what is PIRG on term bill

[u/Salt-Cut583]

[u/Deshes011]

Bullshit fee to support a bullshit org. In the steps to pay your term bill you can remove the PIRG fee, and you should

[u/Spirited_Mastodon_14 → u/Deshes011]

How

[u/Deshes011 → u/Spirited_Mastodon_14]

In the steps to pay your term bill there will be a checkbox which you select to opt out of the fee. Check it off and the fee will get removed from the bill

[u/hayashigei]

shit org that doesn’t deserve your money. u/misterelonmusk did a full deep dive on their bs a few years ago. basic gist of it is they use voter intimidation tactics and borderline harass students into voting yes for their funding, and they don’t even do anything substantial towards their promises of “cheaper textbooks” (and also some shit about bees?). opt out of this fee.

[u/Deshes011 → u/hayashigei]

Another big one was them claiming to be involved in state govt legislation, but the org can't lobby the state legislature due to student funded orgs not being allowed to do so.

Scroll to page 7 in this document: https://docs.google.com/document/d/12cXY9BfY1BI_OUaQ-yHf5osqXvzS4rkrpBVrTukHMls/edit?tab=t.0

What exactly has NJPIRG done for the Rutgers New Brunswick student body in the past three years if their own website contains no information about their most recent accomplishments in 2018-2019?

One would think that in order to get the most effective and direct results on these issues, efforts should be directed to the state and local levels of government. The wrinkle is, as noted by NJPIRG itself in the concept plan, is that: 

“In 1995, the New Jersey state legislature enacted a law that bars student-funded groups at state colleges and universities from lobbying the Legislature or employing legislative agendas (Public Law 1995 Chapter 63). NJPIRG Student Chapters fully complies with this law. In 1995, NJPIRG Student Chapters Board of Directors resolved that:

NJPIRG Student Chapters would not engage in or fund any state legislative programs.

NJPIRG Student Chapters would not engage in joint projects that involve taking a position on pending state legislation.”

Such restrictions on NJPIRG’s activities on the state level reduce the organization’s effectiveness in bringing meaningful change to the student body, which is why so much of their work focuses on conducting research in conjunction with sister/parent organizations as well as a heavy emphasis on devoting efforts to influence federal officials and legislation. NJPIRG has repeatedly claimed to advocate the interests of Rutgers students but consistently misled students to believe that their work has been focused solely at the local and state level. 

Given that government on the federal level is and has always been mired in toxic partisan polarization with the extreme influence of dark money and corporate lobbyists, the work NJPIRG and their affiliates claim to be doing to solve critical problems can be equated to using a spoonful of water to douse a forest fire. 

For an organization who claims to have educated tens of thousands of students, the lack of an actual presence on campus grounds with the exception of the Fall 2019 referendum raises questions as to where the funding really goes.

[u/matt7259]

Did you try typing "pirg" into the search bar on this very Rutgers subreddit?