New Voters Project: Youth vote trend continues to increase!  CoPIRG 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.  Nationally, 2.2 million more students voted than in 2004 and the percent of the electorate that was young people surpassed over 65 voters, 18% to 16%.

Global Warming: In 2007, CoPIRG 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 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.

Higher Education:  In May 2009, Congress passed strong legislation, called the “Credit Card Accountability, Responsibility and Disclosure (CARD) Act” that will halt the most egregious abuses by the credit card industry. The CARD bill eliminates a lot of unfair practices, including: excessive and growing penalty fees, unfair billing practices, and unjustified and retroactive interest charges. It also restricts and requires greater transparency for marketing targeted exclusively at college campuses or consumers under the age of 21. 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.

In August 2008, we helped get an Affordable Textbooks provision included in the federal Higher Education Opportunity Act. The provision helps lower the cost of textbooks for millions of students by requiring publishers to disclose textbook pricing and revision information to faculty and requiring publishers to offer textbooks and supplemental materials "unbundled." It also asks colleges to provide the list of assigned textbooks, including prices, for each course when students are registering for classes.

In September 2007, we helped pass the College Cost Reduction and Access Act, the largest increase in federal student aid in 20 years. This law also made dramatic cuts in interest rates for student loans. We followed up by helping pass the Higher Education Opportunity Act, which was signed by President Bush in August 2008. That law contains several important policy changes, including an increase in the maximum authorized level of the Pell Grant to $9,000.

Textbooks: Students working with CoPIRG at UC Denver spent the 2006-2007 school year working to develop a plan and potential budget for a textbook rental program. This program will help students save money on textbooks by letting them rent, rather than purchase, their books for a number of classes. CoPIRG Student Chapters plan to bring this program to campus over the course of the next year.

Ecopledge: CoPIRG Student Chapters' Ecopledge campaign works to convince corporations to take simple steps to protect our environment.  We convinced Whole Foods to discontinue the sale of products containing genetically modified ingredients in their stores. We also convinced Staples to stop selling paper in their stores that came from old growth forests.

Hunger and Homelessness: In 2007, 45 people joined CoPIRG to volunteer during the 23rd annual Hunger Cleanup. We raised over $2000 for the Gemini House, an adolescent shelter run by the Family Tree.   

Our annual Hunger Cleanup raised over $3500 in 2006 to fight poverty. The money raised helped to support local, national, and international anti-poverty efforts, including the Family Tree shelter in Denver and the Carriage House in Boulder.

Forest Protection: As part of a national coalition, CoPIRG Student Chapters played a critical role in convincing the federal government 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.