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Recent Accomplishments

NJPIRG along with  Student PIRGs across the country have a 40 year history of advocating for students, the environment and consumers.

Here are just a few of NJPIRG’s recent accomplishments:

New Voters Project: It’s time to make politicians pay attention to us.  The best way to get them to pay attention to young people and the issues we care about is to show up to the polls, so this year NJPIRG Students joined a nationwide voter registration and get out the vote effort.  We helped over 31,820 students register to vote and had 170,000 conversations with students in the days leading up to Election Day to remind them to turn out to the polls.

Making Textbooks More Affordable: Everyone knows that textbooks costs are out of control—the average student spends $900 per year!  We're promoting cost-saving solutions on campus while also tackling publishers' stranglehold on the market to change prices for good.  We're educating students, faculty and bookstores and raising awareness through research and media attention.  This year NJPIRG Students along with PIRG students across the country to hold 23 educational events and gather surveys from more than 3,600 students.  We were also able to educate more than 700 faculty members about low cost options and make it easier for students to shop around.

Making Higher Education More Affordable: In February, the U.S. House passed H.R. 1, a federal budget for 2011, which included a $5.7 billion cut to the Pell Grant program. If passed, that budget cut would have resulted in a $845 per person decrease in financial aid to the most needy recipients and have a chilling effect on the number of college students who can graduate and get into the workforce - at a time when our economy is just recovering.  NJPIRG Students and Student PIRG volunteers came together to generated thousands of calls and petitions to their Senators urging them to stop the cuts and helped to make sure they did not become law.  

Protecting Consumers: The marketplace can be daunting even for the most educated consumer.  To help students avoid rip-offs and unsafe products and have the information to make educated choices, we're creating a set of guides for students.  This semester, we released the Young Persons Guide to Health Care and a Guide to Controlling Your Information on Facebook.

Hunger and Homelessness: With the global recession, more and more people are struggling to meet their basic needs.  This year, we held a week-long series of education and service events on hundreds of college campuses to make sure that these problems stay on the forefront of people's minds.  This spring, NJPIRG students and students across the country held the annual Hunger Cleanup, raising more than $45,000 to fight hunger in their communities.

Sustainable U: Right now, global warming pollution is altering our climate in ways that will cause more heat-related deaths, more unhealthy air days, the spread of infectious disease, and many other negative impacts to our environment.  But instead of encouraging the Obama Administration to solve these problems, polluters and their allies in Congress pushed for a series of proposals to block the Clean Air Act from doing its job.  Teaming up with other student organizations around the country, NJPIRG volunteers convinced lawmakers to stop these rollbacks.

Energy Service Corps: We partnered with AmeriCorps to launch a new program to reduce energy use and take the mystery out of energy efficiency. We give people the tools and knowledge they need to stop energy from seeping out of their homes.  We serve their immediate needs while also acting as the catalyst in the community to greater energy efficiency.  In our first year running Energy Service Corps, students in NJ educated more than 4,000 elementary and high school students and conducted individual energy efficiency assessments in more than 380 apartments and businesses.

No Drills, No Spills: After the Gulf oil spill disaster, we joined a national coalition of groups to call for an end to new offshore drilling and a renewed commitment to breaking our country's dependence on oil. More than 400,000 Americans signed petitions and made calls to the Obama administration calling for a ban on new offshore drilling. And despite heavy pressure from big oil and gas companies, we won. On December 1st the Obama Administration announced that it will protect the coasts of the continental United States from new drilling through 2017.

Past Accomplishments

2010: Helped pass a new law called the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act to lower health care costs for families including young adults by allowing them to stay on their parents’ coverage until age 26.

2010: Helped to pass the Student Aid and Fiscal Responsibility Act, which among other things, adds $36 billion into the Pell grant program. NJPIRG Student Chapters and Student PIRG lobbying and organizing over the past several years was critical to the passage of this historic law.

2009: NJPIRG Student Chapters teamed up with AmeriCorps to launch NJPIRG Energy Service Corps, a campaign to increase energy efficiency in low-income communities through education and service.

2009: Helped pass strong legislation called, the Credit Card Accountability, Responsibility and Disclosure (CARD) Act that will end some of the worst abuses of the credit card industry, including some which are often targeted at college students.

2009: Student PIRG and NJPIRG student 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.

2009: Help to launch the Resolve Conference, where 250 students from across the country were joined by activists, advocates and organizers for a weekend of education and training to create anti-poverty campaigns in their communities. 

2008: Helped with passing the Higher Education Opportunity Act. The  law contains several important policy changes, including an increase in the maximum authorized level of the Pell Grant to $9,000.

2008: NJPIRG students 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."

2008: 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.

2008: Across the country, Student PIRGs' New Voters Project helps register 118,000 young voters and contacts 440,000 voters to turn them out to the polls

2008: Surveyed over 2,000 students and released a subsequent report, “The Campus Credit Card Trap,” which garnered nationwide media coverage.

2007: Joined the nationwide Student PIRGs' What’s Your Plan? Campaign which talked to the presidential candidates over 100 times on the campaign trail, to ask them about their plans for global warming and higher education.

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.

2000: President Clinton announces PIRG-sponsored plan to protect 60 million acres of national forests

1998: Student PIRGs win law requiring colleges to distribute voter registration forms to students

1995: State PIRGs deliver 1.2 million petition signatures to Congress, helping stop rollback of environmental laws

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.

1984: NJPIRG and The State PIRGs' newly launched National Student Campaign for Voter Registration helps registers 750,000 student voters across the country in its first year

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.