Despite running into funding issues in fall term, the Portland State OSPIRG chapter plans to continue work for the rest of the school year, including raising awareness for global warming and beginning a textbook campaign aimed at lowering costs to students.
PSU OSPIRG is a subsidiary of the larger Oregon State Public Interest Research Group, which lobbies for Oregon-specific interests. The PSU group met Wednesday evening to flesh out a number of agenda items and issues to focus on in 2008.
OSPIRG plans for 2008
OSPIRG is currently involved in a campaign designed to address a cost most students have to pay: textbooks.
The OSPIRG textbook campaign, aimed at helping lower rising textbook prices, will continue this year. So far OSPIRG said they have addressed the issue by bringing the matter to the attention of major media outlets across the country.
Members of the group said an impact of their campaigns was new Oregon legislation, passed at the beginning of this year, which requires publishing companies to disclose textbook prices to professors who choose required material for their courses.
OSPIRG also hopes to get PSU professors to endorse “open textbooks,” which are textbooks written by professors and are available online free with the tuition of the class.
The group will be continuing their work for the Campus Climate Challenge campaign, designed to help find solutions for global warming and raise awareness about the issue. PSU and hundreds of other universities and high schools are participating in the national campaign.
OSPIRG members involved in organizing the global warming campaign said that they want students to know that their are solutions to global warming.
Their main message for OSPIRG, they say, is for students to participate to make a difference.
“Get involved, push yourself,” said Courtney Morse, an OSPIRG supporter and former PSU student body president.
Still no change for OSPIRG funding
In October, OSPIRG lost access to its $128,232 budget for this year, until it could find a department on campus to act as its home base. The decision to take away OSPIRG’s funding was made by the Student Fee Committee after the Student Activities and Leadership Programs, which was OSPIRG’s home base at PSU, declared that OSPIRG can no longer be considered a student group. SALP stated that it does not think PSU students determine the mission of OSPIRG.
SALP Interim Director Aimee Shattuck said she hasn’t heard from OSPIRG since fall term.
OSPIRG has not yet found a department or group on campus that will house the organization because the group is waiting to finish dialogue with students and others in the university about the matter, said OSPIRG’s PSU Campus Organizer, Katie Kleese. She said there are misconceptions that need to be cleared up about the group and that they will be meeting with the Student Fee Committee and SALP about those misconceptions soon.