The Ontario Public Interest Research Group (OPIRG) Carleton, a social justice organization, came under fire during their week long opt-out period last year from Dec. 4-8.
OPIRG collects a mandatory levy of $7.28 from tuition fees paid by full-time undergraduate Carleton student each school year. Full-time graduate students pay the organization a levy of $7.14. The opt-out period provides students with a chance to have their levy returned to them in the form of a mailed cheque if they submit a request at the OPIRG office in the University Centre.
For some students, OPIRG and its mandatory levy have become a point of contention due to the political stances the organization has taken. OPIRG supports political organizations such as Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions (BDS) and the Anti Capitalist Front.
Carleton students Nick Drain, Samantha Goodman, and Daniel Pollack organized a campaign called Defund OPIRG to address their concerns with the organization and to encourage students to opt-out using the slogan, “Be smart with student dollars.”
Samiha Rayeda, OPIRG co-ordinator (volunteer, outreach and programming) said in an email that about 100 students opted-out this year, similar to the amount in previous years.
The creation of a Facebook page by Drain led to a tabling campaign in Tory Junction during the opt-out week, where the members informed students about what OPIRG is doing with their tuition dollars.
One of Defund OPIRG’s main campaign points was a claim that OPIRG uses the bulk of the funding they receive for staff salaries, and not for student programming. In OPIRG’s 2015-16 annual report—which can be found on their website and is the most recent available report—their total revenue was $192,884 and $99,508 went to staff salaries. In that same year, $32,879 went to student programming—approximately 17 per cent of their total funding.
On a Facebook post on Dec. 8, OPIRG employee Ash Courchene commented that the defunding campaign affected less than one per cent of OPIRG’s budget.
“Futhermore, we decided that for every dollar that was opted-out this year, we are donating that exact amount to the Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions (BDS) Coalition and to Black Lives Matter,” he wrote.
However, Rayeda contradicted Courchene’s statement.
“We have not made any donations to the Canadian BDS Coalition or Black Lives Matter-Toronto, although we support the work being done by both organizations,” she stated.
Rayeda said the information being spread by Defund OPIRG was false.
“Most of the information that was shared by the ‘Defund OPIRG’ campaign was outdated and erroneous. OPIRG is a non-partisan organization that does advocacy, programming and provides services based on social justice and equity—including doing anti-racism work, Indigenous solidarity, fighting against campus sexual violence, fighting tuition increases and more,” she said. “We do not take any political stances, nor are we a campus club, but an independent, student-run and student-led organization,” Rayeda added.
While the opt-out period for the 2017-18 school year has passed, organizers of the Defund OPIRG campaign said it is just in the beginning stages of attempting to raise awareness about OPIRG and encouraging students to opt-out.
In the coming years, Defund OPIRG hopes to introduce a referendum that will remove the student levy given to OPIRG.
“In order to do that, we would need 1,000 signatures to get the referendum, and then with the referendum we would need a majority vote,” Drain said. He said he believes that most students, once informed, will be on board with voting out OPIRG.
Drain asks, “Even if you think the groups supported by OPIRG aren’t terrible, would you still voluntarily give your money to them?”
Photo by Serena Halani
