New Voters Project
Launched more than 25 years ago, the Student PIRGs’ New Voters Project has helped to register more than 700,000 voters and make more than a million personalized voting reminders since 2004, making it the nation’s largest nonpartisan grassroots mobilization effort targeting young voters. During that period, young voter turnout has consistently increased, rising from 36% in 2000 to more than 52% in 2008.

The 2008 election saw young voter turnout surge by at least 2.2 million votes over 2004 levels. Students involved with the Student PIRGs New Voters Project played a big role in the impressive turnout of students in this historic election. On 100 campuses in 17 states, the Student PIRGs' New Voters Project combined old-fashioned pavement pounding with newer technology to reach young voters.

21st Century Transportation
We’re building support for 21st century transportation in America, including high-speed rail and more and better mass transit. In 2009, Student PIRG activists mobilized their peers and helped persuade Congress to include an additional $2.5 billion down-payment on high-speed rail in their appropriations bill, more than doubling President Barak Obama’s original recommendation.  In California, CALPIRG students led the field campaign in 2008 that passed Prop 1A, an initiative to build a high-speed rail line connecting California’s major cities.

Global Warming Solutions
Our global warming solutions campaign is working to educate the country about the solutions we have to global warming and to build support for local, state and national policies that will put those solutions into practice.  In fall 2009, we gathered more than 15,000 petitions to Congress calling for passage of a strong global warming bill. 

While we continue to work for national solutions to global warming, the Student PIRGs have been taking action at the state level as well.  For example,

OSPIRG partnered with the Cascade Climate Network, the University of Oregon, and the Sierra Student Coalition to host Powershift West 2009 - the nation’s largest regional youth global warming conference. Over 500 students attended from 11 states including Nevada, Montana, and even Alaska.  The attendees learned organizing skills while also calling on the U.S. Senate to take strong action to stop global warming. 

WISPIRG students at UW Madison, Milwaukee and Stevens Point organized their peers statewide in the fall of 2009 to convince the Wisconsin Public Service Commission to vote down a proposal to build a coal-fired power plant in Cassville, WI.  After successfully building support on campus, more than 50 student leaders and 40 WISPIRG students attended the Public Service Committee hearing to speak about the harmful environmental effects of Alliant Energy’s proposed coal-fired power plant. 

In 2008, the Massachusetts State Senate passed the Global Warming Solutions Act, which requires reduction of  emissions of greenhouse gases from the Commonwealth by 20 percent below 1990 levels by 2020 and 80 percent by 2050.  Students around the state organized call-in days, gathered over 7,000 petitions to their legislators, and organized events on their campus to build support for this legislation. According to Senator Pacheco, Chair of the Global Warming Committee, "the involvement of students all across Massachusetts has been essential for generating change in the fight against global warming.”

Student Debt Alert
Our Student Debt Alert campaign works to raise awareness about the growing problem of student debt and call for solutions. Through the campaign, over five thousand students posted their photos and stories on the Student Debt Yearbook, to illustrate to decision makers the importance of financial aid programs. Hundreds of additional students sent testimony to the federal Commission on the Future of Higher Education urging them to address student debt issues.

Higher Education
In September 2007, we helped convince Congress to pass the College Cost Reduction and Access Act, the largest increase in federal student aid in 20 years. This law also made dramatic cuts in interest rates for student loans. We followed up by helping pass the Higher Education Opportunity Act, which was signed by President Bush in August 2008. That law contains several important policy changes, including an increase in the maximum authorized level of the Pell Grant to $9,000.

In February 2009, we helped convince Congress to include several key measures in the economic stimulus package.  The final package included a $17 billion increase in Pell grant funding, more work-study aid, and bigger tax credits for low-income students and their families.  The bill also included critical funding for programs that will create jobs and protect the environment, including $16 billion for public transit and $78 billion for clean energy and green infrastructure.

Affordable Textbooks
The Student PIRGs have been leading the charge to make textbooks affordable. We have been building support for “open textbooks” – books that are available to students for free – and signed on over 2,000 college professors who support using open textbooks in their classes. In August 2008, we helped get an Affordable Textbooks provision included in the federal Higher Education Opportunity Act. The provision helps lower the cost of textbooks for millions of students by requiring publishers to disclose textbook pricing and revision information to faculty and requiring publishers to offer textbooks and supplemental materials "unbundled." It also asks colleges to provide the list of assigned textbooks, including prices, for each course when students are registering for classes.

Wilderness Preservation
The Student PIRGs have been a driving force behind efforts to protect 58 million acres of pristine roadless areas in our national forests from road building and most logging. We also led a successful campaign to beat back efforts to open the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge for drilling. In addition, our Ecopledge campaign convinced Staples to stop selling products made from old-growth wood, and convinced Coke and Pepsi to start using recycled plastic in their bottles.

Consumer Protection
On top of student loans, college students are graduating with too much credit card debt—close to $4,000 on average. The credit card industry vigorously markets to college students and offers “deals” that take advantage of students and pile the debt on top of debt. Our Truth About Credit Campaign worked to put a stop to the out-of-control marketing and unfair practices of the credit card industry

In May 2009, the Student PIRGs helped convince Congress to pass strong legislation, called the “Credit Card Accountability, Responsibility and Disclosure (CARD) Act” that will halt the most egregious abuses by the credit card industry. The CARD bill eliminates a lot of unfair practices, including: excessive and growing penalty fees, unfair billing practices, and unjustified and retroactive interest charges. It also restricts and requires greater transparency for marketing targeted exclusively at college campuses or consumers under the age of 21. 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.