History
Laurier student Sean Geobey started the Laurier Students’ for a Public Interest Research Group campus club in the fall of 2001. The original group consisted of a dozen or so members on a mailing list and three or four dedicated volunteers who directed the organization. The original LS4PIRG used subcommittees organized along the working group model. This small group of people organized Laurier’s first ever Buy Nothing Day and completed a research project that was ultimately presented to WLUSU. This group also worked on a referendum question to put to Laurier students in order to establish a fully-funded Public Interest Research Group on campus, but this process was pushed back because it required more fine-tuning. Connections were established with WLUSU, and by the end of the first year membership had increased substantially.
The second year, with club president Michael Borrelli, saw a further expansion and an increase in exposure. The nearly two-month long Staff Association strike at WLU resulted in LS4PIRG’s name being pushed into the spotlight, and many members gained attention as staunch supporters of workers rights on campus. LS4PIRG was also noticed very quickly by WLUSU as some members of the club made public comments condemning WLUSU’s neutrality.
In October of the second year, LS4PIRG organized an event aptly called Halloween Horrors in conjunction with other groups interested in issues similar to those typically addressed by PIRGs. The event showcased different social justice and environmental ‘horrors’ that are not typically brought forward in popular discourse.
November was the most successful month as LS4PIRG held Laurier’s Second Annual Buy Nothing Day. The event drew hundreds of interested participants from the school, and because the University of Waterloo had no organized events that day, many community members attended the event as well.
During the winter term of the second year, members got involved in wider provincial issues such as University funding and municipal issues relating to the housing crisis in Waterloo. Some members were elected to the WLUSU Board of Directors, and LS4PIRG’s wider membership began to move beyond 100 people on the mailing list while meetings consistently attracted 20 to 30 people.
In March LS4PIRG organized a coalition of the willing: ten campus groups banded together to protest the US-led intervention against Iraq. An LS4PIRG-coordinated peace rally brought together nearly 300 students and community members, attracting substantial attention to the public outcry against the war. Following this event, LS4PIRG members participated in the operation of the WLU Peace Camp where members from this coalition and the community spent weeks engaging in peaceful protest against the war in Iraq.
At the end of its second full year, LS4PIRG had a mailing list of nearly 125 members and meetings brought together nearly 40 people a week to discuss social justice and environmental endeavors. Before the school year ended more than 30 volunteers voted for candidates running for eight positions on the executive team.
During the 2003-2004 year, LS4PIRG and club president Sherry McKever organized the same events the organization is still known for, Halloween Horrors and Buy Nothing Day, while continuing to recruit additional volunteers. A grocery price index research project was carried out and designed to provide students with information on which local grocers offered the cheapest food. Despite many volunteers collecting data, a full analysis of the data was prevented by the resource constraints that come with being a student-run campus club.
During the 2004-2005 school year, under the direction of Rishi Kumar, LS4PIRG again attempted a research-based focus in addition to its regular events. Two research projects were undertaken. The first was another grocery price index and the second was an actual financial need survey that was designed to investigate financial need at Laurier and to find out how well the university addresses those needs. Although even more students were willing to help administer this survey than the previous year, it was again very difficult to conduct this type of research due to resource constraints. A new event, the Activism Fair, was introduced during the winter term where various campus groups presented the Laurier community with easy ways of taking action towards various causes.
In the 2005-2006 year, with President Nicole Barker and a dedicated and continually expanding group of volunteers, LS4PIRG became more active than ever. As a group that networked concerned students and campus groups, LS4PIRG was instrumental to the success of Laurier’s first ever Wrap It in White Day, organized in support of the Make Poverty History campaign. Partnerships were formed with WLUSU committees such as the EcoHawks, the Equality Awareness Committee and BACCHUS. Additional partnerships with organizations like the World University Service of Canada, the Women’s Centre and other campus clubs such as Amnesty Laurier, the Global Studies Club and GLOBAL (Gay Lesbian or Bisexual at Laurier) were also fostered.
In February of 2006, enthusiastic volunteers and passionate supporters ran an ultimately successful campaign for the Yes side of a referendum concerning the creation of a student funded Public Interest Research Group. Five years after the idea was brought forward, Laurier Students’ Public Interest Research Group was created.
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