CALPIRG reappears on graduate ballot this year
Initiative asks for $5 student pledge
for CALPIRG
By Rashmi Nijagal
Daily Bruin Staff
Graduate election ballots this year will contain an initiative
for voters to pledge money to the environmental and consumer
interest group California Public Interest Research Group
(CALPIRG).
The initiative proposes a pledge system where students wishing
to pay an extra $5 a quarter to the research group, along with
their registration fees, may sign a pledge statement in order to do
so.
Last year, undergraduate students voted in favor of the proposal
while graduate students did not. Just under 10 percent of graduate
students voted last year while 10 percent of the student vote was
needed in order to pass the initiative. In addition, others saw the
extra money as a reason that graduate students didn’t support the
measure.
"We just did not have a big voter turnout," said Peary Brug,
graduate student representative to the Associated Students of
UCLA’s (ASUCLA) Board of Directors. "I think that people were also
hesitant because people saw it as extra money that they were going
to have to pay. It needed to be explained more that it is a pledge
system, and so I think it was misinterpreted."
In the past, the public interest group had used a negative
check-off system in order to get funds from students. Unless
students specifically requested otherwise, they would automatically
be billed the $5 a quarter on their billing statement. The
University of California Regents declared this system illegitimate
in 1990, despite the fact that students had voted for it. The
research group proposed the pledge system and so far, it has been
successful with the undergraduate students.
"The pledge system has been very successful with
undergraduates," said Faye Park, the public interest group’s campus
organizer at UCLA. "We have already gotten over 3,000 pledges this
year. Having graduate students approve the pledge system will make
a huge difference because this will be 10,000 more students who can
get involved."
Both graduate student association members and research group
members alike are hopeful that the initiative will pass.
"I am more confident that graduate students will show their
support this year because we have been on campus for a year
longer," Park said. "The main thing is that we want people to go
and participate in the election and we want as many people to
vote."