ANNUAL REPORT s tudent pub l i c i nt e r e s t r e s ear ch groups
FROM OUR BOARD CHAIRS STUDENT P I RGS | 01 Aidan Browne FLPIRG Students Eckerd College April Nicklaus NJPIRG Students Rutgers University - New Brunswick Katie Craig NCPIRG Students University of North Carolina - Chapel Hill Kharl Reynado CONNPIRG Students University of Connecticut - Storrs Madison Longbottom WASHPIRG Students University of Washington - Seattle Nina Friedman OSPIRG Students Southern Oregon University Sophie Haddad CALPIRG Students University of California - San Diego Theresa Soldan MASSPIRG Students Salem State University Tino Fragale MaryPIRG Students University of Maryland - College Park
STUDENT P I RGS | 02 This was the year of the student activist. In the face of rising hyper-partisanship, our chapters across the country took on 68 - you read that right, sixty eight - local, state, and federal campaigns from campus recycling to state same day voter registration bills and national funding for open textbooks. For us, affordable higher education, increasing youth voter turnout, and protecting the environment are non-partisan issues. To take on the status quo and win, young people just need skills and resources. The Student PIRGs turned 47 this year. That means 47 years of honing our campaign strategies and trainings, and passing down what works... and 47 years of re-imagining organizing to better serve each incoming class on campus. Spoiler alert: It's working. This year, students working with their PIRG chapters across the country got their campuses to ban bee killing pesticides, passed a federal bill to make textbooks more affordable, and raised tens of thousands of dollars for hurricane victims. You remember those 68 campaigns? We won or made concrete progress on nearly half of them. We're proud of the work we've done to make our country better for everyone, but we know that the work has just begun. We're excited to lead our states as they take on the big issues of our time - climate change, youth representation in government, and more - in 2019.
BY THE NUMBERS STUDENT P I RGS | 03 90,232 GRASSROOTS ACTIONS Our power comes from people. We're talking individual petitions, photo-petitions, phone calls, and social media posts. 1 ,907 ENDORSEMENTS It takes a village. Nearly 2,000 coalition partners, elected officials, and other VIPs signed on to support public interest campaigns this year. 37 CHAPTERS Newest? Eckerd College in St. Petersburg, Florida. Oldest? The University of Oregon chapter in Eugene was started in 1971. 1 ,300+ CAMPAIGN MEETINGS Arielle Mizrahi, CONNPIRG organizer and Rutgers Alum, trains students at the Annual New Jersey Grassroots Organizing Conference hosted by NJPIRG Students. The UConn Storrs chapter ran 9 campaigns this spring and 113 of these meetings happened there. Go Huskies!
STUDENT P I RGS | 04 OUR STRATEGY 297,300 DUES-PAYING MEMBERS Our work wouldn't be possible without student members on our chapter campuses who vote every few years to reaffirm their support of PIRG. THANK YOU! 73 MEDIA HITS From local letters to the editor to coverage in the Washington Post and the Los Angeles Times. 3,01 7 VOLUNTEERS Who did some work this year and talked to an impressive 147,000 students in class announcements about renewable energy, registering to vote, and more. 9 STATES California, Connecticut, Florida, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Jersey, North Carolina, Oregon, Washington. 2. Recruit a broad coalition of stakeholders, including s t u d e n t g r o u p s f a c u l t y a d m i n i s t r a t o r s c o m m u n i t y m e m b e r s 3. Hire full time professional staff to train and advise us, giving us the tools we need to win 1. Run campaigns that include a mix of
STUDENT P I RGS | 05 We pick campaigns that are in the public interest , are winnable, and are supported by a vast majority of the public.
STUDENT P I RGS | 06 It’s 2018. We have the power to harness clean, abundant energy from the sun and the wind, and we can do it more efficiently and cheaply than ever before. Yet we’re still producing, consuming and wasting energy in ways that do lasting damage to our environment and our health. We’re promoting a bold and clear vision of a greener, healthier world, one powered solely by clean, renewable energy. highlights Students in Massachusetts lobby and host call in days in support of S. 1849: An Act for Renewable Energy. CALPIRG students at UC Davis and UC San Diego host solar power concerts with dance groups, a cappella groups, and other campus performers in support of 100% renewable energy. Three Rutgers Governing Councils pass NJPIRG’s resolution in support of the campus committing to 100% renewable energy. 95 students attend a screening of “An Inconvenient Truth: A Sequel” at UConn – Storrs. 100 CALPIRG students descend upon Sacramento with 200 student leader endorsements from across the state to lobby for SB100 which would commit the state to 100% renewable electricity by 2045.
STUDENT P I RGS | 07 OSPIRG students join coalition partners and 400 community activists to lobby to put a price on carbon CALPIRG team testifies in support of 100% renewables & makes the case to lt. governor gavin newsom Connpirg student organize the 'ct go green' rally in opposition to the Comprehensive Energy Strategy that would make CT more reliant on fracked gas and cap solar expansion
STUDENT P I RGS | 08 progress OSPIRG students successfully call on Senator Merkley to oppose the proposed LNG pipeline. Oregon students petition and lobby in support of 100% renewables. State Senate President agrees to form a committee to support Cap and Invest in the next legislative session. The UMass – Boston Graduate Student Senate passes a resolution in support of 100% renewable energy on campus. The undergraduate Student Government, Graduate Student Senate, and Faculty Senate of UMass - Dartmouth pass resolutions in support of committing to 100% renewable energy by 2050. The Chancellor makes a verbal commitment shortly after. VICTORY! The University of California system agrees to transition to 100% renewable electricity purchasing by 2025 and Governor Brown commits California to 100% clean energy after sustained CALPIRG campaign which included 20,000 petitions from UC students, 8 student government resolutions, and dozens of lobby meetings.
STUDENT P I RGS | 09 "I want to provide more students the opportunity to have a transformative political experience like i did." I got involved because I was looking for something political, and some place where I could break my reclusive shell. Today, as President, while I focus on making the advocacy that we do do as effective as possible, I also try to ensure our community is warm, open, and engaging for every new MaryPIRGer. Tino Fragale, MaryPIRG Board Chair Advocacy and Organization Building Major, University of Maryland - College Park "MaryPIRG gives students the tools to become leaders and make a difference on some of our community’s most pressing issues. Without my experience with PIRG, I would not be where I am today" Patrick Wojahn, Mayor of College Park, MD
Consumer Protection The Student PIRG's consumer program works to alert the public to hidden dangers and scams and to ban anti-consumer practices and unsafe products. From student loan rip-offs to high interest credit cards, students are often targeted by predatory practices as they enter the financial marketplace. We worked this year to make sure that students are protected as consumers. progress Student PIRG staff release U.S.PIRG’s 32nd annual report “Trouble in Toyland,” highlighting dangerous toys to avoid before Black Friday which is covered by 37 media outlets. MASSPIRG campaigns for and the Massachusetts State Senate passes a Student Loan Bill of Rights. VICTORY! WASHPIRG students support a package of student consumer bills and successfully establish a Student Loan Bill of Rights and new rules to regulate predatory lending. PIRG students successfully defend the federal Pell grant program from cuts by collecting student leader sign-ons, SGA resolutions, and thousands of petitions in opposition to proposed budget cuts to the Pell Grant and delivering them in district meetings across the country. OSPIRG students lobby in the state house and successfully advocate for the Oregon Net Neutrality Bill.
STUDENT P I RGS | 1 1 civic engagement & the youth vote Together young people have the power to elect the next generation of leaders who will fight for our shared vision of the future, but only if we vote. We want every college student in the country to not just vote, but become a voter. In Massachusetts, New Jersey, and North Carolina, our New Voters Project helped thousands of students get to the polls in the 2017 elections. Our New Voters Project is America’s oldest and largest on-the-ground nonpartisan youth voter mobilization program. Since 1984, the New Voters Project has helped register 1.9 million young voters and make more than 2.2 million personalized GOTV contacts. On all of our campuses, whether they had an election or not, we worked to get campuses the data they need to make a effective campus engagement plans through the National Study of Learning Voting and Engagement, build broad coalitions from every part of the campus community to institutionalize democratic education, and ultimately create a culture of civic engagement. In addition, our chapters worked to pass laws to make access to the ballot box easier for students on the state level.
STUDENT P I RGS | 1 2 institutionalizing voter engagement NCPIRG at UNC – Chapel Hill uses over 6,000 petitions from multiple semesters to convince the Department of Housing to offer voter registration at every mandatory hall meeting in the residence halls, impacting nearly 10,000 students. Rutgers students work with campus stakeholders to pass a campus-wide voter registration and civic engagement plan that the President of the university endorses! Florida PIRG students at Eckerd College create the Eckerd Vote Coalition which successfully campaigns for voter registration at freshman orientation. boots on the ground PIRG students working with the New Voters Project register thousands of voters for the 2017 off-year elections and the 2018 primaries across the country. 13 PIRG campuses in 6 states register 500 students to vote on National Voter Registration Day! advocacy & legislation WASHPIRG phonebanks and lobbies successfully for automatic voter registration, preregistration, and same day registration in Washington! MaryPIRG students delivers petitions on their annual Lobby Day in Annapolis and successfully advocates for Election Day Registration and a ballot measure for same day registration in Maryland. CENTER: April Nicklaus, rising senior at Rutgers, speaks in support of the Help Students Vote Act with coalition partners, Congressman Raja Krishnamoorthi, and Senator Cory Booker.
STUDENT P I RGS | 1 3 "I want the work that I do to be focused on students and their success and there's no better way to do that than by working with students themselves. " "The Open Education Resources program at Lane Community College started in response to an outcry from passionate students who were concerned about affordability and equity. Working with our local OSPIRG chapter has been critical to keeping student voices as an integral part of the textbook affordability efforts here." Meggie Wright, OER Librarian Lane Community College "PIRG HELPED ME REALIZE HOW LIBERATING AND POWERFUL STUDENT ACTION CAN BE AND feel more confident in my ability to create change." Sadie Higgins MASSPIRG Alum Holyoke Community College, '14 Hampshire College, '16 "During my time at Holyoke Community College, I worked on the "YES ON 2" campaign to reform the bottle bill and increase recycling. As campus captain, I helped organize phone banks, canvasses and poll rocking. Having this experience helped me transfer to Hampshire College, a college I never thought I would be accepted to. "
STUDENT P I RGS | 1 3 save the bees Millions of bees are dying off, with alarming consequences for our environment and our food supply. We rely on bees to pollinate everything from almonds to strawberries to the alfalfa used to feed dairy cows. In fact, bees pollinate 71 of the 100 crops that supply 90% of most of the world’s food. Scientists point to several causes behind the problem, including global warming, habitat loss, parasites and a class of bee-killing insecticides known as neonicotinoids (or neonics). That's why we're organizing campuses, restaurants, and elected officials across the country to join the call to build bee friendly habitats and declare a nationwide moratorium on the use of bee-killing neonics. New Bee Friendly Campuses Massachusetts College of Liberal Arts University of California - Santa Cruz Westfield State University University of Oregon UNC - Chapel Hill student Victoria Quiett (center) with NC Senator Mike Woodard and an employee from Living Kitchen, a local raw organic restaurant at their "No Bees, No Thanksgiving" event. Senator Woodard introduced the Pollinator Protection Act last year.
STUDENT P I RGS | 1 5 open textbooks Two-thirds of students have skipped buying books because of the high out-of-pocket cost beyond the set price of tuition. But students who don’t buy books repeatedly say they find themselves at a disadvantage in the classroom. For years, the Student PIRGs and our allies have been working to raise visibility for the huge savings that open textbooks promise students. Our research over the years has shown that students routinely skip buying textbooks, and that openly-licensed, freely available educational resources can (and have) saved students millions. In fact, our new report investigating those high textbook prices for common courses at schools across the country entitled Open 101: an Action Plan for Affordable Textbooks, found that switching course materials in these core courses from access codes and traditional textbooks to OER would save students $1.5 billion dollars a year if adopted nationwide. To that end, we joined Sen. Durbin to introduce the Affordable College Textbook Act and continued our advocacy on the local level. In places ranging from West Virginia and Georgia to Oregon, we worked with librarians, administrators, and faculty to create institutional grant programs that support instructors as they transition to OER. These local programs routinely save students more than a million dollars in their first few years.
STUDENT P I RGS | 1 6 We took these successes to Capitol Hill to speak directly to legislators about how essential these programs are in their pursuit of a degree and to ask for an open textbooks appropriation. We made hundreds of calls in to key committee chairs and party leadership, and engaged student government leaders, while students and administrations weighed in in person with legislative staff in meetings to support open textbooks. As a result of our work, Congress set aside $5 million for open textbook initiatives nationwide, which would replace high-cost publisher materials with free materials that can be accessed online or downloaded. The move could save students more than $50 million -- an important step toward alleviating the huge burden of paying for college. anatomy of a $5 million victory 6,250 GRASSROOTS ACTIONS Phone calls, petitions, photo-petitions and more. 60 LIBRARY ENDORSEMENTS Our work would not be possible without all of the great librarians we work with on campus. We <3 campus libraries. 40 MEDIA HITS Washington Post, Huffington Post, local news. $50,000,000 SAVED Estimated amount students will save on textbooks thanks to the program
STUDENT P I RGS | 1 7 stop single-use plastics Every day people are throwing away tons of single-use cups, containers, and other plastic stuff. Nothing we use for a few minutes should be allowed to pollute our oceans and rivers and threaten wildlife for centuries. That’s why we're calling on our community and state leaders to ban unnecessary single-use plastic. progress WASHPIRG students at Evergreen State College host movie showing with plastic floaties in the pool as a part of their campaign to push Aramark to remove single-use plastics from dining services on campus. UConn – Storrs students demonstrate support for Zero Waste through a student survey, petitions in support of more water filling stations on campus, and a screening of “Plastic Ocean” with 75 students. MaryPIRG students build statewide momentum for a polystyrene ban in the state through petitions, call in days, and a lobby day. VICTORY! NCPIRG’s Zero Waste campaign at UNC – Chapel Hill wins a pilot program for plastic film and bag recycling in the dorms on campus. MASSPIRG’s Salem State University chapter convinces Dunkin Donuts on campus to stop using foam cups. Shortly after, MASSPIRG and CONNPIRG’s campaign successfully pushes the local favorite to commit to make the switch by 2020 nationally! PIRG students across the country deliver letters to Starbucks locations across the country in a national coalition effort. WASHPIRG students attend a rally hosted by partners Stand.Earth, Upstream, and others in front of their shareholders meeting in Seattle during their spring break. Starbucks commits $10 million to research a plastic-free cup and commits to be straw free!
STUDENT P I RGS | 18 "PIRG provides a well thought-out and personalized training program, one-on-one personal development with other student leaders, and contacts with key players in D.C. and on campuses nationwide" "In high school I was frustrated about the level of impact I could make. PIRG gave me the training and organizational structure I needed to empower my peers in collective action. This approach allowed me to take on a level of leadership that few other organisations provide." April Nicklaus (right), NJPIRG Students Board Chair Rutgers University '19, Environmental Policy Major "I wanted to expand on all of the skills I learned as a PIRG student so i decided to join staff. I'm excited to organize as a career and hone my organizing skills" Julia Seremba, outgoing MASSPIRG Board Chair UMass - Amherst '18, Non-Profit Management Major "I grew up playing sports with no political background whatsoever. I heard about MASSPIRG through a class announcement and began registering students to vote for the 2014 midterm elections. The amount of passion and enthusiasm for social change that I was surrounded by from the other chapter students motivated me to stay and learn more about the issues I can take action on."
STUDENT P I RGS | 1 9 fighting hunger & homelessness highlights The MASSPIRG team collects photo-petitions and generates student calls in support of Senate Bill 612 and House Bill 101 to close the SNAP gap in Massachusetts. 100 students attend a screening of “Poverty, Politics, and Profit” at UConn – Storrs. 50 community members attend a Faces of Homelessness panel at the University of Washington. 700 groups participate in Hunger Homelessness Awareness week, an annual event co-hosted by the Student PIRG’s National Student Campaign Against Hunger and Homelessness. victory! PIRG students raise thousands of dollars for hurricane victims through creative events like a professor dunk tank at Eckerd College. NC State University students working with NCPIRG successfully campaigns for free feminine hygiene products in their student union and works with the university to expand the program to all lecture halls on campus. Lane Community College and University of Oregon students host Trick or Can events on Halloween. They donate thousands of cans to local food banks. They also collected hundreds of pounds of canned food by working with the Greek Community.
STUDENT P I RGS | 20 money in politics WASHPIRG students in Seattle host educational events about the Seattle Democracy Voucher Program. Following their victories in Howard and Montgomery counties, MaryPIRG students push to establish a small donor empowerment program in Prince Georges County. Students at the University of Washington and Evergreen State College win their multiyear campaign to pass the Washington DISCLOSE Act which casts a light on dark money in politics. Students at Southern Oregon University and University of Oregon released Big Money in Oregon State Elections with local elected officials. toxics Students at Westfield State petition for all on campus products to go Toxic Free. CALPIRG students release new PIRG report “Kiss-off: A Consumer’s Guide to Saying No to Toxic Lipstick” on Valentines Day.
STUDENT P I RGS | 2 1 conservation CALPIRG students bring 45 activists to a rally against offshore drilling in Sacramento and PIRG students across the country attend hearings to oppose drilling. UC Davis students collect hundreds of student pledges to vote yes for Proposition 68, the Parks, Environment, and Water Bond and it passes!. . save antibiotics CONNPIRG, WASHPIRG, and MaryPIRG students send photo-petitions to McDonalds calling on the fast food chain to commit to buying beef and pork raised without the overuse of antibiotics . NJPIRG Students send 300 photo-petitions to Wawa in support of meat purchasing that saves antibiotics. .
STUDENT P I RGS | 22 Outstanding Advocacy Registered Student Organization Award, UMASS – Amherst Partnership Award with Service Learning, Berkshire Community College Award for Best Administrator Relations, UConn – Storrs Best First Year Club Award, Eckerd College Winner in the Youth Category of the American Civic Collaboration Awards, Student PIRGs AWARDS
STUDENT P I RGS | 23 2 0 1 7 - 2 0 1 8 TR A I N I N G S Training is a top priority for us—with in-the-field training, in-the-classroom training, and a structured curriculum covering everything from basic activism to digital organizing to issue briefings for our full-time staff and more than 3,000 annual volunteers. Over the past 47 years, we’ve trained an army of organizers, fundraisers, advocates and other activists through our core campus program, PIRG's Student Government Resource Center, and numerous trainings for our coalition partners. The following are selected examples of trainings we provided this year.
STUDENT P I RGS | 24 Massachusetts Environmental Action Conference, The Case for 100% Renewable Energy 2017 Citizenship, Service, Networking, And Partnerships Student Conference, How you can Impact the 2018 Election North Carolina College Vote Summit, How to Plan for the 2018 Election New Jersey Grassroots Organizing Conference, Co-hosted by NJPIRG University of California Students of Color Conference, Achieving Educational Justice through Voting, and Attacks on the Pell Grant & How to Fight Back Cal State Open Education Resources Conference, Panel on Open Textbooks East Coast Asian American Student Union Youth Leadership Week, Planning an Effective Campaign East Coast Asian American Student Union Campus Tour, Building Partnerships: How Effective Coalitions can Win Your Campaign at C O N F E R E N C E S National Campus Leadership Council: Presidential Leadership Summit, Primer on SGA Digital Organizing Civic Learning and Democratic Engagement Conference, A Celebration of Democracy: National Voter Registration Day; High Quality Democratic Engagement Plans; and Strengthening Partnerships: Understanding Opportunities on the Ground for Enhanced Voter Registration and Voter Turnout 2018 National Community College Conference on Service Learning and Community Engagement, Service Learning and Strategic Partnerships as a Pathway to Community Electoral Engagement University of California Student Association, How-to Get Media to Cover Your Events
OUR PARTNERS Our Campus communities On many of our campuses, we've been fighting for students and the public interest for forty seven years. We want to thank the faculty and administrators who help orient our new volunteers to the rich history of PIRG on their campus. We'd like to thank all of the student government leaders who signed emergency letters in support of federal open textbooks funding, passed resolutions and bills in support of the public interest, and encouraged students to support PIRG as dues paying members. A big thank you to the facilities, cafeteria, and other staff who's hard work allowed us to book rooms, get into our offices late at night when we forgot our keys, and kept our organizers fueled on the fourth 12 hour day of voter registration. Finally, we want to thank the literally thousands of professors who not only teach students how to be effective citizens in their classrooms, but go above and beyond by sponsoring course credit internships and allowing us to educate their students through class announcements. our Coalition partners We want to thank all of the members of the Students Learn, Students Vote coalition for their tireless efforts to institutionalize civic engagement on college campuses. Our work around single-use plastics has been amplified in ways we couldn't imagine because of the Break Free From Plastics Movement. Every environmental campaign we consider running is first work-shopped by our friends at Environment America and our 100% renewables campaign wouldn't be possible without them. We don't just like them for their name, we appreciate every opportunity we have to work with our friends at U.S.PIRG. Finally, we want to thank the Bridge Alliance for their pioneering work to forge a new post-partisanship politics. STUDENT P I RGS | 25 We're extremely proud of the work we've accomplished in the 2017 - 2018 school year. It was only made possible by the generous support, patient guidance, and sharp expertise of our countless campus, community and national partners. There are too many to list everyone by name, but know that we are grateful to you all.
OUR FUNDING Powered by student members Our work is supported by the hundreds of thousands of student dues-paying members across the country who contribute through a small fee billed every term. This democratic student fee allows us to hire professional staff and maintain the student power necessary to continue to win victories for the public interest and recruit and train the next generation of civic leaders. Foundation and Partner Support Student Organizing, Inc. and PIRG New Voters Project are the non-profit 501(c)(3) home for the national projects and programs of the Student PIRGs. We would like to thank The Ettinger Foundation, Mile 22 Associates, Naomi and Nehemiah Cohen Foundation, Paul M. Angell Family Foundation, Students Learn, Students Vote Coalition, The William & Flora Hewlett Foundation, and Weeden Foundation for supporting our work to empower students and make a difference on critical issues. FY17 Budget Our FY17 budget reflects the combined income and expenses of the Student PIRGs national projects including our C3 and C4 corporations. It does not include the individual state budgets of our state groups. Program Services 1% Foundations 35% Management 10% Fundraising 10% STUDENT P I RGS | 26 Student Members 64% Income Expenses Program 81%
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