UNM’s Public Interest Research Group is accepting signatures on a petition asking for student fees to pay for full-time PIRG employees. Alayna Bowman, UNM-PIRG spokeswoman, said the organization is asking the Student Fee Review Board to allocate $80,000 to hire national PIRG employees. e board allocates about $9 million per year to campus organizations.
“We’re just trying to get a portion of those student fees to hire sta from PIRG to work for the student body here on campus,” Bowman said. “ They’d be full-time organizers, researchers and lobbyists to work on the issues that students want.”
According to the U.S. PIRG Web site, the group organizes around issues like product safety, political corruption and voting rights.
Bowman said the petition has 700 signatures so far, and the group is not aiming for a certain number of signatures.
Bowman said UNM-PIRG representatives approached ASUNM senators with the idea of PIRG employees on campus and got mixed feedback.
“ They want to see more support from the students, which is really what the petition is about,” Bowman said. “We’re just kind of trying to build up relationships with ASUNM and the student body.”
Bowman said the details of the number of employees or their salaries have not yet been eshed out.
