Campaigns
Each quarter CALPIRG works on a number of issues that we feel need change. Of course, everyone could produce a list of the most important problems we face as a community and a society and each might be unique. That is why we work on issues that effect everyone. A major criteria for selecting a project is that it must have the support of a large majority of the community. All our campaigns are designed to benefit the public interest. For more information please come to our weekly meetings.
Our current campaigns are:
- Hunger and Homelessness
- Campus Climate Challenge
- Cheaper Textbooks
- Recycling and Oceans
- Higher Education
- Transportation
- What's Your Plan / New Voters Project
Hunger and Homelessness
http://www.studentsagainsthunger.org/
The Campaign Against Hunger and Homelessness (H&H) is committed to ending hunger and homelessness in America by educating, engaging, and training students to directly meet individuals' immediate needs while advocating for long-term systemic solutions.
The H&H campaign works on several local and statewide issues to help end hunger and homelessness. In the annual Hunger Cleanup, the H&H campaign raises thousands of dollars that goes towards local, national, and international communities to help feed, clothe, and shelter the homeless. In 2006, the H&H campaign sent 20 volunteers to New Orleans to assist in the hurricane Katrina reparations.
Campus Climate Challenge
The Campus Climate Challenge (CCC) is a project of more than 30 leading youth organizations throughout the U.S. and Canada. The Challenge leverages the power of young people to organize on college campuses and high schools across Canada and the U.S. to win 100% Clean Energy policies at their schools. The Challenge is growing a generation-wide movement to stop global warming, by reducing the pollution from our high schools and colleges down to zero, and leading our society to a clean energy future.
The CCC hosts several events to promote environmental awareness at UCI and collaborates with faculty and administration to encourage alternative energy investments at the University. The CCC has brought several solar car shows to campus and received national recognition in the media. Aligned with the Campus Student Sustainability Coalition, the Campus Climate Challenge aims to make a greener campus.
Cheaper Textbooks
Have you ever wondered why:
- Students pay as much $500 a quarter for textbooks?
- There's a new edition to your book every 2-3 years?
- Books are sold in bundles, even though you only use one book?
- Paperback and electronic copies of books are never available?
The students for the campaign for Cheaper Textbooks don't think these inconveniences are mere coincidences. Publishers use these tactics to rip off students. With the average student paying $300 a quarter for textbooks, we think we could all live without eight different editions of the same book. Publishers should offer cheaper alternatives to hardcover books and avoid pushing professors towards buying newer editions. The ultimate goal of the cheaper textbooks campaign is to provide alternatives to buying expensive textbooks and making textbooks affordable to all students.
Recycling and Oceans
If you've ever walked across Seal Beach, you'll know that our oceans are a mess. It has been reported that a styrofoam ball as big as an island floats along the surface of the Pacific Ocean. UCI students throw away at least a ton of trash each day, and the recycling program at UCI is almost non-existent.
The Recycling and Oceans campaign aims to implement strategies to encourage recycling at the UCI campus. The campaign aims to clean up oceans through legislative and volunteer action.
Higher Education
The Higher Education campaign is committed to providing current and potential students with an affordable, accessible, and high-quality education. The campaign recommends and lobbies towards increased government spending towards US education programs in primary and secondary schools. The Higher Ed project also aims to make financial aid accessible and eliminate sneaky loan programs that drive students into debt after graduation.
Transportation
In Irvine, your car is a blessing and a curse. You need a car to get around, but you pay your life savings for parking, gas and maintenance. How do you avoid this trap?
The Transportation Campaign at UC Irvine is working towards improving public transportation to and from the UCI campus. The campaign plans to improve OCTA bus routes, integrate a vanpool system to/from campus, and add direct bus routes to student places of interest.
What's your plan / New Voters Project
http://www.newvotersproject.org/
The New Voters Project is a nonpartisan effort to register young people to vote and get them to the polls on Election Day. Coming off of successful projects in 2004 and 2006, we're now gearing up for the 2008 elections with a goal of registering over 3000 students to vote at UCI. The main goals of the New Voters Project are:
- To build a non-partisan, statewide coalition of university and student leaders.
- To work with university administrators and county elections officials to establish institutional mechanisms that facilitate voting, such as obtaining early voting sites, providing on-campus polling places, having university staff register students to vote during move-in and payment of tuition, and allowing volunteers to register voters in the dorms.
- To register students to vote and make peer-to-peer Get Out the Vote contacts.
- Conduct voter education events in the weeks leading up to the election.
What's your plan is a new campaign to get candidates to pay attention to student issues during the election. The campaign aims to collect students opinions on issues that affect students and advocate for candidates to adopt stances on these issues.
