Mass. PIRG

Sixty undergraduates attempting to form a Harvard chapter of the Massachusetts Public Interest Research Group (PIRG) collected almost 1900 student signatures in favor of University funding for the group in six days of petitioning before Thanksgiving, group members said Wednesday.

Organizers for PIRG, a national student environmental and consumer advocacy group, resumed petitioning in dining halls Wednesday.

Mary E. Babic '81, a leader of the group, said yesterday PIRG will try to obtain the signatures of 3250 undergraduates--half the student body--before requesting the University to fund the Harvard chapter's activities through an addition to students' term bills.

Money

The term bill funding mechanism, now in use at 133 college PIRG chapters around the country, would automatically add $3 to each student's term bill unless the student signs a "negative check-off," Babic said.

Archie C. Epps III, dean of students, said Wednesday the Committee on Houses and Undergraduate Life (CHUL) could recognize a Harvard PIRG chapter, but that Dean Rosovsky and the Corporation would have to approve an addition to students' term bills.