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One
thousand professors
from over 300 colleges in all 50 states released a statement declaring their preference for high-quality,
affordable textbooks, including open textbooks, over expensive commercial
textbooks. Open textbooks are high quality open-access textbooks reviewed and written by academics that can be used online at no cost and printed for a small cost. Open textbooks are already used at some of the nation’s most prestigious institutions, like Harvard, Caltech and Yale. Textbooks cost students an average of $900 per year, which is a quarter of tuition at an average four-year public university and nearly three-quarters of tuition at a community college, according to the GAO. Research conducted by The Student PIRGs identifies publisher tactics as the primary cause of escalating prices. Bundling textbooks with unnecessary supplements forces students to purchase items they do not need; unnecessary new editions undermine the used book market; and withholding critical price information keeps faculty in the dark. “As faculty members, our top priority is to choose the textbook that is best for our students. We share concerns about affordability, and face similar frustrations with publisher practices,” said Sandra Schroeder, Chair of the American Federation of Teachers Higher Education Program and Policy Council. “Open textbooks and other affordable options, when appropriate for a course, are a win-win for everyone.” Here are some examples of open textbooks: Introduction to Economic Analysis A First Course in Linear Algebra Introduction to Physical Oceanography Check out a great front-page article in the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette |
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NJPIRG Student Chapters released the "Campus Credit Card Trap" report,
which outlined the unfair marketing practices of the credit industry.
Students overwhelmingly support limits on campus credit card marketing,
according to the results of the nationwide USPIRG survey of more than
1500 students at 40 colleges in 14 states. Learn more at: truthaboutcredit.org |
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On February 6th, young people turned out to the polls as New Jersey held its Democratic and Republican primaries. Exit poll data indicates that 187,889 young people voted in Tuesday's primary, making up 11% of the electorate, according to a study by CIRCLE. These turnout rates are expected to go up when final counts are in. Many of the early primaries have seen a trippling or even quadrupling of the youth turnout, compared to the primary in 2000. At Rutgers, NJPIRG Student Chapters, RU Voting, student governments and many other groups spent the 5th working on getting young people out to the polls.
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Jill Gomez, from NJPIRG Student Chapters' Cook Douglass chapter, joined fellow Rutgers students on the Today Show to talk about why they and other young people are voting in this election.
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On December 6th, the U.S. House of Representatives passed a 21st Century energy bill that will harness American ingenuity and put us on a path to cleaner, smarter new energy future for America. |
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Over 5000 students from across the country went to the University of Maryland this weekend to attend Powershift, a national youth global warming conference. The conference mixed speakers, workshops and a congressional lobby day, where students went to the capital to ask their representatives to make real reforms to fight global warming. |
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Despite the
pouring rain, students at Rutgers New Brunswick, Rutgers Newark, Monmouth
University and Brookdale County College came out to cleanup New Jersey's rivers
for Make a Difference day, a national day of service. The following weekend,
students with NJPIRG's Water Watch program organized a second set of cleanups at
the Richard Stockton College of New Jersey and at Rutgers New Brunswick. In all, close
to 500 students came out to cleanup NJ’s polluted rivers and pulled several
truck-loads of trash from the rivers – including tires, furniture, shopping
carts, a refrigerator, and lots of recycleables! |
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This fall, NJPIRG Student Chapters' New Voters Project worked with RU Voting, student governments and other groups to register more than 3000 Rutgers students to vote. With the state legislature up for election this fall, and politicians talking about lots of things, but not spending time talking about issues that are important to young people, we're working to make sure that young people are registered and voting, and making politicians pay attention to us. |
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On September 7th, 2007, the U.S. Senate and House of Representatives passed the College Cost Reduction and Access Act by broad bipartisan votes of 79 to 12 and 292 to 97 respectively. The bill now goes to the President who has said he will sign the legislation into law. The College Cost Reduction and Access Act is the most meaningful higher education reform in more than 15 years. The bill addresses the financial challenges of access and affordability that face American college students. It provides billions of dollars a year in additional grant aid to low-income students through the Pell Grant program. It will also help students address the burden of rising student debt through lower interest rates and a new repayment system. The bill also trims excessive subsidies that benefit a handful of banks and directs them to millions of students and families who are working to pay for college. The College Cost Reduction and Access Act will:
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On July 11th, the U.S. House of Representatives passed the "College
Cost Reduction Act of 2007" (HR 2669) by a vote of 273-149. The bill
will substantially increase the purchasing power of the Pell Grant, the
nation's premiere need-based grant program which benefits millions of
low income students, increasing the maximum grant amount by $100 for
five years beginning in 2008-9. It will make student loan debt more
affordable by cutting the interest rate on student loans in half, to
3.4%, by 2012, and by capping loan repayment amounts to a reasonable
percentage of a graduate's income. HR 2669 goes a long way toward
solving the college affordability and access crisis in the country. |
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On April 23rd, MTV chose Rutgers University and Cornell University as the winners of their "Break the Addiction Challenge." MTV recognized the work of NJPIRG Student Chapters' Campus Climate Challenge students, in organizing "an Inconvenient Truth" screening for 300 students and Congressman Pallone, organizing a Solar Day to showcase solar technology, and campaigning for a campus polity to cut Rutgers global warming pollution 90% by 2050. Rutgers Newark student Patrick Adams went on MTV's TRL to accept the prize-- $10,000 towards an eco-renovation of the Rutgers student Center. |
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Nearly 300 students packed Scott Hall to talk to Representative Frank Pallone about his plans to address global warming at a national level. NJPIRG Student Chapters and UCGA co-sponsored the event on February 21st. Students questioned Pallone about his stance on the Federal Safe Climate Act and asked him to lead the nation in fighting for its passage. After the discussion and speakers from NJPIRG Student Chapters, UCGA, and Professor Robock, the crowd watched An Inconvenient Truth with Representative Pallone. After the film an NJPIRG Student Chapters intern did a power point presentation on solutions to global warming. Thanks to everyone who helped get the event together! We were able to pull it off because hundreds of students joined our facebook group or signed an invitation to get Pallone to campus! Way to go! |
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On January 31, students at Rutgers-Newark demonstrated that they want to get involved. NJPIRG and NJ Community Water Watch held a General Interest Meeting on Wed. January 31 on the R-N campus. An overwhelming turnout of 99 students came to the meeting ready to get involved! Dean Rodriguez, the guest speaker at the General Interest Meeting, challenged students to get involved with NJPIRG and Water Watch. She sited a number of reasons to get involved: involvement builds leaders for the future, students who get involved tend to do better in school, and most of all because students should want to bring about change. Students applauded Dean Rodriguez's message and responding to her challenge, each student picked a campaign that they were interested in, broke off into groups, and got involved immediately. Spring of 2007 looks like a promising semester of social change in Newark. |
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The U.S. House of Representatives voted to increase the size of the maximum Pell Grant by $260, to $4,310. This is the first time the size of the Pell Grant has been increased since 2002. The Pell Grant is the federal government’s premier need-based grant aid program, providing aid to more than five million low-income students. Over the last five years, while students have paid more for college, the maximum Pell Grant has remained frozen. As a result students have had to make up the gap between tuition and aid with more work and larger loans. This increase will start to provide students with the aid they need to access an affordable college education. To fully restore the Pell Grant to its historic value, we’re continuing to call for the maximum to be increased to $5,100 in the coming budget cycle. |
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Rutgers Newark is kicking off its Dorm Challenge on Thursday, February 1. The Chellenge is a part of the Campus Climate Challenge, the campaign to have students lead the way on global warming solutions. The Dorm Challenge is between University Square and Woodward Hall to see which dorm can conserve the most energy in a two month period. Conserving energy is just another solution to global warming. Since using less energy means there is less energy made, less fossil fuels are burned. Students are conserving energy in the dorms to show just how easy solutions to global warming are. The winning dorm will be getting a prize that is yet to be determined. Also part of the Dorm Challenge are some fun educational events in the dorms. On February 7, An Inconvenient Truth will be shown on campus in the University Square Multipurpose Room. The movie begins at 8pm. Refreshments will be provided as well as alot of great information about solutions to global warming and chances to get involved. Another event is the Valentine's Day candy grams in the dorms on Wednesday February 14. Look for a table in the lobby of either Woodward or University Square to get a free Global Warming Candy Gram. The candy grams have tips on how to conserve energy. Other events will be held both in the dorms and on campus throughout the course of the semester to promote the Dorm Challenge. |
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On
January 18th, by a vote of 264 to 163, the
U.S. House of Representatives passed the Clean Energy Act. The U.S.
PIRG-backed measure closes some tax loopholes for big oil companies, recovers
billions in lost royalties for drilling in public waters, and shifts more than
$14 billion to investments in clean energy. For more information, read http://www.allheadlinenews.com/articles/7006189616. |
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On January 17th, by a vote of 356 to 71, the U.S. House passed, by an
overwhelming bipartisan majority, legislation to lower the interest rates on
student loans over the next five years. According to an analysis by the Student
PIRGs, the move would save the average low or middle-income borrower starting
school in 2007 $2,300 in debt. |
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From right here on campus in Piscataway to Washington D.C., students at Livingston's chapter made a big impact on issues that really matter to us! We registered over 600 voters and got hundreds out to the polls at Busch/Livingston to make sure politicians pay attention to us young people. As a part of our Higher Education campaign, three Livingston students went to D.C. to testify in front of the U.S. Department of Education to tell their stories of student debt and make recommendations on how to fix the problem! Our students also served at Elijah's Promise soup kitchen, collected hundreds of canned food items, and raised awareness of hunger and homelessness by hosting a "Faces of Homelessness" panel and a screening of "Invisible Children." Last but not least, our Campus Climate Challenge campaign highlighted solutions to global warming, educated students on the connection between global warming and storms like Hurricane Katrina (while raising money for victims!), and helped promote a policy that will bring more wind and solar power to Rutgers! Check us out this spring semester, get involved, and make a difference! |
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Students working on the Hunger & Homelessness campaign at Rutgers Newark held a forum on issues of hunger and homelessness on campus Dec 6. With over 40 peple in attendance, the forum brought together faculty, student leaders, campus administration, and students to hear about issues on hunger and homelessness. Topics ranged from Darfur, to Hurricane Katrina, New Jersey food banks, and issues in the local Newark area. Among the speakers were the director of The Newark Emergency Services for Families, John Brown and Hurricane Katrina coordinator Alessandra Ducasse from NJ Community Water Watch's R-N chapter. This informative presentation is just another step in helping to educate students on issues of poverty in an effort to get them engaged and activated in advocating for issues surrounding Hunger and Homelessness. Also announced at the forum was NJPIRG's participation in the 23rd annual Hunger Cleanup in 2007. NJPIRG is hoping to get 20 student groups to represent Rutgers Newark in one of the biggest serv-a-thons in the nation. |
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The Rutgers College New Voters Project Team collected over 1,500 pledges from students saying that they would vote this election day. The results are still coming in, but in one of the student heavy precincts of New Brunswick there was a 35% increase in votes cast. Students are voting and politicians are going to have to start paying attention to us! |
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As of Election Day 2006, the NJPIRG chapter at Rutgers Newark has gotten 1299 contacts for voting. This means 1299 yeses to vote either through pledges, phone calls, or petitions. Rutgers Newark is excited to be a part of the increase in student voting this year. Students at R-N know that voting is THE way to get politicians to pay attention to us! |
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Students at Rutgers Newark, Rutgers Camden, and the Rutgers New Brunswick schools registered 3126 students to vote for this falls' election. Along with Student Governments and other groups, NJPIRG Student Chapters students held registration events, presented in classes, and went into the dorms to make sure that their peers were registered. The voter registration was the first stage in the New Voters Project. Between now and election day, the students will be holding non-partisan voter education events, and doing get out the vote work to make sure that young people are going to the polls this November. |
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With the registration deadline coming to a close, Rutgers Newark students end with 498 students registered to vote. Their voter registration drive ended with a three-day blitz in which they registered 321 of the 498 voters. Student volunteers ran tables, spoke to classes, went door to door in dorms, and stood with clipboards around campus and all their hard work paid off! Students participating in the New Voters Project campaign know that registering all these students will get the attention of politicians in New Jersey. |
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Students volunteering with the New Voters Project at Rutgers Newark hosted a Voter Demo Day on October 11. Essex county has recently switched to using electronic voting machines so Rutgers students invited the Division of Elections on campus with the new machines. Workers from the Division of Elections taught NJPIRG volunteers how to use the machine and how to teach others. After alittle training, the volunteers were ready to run the show, teaching over 60 students how to vote on the new electronic machines. The Voter Demo Day allowed students an opportunity to pick up absentee ballots, have voting questions answered, and most importantly register to vote. 57 students were registered October 11 bringing the total at Newark up to 368 registrations. |
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After Hurricane Katrina devastated the gulf coast, NJPIRG Student Chapters joined forces with other groups on campus to raise money for hurricane victims. In November, the AmeriCorps members with NJPIRG’s Water Watch program traveled to Ocean Springs, Mississippi, to spend a week working with the Lutheran Episcopal Disaster Response Project, rebuilding homes, cleaning up debris, and working at the soup kitchen at Christus Victor church. |
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Students at Rutgers College in New Brunswick organized two river cleanups this fall on the Raritan River. Over 50 volunteers removed more than 100 bags of trash from the river. In addition, students monitored the quality of several tributaries and educated local school children at Lincoln Elementary about the river. |
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