Accomplishments 2009 - 2010
Passing the largest student financial aid law in history.
In March, President Obama signed the largest student loan bill in history into law. The new law increases financial aid for students by $36 billion, and it won't cost taxpayers a dime because it's funded by cutting wasteful hand-outs to banks and loan companies like Sallie Mae and Citibank. Across the country 10,000 of you called, wrote, emailed, and tweeted your Congressmen asking them to take action. In addition, our DC staff worked tirelessly to bring your message to legislators and their staff.
Here at UCSD we collected hundreds of signatures and phone calls into our representatives to make sure they passed this law. We also held a “Take a Swing at Sallie Mae” event and where students took a bat and let Sallie Mae have it.
Stopping the worst unfair practices by credit companies.
In February the Credit CARD Act went into effect. This law protects students and ends some of the worst unfair practices of credit card companies, making it illegal for credit card companies to profit by tricking people into paying late. 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.
Reforming the health care system in order to make health care affordable.
Despite hundreds of millions of dollars spent by the insurance industry to stop reform, health insurance reform became law. Our priority has been to make health care affordable. This law takes unprecedented steps to lower costs for families and small businesses, and it prohibits insurers from using pre-existing conditions, errors on forms, and lifetime or yearly caps to drop your coverage or price it out of reach. It also helps young adults – a highly uninsured demographic - by allowing them to stay on their parents’ coverage until age 26.
At UCSD we turned in hundreds of calls into representatives and senators demanding reform. We also hosted a health care week to educate people about the bill. It included a rally on library walk, photos petitions, and a health care panel where 3 professors and the Vice-Chancellor of Student Health answered questions from students. We also held a press conference to release a research report showing how young people are paying more and more for health care. The report showed that young people suffered immensely from expensive health care and the system needed to be changed.
Building support for global warming solutions.
We're calling on the Senate to build a clean energy economy that will create jobs and enhance America’s national security while protecting the environment. Across the country, we mobilized over 30,000 students and community members to contact their Senators to call for clean, renewable energy and an end to our dependence on oil and coal. We held events on campus and off to educate thousands of people, resulting in more than 100 news stories about our work.
We worked with the Sustainability Resource Center to expand green initiatives here at UCSD. In March and April we generated phone calls into Senators Boxer and Feinstein demanding they be strong about climate change legislation. In March we generated 367 phone calls in 3 days and in April we generated 254 in 2 days! We also collected 130 photo petitions of people standing beside Kermit and telling Congress “it is easy being green.”
Helping rebuild Haiti, and fighting poverty here at home.
It's been a tough year for many American families, and the earthquake in Haiti has affected millions. Through our annual Hunger Cleanup CALPIRG students from UCSD joined 5,000 students across the country for a day of service in our communities. Together, we raised money for Father Joe’s Village, Oxfam’s Haiti Relief and national efforts to combat poverty.
Bringing 21st Century Transportation to America.
From high-speed rail to mass transit, it’s time for 21st century transportation in America. We’re calling for increased federal funding of transit projects including fighting to keep UCSD bus funding and expand the bus lines in La Jolla that will make it easier for us to get around and cut global warming pollution, traffic, and smog. We generated 150 signatures at UCSD and are working with AS and the admin to make sure bus lines stay open and are expanded.
CALPIRG’s Wave of Change 2010 Spring Break Tour.
Instead of going to Cancun for their spring break, 50 CALPIRG students spent a week doing something different: road-tripping up the coast to build support for protecting the oceans by passing a statewide ban on single-use Styrofoam take-out containers. The Wave of Change 2010 Tour started in San Diego and traveled up the coast making seven stops ending with a lobby day at the state Capitol. At each stop students held beach cleanups, beach themed press conferences, and collected photo petitions with beach-goers.
We kicked off the tour in San Diego! UCSD student Amber Siddiqi was joined by Environment California, San Diego Coastkeeper, and the UCSD student government president Utsav Gupta who said, “Sustainability is our generation’s fight.”
