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From: boyd@orstcs.UUCP (boyd)
Newsgroups: net.legal
Subject: Are PIRG Fees Legal?
Message-ID: <2900004@orstcs.UUCP>
Date: Sun, 19-Jan-86 22:09:00 EST
Article-I.D.: orstcs.2900004
Posted: Sun Jan 19 22:09:00 1986
Date-Received: Fri, 24-Jan-86 10:12:09 EST
Organization: Oregon State University - Corvallis, OR
Lines: 35
Nf-ID: #N:orstcs:2900004:000:1835
Nf-From: orstcs!boyd    Jan 19 19:09:00 1986

Currently a fight is brewing on the Oregon State University Campus over
how the Oregon State Public Interest Research Group (OSPIRG) should be
funded. Currently, this group is funded through mandatory fees at a rate of
$45,000 a year. Since this group actively advances partisan political
issues off-campus before the states voters, is it legal that their funding
be part of the mandatory fee structure that students are required to pay in
order to attend the university? OSPIRG is not part of the University, the
administration or Student Government. It is a separate off-campus
corporation run on mandatory student fees plus money that OSPIRG collects
through canvassing (door-to-door solicitation). 

I understand that a group of students at Rutgers university in New Jersey
successfully sued their university in federal court for collecting just such
a mandatory fee.  They won apparently because the court felt that the 
fee violated First Amendment rights. Anyone have any more information?

For those who don't know, PIRG's (Public Interest Research Groups) are an 
idea of Ralph Nader's in which University students "tax" themselves to
promote off-campus issues in the "Public Interest". These groups are
structured in such a way as to squelch any students who have a dissenting
opinion of what the PIRG should be doing. In other words it is not
accountable to the students who pay for it. These groups seem to raise more
questions then they answer. For instance:

What is the "Public Interest"? -- I can't find a definition anywhere. It 
                                  appears to be a catch phrase.

Are Mandatory PIRG Fees Legal? 

Responses to these questions would be appreciated as well as any other info
on these groups.

                                      Thanks,

                                      Scott Boyd