over The EDGE page 3

PIRG IS GREAT!

ans

- submitted by PGPIRG

Once upon a time
(October 1994) there was a
group of bright-eyed and bushy-
tailed UNBC students who
thought that it would be really
cool to have a student organiza-
tion on campus that worked to
improve the lives of all those
around them by doing research,
education and action on issues of
social justice and the environ-
ment.

They decided to found a
Public Interest Research Group
(a PIRG). PIRGs already existed
on campuses across Canada, the
US and Australia and they had
the reputation of organizations
that did valuable community
service work, who excelled in
academic research that could be
directly applied to the communi-

__ ties in which the students lived,

and as organizations who
affected positive change in the
world.

This group of UNBC
students were so committed to
getting a Prince George PIRG up
and running at UNBC that for
the rest of the academic year

they met weekly every Saturday
morning. These Saturday
thorning meetings produced a
myriad of educational and
action-oriented events such as:

-film screening of
“Manufacturing Consent-Noam
Chomsky and the Media”

-educational campaign
leading up to a rally on National
Action Day to protest the
proposed Axworthy cuts on
social spending and post
secondary education

-initiated a boycott of
Pepsi Co. (the only soft drink on
campus as you may have
noticed) to protest their involve-
ment in Burma-a large human
rights abuser

-sponsored an “Un-
learning Racism” workshop on
campus

-co-sponsored the film
screening of “Kahnesatake” with
the First Nations Centre

-brought “Hemp
Awareness Week” to UNBC

-sponsored the screen-
ing of “Battle for the Trees”

-presented a skills
building workshop on Consensus
Decision Making for students.

(SO WHY AREN'T THEY GETTING THEIR FEE?)

On February 15 and 16,
1995, PGPIRG went to referen-
dum to ask the student body if it
would be willing to pay a fully
refundable fee of $4/$2 for full
and part time students respec-
tively in order to establish a
PIRG at UNBC. These funds
would go towards opening an
alternative resource centre on
campus that would allow
students to access information
not readily available in the usual
research venues, providing
student training and employ-

ment, providing a research for
credit program,and to fund

action groups/projects. Students _ challenge.
said YES with 70% of the vote. _

Over the summer months,
PGPIRG requested official
recognition from the iniversity.
Although administration has
stated that it supports and
welcomes the work of PIRG at
UNBC, it has refused official
recognition, and is unwilling to
collect PIRG’s fee. PGPIRG is
currently working with the
Northern Student Society to

Wednesday, Sept 20, 1995

this October.

If you would like to get
involved, have ideas for any
So far this September, other projects you would like to
see PGPIRG take on, or just
want more info, please drop by
our desk in the newspaper office
(960-5633) between 10:30 and
3:00 Monday to Friday.

come up with an alternative
solution to their fee collecting

PGPIRG has set up a carpooling
system for those who wish to
participate in an environmentally
responsible way to get up the
hill, is organizing for “Buy
Nothing Day” (a day of absti-
nence from rampant consumer-
ism) on September 24, and is
planning for Lesbian/Gay/
Bisexual History month, coming

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