In
the last few weeks hundreds of students have submitted "I support clean
energy because..." letters to their Senators, and they make one thing
clear: there are countless reasons why it's time to bring clean energy
to America.
Join thousands of students who are calling our Senators this week to let them know we support clean energy: http://studentpirgs.org/72hours
We're running out of time to get our Senators to pass a national clean energy plan - but we're in it to win it.
By
launching a 21st century energy plan for America, we can create
millions of green jobs, jump start the economy, and begin to solve
global warming.
We've teamed up with dozens of organizations
across the country to host this 72 hour phone blitz to our Senators
because the more calls we make, the more they'll pay attention to us.
We all have our own reasons for supporting clean energy. And our Senators need to hear them all.
Until
today, it was perfectly legal for credit card companies to profit by
tricking people into paying late and then tripling the interest rate on
their balances.
Not anymore.
The Credit CARD Act
goes into effect today and includes this and other protections from
abusive practices the banks have used to rip us off. It also offers
college students additional special protections. Click here to read what's in it for you.
Students
have an average of almost $3,000 in credit card debt when they graduate
college. We use credit cards to pay for textbooks, transportation, and
even tuition. Banks have used aggressive marketing tactics and abusive
terms and conditions to trap us into deep credit card debt. According
to Inside Higher Ed,
the new law "Includes a set of changes aimed at protecting young
consumers -- and in some cases college students specifically -- from
excessive credit card debt." U.S. News and World Report explains that young consumers are "coveted" by banks and credit card companies.
It
was the outcry of students like you that passed this law, and the banks
aren't happy about it - this is the first time in 40 years any law
opposed by credit card companies has passed!
Haiti
just experienced a massive earthquake. We don't yet know the full
ramifications of this disaster, but the people of Haiti will need help
from around the world to meet both their immediate needs and the long
term effort to rebuild homes, schools, hospitals and cities.
Our
Hunger and Homelessness campaign will be holding fundraisers on
campuses in the months ahead to make sure organizations on the ground
have the resources to get food, medicine and supplies to the people
that need them.
Sign up to volunteer and help fundraise on your campus here.
It's easy to organize a fundraiser on campus. Learn how by downloading our Response Kit.
Donations
are urgently needed - right now, we're recommending people direct
donations to our friends at Oxfam through their website http://oxfamamerica.org. Oxfam has four offices in Haiti and over 200 highly-experienced aid workers.
Please contact the staff of the National Student Campaign Against Hunger and Homelessness with questions at Natalie@studentsagainsthunger.org.
A
handful of PIRG students attended last Wednesday's forum at the White
House on global warming and clean energy. The forum gave young people a
chance to speak directly to administration officials, including Ken
Salazar (Secretary of the Interior), Hilda Solis (Secretary of Labor),
Steven
Chu (Secretary of Energy), Lisa Jackson (EPA Administrator), and Nancy
Sutley
(chair of the White House's Council on Environmental Quality).
In his State of the Union
Speech last night, President Obama recommitted to an increased
investment in higher education, reaffirming that investment in higher
education is essential to our country’s recovery and long-term
strength.
Obama urged Congress to increase Pell grants by passing the
Student Aid and Fiscal Responsibility Act (SAFRA), help students better
manage their crushing debt loads, and create a $10,000 education tax
credit.
The passage of SAFRA will increase the Pell grant
(the government’s need-based financial aid program) by at least $40
billion dollars by eliminating wasteful, unwarranted subsidies to banks
and lenders, and redirecting the money to students.
President
Obama also called for an expansion of the federal Income Based
Repayment program to help students manage their rapidly increasing
debt. His proposal would cap students' monthly federal loan repayments
at 10% of their discretionary income and forgive their federal debt
after 20 years or repayment.
Increased tuition costs have
resulted in students and families over-relying on loans to pay for
college. In 2008 students graduated with an average of a $23,200 in
student loan debt. Too many students can't go to college because of the
costs, don't graduate because their debt gets so high they have to drop
out, or after graduation have to put off marriage, children, and home
purchase because of their crushing debt. On campuses across
the country, Student PIRGs' student interns and volunteers are working
to raise the alarm on student debt and calling on their elected
official to support President Obama's plan increase financial aid for
students.
Today, the House of Representatives took an historic step toward a new clean energy economy and a healthy
future by passing the American Clean Energy and Security Act.
We're going to need to do much more in order to
make the dramatic shift we need in our energy policy and avoid the dire
consequences that scientists predict if we don't address global
warming. However, the first
step is always the hardest, and the House should be applauded for
taking it.
Next the bill will go to the Senate, where it will
face another tough fight. We look forward to building even more support
for clean energy solutions.
The Obama administration last Thursday called a "time-out" on new road-building in nearly 50 million acres of our national forests. Despite President Obama's promise to protect these forests and restore the 2001 Roadless Rule, Bush-era officials still working at the U.S. Forest Service had been moving to allow the timber, mining and oil industries access to roadless areas within the system. On May 28, the Secretary of Agriculture, Tom Vilsack, ordered that these forests be protected from road building. Now we're pushing for permanent protection of these places through full restoration of the Roadless Rule.
The
Congress passed a strong Credit Card Accountability, Responsibility and
Disclosure (CARD) Act that will halt the most egregious abuses by the
credit card industry. Despite the credit card industry's lobbying to
defeat or gut the bill, the Senate and the House both passed the bill
with overwhelming, bi-partisan majorities. President Obama signed it
into law on May 22 and it takes effect in nine months.
This is a big victory for students and all consumers! We've been working on this issue for a while now - see truthaboutcredit.org for more on our campus education program about credit cards, plus the report we issued last year, The Credit Card Trap.
For too long, owning a credit card company has been a license to
steal. Over the last few years, the banks increased their use of
abusive tactics, such as changing due dates so they could trick
consumers into paying late. Worse, they charged a double whammy for
paying late - a high late fee first and then tripled interest rates of
36% APR or more. They also started charging good customers higher rates
because they supposedly paid some other creditor late (this is called
"universal default"). And when that wasn’t enough, they started raising
the rates of good customers for no reason at all.
These rip-offs have finally caught up with them. Gouging everyone,
even good customers who paid on time, caused thousands and thousands of
people who just want a fair deal to contact Congress and the Federal
Reserve.
The CARD bill doesn't fix everything, but it does eliminate a lot of unfair practices, including:
Credit card issuers could not extend credit to consumers under the age
of 21 unless the person has an independent means to repay the loan, or
has a cosigner with such ability. Consumers under the age of 21 could
choose whether to receive credit card solicitations.
Unjustified and retroactive interest
charges. Card companies could not hike interest rates retroactively on
balances accrued before a rate increase takes effect (with minor
exceptions) unless the cardholder is more than 60 days late in paying a
bill. If such interest rate increases occur, they must lower the rate
after six months of on-time payments. Card companies would not be able
to raise interest rates in the first year after a card account is
opened.
Universal default on existing balances.
Credit card issuers could not increase a cardholder's interest rate on
existing balances based on negative information about other bills
unrelated to their credit card.
Excessive and growing penalty fees.
Penalty fees would have to be reasonable and proportional to the late
or over-limit violation. Card issuers could not charge over-limit fees
unless the cardholder has agreed to allow over-limit transactions.
Unfair billing practices. Card companies could not charge interest on any portion of a balance that is paid by the due date.
Pay-to-Pay. Card companies could not
charge customers a fee to pay their bill, except for expedited service
provided by a service representative.
Final passage of this historic credit card reform legislation will
stop big credit card companies - many of which are benefiting from TARP
funds - from cheating Americans out of their hard-earned money.
Student Supports Financial Aid Increases in Obama Budget
WASHINGTON, DC, April 1, 2009 – A University of Maryland senior
joined senators and community leaders at a rally in the U.S. Senate
office building today to support of the FY2010 Democratic Budget.
Deemed a top priority by President Barack Obama and other Democratic
leaders, the budget proposes a significant boost to the Pell grant, the
nation’s premier student aid program that currently serves close to
seven million students to help them pay for college.
“Our country needs us to get educated. The problems of the 21st
century require solutions that my generation is getting trained to deal
with in college,” said Kim, chair of the U.S. Public Interest Research
Group (PIRG) student chapter at The University of Maryland
(http://www.marylandpirgstudents.org/home).
"The budget plan being put forth by President Obama, Senate Leader
Reid, and the House is crucial. It reinvests billions of dollars in
student aid so we can have higher Pell grants and less loan debt,” Kim
added.
When Kim announced that she planned to be a community organizer
after graduating, the room – packed with journalists and with members
of organizations that support the Obama budget – burst into cheers.
But the clapping died down when Kim mentioned her student loan debt.
“The vast majority of college students across the country now
graduate with enough loan debt that we are being squeezed out of
careers,” Kim said.
Four senators, including Sen. Dick Durbin (D-IL), also spoke at the rally.
“When it comes to the future, it starts in the classroom,” said
Durbin, who is the Senate Majority Whip and a champion of the Obama
budget.
Durbin decried the fact that student’s graduate with “a diploma and
a student debt that they can’t deal with” and called for people across
the country to let their representatives know that they want the budget
passed.
“We need your help,” Durbin said. “This is our moment. Let’s not miss it.”
Both the House and the Senate are slated to vote on the budget later this week.
The rally was organized by the Campaign to Rebuild and Renew America
Now! coalition, which includes over 100 grassroots and non-profit
groups, including U.S. PIRG (http://www.uspirg.org). The coalition’s
goal is to make sure the president's budget passes Congress with all of
its public interest priorities intact. Across the country, the PIRGs
have launched a coordinated campaign, hosting large events, organizing
call-in days, and reaching out to the media to make sure Congress does
not miss this historic opportunity.
University of Maryland student Lauren Kim speaks to a packed room of
budget supporters at the U.S. Senate office building in Washington, DC,
on April 1, 2009. (Photo: Eric Reeves/U.S. PIRG)
University of Maryland student Lauren Kim, right, shaking hands with
Senator Benjamin L. Cardin (D-MD), center, as Bob Edgar, president of
Common Cause, left, and other members of the coalition look on during a
rally at the U.S. Senate office building in Washington, DC, on April 1,
2009. (Photo: Eric Reeves/U.S. PIRG)
The
American Recovery & Reinvestment Act recently signed into law by
President Obama contains plenty for students to applaud.
Higher Education: The final recovery bill included a $17 billion
increase in the Pell grant program for
college students. The increase means more grant money, as well as more
work-study aid and bigger tax credits for low-income students and their
families. Rep. George Miller, the key House leader on education, sought
input on the plan from the Student PIRGs' Rich Williams. http://diverseeducation.com/artman/publish/article_12284.shtml
Public Transportation: The bill added $8 billion for high-speed rail, a move strongly
supported by the Student PIRGs.
Another $8 billion in the bill is designated for other public
transportation uses. The New York Times quoted U.S. PIRG's John
Krieger: “After decades of looking on with envy at efficient bullet
trains overseas, American high-speed rail is finally leaving the
station.” http://www.nytimes.com/2009/02/13/us/politics/13stimulus.html?_r=1&scp=1&sq=John%20Krieger&st=cse
Clean Energy:
The bill includes
more
than
$78 billion for clean energy and green infrastructure, including $33
billion for clean energy, $27 billion for energy efficiency, and $19
billion for green transportation.
Maryland PIRG student volunteers working with the Global Warming Solutions campaign at the
University of
Maryland held a table where
they collected 143 letters to House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer, thanking him
for fighting for public transportation and green energy in the stimulus package,
and asking him to champion these issues as the stimulus comes to a final vote.
They also held a Valentines Day table for Clean Energy, with over a dozen
volunteers and two people in polar bear costumes getting 75 individual
Valentines Day cards signed by Maryland voters.
A series about the surge in consumer debt and the lenders who made it possible.
Colleges Profit as Banks Market Credit Cards to Students
Bank of America employees on the campus of Michigan State University in
East Lansing, Mich., offered give-aways like water bottles, backpacks,
games and other items, trying to persuade students to sign up for
credit cards and other banking services.
EAST LANSING, Mich. — When Ryan T. Muneio was tailgating with his parents at a Michigan State football game this fall, he noticed a big tent emblazoned with a Bank of America
logo. Inside, bank representatives were offering free T-shirts and
other merchandise to those who applied for credit cards and other
banking products.
Fabrizio Costantini for The New York Times
Bank of America employees on the Michigan State campus offered
giveaways like water bottles, backpacks and games to persuade students
to apply for credit cards and other bank services.
“They did a good job,” Mr. Muneio, 21 and a junior at Michigan State, said of the tactic. “It was good advertising.”
Bank of America’s relationship with the university extends well beyond
marketing at sports events. The bank has an $8.4 million, seven-year
contract with Michigan State giving it access to students’ names and
addresses and use of the university’s logo. The more students who take
the banks’ credit cards, the more money the university gets. Under
certain circumstances, Michigan State even stands to receive more money
if students carry a balance on these cards.
Hundreds of colleges
have contracts with lenders. But at a time of rising concern about
student debt — and overall consumer debt — the arrangements have
sounded alarm bells, and some student groups are starting to push back.
The relationships are reminiscent of those uncovered two years ago between student loan companies and universities. In those, some lenders offered universities an incentive to steer potential borrowers their way.
Here at Michigan State, the editors of the student newspaper wrote
this fall that “it doesn’t take a giant leap for someone to ask why the
university should encourage responsible spending when it receives a cut
of every purchase.”
At Arizona State University,
students set up a table on campus last spring to warn of the danger of
debt and urge students to support limits on on-campus marketing.
The
contracts, whose terms vary but usually involve payments to colleges or
alumni associations that agree to provide lists of students’ names,
have come under harsh criticism in Washington.
“That is absolutely outrageous, the sharing of students’ information with the banks,” Representative Carolyn B. Maloney, Democrat of New York, who oversaw a June hearing on campus credit card marketing, said in a recent interview. “That should be outlawed.”
Fabrizio Costantini for The New York Times
A Fifth Third Bank display offered bottles of water, tuition raffles
and a bicycle as an inducement to get incoming freshmen at Michigan
State University to open credit card and other accounts.
College
campuses are one place that young Americans are introduced to credit
and the possibility of spending beyond their means, a problem now
confronting the nation as a whole. For banks, the relationships are a
golden marketing opportunity. For colleges, they are a revenue source
at a time of declining public funding. And for students, they help pay
the bills and allow more shopping.
But debt incurred in college becomes a serious burden at graduation, especially in a recession in which jobs are scarce. A survey of more than 1,500 college students by US PIRG
in Washington found that two-thirds had at least one credit card.
Seniors with balances had an average debt of $2,623 on their cards.
University officials say that their agreements with card issuers comply with the law and bring in valuable revenue.
“It
provides money for scholarships and other programs,” said Terry R.
Livermore, manager of licensing programs at Michigan State. He said
that the program was aimed primarily at alumni and the university would
not include sharing student information in future credit card
contracts. “The students are such a minuscule portion of this program.”
Jennifer
Holsman, executive director of the alumni association at Arizona State,
said the association tried to teach students about responsible uses of
credit. “We work closely with Bank of America to provide educational
seminars to students in terms of being able to get information about
how to pay off credit cards, how not to keep balances,” she said.
Credit card issuers say that they try to educate students to use cards
responsibly and that the cards they offer on campus have more
restrictive terms than cards offered to alumni.
“The available
credit for undergraduates is capped at $2,500,” said Betty Riess, a
spokeswoman for Bank of America. “We want to take a fair and
responsible approach to lending because we want to build the foundation
for a longer-term banking relationship.”
Ms. Riess said the bank
had agreements with about 700 colleges and alumni associations, making
it one of the biggest, if not the biggest, card issuer on campuses. She
said that only 2 percent of the open accounts under those agreements
belonged to students, but also said it was not possible to determine
what percentage of program revenue resulted from fees and charges on
those student cards.
Stephanie Jacobson, a spokeswoman for JPMorgan Chase,
wrote in an e-mail message that the bank had fewer than 25 contracts
with colleges or alumni associations and that while some of the
contracts gave it the right to ask for and use lists of student names
and addresses, the bank had not done so since 2007.
That may be
because football games present a marketing opportunity that requires no
address information. Abigail D. Molina, a second-year law student at
the University of Oregon, applied in 2007 for a Chase Visa offered at a tent outside a football game. In exchange, she received a blanket.
I mostly wanted the blanket,” Ms. Molina said. She added that this
was her second university credit card. In 1994, when she was an
undergraduate at the university, she applied for a card at a booth on
campus and then accumulated about $30,000 in debt, almost all of it on
the card. In 2001 she filed for bankruptcy. Looking back, she said it
was “shockingly easy” to get the card, even as a first-year student.
Mr. Muneio, the Michigan
State student, said he did not apply for a Bank of America card because
he already had two Visa cards. “The last thing I need is another
account to keep track of.”
Many students are unaware of the
contracts that universities have with credit card issuers and do not
question the presence of marketers on campus or applications in their
mailboxes, despite recent protests on a few campuses.
Sometimes,
the contracts have confidentiality provisions. Universities may try to
distance themselves, stating that the contracts are only between alumni
associations and banks. But the universities provide alumni groups with
lists of current students’ names, addresses and telephone numbers,
which the groups pass on to banks.
The New York Times obtained
information about and, in some cases, copies of contracts between
lenders, public colleges and their alumni associations using open
records requests. Because private colleges are not subject to open
records laws, they are not included.
While most universities contacted for this article did not provide detailed financial information on the contracts — the University of Pittsburgh, for example, confirmed only that it had an agreement — two did share numbers.
The alumni association of the University of Michigan
is guaranteed $25.5 million over the term of its 11-year agreement with
Bank of America. Under the agreement, the association agreed to provide
lists of names and addresses of students, alumni, faculty, staff,
donors and holders of season tickets to athletic events.
Much
of the money goes toward scholarships, said Jerry Sigler, vice
president and chief financial officer of the alumni association. He was
unsure what students were told about the program.
“Students are
generally told how they can opt out of having their information
publicly displayed in directories or provided in response to requests
like this,” Mr. Sigler added. “But it’s not to my knowledge specific to
the credit card program.”
Michigan State University gets $1.2
million a year but is guaranteed at least $8.4 million over seven
years, according to its agreement. The contract calls for a $1 royalty
to the university for every new card account that remains open for at
least 90 days, $3 for every card whose holder pays an annual fee, and a
payment of a half percent of the amount of all retail purchases using
the cards.
For cards that do not have an annual fee, the bank
pays $3 if the holder has a balance at the end of the 12th month after
opening an account, a provision that appears to give the university an
incentive to get cardholders into debt.
A few schools have adopted policies that prohibit sharing student contact information.
Ball
State University’s alumni association, which has a contract with
JPMorgan Chase, does not provide information on students, said Ed
Shipley, executive director of the association. “Who we market to is
our alumni because that’s our purpose,” he said. However, the bank is
permitted to set up marketing tables at athletic events.
The
University of Oregon, whose alumni association also has a marketing
agreement with Chase, stopped providing student addresses as concern
grew about student debt, according to Julie Brown, a university
spokeswoman. The university still permits marketing booths at athletic
events.
Some research suggests that students may be using credit
cards less frequently, in favor of debit cards linked to their bank
accounts. A survey last spring by Student Monitor, a Ridgewood, N.J.,
company that tracks trends on campus, found that 59 percent of
undergraduate students had debit cards, up from 51 percent in 2000.
But
universities have arrangements with banks that offer debit cards too,
perhaps raising some of the same issues that the credit card deals do.
At New Mexico State University, for example, students are given the option of opening a bank account with Wells Fargo if they want to convert their campus identification into a debit card.
The
accounts are not mandatory, said Angela Throneberry, assistant vice
president for auxiliary services at the university. But, she said,
“There’s some revenue sharing that happens as part of this.”
A version of this article appeared in print on January 1, 2009, on page B1 of the New York edition.
Add this to
the list of the country's financial woes: Credit card companies are aggressively
targeting college students, many of whom are naïve about money matters and
vulnerable to predatory offers that can get them permanently mired in debt.
According to an eye-opening survey by the
United States Public Interest Research Group, or U.S. PIRG, which is an advocacy
organization, some students reported receiving hundreds of credit card offers in
a year. The report also described how companies lure cash-starved students with
gifts of clothing and free food. In one flagrant case in Ohio, students who showed
up for the food were required to fill out credit card applications before they
could eat.
A
half-dozen states have placed restrictions on how credit cards can be marketed
at public colleges. Congress is considering sensible bills that would restrict
the amount of credit and the number of cards that students could be offered.
Lawmakers should also focus on the lucrative and often secret deals that
universities and their alumni associations regularly cut with credit card
companies.
Those deals
— which resemble the now outlawed student loan kickback deals — often grant
companies the exclusive right to market to a college’s students. In some cases,
the colleges get a cut of what the students spend, which makes the school a
partner in the plundering of young peoples’ meager assets.
Congress
must insist that these deals be made public and universities and alumni groups
must insist that students be given fair deals from credit card companies.
With
financing from the Ford Foundation, U.S. PIRG has begun a national campaign
urging schools to adopt some common-sense principles that would help shield
students from credit card marketers and financial ruin.
The group
calls on universities to stop selling the names and contact information of
currently enrolled students to credit card marketers. It also says that schools
should ban marketers from using gifts to entice students to sign up for credit
cards, and it urges schools to do more to educate students on managing debt
responsibly.
Most
importantly, the group calls on schools that still decide to cut deals to only
do business with credit card companies that steer clear of commonly used but
unscrupulous credit card terms that take advantage of students. That means an
end to hidden fees or unreasonable penalties, including universal default, under
which interest rates go up when the customer fails to pay a bill not related to
the credit card account.
Schools
need to reform their credit card practices. If they don’t move quickly,
lawmakers must do it for them.
This spring, as part of the 22nd Annual Hunger Cleanup, students involved in the Maryland PIRG campus chapter at College Park helped to raise over $1000 to purchase beds for St. Ann's Infant and Maternity Home in Hyattsville, MD. Volunteers sold St. Patrick's Day-themed buttons and requested donations from family and friends to provide the Home with new beds for the older children living in their facilities.
About St. Ann's:
St. Ann's Infant and Maternity Home has provided a refuge for needy
women and children in the Washington, DC area since 1860 when three
Daughters of Charity, a religious community dedicated to helping those
who are poor established the city's first home for foundlings and
single women "at their time of confinement in childbirth". Since that
date 145 years ago, St. Ann's has been a pioneer in developing programs
to reach our city's most destitute women and children.
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.
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.”
For the past two and a half
months, students involved with MarylandPIRG at University of Maryland have dedicated a
great deal of their spare time to increasing youth voter turnout. Volunteers
registered 549 students to vote, and worked hard to turn them out to the polls
on Election Day. Together with coalition partners and receptive young people
across the country, these efforts comprised the largest midterm mobilization
effort in history!
Volunteers at the University of Maryland worked hard to talk to over 1500 of their peers about the election.
They held tables outside of the student union, spoke in classes and called registered voters to remind
them about the election. Maryland PIRG volunteers helped make over 250 contacts with
their peers on Election Day alone, gathering signatures on a large
banner that hung by their table on Election Day.
Volunteers with MarylandPIRG, the Student Government Association, and Maryland Votes passed out candy and cookies to students waiting in line to vote, as well as passed around the banner for them to sign as a pledge that they would vote. As a direct
result of these students’ hard work, over 450 voters cast their ballots in this
2006 midterm election; this number is up from less than 150 in the 2002 midterm
election.
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.
Over 5,500 students from all 50 states came to the University of Maryland College Park on November 2-5 for the largest student global warming conference ever. Over 250 of the country’s leading organizers and advocates and policy experts gave speeches, ran skills trainings, and presented issue briefings for the crowd. Members of Congress spoke, including House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, who called young global warming activists the "magnificent disrupters of our time."
On Monday, November 5th, we held the largest student Lobby Day on Capitol Hill ever – 3000 students went to meet with over 300 Congressional offices and ask them, among other things, to pass an energy bill this year that includes tough car economy standards (35 MPG by 2020) and renewable energy standards (15% by 2020).
Afterward, there was a huge rally on the steps of the Capitol, where the speakers included several Congressmen and Maryland PIRG Chair Lauren Kim.
The conference was organized by the Energy Action Coalition, of which Maryland PIRG is a member.
As part of the national campaign to Stop the Raid on Student Aid, University of Maryland students worked with staff from Congressmen Steny Hoyer’s office to host a forum on the cost of higher education. Speakers included Congressmen Steny Hoyer and Ben Cardin, Maryland PIRG Director Brad Heavner, SGA President Andrew Rose, and Maryland PIRG students Joe Welty and John McBride. The event was attended by about 40 people and was covered by the campus newspaper, the PG Gazette, and the DC Examiner.
This week, students with Maryland PIRG's Campus Climate Challenge campaign hosted the second annual "Earth to College Park" forum on global warming and its impacts. Speakers included Shadia Wood, of the Environmental Justice Climate Change Initiative, and Matt Stern, of the Chesapeake Climate Action Network. The speakers addressed various negative impacts of global warming, ranging from the impacts on the climate, to impacts on the economic and social level as well.
Our Campus Climate Challenge went down to the Green Fest on Sunday October 7, and we postcarded for the Global Warming Solutions Act. In just 2 hours, MaryPIRG Volunteers along with the Sierra Club managed to get 231 postcards signed to ask Governor O'Malley to cut global warming emissions 80% by 2050. MaryPIRG will continue to get hundreds of postcards signed to put lots of grassroots pressure on Maryland politicians to pass meaningful and enforceable climate change legistlation. Plus the Green Fest was a blast to attend.
Volunteers with MaryPIRG's campaign to pass the Healthy Air Act recently erected a 20-foot tall inflatable power plant on Hornbake Plaza to raise awareness about the dangers of coal-fired power plants. The students also gathered over 200 signatures to state legislators in support of the Healthy Air Act, which were later delivered in person to all of the legislators in Annapolis.
Background:
Energy
companies operate seven power plants in Maryland
that pollute far more than all other power plants combined. Of the pollution
from Maryland
power plants, these seven plants alone emit 63 percent of the smog-forming
pollution, 96 percent of the soot pollution, 83 percent of the global warming
pollution and 100 percent of the mercury pollution. This pollution causes severe health and environmental problems.
Students with the Campus Climate Challenge at the University of Maryland-College Park this week participated in the national week of action to raise awareness about global warming. Volunteers set up a table at the annual Stampfest in the Student Union and collected more than 300 photo petitions, asking Congress to "Step it up: cut carbon dioxide 80% by 2050." In addition, students set up the table with a laptop showing an Inconvenient Truth on a loop to all who stopped by the table.
Maryland PIRG student chapter 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.
The average student
receives nearly 5 credit card offers a month and nearly two in three
students reported that they had at least one credit card. Fifty-five
percent of cardholding students said they used their card for
day-to-day expenses. Reflecting escalating college costs, 55 percent
said they charge their books and nearly one-quarter said they pay their
tuition with a card. On average, freshmen had a balance of $1,301 and
seniors had more than twice that, $2,623.
Credit cards are
marketed to students using free gifts and introductory teaser rates.
The use of aggressive marketing techniques obscures students' ability
to be scrutinizing consumers when considering a credit card contract.
Seventy six percent of students reported stopping at tables on campus
to apply for credit cards, and nearly one-third were offered a free
gift to sign up.
UMCP students organized a forum to educate the campus and community on global efforts at reducing global warming and what students can do on campus to increase energy efficiency. Joan Kowal from Facilities Management spoke about the university's efforts to reduce energy use, and the students participated in a mock strategy session on how to plan a campaign for energy efficiency.
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.
By harnessing renewable energy sources like wind, solar, and clean biofuels, we
can secure our economy and create jobs. By promoting technologies to save
energy, we can dramatically reduce our dependence on oil and save consumers
money. More than ever, America
needs a new direction on energy policy. With the passage of the CLEAN Energy
Act of 2007, Congress would send a clear message that they are ready to start
solving our energy problems.
MaryPIRG's Hunger & Homelessness Project had a Focus Date Food Drive, and it was incredibly effective! On Friday night in front of the North Campus Diner, about 10 MaryPIRG Volunteers gathered over a hundred pounds of fruit, bread, cereal, bagels, and muffins for the DC Central Kitchen. Over 200 University of Maryland students helped donate all this food! This Food Drive is the first of many Focus Date Food Drives that MaryPIRG is going to put on throughout the semester. Thanks for Corin Jacoby for all her work and her sweet costume!
The rising cost of higher
education is a serious problem in the United States. Many students work full time in addition to attending
classes, doing homework and getting involved in their community. Student debt
can be a serious burden while in school, and an even more serious hindrance
upon graduation – when student loan payments begin.
In an effort to make the US
Department of Higher Education pay attention to the lack of sufficient student
loan assistance, MarylandPIRG volunteer Matt Johnson, Student Government President Emma Simson, Director of Governmental Affairs Andrew Friedson, and USMSC member Devin Ellis traveled to Washington,
D.C. to testify before the Board
on Wednesday, November 8.
The four students joined others from campuses up and down the east coast in sharing
their stories about student debt. They asked the US Department of Education to support college
graduates by easing up on the financial strain of student loan repayment and supporting the five-point plan for manageable student debt repayment.
