Local Campaign Info and Meeting Times
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Here are a few of our accomplishments from this last year.
New Voters Project: Here in Connecticut and nationwide, we helped register and turn out young voters. Here on the UConn campus, along with the UConn Votes Coalition, we helped 3600 students register to vote and made a couple thousand reminders to students during the days leading up to Election Day through emails, calls, canvassing, tabling, and text messages. There were 3.4 million more young voters 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. Here at UConn we raised over $16,000 throughout the spring semester. Over 60 volunteers took part in the Cleanup which raised funds for the No Freeze Shelter in Willimantic and the Tri Town Shelter in Vernon.
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. And, at the end of February, President Obama proposed a budget for 2010-2011 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 bank and lenders in the student loan program. Here at UConn, we've been collecting petitions, making phone calls, and even meeting one on one with Senator Dodd to make sure he stands up for students, not banks, by encouraging his fellow senators to keep these provisions in the budget.
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. ConnPIRG volunteers collected over 1,000 petitions and organized a global warming town hall meeting to make sure Congressman Courtney fights for legislation to put us on a path to solve global warming by increasing clean energy, reducing emissions, and creating new jobs. In addition UConnPIRG sent 40 students down to Washington, D.C. for Powershift '09, the largest global warming student conference in history.
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. On campus we have been collecting petitions in support of fair credit card marketing principles as well as providing information to students on the best ways to use credit cards.
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. On campus we have gotten over 20 UConn professors to sign onto our statement of support and commit to considering using open textbooks in their classes.