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. It infuses $36
billion into the financially strapped Pell grant program, benefiting 8
million students. It also improves the Income Based Repayment program,
benefiting 1 million borrowers by capping repayment at no more than ten
percent of their salary and allowing for loan forgiveness after 20
years. The bill also cut $60 billion in subsidies for banks and lenders
to pay for college affordability measures. NJPIRG Student
Chapters and Student PIRG lobbying and organizing over the past several
years was critical to the passage of this historic law.
Global Warming Solutions
Students working with NJPIRG Student
Chapters 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 nationally 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.
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.
Nationally 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.
Students working on NJPIRG Student Chapters New Voters Project teamed up
with the RU Voting Coalition and collected over 5,000 voter
registration forms. In the days leading up to the election we contacted
over 28,000 young voters across the state to remind them to vote. We
knocked on doors, made class presentations, stopped students on the way
to class, and asked passersby to spread the message by “texting out the
vote”.
The CARD Act
In February 2010, the “Credit Card Accountability, Responsibility and
Disclosure (CARD) Act” went into effect. The Student PIRGs and NJPIRG Student
Chapters helped pass this strong legislation, which ends
some of the worst abuses of the credit card industry, including some
which are often targeted at college students. The CARD Act eliminates
excessive 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 the bill, the Senate and the House both passed it
with overwhelming bipartisan majorities.
Energy Service Corps
In the fall 2009, NJPIRG Student Chapters teamed up with AmeriCorps to
launch Energy Service Corps, a campaign to increase energy efficiency in
low-income communities through education and service. Energy Service
Corps has already educated close to 300 community members about energy
efficiency, distributed over 1,000 compact fluorescent light bulbs both
on-and off-campus, weatherized 15 buildings, and recruited 50 students
to volunteer to educate elementary school kids about the environment in
January 2010.
Making Health Care Work
In March 2010, President Obama signed the Patient Protection and
Affordable Care Act into law. This law takes unprecedented steps to
lower costs for families and small businesses and prohibits insurers
from using pre-existing conditions, errors on forms, and lifetime or
yearly caps to drop patient 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.
Truth About Credit
Since 2007, NJPIRG 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 New Jersey and
across the country.
Affordable Textbooks
The Student PIRGs along with NJPIRG 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 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.
Campaign Against Hunger and Homelessness
Students in New Jersey joined together with thousands of students on
campuses across the country 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 service events and food drives, NJPIRG Student
Chapters 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.
21st Century Transportation
We’re building support for 21st century transportation in America,
including high-speed rail and more and better mass transit. In 2009,
Student PIRG and NJPIRG Student
Chapters activists mobilized their peers and
helped persuade
Congress to include an additional $2.5 billion down-payment for
high-speed rail in their appropriations bill, more than doubling
President Obama’s original recommendation.
Past Accomplishments
2007: In September, NJPIRG worked with a national coalition to help 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.
2005:
Despite a strong push by the oil industry
and their allies in Congress, NJPIRG Student Chapters and the State
PIRGs were part of a successful campaign to beat back the latest effort
to open the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge for drilling. The fight was
the latest in a 25-year effort to combat drilling in this pristine
wilderness.
2005: NJPIRG Student
Chapters helped to register 5000 students to vote in the fall 2005 New Jersey
election. The registration effort was followed by a GOTV campaign,
contacting 16,000 registered 18-24 year-olds on 12 college campuses
across the state. According to a study of raw precinct data by the
Center for Information & Research on Civic Learning &
Engagement (CIRCLE) the number of votes cast in precincts with a high
concentration of college students increased by an average of 19.9
percent above the 2001 election.
2005: In the fall, NJPIRG Student Chapters along with the Student
PIRGs across the country launched the Campus Climate Challenge. The
goal of the challenge is for 500 colleges across the country to take
the lead in fighting climate change by committing to reduce their
emissions to 90% below 2005 levels by 2050.
2005: Water
Watch Responds to Hurricane Katrina: In response to Hurricane Katrina,
which devastated the Gulf Region, NJPIRG’s AmeriCorps program New
Jersey Community Water Watch raised $4000 for its survivors. They then
traveled to Mississippi for a week to assist in rebuilding and
distributing supplies.
2005: Hunger and Homelessness:
NJPIRG Student Chapters in New Brunswick organized the nation’s second
largest Hunger Cleanup. Rutgers students raised more than $10,000 for
Tsunami Relief, baby food distribution at the Franklin Foodbank, and
other national programs.
2004: New Voters Project: NJPIRG
Student Chapters helped to register over 4000 voters as part of the national,
non-partisan New Voters Project. The state effort combined with the
national campaign resulted in a 10% increase in turnout for 18 to 24
year old voters from the 2000 to the 2004 election.
2004:
Making Textbooks Affordable: NJPIRG Student Chapters and the Student
PIRGs released Rip-off 101, a report exposing the ways that publishers
drive up the cost of textbooks. The report generates press coverage
across the country and brings attention to these practices. The report
was followed by the launch of an online bookswap, and a network of 700
math and physics professors from across the country calling on Thompson
Learning to stop releasing needless new editions.
2003:
Water Watch: NJPIRG’s AmeriCorps program New Jersey Community Water
Watch organized river cleanups across the state for national “Make a
Difference Day.” 455 students attended cleanups in New Brunswick, East
Brunswick, Camden, Newark and Atlantic City.
2002: Protecting Renters' Rights: NJPIRG Student Chapters won city inspections of rental housing in New Brunswick.
2002:
Working For a Clean Energy Future: NJPIRG Student Chapters and the
State PIRGs worked together to defeat a dirty federal energy bill.
2001:
Making Higher Education Affordable: NJPIRG and the State PIRGs helped
to win a $1.7 billion increase in financial aid, lower interest rates
and a bigger tax deduction for student loan payments.
1994:
NJPIRG and AmeriCorps launch New Jersey Community Water Watch, an
AmeriCorps program targeted at educating and activating citizens and
community members around their local waterways.
1991:
NJPIRG passes the Pollution Prevention Act. This helped reduce
hazardous waste generation in New Jersey by 50% over the next 10 years.
1990:
NJPIRG passes the Clean Water Enforcement Act. The law, which became a
national model, forced mandatory fines for serious water polluters and
served as one of the strongest laws of its kind in the nation.
1986: NJPIRG and the State PIRGs win a campaign to strengthen the Superfund law, creating the national toxics release inventory.
1985: NJPIRG helps to form the National Student Campaign Against Hunger and Homelessness.
1983:
NJPIRG and a labor-environment coalition won the Worker, Community
Right to Know About Toxics Act, requiring the industry to publicly
report use, storage and transport of toxic chemicals.
1983: NJPIRG files the first in a series of citizen lawsuits against New Jersey’s worst water polluters.
1978: NJPIRG wins tax incentives for solar power.
1975:
NJPIRG plays a lead role in stopping the construction of Tocks Island
Dam, thus preserving the Delaware River and thousands of acres of farm
land.
1974: NJPIRG launches its stream walking program,
collecting evidence of illegal polluters and writing a manual for
volunteer stream monitoring programs.
1972: Students at Seton Hall University start the first NJPIRG student chapter.
