it as a corporation, instead of a student-led group, according to a memo sent to PSU administrators and OSPIRG leaders Monday morning by Natalee Webb, the OSPIRG advisor in Student Activities and Leadership Programs (SALP).
For the time being, the Oregon Student Public Interest Research Group (OSPIRG) will not have access to services that other student groups receive under SALP such as accounting, advising and the right to reserve on-campus rooms as student groups, Webb wrote in the memo.
Alongside those restrictions, the group may also be temporarily unable to access their entire budget for this school year. To fix the situation, OSPIRG leaders will have to find an organization or department at PSU to sponsor it in the same way that SALP did, the memo states.
The memo states that students do not determine the PSU OSPIRG mission and purpose, and that the group's primary leaders are not PSU students. Most of the more than 100 PSU student groups are advised by and administered through SALP.
SALP is meant to advise groups that are student-run, student-led, and student-organized, said Aimee Shattuck, interim director of SALP. She said that the PSU OSPIRG constitution, which describes the group's mission and purpose, does not describe a group that is student-led or organized, but instead describes itself as a corporation.
OSPIRG, which is a subsidiary of the group with the same acronym that focuses interests specific to the state of Oregon, instead of only students, was funded $128,235 from the Student Fee Committee last year. The Student Fee Committee will now have to decide whether OSPIRG will receive any of its funds, said committee chair Amanda Newberg, because SALP no longer considers OSPIRG a student group.
OSPIRG will not be classified as a student group because the group's mission statement refers to it as a corporation, instead of a student-led group, according to a memo sent to PSU administrators and OSPIRG leaders Monday morning by Natalee Webb, the OSPIRG advisor in Student Activities and Leadership Programs (SALP).
For the time being, the Oregon Student Public Interest Research Group (OSPIRG) will not have access to services that other student groups receive under SALP such as accounting, advising and the right to reserve on-campus rooms as student groups, Webb wrote in the memo.
Alongside those restrictions, the group may also be temporarily unable to access their entire budget for this school year. To fix the situation, OSPIRG leaders will have to find an organization or department at PSU to sponsor it in the same way that SALP did, the memo states.
The memo states that students do not determine the PSU OSPIRG mission and purpose, and that the group's primary leaders are not PSU students. Most of the more than 100 PSU student groups are advised by and administered through SALP.
SALP is meant to advise groups that are student-run, student-led, and student-organized, said Aimee Shattuck, interim director of SALP. She said that the PSU OSPIRG constitution, which describes the group's mission and purpose, does not describe a group that is student-led or organized, but instead describes itself as a corporation.
OSPIRG, which is a subsidiary of the group with the same acronym that focuses interests specific to the state of Oregon, instead of only students, was funded $128,235 from the Student Fee Committee last year. The Student Fee Committee will now have to decide whether OSPIRG will receive any of its funds, said committee chair Amanda Newberg, because SALP no longer considers OSPIRG a student group.
Viewing Comments 1 - 3 of 3
M Glass
posted 10/11/07 @ 11:18 AM PST
Reading the latest Willamette Week I saw the article about PSU/OSPIRG. I was a SFC (then the Incidental Fee Committee) member from 1995-96 and 1996-97 and we wrestled with the same issue that the current SFC is dealing with. (Continued…)
devietro
posted 10/12/07 @ 1:02 AM PST
this is long in comming. This group has destroyed my campus and wasted much money. They funnel student funds out of state. The only thing that ever protected them is that the SFC and SALP was so very in love with the mission of OSPIRG they could not let it die. (Continued…)
patti
posted 10/12/07 @ 1:32 PM PST
the headline should read "OSPIRG no longer a student group (again). as an alumnus of PSU, i think it's absurd that OSPIRG was reinstated and that SALP allocated 10 percent, 10 PERCENT!!!, of a budget created by student fees to fund a group that "cleans the river. (Continued…)
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