boyd@orstcs.UUCP (boyd) (01/20/86)
A fight is now brewing on the Oregon State University Campus as to
how a PIRG (Public Interest Research Group) should be funded. Currently,
this actively political group is funded through mandatory student fees. A
group of students calling themselves OSFA (OSU Students For Accountability)
is seeking make the fee a voluntary one.
I understand that a group Rutgers students successfully sued their
university for collecting a similar fee for NJPIRG, because it was a
violation of First Amendment rights. Anyone have any more information?
It does appear that forcing students to pay for organizations of this
type would be a violation of their individual rights since PIRG's actively
take partisan positions on many issues and attempt to sway public opinion
off campus. So are mandatory PIRG fees legal?
Any stories, anecdotes or information pro or con would be helpful.
Thanks.
wjjordan@watdragon.UUCP (W. Jim Jordan) (01/24/86)
Waterloo's approach to the problem of collecting fees is like this: Some fees, like tuition, co-op fee, dumb computer fee, supplementary health insurance and the athletic fee are required for registration. Other fees such as the Federation of Students, faculty student society, campus paper, campus radio station and PIRG are refundable. Students may cross these off the fee statement when they pay their tuition (frowned upon by the Financial Services office), or they may pay them and ask for a refund from the appropriate organisation (that way the University itself doesn't have to be involved with it) during the first three weeks of lectures if they do not wish to support the service. Students withdrawing their Federation or faculty society fee lose all privileges that they would hold as members (cheaper admission to concerts, pubs, etc., the Legal Resource Office and other services). Students withdrawing their PIRG, campus paper or campus radio fee should not partake of their activities and products in good conscience, but there's nothing to monitor that. As far as I know, Waterloo is the only Canadian university with refundable incidental fees. Perhaps you could propose something similar at OSU. -- "What, me graduate?" W. Jim Jordan CANADA POST (3 weeks): c/o Conrad Grebel College, Waterloo, Ont., N2L 3G6 USENET (overnight): ...!watmath!watdragon!wjjordan
jdz@wucec2.UUCP (Jason D. Zions) (01/27/86)
About 5 years ago, Washington University removed its mandatory support for
MoPIRG. It was done by student referrendum, rather than by appeal to legal
issues. For two years after that, fee cards were enclosed with tution bills
to that interested students could send their PIRG fees to MoPIRG; this was
halted when someone pointed out that if MoPIRG had this privilege, then any
organization could do the same. University legal counsel had the fee cards
removed.
Haven't heard much from MoPIRG since; they seem to have died away. They no
longer provide legal services (they have no legal staff available for student
consultation) and don't seem to be very active. We occasionally heard from them
during the Calloway nuke plant battles, but not since. Oh, well... no loss.
--
Jason D. Zions jdz@wucec2
Center for Engineering Computing ...!{seismo,cbosgd,ihnp4}
Washington University in St. Louis !wucs!wucec2!jdz
Party of the first part disclaims any and all claims made by said party.boyd@orstcs.UUCP (boyd) (01/30/86)
The stories about the student's who sued their university and won
for collecting mandatory, albeit refundable, PIRG fees is TRUE!
The case is Galda v. Rutgers completed on Oct. 10, 1985. Here are some
interesting excerpts from the transcript:
"State university students brought action challenging university's policy
of funding independent outside organization that espoused and actively
promoted political and ideological philosophy which the students opposed
and did not wish to support."
"[...]"
"State university failed to show any compelling state interest that would
justify overriding students' First Amendment rights, and thus could not
compel students to pay a specified sum, albeit refundable to independent
outside organization that espoused and actively promoted political and
ideological philosophy which some students opposed and did not wish to
support, despite university's contention that the fee was justified by
educational benefits associated with participation in the organizations
program, and absent evidence that the university, in its ordinary
operations, was unable to offer students the opportunity to learn about
environmental or consumer concerns or similar matters advocated by the
organization."
"[...]"
"At trial plaintiffs presented evidence that PIRG, in at least some, if not
a majority, of its activities is an entity devoted to political and
ideological objectives."
"[...]"
"The educational advantages [of PIRG] described in the testimony do not differ
from those that might be obtained by working with, or for an independent
organization such as the Republican or Democratic Party, or a clearly
religous group which has undertaken an active and vigorous proselytizing
program. As we have said, "it could not be seriously contended that student
fees could be funneled to such a group.""
"[...]"
"Although the training PIRG members may receive is considerable, there can
be no doubt that it is secondary to PIRG's stated objectives of a frankly
ideological bent. To that extent the educational benefits are only
"incidental" -arising from or accompanying the principle objectives -and
subordinate to the group's. function of promoting its political and
ideological aims."
So the students won their case. It took them 6 years, but they won.
Interesting stuff. Huh?coller@utah-cs.UUCP (Lee D. Coller) (02/01/86)
Here at Utah there was some controversy regarding UPIRG fees a couple of years ago. At that time a student who desired to pay the UPIRG fee could check a box his/her fee card and add it in. The UPRIG people wanted to change this to a "negative checkoff," requiring students to check a box and subtract the fee if they didn't want to pay it. The result would be if the student didn't know about the fee they would end up paying it. This never passed. As a matter of fact, shortly afterwords the fee totally dissappeared from the tuition card (no great loss). I haven't heard anything about the UPIRG now for a couple years (and hope I never do).