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PIRG looks to demonstrate student support in fee vote

PIRG: An employee for PIRG, who declined to give her name, encourages students on the Downtown campus to vote for PIRG in the Tuesday and Wednesday student government elections. (Photo by Molly Smith)
PIRG: An employee for PIRG, who declined to give her name, encourages students on the Downtown campus to vote for PIRG in the Tuesday and Wednesday student government elections. (Photo by Molly Smith)

More than a year after it was denied funding from the University’s student activities fee, the unofficial ASU chapter of the Arizona Public Interest Research Group is going directly to students and asking for financial support.

Arizona PIRG is a student-led, nonprofit organization that advocates for college affordability, ending hunger and homelessness and protecting the environment, among other issues.

On this week’s student government election ballots at the Tempe, Downtown and Polytechnic campuses is a measure asking students whether they support the establishment of an Arizona PIRG chapter, which will be funded through a $1.50-per-semester fee. The fee will be charged on tuition bills, and students can choose to have the fee refunded upon request.

If a majority of students who vote on the measure vote ‘yes,’ the group plans to bring the fee proposal before ABOR in June, where an official establishment of the fee will be considered.

This semester, the Undergraduate Student Government passed a bill that stated it would support a fee if the organization were able to obtain a majority of student approval in a referendum.

“We’re doing this [student vote] to build support and actually demonstrate student support,” said Jason Donofrio, chapter chair of ASU’s Arizona PIRG. If the measure fails to pass, however, Donofrio said the organization will continue to look for ways to have a presence at ASU.

In 2006 and 2007, Arizona PIRG campaigned with USG and the Arizona Students’ Association to establish ASU’s student activities fee, a $25-per-semester fee that helps fund student organizations.

The fee was passed by ABOR in December 2007. More than $200,000 of the fund created by the fee was to be allocated to PIRG.

“The [USG] Senate was advised that they couldn’t use student fee money to fund a student organization to hire professional staff, so we were written out of the budget,” Donofrio said.

He said the group was then advised by the ASU administration to enter into an independent contract with the University in order to be funded through the student activities fee — a route that caused the organization to decide against re-registering as an official student organization.

“But we realized that student governments had changed administrations [and] there was a new student body, so we said we need to re-demonstrate support for our organization,” Donofrio said.

Last semester, PIRG collected more than 3,000 signatures in a petition to have a portion of the student activities fee go toward an ASU PIRG chapter.

“They tried to go through a student activities fee, got 3,000 signatures in three days, and the student government said, ‘No, we don’t want to listen to the student voice, we want you all to go for your own separate fee,’” said Athena Salman, a USG senator, presidential candidate and PIRG supporter.

This semester, USG officially agreed to put a student vote for the PIRG fee on the student government elections ballot.

USG Senate President Sharvil Kapadia, a candidate for USG President, said he does not support the route PIRG has taken to receive funding.

“It kind of opens up floodgates for other organizations to do the same thing,” Sharvil said.

But Salman disagrees.

“I think students should have the opportunity to vote, and decide if they see merit in the organization,” she said. “And given that vote, it’s not the student government’s job to infringe upon students’ rights to voice themselves, and make the decision for them.”

A grassroots campaign against the PIRG fee emerged recently in an effort to deter student support of the $1.50 measure.

Joe Scott, a mathematics, physics and political science senior, helped organize the Facebook group “ASU Students Against the PIRG fee.”

“PIRG is seeking to add yet another fee to the already heavy burden of financing one’s education at this university,” Scott said in a Facebook message.

Tension between PIRG supporters and the anti-fee group came to a head on Sunday evening, when it was reported by both groups that campaign signage was being tampered with.

Andrew Clark, president of the West campus student government and an organizer of ASU students against the PIRG fee, said PIRG supporters were tearing down anti-fee signs.

Donofrio said PIRG members were only taking down signs that were put on top of pro-PIRG fee signage — a violation of the USG elections code.

Clark said his group might have covered the PIRG signs, but that it was unavoidable.

“Since [PIRG campaigners] smothered the entire place, it’s kind of hard not to,” he said, referring to the kiosks on the Tempe campus fully covered with blue PIRG signs.

Online voting for the PIRG measure ends today at midnight.

Reach the reporter at kjdaly@asu.edu


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