Students Creating Change
Stopping Global Warming * Making College Affordable * Feeding The Hungry * Advocating for Students
Want to get involved?
Sign-up to learn more about volunteer and internship opportunities!
Also check out some of the great things CALPIRG did across the state last semester:
New Voters Project:
In California and nationwide, we helped register and turn out young
voters. Statewide, CALPIRG assisted in registering nearly 20,000 young people to
vote. On Election Day, there were 3.4 million more young voters
nationwide in 2008 compared to 2004. The youth share of the electorate
also surpassed that of people over 65 - an impressive feat.
Hunger and Homelessness:
We are facing one of the worst economic crises since the Great
Depression. Unemployment rates keep going higher and more people are
forced into poverty every day. This spring we joined the national
Hunger Cleanup, a day of service and fundraising, to serve our local
community and raise money for local, national, and international
agencies addressing poverty.
Making Higher Education Affordable:
In January, we helped convince Congress to include several key measures
in the economic stimulus package, including a $17 billion increase in
Pell grant funding, more work-study aid, and bigger tax credits for
low-income students and their families. Also, at the end of February,
President Obama proposed a budget for 2010 which significantly
reinvests in the Pell grant and makes sure it increases each year
according to inflation. The proposal pays for itself by cutting
excessive subsidies to banks and lenders in the student loan program.
Global Warming:
In January we worked to make sure that the economic stimulus package
included critical funding for programs that will create jobs and
protect the environment, including $16 billion for public transit and
$78 billion for clean energy and green infrastructure. Now we are
collecting petitions, generating phone calls, and shining a media
spotlight on the issue to make sure our members in Congress continue to
fight for legislation to put us on a path to solve global warming by
increasing clean energy, reducing emissions, and creating new jobs.
Protecting Students from Bad Credit Card Practices:
Our report, "The Campus Credit Card Trap," received national attention
for exposing the bad practices of credit card companies on campus and
has been quoted in newspapers across the country, including the New
York Times. We used this attention to educate Congress and help pass
the national Credit Card Holder Bill of Rights to stop some of the
worst credit terms and conditions that can plunge students - and all
consumers - into debt.
Affordable Textbooks: Open
textbooks (free, online textbooks) are really catching on, thanks in
part to our campaign to shine the spotlight on these great
alternatives. Over 2,000 faculty members have signed our statement of
support for open textbooks and a new publisher just released 10 new
open textbooks. Also, a new bill was introduced in Congress that would
fund the creation of more open textbooks.
