Making Higher Education Affordable

In March 2010, President Obama signed into law the Student Aid and Fiscal Responsibility Act, which invests in financial aid by ending sweetheart deals to big banks and loan companies. CoPIRG Student Chapters along with students from across the country contributed to the call for reform of our federal student loan programs. Thousands of students participated in a Wall of Debt week of action in September 2009, filling out petitions in the form of bricks indicating the level of student loan debt they will graduate with. In March 2010, students educated their peers with an event called “Take A Swing at Sallie Mae” to highlight the excessive subsidies that banks and lenders received for making loans, while students plunged into deep debt. CoPIRG Student Chapters' research also helped document the need for reform.

Global Warming Solutions
CoPIRG PIRG students have joined together with PIRG students in other states in educating the country about the solutions we have to global warming and building support for local, state and national policies that will put those solutions into practice. In Spring 2010, we mobilized over 30,000 students and community members to call for clean, renewable energy and an end to our dependence on oil and coal. We held events on and off campus to educate thousands of people, resulting in more than 100 news stories about our work.

In 2007, CoPIRG Student Chapters at CU Boulder, with a team of 22 Climate Action volunteers, ran a drive to collect comments to Chancellor Bud Peterson, requesting that he sign a commitment to make the campus a leader in reducing our impact on global warming.  The team gathered more than 700 requests from CU students in less than a week and ended up convincing Chancellor Peterson to sign onto the American University and College President's Climate Commitment letter. The chapter also gathered over 1,000 student signatures encouraging Colorado Governor Bill Ritter to reduce global warming pollution

CoPIRG Student Chapters at UC Denver won initial approval in 2007 for a large solar array to be installed on campus that will produce solar power on site. This will be the largest solar project on any college campus outside the state of California.

New Voters Project
Launched more than 25 years ago, the Student PIRGs’ New Voters Project has helped to register more than 700,000 voters and make more than a million personalized voting reminders since 2004, making it the nation’s largest nonpartisan grassroots mobilization effort targeting young voters. During that period, young voter turnout has consistently increased, rising from 36% in 2000 to more than 52% in 2008.

The 2008 election saw young voter turnout surge by at least 2.2 million votes over 2004 levels. Students involved with the New Voters Project played a big role in the impressive turnout of students in this historic election. On 100 campuses in 17 states, the Student PIRGs' New Voters Project combined old-fashioned pavement pounding with cutting-edge technology to reach young voters.

CoPIRG Student Chapters worked at CU-Boulder, CSU, UNC, CU-Denver, and CSU-Colorado Springs to run a massive voter registration and mobilization campaign.  We helped register over 4,000 students to vote and made over 48,000 reminder contacts in the days leading up to the election.

Truth About Credit
Since 2007, COPIRG Student Chapters and USPIRG have been running the Truth About Credit campaign to expose dangerous credit card practices and clean them up.  We organized “FEESA” educational tables on colleges nationwide, where we acted like credit card marketers but instead promoted principles for responsible credit card marketing on campus.  In 2008, we also surveyed over 2,000 students and released a subsequent report, “The Campus Credit Card Trap,” which garnered nationwide media coverage.

Student Debt Alert
Our Student Debt Alert campaign raises awareness about the growing problem of student debt and calls for solutions. Through the campaign, over five thousand students posted their photos and stories on the Student Debt Yearbook, to illustrate to decision makers the importance of financial aid programs. Hundreds of additional students sent testimony to the federal Commission on the Future of Higher Education urging them to address student debt issues facing students in Colorado and across the country.

Affordable Textbooks
COPIRG Student Chapters have been leading the charge to make textbooks affordable. We have been building support for “open textbooks” – books that are available to students for free – and signed on over 2,000 college professors who support using open textbooks in their classes.  In addition, our extensive research on the textbook industry has defined the debate on the issue and sparked a Congressional investigation into textbook pricing.

Campaign Against Hunger and Homelessness
Students in Colorado along with thousands of students on campuses across the country join together through our annual Hunger Cleanup each April to raise money and volunteer in a day of service in their communities. Since students started this annual tradition in 1984, more than 150,000 have volunteered and their combined efforts have raised over $2 million.  This year, in addition to local charities, students donated funds to relief projects in Haiti. 

In November 2009, we launched the Resolve Conference, where 250 students were joined by activists, advocates and organizers for a weekend of education and training to create anti-poverty campaigns in their communities.  Coming out of the conference, participants joined hundreds of campuses holding educational and service events during the annual Hunger and Homelessness Awareness Week.

Forest Protection: As part of a national coalition, CoPIRG Student Chapters played a critical role in helping to protect 58.5 million acres of roadless areas in our national forests with the Roadless Rule.

Past Accomplishments: CoPIRG Student Chapters has a long history of accomplishments. Among those: In the 1980s, we helped to pass the Lemon Law, a law forcing full disclosure of any previous accidents when selling a used car. We also qualified and passed the Motor Voter ballot initiative, an initiative which allows people to register to vote when they get their driver’s license.