2019-2020 CALPIRG Students Annual Report 40 years ago, a majority of the UC student body joined together in calling for the creation of CALPIRG Students; an independent nonprofit organization that could channel student’s idealism into meaningful impact in the community. Our mission: to engage and train students to make a difference on some of the most profound issues of our generation. Since 1972, students have played a key role in shaping California; from expanding solar and wind production, protecting consumers from the worst rip offs, to building support for expanded public transit and climate solutions. We combine the energy of students with the expertise of professional staff to educate the public, built grassroots support, lobby elected officials, and win campaigns for a better future.
Idealism in Action: In today's world, big changes are happening every day, with big decisions being made that will shape OUR future. We believe it's our right to have our say in these decisions and our responsibility to do all we can to make a difference. That’s why we run campaigns to make a difference – on issues like environmental protection, college affordability, and consumer protection. And we know that college students are critical in these efforts. Students have been at the forefront of positive social change throughout history, from civil rights, to voting rights to protecting the environment. That’s because we know the world can be better and have the drive and vision to push for a greener, healthier, and more meaningful future. And here at CALPIRG Students, we’re effective in pushing for the future we want because we combine the enthusiasm and vision of students with the expertise of professional staff, that train and work alongside students to educate the public, build grassroots support, and lobby decision makers to act. We teach students skills like how to recruit and train volunteers, outreach to the media, and organize big events, all while making a difference right away. We can hire these professional staff and run effective campaigns thanks to the support of thousands of students who pledge to add the CALPIRG fee to their tuition each term.
2019-2020 Campaigns As students, we are faced with climate change, the rising cost of education, and threats to public health. Through our internship and volunteer program we work on a set of specific issues to address some of the profound problems of our generation. Through decision making by our board of directors we’ll decide on the state-wide lead campaign, and then a local mix of campaigns on our campus every year. This past year we’ve worked to help protect our oceans by banning single use plastics, turn out the youth vote, promote clean energy, save the bees and respond to the COVID-19 public health crisis. Plastic Free Seas Every day, people throw away tons of plastic “stuff”—cups, plates, bags, containers, forks, knives, spoons and more. All of this waste not only clogs our landfills, trashes our parks, and litters our streets, but it also washes into our rivers and oceans, where it can harm wildlife. Recycling certainly can help mitigate the problem. But unfortunately, of the millions of tons of plastic we produce every year, most is currently not recyclable, and we produce vastly more waste than our recycling infrastructure can handle. As a society, we need to stop creating enormous quantities of unnecessary waste in the first place, rather than focus only on recycling and re-using waste after the fact. The good news is that we have lots of alternatives to single-use plastic items would prevent needless harm to the environment. We recently helped pass the first ever statewide ban on single-use plastic grocery bags here in California, and we defended that measure at the ballot box when the plastics industry tried to repeal it. This year our priority was to work with the UC Office of the President and the UC campuses to lead the fight against plastic pollution by banning non-essential plastic items on campus – and we have seen huge results!
Victory! Across the UC system CALPIRG interns and volunteers built a movement of student support for stronger limits on plastic use on our campuses. Statewide we collected over 10,000 signatures from supportive students, met with key stakeholders at the UC and help public events on local beaches to highlight the problem of plastic pollution – and through all those efforts we WON! “The enthusiasm and commitment of UCLA students to environmental causes help buoy the university’s progress” - Michael Beck, UCLA Administrative Vice Chancellor First, in December of 2019 UCLA became the first in the UC system to announce a new commitment to reducing unnecessary single use plastics. Through a collaborative effort between dining, CALPIRG volunteers and the sustainability office they released this new commitment in January. In March UC Berkeley went one step further, and thanks to the efforts of the UCB CALPIRG chapter Chancellor Christ signed a commitment to banning all non-essential single use plastics. This commitment goes beyond just plasticware in the dining halls – but nonessential plastics everywhere. From labs to stadiums to the dorms UC Berkeley leads the way with one of the most comprehensive plans to reduce plastic pollution in the country. Now there’s more to do – CALPIRG is working to help launch the next wave of Zero Waste commitments across the UC, and we look forward to not only having UC lead the way, but taking action in the state of California, and at the city and county level in the future.
New Voters Project This year CALPIRG Students has been working with California Student Vote Project, the Secretary of State’s Office, the UC Student Association, and student governments across the state to help register and mobilize students to vote and participate in our democracy. The full participation of young people in the political process is essential to a truly representative, vibrant democracy. Young people are now the largest and most diverse group of potential voters in the country and can make a huge impact when we vote! We know the first step in helping turn out the voter is making the process easier and more accessible for first time voters. In January of 2019 we helped introduce SB 72 (Umberg) – a bill that will increase funding for sameday voter registration sites. CALPIRG Students went to the capitol to testify in favor of this bill, and gathered over 300 signatures from student organization leaders from the UCs in favor of expanding same-day voter registration. And just as school was starting, the bill passed! Quickly we were able to help UCLA make plans for an on-campus vote center that would allow same-day voter registration, and UC Irvine also took the step in adopting an on-campus vote center! In January of 2020 we started to build coalitions across the state for the primary and general elections. Through the support of administrators and student government leaders we were able to send all-campus emails to the student body with tools to register to vote online at castudentvote.org at UC Davis, Berkeley, Santa Barbara, UCLA, and UC Riverside. Through that action alone over 1,000 students registered to vote using the online tool.
“Working with CALPIRG for voter registration and GOTV this year was a fabulous partnership. The volunteers were knowledgeable of the process, reliable, very creative, and committed." - Viviana Marsano, Senior Advisor to Campus Organizations at UCSB Leading up to the primary election registration deadline we held multiple days of action to help students register to vote. Whether volunteers were on campus to say “We Love Primary Voting” on Valentine’s day, or participating in National Voter Registration Day, the visibility and education on campus helped more students make plans to vote in the elections. In total, we helped over 3,500 students register to vote before the primary registration deadline. Following our efforts to help register voters, we wanted to make sure young people had a plan to turn in their ballot and cast their vote. Whether its helping students find time in their class schedule, participate in early voting, or finding a ride to the polls our peer to peer Get Out the Vote (GOTV) campaign works to turn out as many young people to the polls in a way that is accessible and friendly. At UCLA the BruinsVote coalition worked to get free pizza deliveries to students standing in line to vote, and helped identify polling locations with shorter lines to make sure students who wanted to vote had the chance to cast their ballot. At UC Irvine volunteers pointed students in the direction of the Vote Center nearby. At UC Berkeley volunteers spent dozens of hours on the phone with students helping them make a plan to get to the polls, and UCSB the Gauchos Vote coalition had handy maps to direct students to the one of many potential polling locations to cast their ballot.
Overall we had one on one conversations with over 6,000 students to make ‘vote plans’ and reached over 98,000 students with our online social media platforms. As we gear up for the 2020 general election, our biggest priority is not only helping new voters register for the first time – but making sure that voting remains accessible in a way that protects our public health. CALPIRG collected hundreds of signatures calling on Governor Newsom to mandate universal mail-in-ballots across the state, and he did! It will be vital to incorporate virtual voter registration tactics into online orientation programs and classrooms in order to make sure young peoples voices are heard in the coming election. No Bees, No Food Millions of bees are dying off, with alarming consequences for our environment and our food supply. We rely on bees to pollinate 71 of the 100 crops that provide 90% of most of the world’s food. Imagine no almonds, fewer apples and strawberries, less alfalfa to feed dairy cows, and the list goes on.
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). When seeds are treated with neonics, the chemicals work their way into the pollen and nectar of the plants — which, of course, is bad news for bees and other pollinators. Worse, for the bees and for us, neonics are about 6,000 times more toxic to bees than DDT. Right now, we’re letting big agrichemical companies use more of the chemicals that are known to kill bees just as we’re in the midst of an unsustainable die-off in bee populations. That has to change. To save the bees we need to phase out and then ban the use of neonics and we need to ensure that they are not replaced with equally or more dangerous chemicals. We are working to pass a statewide ban on neonics here in California. In order to provide a model for a statewide ban, we are working to get our campuses and surrounding cities to ban neonics. We have already gotten campus communities in La Jolla and Santa Cruz to ban neonics. Now, our strategy is to show support from beekeepers, farmers, faculty experts, and students, and then meet with administrators, city council members, and state legislators to build support for banning neonics. Victory! This school year CALPIRG Students made progress across the state to certify our communities as “Bee Friendly Campuses.” UCLA and UC Irvine built campus committees tasked with eliminating harmful pesticides on campus and providing educational progress around pollinator health. UCLA recently was approved by Bee Campus USA to become a “Bee Friendly Campus” and UC Irvine will submit their application to the committee this summer.
Going one step further, UC Berkeley and UC Davis completed the steps to become a “Bee Friendly Campus.” At UC Berkeley the volunteers and interns have worked to develop a “DeCal” course on pollinator health with the university, and are now working to establish the city of Berkeley as a “Bee Friendly City” Zero Hunger America produces more than enough food for everyone. The hard work and ingenuity of people growing our food delivers plenty. We should save the food and resources that would otherwise be wasted and get it to the people who need it. In fact, we produce so much food that we waste 40 percent of it. And yet millions of Americans are going hungry. That should not happen. We should not be literally throwing away the solution to hunger in our country. We should save the food and resources that would otherwise be wasted and get it to the people who need it. We should have Zero Hunger in America. On college campuses 1 in 5 students don’t know where their next meal will come from. Yet campuses create an average of 142 pounds of food waste per student on campus
In California, our goal is to get the UC campuses to commit to Zero Hunger on campus by 2030. While the UCs have already done a lot to address hunger on campus, there is more that needs to be done to make sure that no student is hungry on campus. We will continue to show support from students and meet with administrators to get a Zero Hunger commitment, as well as hosting food pantry fundraisers to alleviate hunger on campus in the short term Clean Energy We all know that burning oil, gas, and coal has polluted our air, water, and land for decades – and now it’s changing the climate even faster than scientist feared it would. We know we can have healthier communities right now and a livable future for ourselves and generations to come. But to get there, we must transform the way we produce and consume energy. That’s got to start with a commitment to 100% clean, renewable energy. A 100 percent clean energy future means shifting from dirty energy to completely clean energy sources wherever and however we can. Renewable energy is abundant, cost efficient and growing rapidly. In order to make this transition fully, we concurrently need to phase out forms of dirty energy in our state – especially new projects to drill for oil. To build off our success in working with UC to transition the university system to 100% clean purchased electricity, this year we focused on calling for the state of California to ban hydraulic fracturing (fracking) for oil, and new oil drilling projects. To kickoff this campaign our priority this year was to build the “Students Against Oil Drilling” coalition. We garnered support from other student groups – from sustainably minded clubs to athletes to campus radio stations – and collected letters of support from faculty on campus. This worked to elevate the voices of campus communities in the statewide debate over oil drilling. Once taking office Governor Newsom placed a moratorium on new fracking projects!
This Spring we hosted a statewide “Human Oil Spill” day of action – where every campus across the state held an educational event on campus about the impacts of oil drilling. With guest speakers from local nonprofits, a staged ‘human oil spill’ and educational posters we were able to talk to hundreds of students about the issue, and garner media attention on the campaign. Make Textbooks More Affordable According to the College Board, the average undergraduate student should budget between $1,200 and $1,300 for textbooks and supplies each year. That’s as much as 40% of tuition at a two-year community college and 13% at a four-year public institution. For many students and families already struggling to afford a college degree, that is simply too much – meaning more debt, working longer hours, or making choices that undermine academic success. For more than a decade, the Student PIRGS have led the way in exposing publisher’s practices that rip off students, championing cost-saving textbook options like used books and rental programs, and advocating for open textbooks as a long-term solution. We can save students a ton of money, and put the heat on publishers to make textbooks affordable.
Our goal is to strengthen our open educational resource (OER) programs at the UCs and ensure they are well-used, as well as reduce or eliminate the use of access codes. We are working to show student support, get faculty to pledge to give preference to cheaper course materials, educate faculty and librarians about how they can use OER, and work with administrators to institutionalize OER. This year our students presented this proposal to UC Regents, and applauded the UC’s efforts to make open journals available. In addition our students testified in support of a statewide “Borrowers’ Bill of Rights” that would protect students from ‘debt traps’ or being taken advantage of by lenders. Awards This year CALPIRG Students was recognized for the tangible change our student leadership program has made toward a cleaner and more meaningful future. This year we were nominated for an American Climate Leadership Award alongside organizations like the Sunrise Movement and the Future Coalition. And WE WON! We were recognized for not only building a large movement of climate activists across the UC system, but for winning our campaign and committing the UC System to 100% clean purchased electricity. We are honored by such an award, and grateful to our partners at the UC for working with us to make this 100% clean energy vision a reality.
In addition, the UCLA chapter’s Plastic Free Seas campaign, led by Sithara Menon, was awarded the Project of the Year by the UCLA Sustainability Green Gala Awards for their leadership and commitment in implementing UCLA’s new single use plastic policy! Conferences and Workshops This year CALPIRG Student leaders collaborated with other universities, student leaders, and nonprofits at notable conferences, workshops and trainings. Here are the leaders and their conference presentations from this school year: • Future of California Elections Annual Conference o Elisa Chang, New Voters Project Statewide Coordinator, UCLA Masters Program presented on a panel called “Conditional Voter Registration: How Expanding Same Day Registration Can Remove Barriers to Voting • PLAN Students for Zero Waste Conference o Nicole Haynes, Plastic Free Seas Coordinator, UC Berkeley ’20 presented on how to develop plastic reduction policy on campus • UC Student Association Student Organizing Summit o Sithara Menon, Plastic Free Seas Coordinator, UCLA ’21 ran a workshop called “Youth Vote on the Rise” • California Voter Engagement in Higher Education Summit o Nic Riani, CALPIRG Board Chair, UCLA ’22 presented a “Lightning Talk” on the use of castudentvote.org with Nancy Archuleta, UCI ’21 and Charlie Lea, UCB ‘20 • Santa Barbara Community Environmental Council Earth Day
o CALPIRG moderated a panel called “UCSB Youth Activist Climate Discussion” led by Jennifer Manning, Plastic Free Seas coordinator, UCSB ’20 featuring panelists from Surfrider, UCSB Environmental Affairs Board, Santa Barbara Channel Keepers, and CALPIRG • Association for the Advancement of Sustainability in Higher Education (AASHE) Annual Conference o Nicole Haynes ran a workshop on committing your campus to 100% clean energy with Environment America 100% Renewable Campus Director Bronte Payne This year CALPIRG hosted 3 statewide conferences to train students on the skills of activism, and bring together our statewide board to make decisions about the campaigns and program on campus. As we transitioned to online learning, we held virtual conferences to train students on virtual skills they could use to continue driving their campaigns on campus. In total over 200 students attended a CALPIRG conference this school year – 60 alone attending our first ‘virtual’ organizing conference in March! Staying Active while Social Distancing The outbreak of the novel coronavirus meant a serious shift in everyday life for everyone. On campus it meant packing up, moving home and attending school from a distance. The state legislature closed and reorganized their priorities – and we did the same. The safety and health of our students and staff are our first priority, but with the COVID-19 outbreak it was clear that when it came to protecting public health, our environment, and our future the student voice was more important than ever. So we decided to adapt our internship program for the virtual world, and found that with a little effort we can still participate in our society in meaningful ways. To launch Spring quarter across the UCs we hired interns to participate in our new remote program. Interns would learn the basics of digital media organizing, work to
adapt voter registration tactics to the virtual world, finalize plans to go plastic free at the UC, and call for more public health protections under the coronavirus. The virtual intern program was a huge success! We hired over 120 interns into the program, even more than our program in Winter quarter. In total over 200 students participated in our Spring quarter volunteer and internship activities, and then we ran a similar program to give students the opportunity to participate in a remote internship over summer with over 350 interns! In response to the COVID-19 outbreak we worked to help spread the world about services the UC was providing to students. We collected signatures in support of increased testing, called for universal mail-in-ballots, and called on ventilator companies to allow hospitals the ‘right to repair’ broken life-saving machines. Our team also wrote letters to the editor to call for better public health protections. In response we’ve seen an increase in testing capacity in California, toolkits released by ventilator companies to allow repairs, and universal mail-in-ballots in California. In this time we know its important more so than ever to have young people participate in our democracy, and we are proud and inspired by the work of students at the UC to lead the effort when it comes to tackling some of the most profound issues of this generation.
Democracy Summer 2020 As the school year came to a close, it’s was clear that students across the country have found themselves in a more precarious state than where we started in the Fall. Facing public health and political crises that will have a large ripple effect for our future, its clear there is so much young people can do to shape the future we are set to inherit. Whether its gathering in public places to call for change, singing petitions, making donations, or providing community service there are so many ways people are making a difference now. And we know that civic participation, and turning out to vote, is one of the key pieces of that puzzle. So this summer we’ve partnered with Rock the Vote and college campuses in California and beyond to run a summer training and internship program to train students on running a peer to peer voter registration drive this Fall. We kicked the summer off with #DemocracySummer2020, a livestream event featuring Rosario Dawson, Katy Perry, the Black Eyed Peas, and youth voices. Thousands of viewers tuned in to hear stories about activism, to be inspired by their peers, and hear performances from top artists all with one message: go vote! From there we worked to hire interns to join our team in California and hired 350 new student interns on to join our summer training program. Elisa Chang from UCLA and the
Bruins Vote coalition moderated a panel with the WA Secretary of State Kim Wyman, OR AG, and former PIRG student Ellen Rosenblum and MI Asst. Secretary of State Heaster Wheeler for over 350 college students across the country – ranging from Florida to Michigan and Wisconsin to California. Already we have helped over 3,000 students commit to vote this fall. This summer we are working to educate voters, make plans to turn out the vote for a virtual campus, and build excitement and enthusiasm to vote this November! Volunteer and Internship Program Every year we run a large volunteer and internship program to give students the opportunity to take action on important issues they care about, and the skills to do so. Every term, we start with an intensive campus outreach effort designed to educate the campus about pressing social issues, and also recruit new volunteers and interns. Through those efforts, each year we educate 70,000 students at the UC’s through class presentations and many more through campus events and email/Facebook outreach. This year alone we’ve engaged over 1,700 volunteers and 300 students are currently participating in our internship program. CALPIRG Students interns learn skills like how to organize an event, recruit and train volunteers, work with the media, and lobby elected officials. Here, PIRG alumna and current State Senate Pro Tem Senator Toni Atkins attends a meeting with our UCSD chapter.
Student Directed, Student Funded CALPIRG Students is directed by an all student board of directors from each of our UC Chapters. CALPIRG Students Board of Directors Executives for 2019-2020 Chair: Nic Riani, UCLA Class of 2021 Vice Chair: Sithara Menon, UCLA, Class of 2021 Treasurer: Kathryn Gonzalez-Valle, UCLA, Class of 2020 Secretary: Jennifer Manning, UC Santa Barbara, Class of 2020; Mika Yoneda, UC Berkeley, Class of 2021 Members at Large: Emily Webber, UC Davis, Class of 2021 Members at Large: James Willhite, UC Santa Cruz, Class of 2020 We are funded through the support of 35,000 students that pay the CALPIRG voluntary fee on their tuition bill. This gives us the resources to hire professional staff that work with students to research problems and solutions, run grassroots campaigns, and make our voices heard with elected officials in Sacramento and Washington, DC. Visit calpirgstudents.org to stay up to date on our campaigns Questions? Contact us as info@calpirgstudents.org
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