Newspapers / Meredith College Student Newspaper / April 12, 1973, edition 1 / Page 4
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PAGE 4 THE TWIG APRIL 12. 1973 45S X€ PIRG: questions and answers EDITOR’S NOTE: The PIRG future at Meredith Is now un der consideration by the Board of Trustees. QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS ABOUT NC PIRG. Q. What is the North Carolina Public Interest Research Group (NC PIRG)? A. It is a group of scientists, lawyers, social planners and other professionals working full-time under the guidance of a student representative body to present citizen causes before the courts, the legis latures and the public. It works on broad social pro blems of general concern. NC PIRG is financied by student funds and directed by students. Q. Isn’t NC PIRG disrupting the capitalist system by chal lenging the businesses and government agencies which compose it? A. The purpose of PIRG is to work within the established system to make business re sponsible to the consumer and to make government responsi ble to the citizen. In this at tempt, PIRG is working to improve the current system, not disrupt it. Q. Will PIRG be independent of student government? A. Yes, PIRG is an indep endent group since it will be independently funded. Q. Is PIRG relying solely on student financial support? Wouldn’t this limit PIRG’s effectiveness? A. PIRG is planning to rely mainly on student financial support. However, the door is open for contributions from private citizens, community organizations, alumni, etc. If all major schools, the state cooperate, the anticipated budget of up to $200,000 can be met. Q. Is there a real need for this kind of group, given all the volunteer work now being done by the big law firms and the valuable work of legal aid lawyres? A Voluntary work by big law firms is increasing. However, much of it is band - aid law. It can help the individuals in a crisis, but it seldom ach ieves long range social change. Legal aid lawyers have done much valuable work on an individual basis, but they simply cannot afford the time to engage in the massive re search required to perform public interest work. Since the most seriously injured victims of pollution and con sumer fraud are the Black and the poor, public interest lawyers should work as the allies of legal aid lawyers. Q. Won’t NC PIRG use up energy and resources which could better be applied to the problems which beset the poor and the community? A. NC PIRG will work toward long - range permanent sol utions of these problems. It Is the poor of the urban cen ters who are most affected by unsafe consumer produc ers, polluted air, poor build ing codes and racial and sex discrimination in job hiring. It is the rural poor who are most Injured by pesticides unsafe for human use, rivers so polluted their fish are pois onous and inhuman treatment of farm labor. These ills must be attacked at their source. Q. Is there any place for com munity action in NC PIRG? A. Yes, NC PIRG must use the existing knowledge of the citizens to apply the pressure to political decisions. Too often citizens are bewildered by their massive intrastruc ture of government and cannot find channels for their frust rations. Irresponsive govern ment is a great motivation force for the common citizen who is paying exorbitant taxes and seeing little return. Both students and community work ing together can accomplish a maximum of impact in the shortest time. Q. Isn’t the cost of a public interest group too great for the students to bear? A. Students have long under estimated their capacities. They are eight million col lege students in America to day. At $3.00 per year per student (equal to the cost of most record albums), students could raise $25 million per year. One very large campus or several smaller campuses working together can easily raise the $200,000 - $300,- 000 per year necessary to fund such a group. How? Simply by increasing the student act ivity or incidental fee by $1.50 per student per semester. On a nationwide basis the $24 million raised by such a vol untary contribution could fund over 100 public interest re- serach groups. Q. Why should I give $1.50? What do I get for it? A, What each students gets for $1.50 per semester is a voice in a group that will take up problems which affect the student as one who lives in North Carolina. Most students have to deal with consumer problems, many are tenants in off-campus dwellings, all students drink the water and breathe the air of this state. The problems involved in those activities are what NC PIRG will seek to solve. Q. Aren’t you just another bunch of Nader’s Raiders? A, No, although the initial im petus for, and philosophy be hind the NC PIRG came from Nader and his organization, it has no political or econo mic ties to the Nader organ ization in Washington. Q. If you want to have such a project, why not simply make contact with something SHERATON CRABTREE MOTOR INN NOW ORENIMHEIM Ground Floor Restaurant; Davy Sparkling Jones Locker Lounge; New 9 Stories, 143 air- conditioned, color-coordinated rooms, color T.V., 3rd floor pool, spacious banquet rooms. ‘CALL: 800--325-3535, local 787-7111 for your -reservations for parents '.-/eek-end. Located in Crabtree Valley S'lopping Center like the Environmental Pro tection Agency in the Re search Triangle and make a school project out of that? A That by itself is a fine idea, but its scope is too lim ited, considering the possibi lities open to the NC PIRG. It can expand to projects behind the domain of the EPA into consumer problems, discrim ination, etc., and also link to gether the resources of many schools in the state, not just Duke. Q, What are some SPECIFIC things PIRG would do? A Consumer protection, en vironmental quality, and cor porate responsibility are often too general for people who want to hear specific. Some possibilities might be; race and sex discrimination — cite example of woman lab worker in Oregon, grocery store pric ing — price goods in stores and publish prices regularly in newspapers so public would know where to buy the less expensive goods, land/tenant relations, advertising prac tices, occupational safety, property assessment for tax es, campaign against harmful products, lobby in Raleigh for consumer and environmental oriented proposals, environ mental education - waste man agement, land use planning. In answering questions of whether or not PIRG will in vestigate a particular topic say that PIRG will determine if it can be of service. How ever, at this time it is too early to give a definite-yes or no. Q. Who runs NC PIRG? Who decides what happens to the money? A A regional board of direc tors will be elected to govern the use of the money and the problems to be investigat ed. This board will be com posed of representatives from each campus in proportion to the size of the school so that for each 4-5000 students on a campus there would be one re presentative in the regional board. Q. How can I inform PIRG of issue I think should be investigated? A All meetings of the local board on each campus will be open so that any student may appear to voice his opinions on the specific directions of the PIRG. Students may also influence PIRG during the election of the local board of directors. Q. How will students know a- bout the progress of PIRG in dealing with these pro blems? A. Each local board will be responsible for informing its constituency of the work it is doing in general and on part icular problems. Also many students will be actively in volved in research and other ongoing functions of PIRG. Q. What will the breakdown of funds be in the PIRG? A On the basis of the work of OSPIRG AND MPIRG the following estimates can be made. Employee salaries for 10 professionals, 4 secretar ies, and two community work ers $ 148,00 Office space, equipment, and supplies 25,000 Student research projects (grants of $1,000 for 10-15 students to do summer re search 15,000 Contingency costs (court costs) 7,500 TOTAL is approximately - $ 200,000 Q. Will students be allowed to decide on which issues will be investigated by refer endum? A This would be too cumber some and time consuming, so an elected representative body (regional board) will choose the specific issues from suggestions of students through their local board. Q, How will students views be represented, and what checks will the student have on PIRG? A Students will be able to ex press their views . at the publicly held open forums with the state board, and through elections of board members, students have a recall power of state representatives. - The local board will be responsi ble for establishing similar recall power of the local board. Support for PIRG is completely voluntary, if enough students ask for a re fund, PIRG cannot exist. Q. How will the professionals be chosen? A The regional board will probably advertise for ap plicants in this area and in some major newspapers as the New York Times and the Washington Post. From the applicants, the regional board will select 5 and 10 profes sionals from different dis ciplines. Q. Why spend all our money on professionals? Film Forum (Continued from Page 1) California. The production was made possible by a grant from the National Bindowment for the Humanities. University of North Car olina Television reaches 96% of North Carolinians over its statewide network; Channel 4, Chapel Hill; Channel 2, Columbia; Channel 17, Lin- ville; Channel 33, Asheville; Channel 58, Concord, Chan nel 39, Wilmington; Channel 25, Greenville; Channel 26, Winston-Salem. FOR MORE INFORMATION CONTACT: Mrs. Ruth Mzc- Kerron (919) 933-8191. NtR PUa... TWt Art Alwayi Lhriiy TMNig FatM«m Join Yoor Frionrft For Froo Nptit ond Candy, Compiiniantt of Mac jMO|rfM A The hiring of paid profes sionals is necessary in terms of providing continuity and ef fectiveness. They will not be subject to the ups and downs of the academic year as a stu dent staff would be. There fore, they would be a con tinual force for change. As professional their experience and knowledge would be effect ive in combatting public inter est problems. The amount of pay allotted to these pro fessionals will be set taking into account the needs for eco nomy and the need to lure com petent people. Q. Exactly what will these professionals do? A They will research a spec ific problem with the help of students and then find a means of implementing this know ledge so as to effect some concrete reform. To N.Y. (Continued from Page 3) passed down to the members of each successive graduat ing class -- is the service provided for young women by a smooth - running, friendly organization known as MAM- SELLE IN MANHATTAN. Now in its eighth year, Mam- selle in Manhattan has built a reliable reputation for solving the apartment finding and a- partment sharing problems of both the new arrival and the established New Yorker. Owned and operated by Mrs. Dorothy Jessop, Mamselle is centrally located at 141 East 55th Street in midtown Man hattan. This compact and un usual organization has ser vices available which runs the gamut from apartment and job-finding to socializing and shopping. In return for a small fee, Mamselle arranges to locate each individual client in a living situation tailored to fit her personal, social, and fin ancial needs. Further information can be recieved by writing to Mam selle In Manhattan, 151 East 55th Street, New York, N. Y. 10022. Telephone: (212) 755- 8817. TRY Brothers Pizza Palace 2508Vz HILLSBOROUGH THE BEST PIZZA. SPAGHEHI and LASAGNE HAMBURGER STEAK, SANDWICHES AND GREEK SALAD All Fresh (No Frozen) THE BEST PIZZA IN TOWN! BROTHERS ORRERS TO TAKE OI T THAAK VOI Phone 832 3664
Meredith College Student Newspaper
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April 12, 1973, edition 1
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