Binghamton University’s chapter of New York Public Interest Research Group (NYPIRG) is taking a different path in its fight for a budget by adding $3.50 to the University’s mandatory Student Activity fee.
NYPIRG, a state-wide student activism organization, has circulated petitions to gain campus support for a referendum on the fee that would lead to a reinstated budget for the group in the 2012-13 academic school year.
The charge would raise the current Student Activity fee from $92.50 a semester to $96. Students who do not want the charge added to their student activity fee will be able to request a refund from NYPIRG, according to members.
FUNDING FALL
In spring 2006, the Student Assembly Financial Council voted to give NYPIRG $85,000 for the next year to replace the $5 per-student fee that had been in place since 1976.
In the 2007-08 academic year NYPIRG’s budget was cut to $50,000. Two years later, they were given only $200. And last year, NYPIRG had a $0 budget.
In the 2011 spring semester, NYPIRG’s lack of a budget was a key part of the rationale of a group of SA leaders who unsuccessfully pushed for NYPIRG to be de-chartered and removed from its office in the New University Union. Many believed that the campaign, which was led by some of the same SA actors who took away NYPIRG’s budget in years past, was a politically motivated assault on the student group.
“In the past, certain other groups have taken it upon themselves to be against us,” said Lindsay O’Neill-Caffrey, NYPIRG president and a junior double-majoring in political science and environmental policy and law. “But we don’t play that game.”
Brenden Colling, non-student regional campus supervisor for NYPIRG, said the budget reduction was unfair.
“The SA voted that a $0 budget was a fit amount of funding and then established different rules for political groups, seemingly writing NYPIRG out of existence,” Colling said. “We’ve tried everything to find out over the years why we were being cut. We’ve been asking for years and don’t get substantive answers.”
ASKING THE STUDENT BODY
O’Neill-Caffrey said NYPIRG hopes to have the referendum on this month’s ballots for Executive Board elections.
“The petition was to get our questions regarding allocating us a part of the SA budget or raising the student activity fee put on the ballot so that at the same time people vote for SA representation seats, they could vote for us,” O’Neill-Caffrey said.
NYPIRG staffers said approximately 25 percent of the student body signed the petition. They presented the nearly 3,000 signatures to the Election Committee in the SA office Monday evening, according to NYPIRG.
“Students want to see a real level of funding for NYPIRG put under consideration,” Colling said. “[The petition] is an indication that the work this chapter does is important.”
Petitions such as NYPIRG’s require only 10 percent of the student body to sign in order to get referendum questions automatically placed on the ballot.
Anthony Aguiar, a junior majoring in behavioral analysis, said he is indifferent about the proposed $3.50 charge.
“I wouldn’t mind paying the $3.50 because it’s a low amount, but I wouldn’t be happy about it,” Aguiar said. “Many activist groups will charge to become established, but then will fail to do anything with the budget they were awarded.”
SA CONSIDERS FUNDING
SA President Kathryn Howard confirmed Monday that the SA received the petitions from NYPIRG and would be talking to the University and SUNY to make sure the referendum questions would not be breaking any New York State or SUNY Board of Trustees rules.
“There is a policy that they may be breaking in the wording of their questions which is the reason we are consulting the University,” Howard wrote in an email to Pipe Dream. “There are a few University officials who sign off on our expenditures to make sure we are not breaking any SUNY regulations. We want to find out from the University if the questions are in violation.”
Section (c)1b of the SUNY Board of Trustees’ policy on student activity fees states that: “While referenda of the student body may not be used to help determine specific allocations to particular student organizations, mechanisms such as polls or surveys may be used to ascertain student interest and participation in programs or events.”
Howard said that if NYPIRG’s questions make it onto the ballot and are passed, but also are in violation of the rules, the University may not sign off on it, even with student support.
Aaron Ricks, SA treasurer and a junior majoring in political science, said NYPIRG is free to seek a budget through traditional means, by making a case to the SA’s Financial Council.
“The amount allocated to NYPIRG will be determined by the elected members of the Financial Council in the same fashion that every other student group on campus is done,” Ricks wrote in an email.
Howard said all SA student group funds are provided through the annual budget and financial requests to FinCo.
“Requesting money through a referendum is typically limited to third-party organizations such as Harpur’s Ferry and OCCT or government agencies such as the SA Programming Board,” Howard wrote. “There is a budget process each year created by the SA Financial Council and approved by the Student Assembly. This is where student groups get their budget for the upcoming year.”
According to Colling, the SA will count and verify signatures at 5 p.m. today and vote on approving the questions for inclusion on the ballot.