It’s only $6 a year, but an upcoming vote may give students a chance to decide whether they want to keep shelling out that $6 to support a non-partisan public interest activist group on campus.

Representatives from the Syracuse University and State University of New York College of Environmental Science and Forestry chapter of the New York Public Interest Research Group appeared before the Student Association Assembly Monday to make their case for a referendum on the group’s funding.

NYPIRG is funded by a special fee charged to students, separate from the regular student activity fee, that amounts to $3 per student per semester, said Sean Vormwald, the SU and SUNY-ESF project coordinator for the group. Students are given a ‘conscientious objection’ option not to pay the fee if they don’t support the group’s goals, he said.

Vormwald laid out some of the group’s goals for the Assembly, which include fighting New York state cuts to higher education aid, mobilizing voters for upcoming elections, and protecting ATM and cell phone users’ rights. NYPIRG views the referendum, which occurs every four years, as a way of gauging students’ satisfaction with the group’s work, he said.

‘We’re really excited about this vote because it gives us a chance to see how we’ve been doing the past four years,’ he said.

After the referendum bill is drafted by SA’s Finance Board, it will go to the Assembly for a vote next Monday, SA President Drew Lederman said. If passed by the Assembly, students will have a chance to vote on the referendum the week of Feb. 9. SA officials are talking with SU lawyers to determine how far the referendum process must proceed to fulfill SA’s contractual obligations with NYPIRG, Lederman said.

The process followed at SU and SUNY-ESF is similar to the one used at NYPIRG’s 20 other chapters across the state, except that SU’s $6 is less than the fee charged at most other campuses, Vormwald said. He is confident that students here will continue to support the group and pass the referendum.

‘Each referendum, the student body comes out in favor of keeping us on campus because they support the work that we do,’ Vormwald said.

In other SA news:

The Assembly doled out over $5,600 to six different student organizations after appeals to last semester’s budgeting process. Groups that weren’t satisfied with the amount they received last semester appealed to the Finance Board for more funding, Comptroller Maggie Misztal said. The appeals used up most of the $7,000 surplus in the budget, she added.

Published on January 26, 2004 at 12:00 pm