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Syracuse University students affirmed a referendum for the New York Public Interest Research Group with 71.76% of the vote as part of the Student Association’s election, Richard Kaufman IV, SA’s board of elections chair, wrote in a campus-wide email April 9.

The referendum approves the allocation of $3 from each student’s student activity fee to NYPIRG, which funds all of the operations of the SU and SUNY-ESF chapter, said Ethan Gormley, the project coordinator for the chapter.

NYPIRG is a nonpartisan and nonprofit organization primarily led by students that organizes students and advocates for causes across the state of New York, including voting rights, energy and the environment, government accountability, public health, consumer protection, higher education and mass transit.

“What our funding allows us to do is run a robust program here at Syracuse and ESF for our students, whether it’s interns, volunteers, or just student leaders,” Gormley said. “And it allows a full-time project coordinator here every single day to work with those students, teach them through workshops and basics of grassroots organizing and to be an advocate and to really engage the campus and greater Syracuse community in meaningful ways to empower students.”

The $3 allocations from student activity fees are still beholden to the SA budgeting process — like all other registered student organizations — and are therefore not guaranteed by the vote, Gormley said. The vote, however, ensures that students routinely have a say in whether the organization receives the funding, he said.

“We’re really happy that we’re allowed to do this referendum at Syracuse (University and SUNY-ESF) because it’s an exciting thing that allows students to be really engaged and to show their support for this service,” Gormley said. “That’s how we were founded in ’73, is on this idea that students decide what they want, and this referendum holds us accountable and allows the student voice to be really strong in saying, ‘Look, we want to continue this or not.’”

Kaufman said in a message to The Daily Orange that the referendum has “never been denied.” Students may request a refund of their student activity fee allocation if they wish, SA President David Bruen said in a statement.

NYPIRG is a student-led organization that is able to localize issues that are decided by a statewide board of directors, Gormley said. Students in the Syracuse chapter have used the funding for advocacy and aid projects such as two food drives and workshops for student health care access and voting rights in addition to other student organizing campaigns, he said.

“That’s exactly why we keep the student voice front and center every single year that we advocate for at the statewide level,” he said. “And then locally by the Syracuse funding, that allows our chapter to continue and to work on these statewide issues and also bring it to (a) local level.”

Published on April 17, 2022 at 11:35 pm

Contact Danny: ddamron@syr.edu | @dannyamron_