CALPIRG reappears on graduate ballot this year

Friday, April 28, 1995

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."