How does OSPIRG spend your money?
By: David Holley
Issue date: 11/2/07 Section: News
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The PSU chapter of OSPIRG estimated that its operation will cost $25,429 for the 2007-08 school year. However, the Student Fee Committee gave the group $128,235, almost five times the amount it takes to operate the PSU chapter.
The remainder of the money, about $102,000, goes to the Oregon Student Public Research Interest Group (OSPIRG), a research and advocacy group that houses five Oregon college chapters. Jesse Bufton, a longstanding member of the PSU chapter of OSPIRG, said that even though the money does not directly fund operations at the PSU chapter, the additional $102,806 does eventually come back to Portland State.
About $55,000 of the $102,806 that goes outside of Portland State would pay for part of seven salaries on the OSPIRG staff. The salaries pay for positions in OSPIRG that are not directly related to PSU, such as the executive director, the administrative director and experts on various issues.
"The idea is to have the staff that can assist us at different places at different times. That is a lot of what the money goes for," Bufton said. "It comes back to us, in that they come and help us with our stuff."
Close to $13,000 of the $102,000 pays for things such as OSPIRG's rent, office supplies and general equipment maintenance. The rest of that cash amount--about $35,000--pays for research, organizational training and development, and staff and student travel.
The $25,429 that goes directly to the PSU chapter of OSPIRG pays for a campus organizer (the largest distribution at $20,188), events, brochures, office supplies, and long-distance and out-of-state travel for staff members.
The PSU chapter of OSPIRG lost access to its $128,235 budget on Oct. 19 after the Student Fee Committee (SFC) decided to put a hold on the group's budget because of the way the budget is dispersed and the way it is spent. OSPIRG is now working with the PSU contracts office to find a way to access their money by being classified as a student service instead of a student group.
The SFC allocates close to $12 million in student fees to more than 100 PSU student organizations and activities, including athletics and The Vanguard. Every person enrolled as a full-time student at PSU pays $202 each term to make up the majority of the $12 million SFC fund.
OSPIRG has historically been funded by student fees and is split up six ways: five colleges in Oregon, including Portland State and the University of Oregon, house individual chapters and one main group which houses each of the college chapters. Each of the colleges gives a portion of student fees to make up the entirety of OSPIRG's budget. Portland State contributes the largest portion.
OSPIRG is related to the state advocacy group that goes by the same acronym, which campaigns at both local and national levels.
The OSPIRG office is located in Southeast Portland, about two miles away from the Portland State campus.
Viewing Comments 1 - 4 of 4
Chris LaFave
posted 11/02/07 @ 6:18 AM PST
Oh my God this ticks me off. This is my fourth year at Portland State and this is the first time that I've seen their expenses itemized beyond the token ten or twenty bucks they've itemized for "printing expenses". (Continued…)
Alicyn
Ali
posted 11/05/07 @ 1:28 PM PST
Hear Hear! I am running a new student group and have a meager $800 to put together events ALL YEAR for recruitment, advertising, equipment, food, supplies, etc etc etc; They are sucking up such a huge amount of our student fees and what do we see for it as PSU students? Although I may not totally advocate for them to get no funding at all, I certainly believe that they shouldn't be taking a lion's share of the pot either. (Continued…)
Christina Overturf
posted 11/14/07 @ 5:55 AM PST
When I was volunteering for GOTV efforts on campus in 2004, our group kicked them OUT of our coalition because despite having all that money-they didn't do shit for our campaign but definitely wanted to take credit for the hard work!
SFC has taken their money away before, either in 2005 or 2006, unfortunately its nothing new and it looks like things haven't changed!
Marvin McConoughey
posted 11/29/07 @ 12:17 PM PST
OSPIRG is a long term leech on higher education students. It exists for the ego gratification of its governing elite and close hangers-on. Oregon is long overdue for a major scholarly research project to define and measure the damage done to student enrollment rates by so-called student education fees. (Continued…)
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