MASSPIRG has proved itself in these few weeks to be inflexible, lacking in transparency, out of touch with Amherst students needs and undeserving of the special status that it has held for decades. Ask yourself: Is MASSPIRG’s work more deserving than that of Amnesty International, Oxfam, Educate!, Big Brothers/Big Sisters or any one of the many other community outreach organizations on campus? Why are they deserving of the special status they claim is necessary to their work? MASSPIRG has consistently failed to provide us a substantive justification for their opaque funding structure and, worse yet, has raised its profile on campus over the last few weeks only when the necessity of reaffirming their funding emerged. Honestly, their low profile the rest of the year speaks to the fact that they are not an organization that deserves the degree of funding that they receive. Thirty-thousand dollars a year is a lot of funding, and it can do a lot of good directed to causes other than MASSPIRG.
The recent survey revealed a strong preference on the part of the student body (around two to one) for an opt-in funding structure, rather than the existing, coercive opt-out structure. Only by voting no can we initiate the reconsideration of our outdated relationship with MASSPIRG.
Peter Tang ’10
The MASSPIRG chapter on the Amherst College campus is a relic of the past that no longer conforms to the composition and mindset of the present generation of students. Started as a student advocacy group in the 1970s, the organization presently channels the $18 per student, per year fee it collects towards lobbying, research and, perhaps more significantly, an on-campus organizer. Amherst College remains one of only 17 institutions in Massachusetts to have a chapter, with many other schools of comparable stature (with the exception of Smith College) having removed theirs years ago.
The $30,000 in aggregate that is collected for MASSPIRG is done via an opt-out system where everyone pays unless they consciously choose to opt-out. Advocates for the organization claim this is comparable to the government’s collection of taxes for the common good. While MASSPIRG may very well be working in the common good on very laudable issues like global warming, poverty and health care costs, it simply does not have the right to coerce students into funding it. Even as many Senators have tried to work for a change in the funding structure, the organization’s stubbornness on the topic of an opt-in system leaves students no choice but to remove its existence on campus.
On the whole, we as Amherst students like to take charge in addressing social, political or economic issues head on. The breadth of direct community engagement work and the prevalence of advocacy groups on our campus is a testament to the grass-roots nature that many in our generation engage in and espouse. With the Center for Community Engagement to support and enhance such work by providing administrative and (increasingly) intellectual foundations, MASSPIRG does not have a place on this campus. It is a severely inefficient use of our resources, and our relationship must be severed.
Chris Tullis ’10E
Let me just begin by saying that I am in favor of democracy, activism and making student voices heard (who isn’t?). But I am not in favor of keeping MASSPIRG on campus.
We all know that they have no on-campus presence to speak of, but we are told that this is all for the greater good: they have a “statewide network” and “lobbyists” who are “representing students’ voices.” Perhaps, but let’s look a bit deeper, shall we?
1: MASSPIRG is an incredibly inefficient organization. Whether or not the money they sent to Boston is well spent, I won’t judge. But this only accounts for half of the money we give them. The other half goes toward paying the salary of a full-time staff person whose sole purpose is to rally and support a strong grassroots community here and at Smith College. So where is this community? I haven’t seen it lately, but what I do know is that — wherever it is — it is costing us $15,000 a year.
2: MassPIRG pays staff to do what students can do (better). The Roosevelt Institution is a great counterexample. If you are not familiar with their work, they are essentially the MASSPIRG of the twenty-first century. Instead of defiantly trying to keep a clunky juggernaut from the 70s afloat, they run an efficient ship. They have a minimal staff in a regional office, and the rest of their work is done by motivated student volunteers on campuses all over. The Roosevelt Institution is proof that you don’t need to waste money on staff to make students’ voices heard.
3: Voting “NO” will not kick MASSPIRG off campus. It will only force them to finally renegotiate the money they take from us. In case there are still illusions, there is no contract; the money we give MASSPIRG is a charitable donation, and we are not obligated to continue doing so. The current system generates massive revenues for MASSPIRG — over 10 times the average club — so it’s no wonder that they want to keep the status quo. But we can’t let them bully us into it. We need to force MASSPIRG to come down from their horse and negotiate fair terms for their funding — just like every student group on campus. This really, really, is not too much for us to ask.
Selena Xie ’09
Tell me, before this week, were you aware of MASSPIRG? Before MASSPIRG sent representatives from Boston to campaign to you, oh wise and perceptive Amherst students, to give them money out of your student accounts, were you aware of MASSPIRG? Now that you are aware, do you even know what it is? Wouldn’t it be great if they had been working this hard on their grassroots campaigns at the College as they have been trying to get you to hand over your money? MASSPIRG tells me that they want to function like a democracy and feel supported by our community. That the only way they feel democratically supported is if we automatically hand over $9 per student per semester (supposedly refundable!), which comes out to approximately $30,000. How is this tyrannical process a democracy, I ask you! Wouldn’t the ultimate “democracy” be to allow you to choose to give them money and hand over $9 per semester for the good work they do?
Friends, let’s be real — they want money. They claim that they do good work nationally and state-wide, so support them on your own dime! We pay money to the College to pay for our experience here, not for lobbying efforts in Boston. They claim that they sponsored events like “Trick or Canning,” and co-sponsored “Faces of the Homeless” at Amherst. But we created the Center for Community Engagement to do this kind of work, and think of the job they could have done with $30,000! All student organizations want (and most deserve) student activity funds and all must go through the same process, except MASSPIRG. Make it fair. May justice prevail and tyranny be deposed.