Maryland PIRG FAQ

What is Maryland PIRG?
Maryland PIRG is a statewide, student-directed organization that works to solve problems facing our society. Our environment and public health are threatened, students are being ripped off, poverty is on the rise, and our decision makers aren’t listening to ordinary citizens. Maryland PIRG combines the idealism of students with the expertise of professional staff who conduct research, education, and grassroots organizing for the public.
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What does Maryland PIRG do?
We get results. Last year, Maryland PIRG staff and students helped pass legislation in Annapolis that, at the time, was the strongest in the country to cut pollution from coal-fired power plants.  The Healthy Air Act will eliminate 3.2 million tons of global warming pollution by 2019 and reduce mercury pollution from coal-fired power plants by 90% by 2015.

Here at Maryland, Maryland PIRG is working hard to make Maryland more sustainable by educating about global warming solutions – last fall we held a forum on global warming and its global impacts – and encouraging the whole campus community to make changes that will reduce the amount of global warming pollution we’re emitting – we are working with the student government to increase use of clean and renewable energy sources on campus.

Maryland PIRG students also work on hunger and homelessness issues in Prince George’s County through direct service and awareness events. Last semester as part of Hunger and Homelessness Awareness Week, we partnered with the Office of Community Service Learning to host an Oxfam Hunger Banquet, and we also hosted our annual Sleepout on the steps of McKeldin Library, with dozens of students hearing from currently and formerly homeless members of the community about their experiences.

Additionally, Maryland PIRG students on campus and with other students across the country have organized to bring the issue of Student Debt to the top of Congress’ priority list, and this January the House of Representatives voted overwhelmingly to cut student loan interest rates in half over the next five years.
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How is Maryland PIRG funded?
Students at Maryland vote to fund Maryland PIRG through the student activities fee. Students at Maryland have been a part of Maryland PIRG since 1978using their resources to hire staff, such as advocates and grassroots organizers, to work with them on issues that they care about. Students decide how best to spend their resources on the issues that they care about, such as fighting homelessness, increasing voter turnout, and working for more clean energy.  This year students at Maryland will be voting to reaffirm our funding.
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Why go to the ballot?
Students at Maryland have been voting on funding Maryland PIRG every three years as a way to reaffirm student support for the work that we do. The mandate from the student community that says that Maryland students want clean air, clean water, affordable tuition, and an end to poverty gives us the ammunition it takes to get our work done. By having students vote to fund Maryland PIRG through the student activities fee, we can count on those resources to keep doing our work in the future.
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What are the priorities for the next few years?
There are constantly attacks on laws that protect our environment or consumers; and unfortunately those bringing the attacks have a lot of money and influence.  Maryland PIRG is working both on a state and federal level to protect good laws that are on the books so that we don’t roll back decades of progress that has been made.

But we're not just playing defense. We're working on new ways to make higher education affordable through new grants and lower interest rates. We're still fighting to lower the cost of textbooks. We're working to make sure that Maryland leads the way on addressing the problem of global warming, both through producing more renewable energy AND by having our college campuses lead the charge through good sustainability policies. And we're working to alleviate hunger and homelessness in our community.

And looking ahead to 2008, we’ll be mobilizing thousands of college students all over Maryland to make sure that politicians continue paying more attention to young people.  Turnout has been on the rise amongst college students over the last couple of elections and we aim to keep it that way so that our nation’s leaders know that young people are a force to be reckoned with.
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How does Maryland PIRG spend the funding it receives?
We use it all to tackle Maryland’s biggest problems and win positive reform for the state. When you look at the things we've done - protecting the state’s farmland, cleaning up Maryland’s dirtiest power plants, bringing cleaner cars to the state, and making college tuition more affordable - it's pretty clear that this is money well spent. The staff we hire and the campaigns we run do take resources, and with the challenges facing Maryland and the rest of the country over the next few years, you can be sure that our staff and students will use these resources to stand up to the special interests and win. Our clean water, our land use protections, consumer and student rights - they all rely on our ability to hire a crack team of experts and professionals to fight for students.

Besides, polluting industries spend millions of dollars each year just on campaign contributions to elected officials (that doesn't include their lobbyists, their propaganda, their campaign ads, etc.), a portion of the student activities fee every year is small change in comparison to what we're up against. That small change makes a big difference - they might spend tens of millions of dollars trying to avoid pollution regulations, but with the help of students here at Maryland, we are able to protect our environment and public health. Student support gives us the opportunity to make a difference at the local, state and even national level.
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Where is the money spent?
Off and on campus, but mostly it goes to wherever Maryland PIRG’s resources will make a difference on the issues that students care about. The whole point of establishing Maryland PIRG is to be able to have the resources to hire a staff of professionals – organizers and advocates – to work with students to fight against the special interests wherever they are trying to pollute the environment, rip-off consumers, or corrupt the democratic process.
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Why does Maryland PIRG hire staff?
The problems that Maryland PIRG undertakes are large, statewide, often national in scope. Staff are an important part of having an effective statewide organization. They bring expertise to student's ideas and continuity to long term student campaigns.
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Why does Maryland PIRG work statewide?
The problems that Maryland PIRG faces do not only occur on campus. In order to clean up our waterways, protect our national forests or lower textbook prices our staff need to go to the decision makers all across the state and in Washington D.C. With statewide grassroots support as well as our staff tackling problems from Baltimore to the Eastern Shore, we are able to take on the special interests that create these problems and actually win for students and the public interest.
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Where do I go to find out more?
The Maryland PIRG office is located in room 3110 of South Campus Dining Hall, on the top floor at the opposite end of the building from the Diamondback offices.  You can stop by the office or contact Colleen Spivey, the Campus Organizer by phone: 301-314-8353 or email: colleen at marylandpirgstudents.org, or just ask any member of Maryland PIRG!  You can also feel free to stop by any of our meetings.
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