How does OSPIRG spend your money?

About $100,000 of the money that former student group OSPIRG received from PSU this year will go to operations outside of Portland State, according to financial documents provided by the research and advocacy group.

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.