In
the last few weeks hundreds of students have submitted "I support clean
energy because..." letters to their Senators, and they make one thing
clear: there are countless reasons why it's time to bring clean energy
to America.
Join thousands of students who are calling our Senators this week to let them know we support clean energy: http://studentpirgs.org/72hours
We're running out of time to get our Senators to pass a national clean energy plan - but we're in it to win it.
By
launching a 21st century energy plan for America, we can create
millions of green jobs, jump start the economy, and begin to solve
global warming.
We've teamed up with dozens of organizations
across the country to host this 72 hour phone blitz to our Senators
because the more calls we make, the more they'll pay attention to us.
We all have our own reasons for supporting clean energy. And our Senators need to hear them all.
Until
today, it was perfectly legal for credit card companies to profit by
tricking people into paying late and then tripling the interest rate on
their balances.
Not anymore.
The Credit CARD Act
goes into effect today and includes this and other protections from
abusive practices the banks have used to rip us off. It also offers
college students additional special protections. Click here to read what's in it for you.
Students
have an average of almost $3,000 in credit card debt when they graduate
college. We use credit cards to pay for textbooks, transportation, and
even tuition. Banks have used aggressive marketing tactics and abusive
terms and conditions to trap us into deep credit card debt. According
to Inside Higher Ed,
the new law "Includes a set of changes aimed at protecting young
consumers -- and in some cases college students specifically -- from
excessive credit card debt." U.S. News and World Report explains that young consumers are "coveted" by banks and credit card companies.
It
was the outcry of students like you that passed this law, and the banks
aren't happy about it - this is the first time in 40 years any law
opposed by credit card companies has passed!
Having
high-speed rail connecting all the major cities throughout the country
would help our economy by providing thousands of sustainable jobs,
reduce carbon emissions that cause global warming, clear up highway
congestion, reduce our dependence on foreign oil, and improve our
quality of life.
It's
going to take a long-term commitment from our local and national
leaders to plan and fund a national rail system. As we rebuild our
transportation system, let's make sure we do it right.
Haiti
just experienced a massive earthquake. We don't yet know the full
ramifications of this disaster, but the people of Haiti will need help
from around the world to meet both their immediate needs and the long
term effort to rebuild homes, schools, hospitals and cities.
Our
Hunger and Homelessness campaign will be holding fundraisers on
campuses in the months ahead to make sure organizations on the ground
have the resources to get food, medicine and supplies to the people
that need them.
Sign up to volunteer and help fundraise on your campus here.
It's easy to organize a fundraiser on campus. Learn how by downloading our Response Kit.
Donations
are urgently needed - right now, we're recommending people direct
donations to our friends at Oxfam through their website http://oxfamamerica.org. Oxfam has four offices in Haiti and over 200 highly-experienced aid workers.
Please contact the staff of the National Student Campaign Against Hunger and Homelessness with questions at Natalie@studentsagainsthunger.org.
A
handful of PIRG students attended last Wednesday's forum at the White
House on global warming and clean energy. The forum gave young people a
chance to speak directly to administration officials, including Ken
Salazar (Secretary of the Interior), Hilda Solis (Secretary of Labor),
Steven
Chu (Secretary of Energy), Lisa Jackson (EPA Administrator), and Nancy
Sutley
(chair of the White House's Council on Environmental Quality).
In his State of the Union
Speech last night, President Obama recommitted to an increased
investment in higher education, reaffirming that investment in higher
education is essential to our country’s recovery and long-term
strength.
Obama urged Congress to increase Pell grants by passing the
Student Aid and Fiscal Responsibility Act (SAFRA), help students better
manage their crushing debt loads, and create a $10,000 education tax
credit.
The passage of SAFRA will increase the Pell grant
(the government’s need-based financial aid program) by at least $40
billion dollars by eliminating wasteful, unwarranted subsidies to banks
and lenders, and redirecting the money to students.
President
Obama also called for an expansion of the federal Income Based
Repayment program to help students manage their rapidly increasing
debt. His proposal would cap students' monthly federal loan repayments
at 10% of their discretionary income and forgive their federal debt
after 20 years or repayment.
Increased tuition costs have
resulted in students and families over-relying on loans to pay for
college. In 2008 students graduated with an average of a $23,200 in
student loan debt. Too many students can't go to college because of the
costs, don't graduate because their debt gets so high they have to drop
out, or after graduation have to put off marriage, children, and home
purchase because of their crushing debt. On campuses across
the country, Student PIRGs' student interns and volunteers are working
to raise the alarm on student debt and calling on their elected
official to support President Obama's plan increase financial aid for
students.
Few issues are more highly charged than health care, as it touches each of our lives in very personal, critically important ways. As a result, this year’s public conversation around health care reform has elicited viewpoints, opinions, and analysis from almost every corner of society.
But in all this discussion, one key perspective has often been missing from the health care debate: that of America’s youth. It’s commonly assumed that young Americans are disengaged from the issue, that on the whole they are a healthy group who are unlikely to be affected by health problems or lack access to care.
But the reality couldn’t be more different. In fact, young people, including college students, are on the front lines of the health care crisis. They make up the largest age bloc of the uninsured, and face a uniquely challenging set of obstacles that often prevent them from getting coverage.
Young people face health issues and require medical care just like the rest of the population, and suffer the same consequences—debt, inability to access required care, difficulties completing studies or finding work—when they become sick. And more so than their elders, they also frequently lack the resources that would enable them to cope with these challenges.
This report explores the under-appreciated problems facing American youth in our health care system. It examines the status quo, looking particularly at the coverage crisis affecting young people, the consequences a lack of quality coverage can impose on their lives, and the inadequacy of the school-based policies many universities offer their students.
While the current situation can be grim, prospects are bright for making health insurance that works available to many more young people. There are common sense reforms that have great potential to give young people more, better options, and reduce rising health care costs to ensure that coverage is more affordable. Adopting them would allow our health care system to better serve all Americans, especially those who have been too often overlooked.
New report finds that
community college students work too many hours at the expense of academic
success
Sacramento, CA: Community College
students could graduate faster and with better grades if they spent less time
working at their jobs and more time studying and taking classes, according to a
new report released today by the public interest group CALPIRG. Community
college students surveyed reported working an average of 23 hours per week to
cover college costs, leaving them without enough time to focus on academics. At
the same time, many community college students had basic misunderstandings
about financial aid, and the less they understood the less likely they were to have
applied for aid. These factors likely
contribute to low graduation rates – only 24% of community college students who
intend to earn an associates’ degree or transfer to a four-year institution
succeed in doing so within six years.
“California needs
graduates to drive our economic recovery,” said Assemblywoman Fiona Ma (D- San
Francisco). “The community colleges educate six out of every ten college
students in this state. We can’t afford for community college students not to
succeed.” Enrollment at the states’ 110 colleges is already close to three
million, and with many unemployed and underemployed workers seeking retraining
and fee hikes making four-year schools less affordable, community college
enrollment is likely to continue to rise.
“People
think community colleges are cheap” said Saffron Zomer, Campus Program Director
for CALPIRG “but fees are only about 5% of the total cost of attendance, and so
most students have no choice but to work long hours to get through school.”
However, less than one-quarter of students surveyed felt that they were able to
balance work and study well. Many survey respondents felt that their work hours
made it difficult for them to keep up with their schoolwork. Others felt their
employment commitments kept them from taking another class, or being more
involved on campus.
When
asked three basic questions about financial aid, only ten percent of survey
respondents were able to answer all correctly.
Those who knew the least about financial aid were also the least likely
to have applied for it. The report recommends that financial aid offices work
to clear up basic misunderstandings and help students fill out the FAFSA and
receive all of the aid for which they are eligible.
But
improving outreach materials and increasing application rates is only part of
the solution: “We need to increase our investment in higher education and fund
state financial aid programs adequately, so that students can afford to focus
on academics,” said Reid Milburn, President of the Student Senate for
California Community Colleges. Added Zomer, “Of course we are in a recession –
but if we don’t fund higher education now we’re just undermining our own future
success as a state.”
CALPIRG is
a statewide, non-profit public interest organization, with chapters at eleven
campuses in California:
Visit www.calpirgstudents.org for more information about CALPIRG’s Getting to Graduation
Campaign.
Today, the House of Representatives took an historic step toward a new clean energy economy and a healthy
future by passing the American Clean Energy and Security Act.
We're going to need to do much more in order to
make the dramatic shift we need in our energy policy and avoid the dire
consequences that scientists predict if we don't address global
warming. However, the first
step is always the hardest, and the House should be applauded for
taking it.
Next the bill will go to the Senate, where it will
face another tough fight. We look forward to building even more support
for clean energy solutions.
The Obama administration last Thursday called a "time-out" on new road-building in nearly 50 million acres of our national forests. Despite President Obama's promise to protect these forests and restore the 2001 Roadless Rule, Bush-era officials still working at the U.S. Forest Service had been moving to allow the timber, mining and oil industries access to roadless areas within the system. On May 28, the Secretary of Agriculture, Tom Vilsack, ordered that these forests be protected from road building. Now we're pushing for permanent protection of these places through full restoration of the Roadless Rule.
The
Congress passed a strong Credit Card Accountability, Responsibility and
Disclosure (CARD) Act that will halt the most egregious abuses by the
credit card industry. Despite the credit card industry's lobbying to
defeat or gut the bill, the Senate and the House both passed the bill
with overwhelming, bi-partisan majorities. President Obama signed it
into law on May 22 and it takes effect in nine months.
This is a big victory for students and all consumers! We've been working on this issue for a while now - see truthaboutcredit.org for more on our campus education program about credit cards, plus the report we issued last year, The Credit Card Trap.
For too long, owning a credit card company has been a license to
steal. Over the last few years, the banks increased their use of
abusive tactics, such as changing due dates so they could trick
consumers into paying late. Worse, they charged a double whammy for
paying late - a high late fee first and then tripled interest rates of
36% APR or more. They also started charging good customers higher rates
because they supposedly paid some other creditor late (this is called
"universal default"). And when that wasn’t enough, they started raising
the rates of good customers for no reason at all.
These rip-offs have finally caught up with them. Gouging everyone,
even good customers who paid on time, caused thousands and thousands of
people who just want a fair deal to contact Congress and the Federal
Reserve.
The CARD bill doesn't fix everything, but it does eliminate a lot of unfair practices, including:
Credit card issuers could not extend credit to consumers under the age
of 21 unless the person has an independent means to repay the loan, or
has a cosigner with such ability. Consumers under the age of 21 could
choose whether to receive credit card solicitations.
Unjustified and retroactive interest
charges. Card companies could not hike interest rates retroactively on
balances accrued before a rate increase takes effect (with minor
exceptions) unless the cardholder is more than 60 days late in paying a
bill. If such interest rate increases occur, they must lower the rate
after six months of on-time payments. Card companies would not be able
to raise interest rates in the first year after a card account is
opened.
Universal default on existing balances.
Credit card issuers could not increase a cardholder's interest rate on
existing balances based on negative information about other bills
unrelated to their credit card.
Excessive and growing penalty fees.
Penalty fees would have to be reasonable and proportional to the late
or over-limit violation. Card issuers could not charge over-limit fees
unless the cardholder has agreed to allow over-limit transactions.
Unfair billing practices. Card companies could not charge interest on any portion of a balance that is paid by the due date.
Pay-to-Pay. Card companies could not
charge customers a fee to pay their bill, except for expedited service
provided by a service representative.
Final passage of this historic credit card reform legislation will
stop big credit card companies - many of which are benefiting from TARP
funds - from cheating Americans out of their hard-earned money.
On Monday April 20th 2009, CALPIRG students from across the state descended upon the Capitol in Sacramento for their spring Lobby Day. Students met with legislators to discuss a wide range of issues, including: bills designed to expand health care coverage for young people and lower costs; a bill to require 33% of California's energy to come from renewable sources by 2020; and CALPIRG's efforts to help community college students stay in school and graduate. The students met with staffers from 45 offices, as well as nine state legislators, including Assembly Speaker Karen Bass.
Instead of heading to Mexico, Florida, or Hawaii for
vacation, CALPIRG students from across the state spent Spring Break touring
California to build support for strong global warming legislation. Forty-five
students traveled the state complete with one 15-foot tall windmill and
superhero outfits going from city to city holding press conferences to meet with
local climate heroes and award them with Climate Hero capes. Students also
called for continued leadership in California to pass global warming legislation
in the first 100 days of the Obama Administration.
Young people have the
most at stake in the global warming crisis. Rising sea levels, increased forest
fires, and disappearing snow pack are just a few examples of ways climate change
is already effecting everyday life. Global warming is an enormous problem, and
strong action needs to be taken to stop its worst effects in the next few years.
The good news is California is leading the way in the solutions to global
warming. Whether it is a wind farm, solar array, innovate Silicon Valley
businesses, or a pioneering legislator, California is taking the strongest first
steps.
The tour stopped in eight cities and along the way students met
with representatives from the offices of seven elected officials including House
Speaker Nancy Pelosi, Congressman Henry Waxman, and State Senator Fran Pavley,
as well as the EPA Secretary herself, Linda Adams. Additionally, students
collected over 300 photo petitions urging Congressmembers to be climate heroes
as well as public comments to the EPA in favor of granting the California Clean
Car waiver.
Some highlights:
Day 1: San Francisco &
San Jose
The tour kicks off in San Francisco where UC Berkeley
student Gabe Elsner presents Melanie Nutter from House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s
office the first Climate Hero award of the week in front of City Hall. Students
and superheroes then gathered at San Jose's City Hall where a representative
from Councilmember Kansen Chu stopped by to welcome the tour.
Day 2:
Sacramento & Fresno
To the Capitol! UC Davis student Ramneek Saini speaks on the steps
of the Capitol in Sacramento where we are joined by UC Davis Professor Ellis
Jones, author of A Better World Shopper, and EPA Secretary Linda Adams.
Secretary Adams told the students to let her know when they were graduating so
she could recruit them for jobs! The next stop was Fresno where students met
with Councilmember Henry T. Perea and generated over 100 photo
petitions!
Day 3: San Luis Obispo & Santa Barbara
After spending the night at Santa Margarita Lake
campgrounds, the tour headed to San Luis Obispo where USC freshman Max
Tomaszewski presented Assemblyman Sam Blakeslee’s staff with a Climate Hero cape
and were also joined by Cal Poly Professor of Civil & Environmental
Engineering, Yarrow Nelson. Then we quickly jetted down to Santa Barbara where
many special guests made appearances including: UCSB Professor of Environmental
Studies Ed Keller, Nobel Prize-winning Chemist Professor at UCSB Walter Kohn,
and Jonathan Saur from Congresswoman Lois Capps office. (Also pictured above,
the 15 foot tall windmill goes up in front of the Santa Barbara County
Administration Building while students make media calls.)
Day 4:
San Diego
Next the tour headed down the coast all the way to San Diego. UCSD
Chapter Chair Daniel Teplitz presents an award to State Senator Christine
Kehoe’s office. Dorothy Edwrds from UCB gets a San Diegan to sign a public
comment card to the EPA urging them to grant the California Clean Car Waiver and
UCSD’s Coral Castillos speaks with Univision News while tourists and superheroes
look on.
Day 5: Los Angeles
On Friday
the tour descended upon Los Angeles, and even though Climate Superhero
Congressman Waxman was in DC readying the draft of his global warming
legislation, we made sure his presence was still felt with our own Superhero
Waxman. State Board Chair and UCLA junior Sarah Dobjensky and UCD’s Ramneek
Saini ran into LA City Councilman Jack Weiss in front of City Hall and he gladly
took a picture to support strong global warming legislation. Also joining the
tour were Darrell Clarke, Chair of the Angeles chapter of the Sierra Club,
Stephanie Mollen from State Senator Fran Pavley’s office and Matt Cameron from
the office of Congressman Waxman.
Matt Cameron accepts Congressman Waxman’s Climate Hero Award from
Sarah Dobjensky and UCSB freshman John Haberstroh leads the group in cheers and
a rendition of “Captain Cooldown.”
CALPIRG is a statewide
student-directed and student-funded public interest organization that stands up
to powerful interests. CALPIRG consist of student chapters at 8 University of California campuses and USC. Students from
SDSU and SFSU also participated in the tour. www.calpirgstudents.org
At UC Irvine, two interns working with CALPIRG, organized an educational event in one of the housing communities - Going Green at Campus Village.
The students made original games and interactive displays to educate fellow students on UCI’s carbon footprint as well as easy ways to conserve and recycle in the dorms. They gave away reusable bags and steel water bottles as prizes. According to organizer Christine Dubois, the housing director was very impressed with both their presentation and the enthusiastic response from student residents!
Students working on the Public Transit campaign at UC Berkeley helped to pass a City Council Resolution in support of US PIRG's transportation principles last Tuesday night. Vanessa Sadueste and three other students attended the meeting, bringing with them cool signs and prop trains. Vanessa, wearing a BRT train car costume, made a statement to the Council about the importance of changing their approach to federal transportation, and answered questions from the Council members. The Resolution passed and was signed on Wednesday morning.
The
American Recovery & Reinvestment Act recently signed into law by
President Obama contains plenty for students to applaud.
Higher Education: The final recovery bill included a $17 billion
increase in the Pell grant program for
college students. The increase means more grant money, as well as more
work-study aid and bigger tax credits for low-income students and their
families. Rep. George Miller, the key House leader on education, sought
input on the plan from the Student PIRGs' Rich Williams. http://diverseeducation.com/artman/publish/article_12284.shtml
Public Transportation: The bill added $8 billion for high-speed rail, a move strongly
supported by the Student PIRGs.
Another $8 billion in the bill is designated for other public
transportation uses. The New York Times quoted U.S. PIRG's John
Krieger: “After decades of looking on with envy at efficient bullet
trains overseas, American high-speed rail is finally leaving the
station.” http://www.nytimes.com/2009/02/13/us/politics/13stimulus.html?_r=1&scp=1&sq=John%20Krieger&st=cse
Clean Energy:
The bill includes
more
than
$78 billion for clean energy and green infrastructure, including $33
billion for clean energy, $27 billion for energy efficiency, and $19
billion for green transportation.
CALPIRG intern Courtney McDonald coordinated a
service project on Saturday at UC Berkeley. Twenty-four students came out to
plant 14 trees in an East Oakland neighborhood
during a service project organized through Urban Relief, a local community
group.
Students at the University of Southern California did an LA Monument Tour last week. CALPIRG intern Emilio Borghesan and six volunteers went to 8 different famous places in LA--from the Staples Center, to Union Station, from Universal Studios to LACMA on public transit, and then raised a seventeen-foot windmill in front of each monument and took a picture. (Everyone was wearing Campus Climate Challenge t-shirts). The students are making an photo "petition" album to give to Representatives Watson and Becerra.
At UC Santa Barbara, students collected over 200
valentines in 2 days, thanking Rep. Capps for voting to include clean energy
options and public transit funding in the economic recovery package. Madeline Wikander and Lauren Hillman led
the effort by getting over 20 Valentines signed each in just an hour!
Over 100 students participated in the Teach-in on Global Warming
Solutions at UC Irvine. CALPIRG interns and volunteers prepared four
displays on global warming, including a life-size tree to showcase
deforestation, outside the Student Center.
A biology professor spoke about the threats of global warming, simple
ways we can lessen our environmental impact, and what UCI is doing to
cut its pollution. Representatives from a local green business which
makes reusable food containers made an announcement and passed out
coupons and brochures.
CALPIRG Public Transit campaign coordinator Aysha Cohen spoke about how
easy it is to use public transit, and explained the bike-share program
she is working to implement at UCI. Two interns, Stephanie Andrade and
Sarah Gonzalez, worked to get 55 photo petitions for Congress, asking
for "$50 billion for green jobs and technology in the stimulus package."
A series about the surge in consumer debt and the lenders who made it possible.
Colleges Profit as Banks Market Credit Cards to Students
Bank of America employees on the campus of Michigan State University in
East Lansing, Mich., offered give-aways like water bottles, backpacks,
games and other items, trying to persuade students to sign up for
credit cards and other banking services.
EAST LANSING, Mich. — When Ryan T. Muneio was tailgating with his parents at a Michigan State football game this fall, he noticed a big tent emblazoned with a Bank of America
logo. Inside, bank representatives were offering free T-shirts and
other merchandise to those who applied for credit cards and other
banking products.
Fabrizio Costantini for The New York Times
Bank of America employees on the Michigan State campus offered
giveaways like water bottles, backpacks and games to persuade students
to apply for credit cards and other bank services.
“They did a good job,” Mr. Muneio, 21 and a junior at Michigan State, said of the tactic. “It was good advertising.”
Bank of America’s relationship with the university extends well beyond
marketing at sports events. The bank has an $8.4 million, seven-year
contract with Michigan State giving it access to students’ names and
addresses and use of the university’s logo. The more students who take
the banks’ credit cards, the more money the university gets. Under
certain circumstances, Michigan State even stands to receive more money
if students carry a balance on these cards.
Hundreds of colleges
have contracts with lenders. But at a time of rising concern about
student debt — and overall consumer debt — the arrangements have
sounded alarm bells, and some student groups are starting to push back.
The relationships are reminiscent of those uncovered two years ago between student loan companies and universities. In those, some lenders offered universities an incentive to steer potential borrowers their way.
Here at Michigan State, the editors of the student newspaper wrote
this fall that “it doesn’t take a giant leap for someone to ask why the
university should encourage responsible spending when it receives a cut
of every purchase.”
At Arizona State University,
students set up a table on campus last spring to warn of the danger of
debt and urge students to support limits on on-campus marketing.
The
contracts, whose terms vary but usually involve payments to colleges or
alumni associations that agree to provide lists of students’ names,
have come under harsh criticism in Washington.
“That is absolutely outrageous, the sharing of students’ information with the banks,” Representative Carolyn B. Maloney, Democrat of New York, who oversaw a June hearing on campus credit card marketing, said in a recent interview. “That should be outlawed.”
Fabrizio Costantini for The New York Times
A Fifth Third Bank display offered bottles of water, tuition raffles
and a bicycle as an inducement to get incoming freshmen at Michigan
State University to open credit card and other accounts.
College
campuses are one place that young Americans are introduced to credit
and the possibility of spending beyond their means, a problem now
confronting the nation as a whole. For banks, the relationships are a
golden marketing opportunity. For colleges, they are a revenue source
at a time of declining public funding. And for students, they help pay
the bills and allow more shopping.
But debt incurred in college becomes a serious burden at graduation, especially in a recession in which jobs are scarce. A survey of more than 1,500 college students by US PIRG
in Washington found that two-thirds had at least one credit card.
Seniors with balances had an average debt of $2,623 on their cards.
University officials say that their agreements with card issuers comply with the law and bring in valuable revenue.
“It
provides money for scholarships and other programs,” said Terry R.
Livermore, manager of licensing programs at Michigan State. He said
that the program was aimed primarily at alumni and the university would
not include sharing student information in future credit card
contracts. “The students are such a minuscule portion of this program.”
Jennifer
Holsman, executive director of the alumni association at Arizona State,
said the association tried to teach students about responsible uses of
credit. “We work closely with Bank of America to provide educational
seminars to students in terms of being able to get information about
how to pay off credit cards, how not to keep balances,” she said.
Credit card issuers say that they try to educate students to use cards
responsibly and that the cards they offer on campus have more
restrictive terms than cards offered to alumni.
“The available
credit for undergraduates is capped at $2,500,” said Betty Riess, a
spokeswoman for Bank of America. “We want to take a fair and
responsible approach to lending because we want to build the foundation
for a longer-term banking relationship.”
Ms. Riess said the bank
had agreements with about 700 colleges and alumni associations, making
it one of the biggest, if not the biggest, card issuer on campuses. She
said that only 2 percent of the open accounts under those agreements
belonged to students, but also said it was not possible to determine
what percentage of program revenue resulted from fees and charges on
those student cards.
Stephanie Jacobson, a spokeswoman for JPMorgan Chase,
wrote in an e-mail message that the bank had fewer than 25 contracts
with colleges or alumni associations and that while some of the
contracts gave it the right to ask for and use lists of student names
and addresses, the bank had not done so since 2007.
That may be
because football games present a marketing opportunity that requires no
address information. Abigail D. Molina, a second-year law student at
the University of Oregon, applied in 2007 for a Chase Visa offered at a tent outside a football game. In exchange, she received a blanket.
I mostly wanted the blanket,” Ms. Molina said. She added that this
was her second university credit card. In 1994, when she was an
undergraduate at the university, she applied for a card at a booth on
campus and then accumulated about $30,000 in debt, almost all of it on
the card. In 2001 she filed for bankruptcy. Looking back, she said it
was “shockingly easy” to get the card, even as a first-year student.
Mr. Muneio, the Michigan
State student, said he did not apply for a Bank of America card because
he already had two Visa cards. “The last thing I need is another
account to keep track of.”
Many students are unaware of the
contracts that universities have with credit card issuers and do not
question the presence of marketers on campus or applications in their
mailboxes, despite recent protests on a few campuses.
Sometimes,
the contracts have confidentiality provisions. Universities may try to
distance themselves, stating that the contracts are only between alumni
associations and banks. But the universities provide alumni groups with
lists of current students’ names, addresses and telephone numbers,
which the groups pass on to banks.
The New York Times obtained
information about and, in some cases, copies of contracts between
lenders, public colleges and their alumni associations using open
records requests. Because private colleges are not subject to open
records laws, they are not included.
While most universities contacted for this article did not provide detailed financial information on the contracts — the University of Pittsburgh, for example, confirmed only that it had an agreement — two did share numbers.
The alumni association of the University of Michigan
is guaranteed $25.5 million over the term of its 11-year agreement with
Bank of America. Under the agreement, the association agreed to provide
lists of names and addresses of students, alumni, faculty, staff,
donors and holders of season tickets to athletic events.
Much
of the money goes toward scholarships, said Jerry Sigler, vice
president and chief financial officer of the alumni association. He was
unsure what students were told about the program.
“Students are
generally told how they can opt out of having their information
publicly displayed in directories or provided in response to requests
like this,” Mr. Sigler added. “But it’s not to my knowledge specific to
the credit card program.”
Michigan State University gets $1.2
million a year but is guaranteed at least $8.4 million over seven
years, according to its agreement. The contract calls for a $1 royalty
to the university for every new card account that remains open for at
least 90 days, $3 for every card whose holder pays an annual fee, and a
payment of a half percent of the amount of all retail purchases using
the cards.
For cards that do not have an annual fee, the bank
pays $3 if the holder has a balance at the end of the 12th month after
opening an account, a provision that appears to give the university an
incentive to get cardholders into debt.
A few schools have adopted policies that prohibit sharing student contact information.
Ball
State University’s alumni association, which has a contract with
JPMorgan Chase, does not provide information on students, said Ed
Shipley, executive director of the association. “Who we market to is
our alumni because that’s our purpose,” he said. However, the bank is
permitted to set up marketing tables at athletic events.
The
University of Oregon, whose alumni association also has a marketing
agreement with Chase, stopped providing student addresses as concern
grew about student debt, according to Julie Brown, a university
spokeswoman. The university still permits marketing booths at athletic
events.
Some research suggests that students may be using credit
cards less frequently, in favor of debit cards linked to their bank
accounts. A survey last spring by Student Monitor, a Ridgewood, N.J.,
company that tracks trends on campus, found that 59 percent of
undergraduate students had debit cards, up from 51 percent in 2000.
But
universities have arrangements with banks that offer debit cards too,
perhaps raising some of the same issues that the credit card deals do.
At New Mexico State University, for example, students are given the option of opening a bank account with Wells Fargo if they want to convert their campus identification into a debit card.
The
accounts are not mandatory, said Angela Throneberry, assistant vice
president for auxiliary services at the university. But, she said,
“There’s some revenue sharing that happens as part of this.”
A version of this article appeared in print on January 1, 2009, on page B1 of the New York edition.
Add this to
the list of the country's financial woes: Credit card companies are aggressively
targeting college students, many of whom are naïve about money matters and
vulnerable to predatory offers that can get them permanently mired in debt.
According to an eye-opening survey by the
United States Public Interest Research Group, or U.S. PIRG, which is an advocacy
organization, some students reported receiving hundreds of credit card offers in
a year. The report also described how companies lure cash-starved students with
gifts of clothing and free food. In one flagrant case in Ohio, students who showed
up for the food were required to fill out credit card applications before they
could eat.
A
half-dozen states have placed restrictions on how credit cards can be marketed
at public colleges. Congress is considering sensible bills that would restrict
the amount of credit and the number of cards that students could be offered.
Lawmakers should also focus on the lucrative and often secret deals that
universities and their alumni associations regularly cut with credit card
companies.
Those deals
— which resemble the now outlawed student loan kickback deals — often grant
companies the exclusive right to market to a college’s students. In some cases,
the colleges get a cut of what the students spend, which makes the school a
partner in the plundering of young peoples’ meager assets.
Congress
must insist that these deals be made public and universities and alumni groups
must insist that students be given fair deals from credit card companies.
With
financing from the Ford Foundation, U.S. PIRG has begun a national campaign
urging schools to adopt some common-sense principles that would help shield
students from credit card marketers and financial ruin.
The group
calls on universities to stop selling the names and contact information of
currently enrolled students to credit card marketers. It also says that schools
should ban marketers from using gifts to entice students to sign up for credit
cards, and it urges schools to do more to educate students on managing debt
responsibly.
Most
importantly, the group calls on schools that still decide to cut deals to only
do business with credit card companies that steer clear of commonly used but
unscrupulous credit card terms that take advantage of students. That means an
end to hidden fees or unreasonable penalties, including universal default, under
which interest rates go up when the customer fails to pay a bill not related to
the credit card account.
Schools
need to reform their credit card practices. If they don’t move quickly,
lawmakers must do it for them.New York Times endorses our Truth About Credit project
Hundreds of California College Students Using “Six Degrees” Concept and Online Social Networking to Make a Final Push for High-Speed Train Initiative
For More Information: Emily Rusch, CALPIRG Advocate – 415-622-0039 ex 307 or local contact on campuses (see below)
Starting at 10AM today, over 500 college students on 15 campuses from San Diego to Sacramento sent tens of thousands of emails, text messages and Facebook/MySpace messages to tell friends and family to vote yes for Prop 1A, the ballot measure to build high-speed rail in California. As of 5pm the students with CALPIRG (California Public Interest Research Group) had accomplished the following:
166,014 emails sent
47,384 people contacted via Facebook
5,871 text messages
3,529 face-to-face conversations during the day
Using the concept that everyone is connected within six degrees of each other, California students volunteering with CALPIRG are working to get their message out to so many people that even Kevin Bacon - the iconic figure commonly linked to the "six degrees" concept-is convinced to vote yes on Prop 1A.
"It is exciting" said Coreen Weintraub, junior at UCLA, "In just a few hours we educated tens of thousands of people about the proposed high-speed rail and why it is such an important investment in our future."
The day started at 10AM when over 400 students activated their peer-to-peer social networks with each student sending dozens of emails and contacting hundreds more via Facebook titled "Tell Kevin Bacon to Vote Yes on Prop 1A - High-Speed Rail". Embedded in the email and Facebook messages was a video that students made detailing why they are voting yes on Proposition 1A as well as campaign information. At 11AM 500 students at 15 campuses headed out onto their quads to speak face-to-face with hundreds more students generating additional text, emails and Facebook messages.
"I contacted everyone I know" said Anjali Gill, sophomore at USC, "My friends, my parents, my co-workers. I haven't gotten to Kevin Bacon yet but I'm educating thousands about the importance of high-speed rail and building support. It's working because I know people are forwarding the message so I will keep encouraging everyone I know to keep forwarding this on."
Proposition 1A would start the process of building the California High-Speed Rail line. This train would run from Sacramento to San Diego, taking passengers between northern and southern California way faster than driving. For example, travelers could get from LA to San Francisco in less than three hours. The train would create 450,000 jobs once finished. It would reduce our dependence on oil by 12.7 million barrels a year, eliminate 12 billion pounds of harmful greenhouse gasses, and reduce traffic congestion.
"We don't have the money to buy TV commercials to educate people about Prop 1A" said Gwen von Klan, freshman at UC Berkeley. "But as students, we do come from all different backgrounds and communities and can use peer-to-peer tactics to personally educate hundreds of thousand of Californians. If it reaches Kevin Bacon, then we can be pretty sure we've gotten the word out across the state!"
For specific numbers for other campuses, contact: Sacramento State: Kevin Powers, 650-892-7435 UC Davis: Margaret Howe, 773-817-9009 UC Berkeley: Alex Lozanoff, 808-389-8714 San Francisco State: Alex Lozanoff, 808-389-8714 San Jose State: Mike McDonald, 717-360-9859 UC Santa Cruz: Dan Xie, 858-353-1452 Bakersfield students: Catherine Ngo, 603-305-8933 UC Santa Barbara: Nicole Pexton, 971-506-2669 Cal State LA: Erin Steva, 612-590-2174 University of Southern California: Virginia Benninghoff, 802-989-4156 UCLA: Coreen Weintraub, 510-206-3148 UC Riverside: Samantha Raymond, 207-632-8058 UC Irvine: Christine Dubois, 619-519-0492 UC San Diego: Nicole White, 951-500-6273 San Diego State: Kristi Horvath, 970-759-9935
The New Voters Project has kicked off at LACC. So far this semester, we have registered 50 voters and have had 200 students pledge to vote. We are well on out way to having 3000 students pledge to vote and 1000 students registered to vote.
On January 17th, by a vote of 356 to 71, the U.S. House passed, by an
overwhelming bipartisan majority, legislation to lower the interest rates on
student loans over the next five years. According to an analysis by the Student
PIRGs, the move would save the average low or middle-income borrower starting
school in 2007 $2,300 in debt.
“H.R. 5 pays for better benefits for
students by cutting excessive federal subsidies to private lenders,” explained
U.S. PIRG Higher Education Advocate Luke Swarthout. “The bill saves millions of
students thousands of dollars over the life of their loans by eliminating
wasteful subsidies.
The
bill, H.R. 5, will lower interest rates on subsidized Stafford student loans, which are used overwhelmingly by
students from low- and middle-income families. The Senate will likely take up the issue of lower
interest rates as a part of a larger package of higher education policies in the
next several months.
On September 7th, 2007, the U.S. Senate and House of Representatives passed the College Cost Reduction and Access Act by broad bipartisan votes of 79 to 12 and 292 to 97 respectively. The bill now goes to the President who has said he will sign the legislation into law.
The College Cost Reduction and Access Act is the most meaningful higher education reform in more than 15 years. The bill addresses the financial challenges of access and affordability that face American college students. It provides billions of dollars a year in additional grant aid to low-income students through the Pell Grant program. It will also help students address the burden of rising student debt through lower interest rates and a new repayment system.
The bill also trims excessive subsidies that benefit a handful of banks and directs them to millions of students and families who are working to pay for college.
The College Cost Reduction and Access Act will:
Increase the maximum Pell Grant award by $490 for each of the next two school years, by $690 for the following two school years and by $1,090 for each following year. The Pell Grant is the nation’s premier college access program, providing grants to 5 million low-income students each year. The maximum Pell Grant is currently $4,310.
Create an income-based repayment program that allows borrowers to repay their loans as a percentage of their income. This new program will protect borrowers with low salaries from having to make unmanageable payments. As a result students will be able to make employment and life decisions based on their values rather than the volume of their debt.
Reduce interest rates on student loans for more than 5 million low and middle-income student borrowers receiving subsidized Stafford loans.
Finance increased education spending by reducing subsidies to student lenders. Lenders will receive a reduced rate of return for offering federal student loans and a slightly reduced reinsurance rate from the federal government. As a result, the increased grant aid and loan benefits will have no additional cost to taxpayers.
While many students spent their Spring Breaks in Cancun
or Palm Beach or other exotic locations, CALPIRG
students spent our Spring Break building support for the High-Speed Rail
proposal here in California. We are happy to report it was a
HUGE success. More than 50 students participated in our trip doing 11 events
from Northern California to Southern
California.
High-speed rail would remove up to 92 million car trips off the
road annually, reduce global warming pollution and reduce the need to expand
expensive roads and airports. In order for such a large project to get built, it needs to
be a priority for elected officials and the public. The students’ trip was
crucial to creating needed momentum.
Over the course of the week we had 43 media outlets attend our events and met
with 23 local leaders.
Here are a few photos from the week’s
events:
From left to right, top to bottom: UC
Berkeley student Jen Engstrom speaks in San Francisco with Senator Migden,
Supervisor Peskin, and Judge Kopp; Congresswoman Lofgren speaking at our event
in San Jose, with San Jose Mayor Reed in the background; UC Davis student Dan
Xie speaking at our Sacramento event with Asm. Ma and Huffman and David Crane
from the HSR Authority; all of us in Stockton; Congressman Costa on his bike
with students in Fresno; Bakersfield Mayor Hall gets a t-shirt from Davis
student Andrew Peake; meeting up with Los Angeles Mayor Villaraigosa at our LA
stop; our final stop in San Diego.
Here are a few highlights from the
media coverage of the week:
We were also excited to see that Assemblymember Ma was
sporting our T-shirt at the Democratic
State Convention last weekend.
CALPIRG,
is a statewide public interest organization that stands up to
powerful interests. CALPIRG Students
consist of student chapters at 8 University of California campuses and USC. At each one
of our student chapters we have professional staff of organizers and advocates
working with students on campaigns that the students choose. High-speed rail is
one of the campaigns the students are prioritizing this spring.
Monday, October 23 was the last day to register to vote in California, and Long Beach State students registered all day long. People were coming up to the table until 7:30 pm to register to vote, for a daily total of 334 voters registered! The total number of students registering with ASI and CALPIRG this semester is over 1350, and now the big job is getting out to vote on Tuesday November 7th!
“The report
confirms the burden of textbook prices on students and offers a smart package
of solutions that can introduce real competition into the publishing industry
and free students from the stranglehold that traditional publishers have on the
market,” said Laura Deehan, the CALPIRG Assistant Organizing Director. “In
particular, we urge faculty, colleges and policymakers to do everything in
their power to hasten the development and adoption of openly-licensed learning
content.”
Confirmation
that textbook prices ““represent a significant barrier to access and
persistence.”
A
clear analysis of the market which correctly recognizes the disproportionate
amount of power that publishers have in the market, and the need to restructure
the market so that it is “student-centric.”
There
are many 21st Century Technologies – such as those housed at Rice University Press and Connexions - that are
dramatically less expensive and more flexible than traditionally licensed
books.
A
call to create a national “digital marketplace” where all content –
commercial and non-commercial – can compete against each other on one platform.
“I applaud
the work of the advisory committee. Many of their findings and
recommendations confirm what those of us pushing for meaningful solutions have
suspected all along—rising textbooks costs and the lack of competition have
created a barrier for college students. As the report makes clear, the
publishing industry must not and cannot be allowed to continue their deceptive
marketing practices," said State Senator Ellen Corbett (D-San Leandro).
Senator
Corbett went on to further state that “full and complete disclosure to faculty
of pertinent information such as cost, product lists, revisions made and
estimated length of time on market by marketing reps, as proposed in my bill,
will help bring about lower costs for students and parents alike.”
Although
the report’s overall conclusions are very strong, the Make Textbooks Affordable
Project had some criticisms of the report. For example, the report should
have made clearer that “E-books” are much less ideal than other “21st
century” alternatives. In some cases, “E-books” are actually more expensive
than even traditional hardbound books once the buyback value of a book is
factored in. Read more
in the report analysis.
"Textbooks
are a huge burden for community college students often impacting how many classes
they can afford to take," says Eva Jackson, Student Trustee-elect for the
Los Angeles Community College District. "We surveyed hundreds of students
at Los Angeles Southwest College
and found students overwhelmingly said they'd take more classes if the books
were cheaper.
Los Angeles Trade Technical College President Roland "Chip" Chapelaine endorsed CALPIRG's New Voters Project, becoming one of the first college presidents to publicly support the student registration and get out the vote campaign this election season. LA Trade Tech is one of the largest technical colleges in the nation, boasting a student population of just over 12,000 students. CALPIRG plans to register over 1000 voters before the dealine in late October and contact several thousand more during its GOTV drive the last few days before the election.
On Monday April 20th 2009, CALPIRG students from across the state descended upon the Capitol in Sacramento for their spring Lobby Day. Students met with legislators to discuss a wide range of issues, including: bills designed to expand health care coverage for young people and lower costs; a bill to require 33% of California's energy to come from renewable sources by 2020; and CALPIRG's efforts to help community college students stay in school and graduate. The students met with staffers from 45 offices, as well as nine state legislators, including Assembly Speaker Karen Bass.
