OPIRG Reaffirmation Goals

To the Editors:

This Wednesday, missing Ohio PIRG would have required being locked in your room, comatose, studying abroad, or a combination of the above. Ohio PIRG succeeded in their biannual reaffirmation, and in raising its waivable fee from $6 to $8.This required the approval of two thirds of the student body, which is roughly 2,000 signatures, adjusting for forgotten ID’s and un-memorized T numbers. This wouldn’t have been possible without the help of over 50 volunteers, who gave between 1 and 14 hours of their day, who skipped classes, sleep, email, urination, and food, to support a group and a funding structure they care deeply about. I want to thank them all, though I cannot thank them enough.
I also want to thank the student body as a whole, for their signatures and feedback, but most of all for their patience. Thank you for tolerating us asking you 27 times throughout the day. Getting 2,000 signatures is a big task, and the closer you get, the harder it is to find people. But hey, we put the same hard work, planning, and nagging persistence you all saw this Wednesday into holding our elected officials and corporate citizens accountable to the public interest every day! Oh, and much thanks to the Student Senate, who has to count all the blasted things. Thank you everyone, thank you, thank you, thank you. Oberlin has a legacy of student activism, and you have upheld it.

–Ben Newhouse
College junior