A burgeoning chapter of a national interest group at UW-Eau Claire warns that “Big Brother is watching you.”

A student chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union began this semester on campus, and they are concerned with the pending federal legislation known as Patriot Act Two.

Senior Sara Knee, a member of Students for a Sensible Drug Policy, helped create the chapter at Eau Claire.

She is against the act because she said the intent is to protect freedom, but it also takes freedom away.

“I think our civil liberties are being eroded,” Knee said. “There needs to be something done about it.”

The ACLU is a national interest group with the goals of defending the constitution and the liberties and rights of groups and individuals. The group’s primary concerns include the effects of the Patriot Acts on personal liberty.

“A group of us are disgusted with the Patriot Act,” senior Leslie Vaglica said.

Senior Jenny Day, president of the group, said the new Patriot Act in the works would make government surveillance easier.

The legislation also is called the Domestic Security Enhancement Act. Parts of the policy would make electronic eavesdropping, such as wiretaps and e-mail surveiltions with negative views on the government, Day said.

“Dissenting organizations can be pegged as terrorist groups,” Vaglica said.

Other provisions in the current draft of the second Patriot Act include creating a genetic catalogue and restricting information on corporate pollution, Day said.

“I feel that the fact we can be watched, our e-mails read, our DNA catalogued, is objectionable,” Vaglica said.

The original Patriot Act made wiretaps and other surveillance easier to obtain, and the second act proposes to make surveillance even easier, Day said. The first act was passed into law, Oct. 26, 2001, in response to the terrorist attacks on Sept. 11. The second act has not yet been introduced to Congress.

“This is going too far, absolutely too far,” Vaglica said.

Although he is not in favor of the act as a whole, ACLU member senior Danny Noonan said he thinks parts of the act are beneficial.

“I bet there’s some stuff that’s OK,” Noonan said.

The group met Wednesday in the Clearwater Room of Davies Center to discuss ways to get funds to pay dues to get into the national chapter of ACLU.

Seven students attended the meeting, but members said an informational booth in Davies Center on Tuesday got a few more students to sign up for the group.

Getting more students in the group and funding for membership dues for national support from ACLU are priorities, because the group started this semester.

Group members said, after spring break, they want to start a campaign to boost awareness of civil liberty infringements with buttons, a bake sale and posters throughout campus.