Eliminating single-use plastic waste. Winning the Right To Repair our broken phones, laptops and appliances. Safeguarding our oceans from pollution and other threats. Transitioning colleges and universities to open textbooks and other educational resources that protect students from being ripped off.
PIRG students are as determined as ever to make a positive impact on all these issues and more, even in a challenging and chaotic political environment.
That’s why, this past month, PIRG students made themselves heard in the halls of power by organizing action-packed days of direct advocacy to their elected leaders in California, Georgia, Massachusetts, North Carolina, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Washington State and Washington, D.C.
I’m pleased to share highlights from PIRG students’ nationwide work making their case and delivering campus and community support directly to decision makers — and I’m also excited to introduce you to two PIRG student leaders who want young people across the country to know how empowering and effective advocacy can be.
Advocacy Highlights
- In Oregon, more than 40 students met with 51 Oregon legislative offices during OSPIRG Students’ lobby day. Students advocated for policies to protect our oceans, move Oregon beyond plastic, end food waste and expand the Right to Repair. Shortly afterwards, the Oregon Senate voted to pass the OSPIRG-supported “Better Bag Ban,” showing bipartisan support for closing a loophole in the state’s ban on single-use plastic bags.
- In Pennsylvania, 16 students from Student PIRG clubs at the University of Pittsburg, Temple University and Villanova met with more than 20 of their senators and representatives to discuss two priority clean energy and climate bills currently under consideration in Harrisburg — and they received support from 18 of those legislators.
- North Carolina PIRG students from the University of North Carolina held 20 meetings with state legislators and staff on issues ranging from preventing microplastic pollution to reducing climate-altering emissions from fast fashion. Watch a fun summary of their lobby day on Instagram.
- WASHPIRG students from the University of Washington and The Evergreen State College met with more than 45 legislative offices to advocate for ending plastic pollution and protecting consumers. The University of Washington campus newspaper published two follow-up stories covering their lobby day, one on a plastic waste cleanup law and another on Right To Repair reforms students are promoting. And the best news of all: the Washington state legislature has passed all our priority Right To Repair and recycling reform bills!
Meet Caleb
Before leading a team of his fellow Georgia State students to Capitol Hill for his second-ever student lobby day in Washington, D.C., Caleb Gustavson remarked, “18-24 year olds count! We should have the opportunity to share our opinion. It should be normalized that young people are going to their state legislature, their city council, and if they can, to Congress. Because, as things stand right now, we are underrepresented.”
It’s that spirit of civic-mindedness and idealism that led Caleb to found and become president of PIRG’s campus club at Georgia State.
Caleb first got involved in the Student PIRGs’ nonpartisan New Voters Project, which has helped register more than 2 million young voters and made more than 3 million contacts encouraging young people to vote since its inception in 1984. In Caleb’s words, he was drawn to the idea of “students taking charge to register their peers,” and once that campaign ended, he worked to create a lasting home at Georgia State for student-led, student-run issue advocacy, from saving bees from pesticides and other threats to protecting Georgia’s Okefenokee Swamp from pollution and development.
That commitment to growing youth political empowerment led Caleb to Santa Barbara, California, last summer, where he helped direct Environment California and CALPIRG’s youth-led grassroots outreach efforts, including an effort to engage Californians in expanding and strengthening California’s unique network of ocean protections.
Having done so much alongside his peers to educate the public and mobilize support on a variety of issues, Caleb understands the importance of educating legislators and conveying all that support to them too. For him, it’s not just about helping leaders to make informed decisions. It’s also about modeling what healthy democratic engagement should look like, in Georgia and in D.C., and inspiring more young people to help make the system work by participating in it.
“Even in our current political state, there are so many issues that cross party lines. Air pollution. Water pollution. Even predatory textbook industry practices. These issues affect students everywhere, and students need to lend their voices. That’s why I’m very much looking forward to leading a team of students who’ve never lobbied before. Giving students the opportunity to share their personal stories and opinions about important legislation, to be able to facilitate that experience for college undergrads, really builds a lifetime of civic engagement.”
Meet Akshita
When asked how she’d respond to anyone surprised to hear she’s meeting with her elected leaders and actually expecting to get things done, PennPIRG student leader Akshita Pawar’s response was instantaneous: “You can do it too. You should do it too!
“When I talk to my friends and classmates, I hear a lot of concern about what’s happening and also a lot of struggle over what we should do about it. Politics isn’t easy to navigate, and productive approaches to politics aren’t well-publicized. But if you’re a young person and interested in doing something that makes a real difference, simply meeting face to face with legislators and asking them to do the right thing is where many ultimately successful campaigns start out.”
A junior majoring in environmental studies at the University of Pittsburgh, Akshita has been learning the ins and outs of campaigning and advocacy as her PennPIRG club’s Waste Is Out of Fashion coordinator. To raise awareness of the impact of clothing waste on our planet and help her peers be part of the solution, Akshita helped launch an affiliated campus group called Thriftsburg to run drives collecting textile waste from first-year dorms to resell.
For the past two years, she also helped drive her chapter’s federal advocacy efforts around another waste issue: protecting our health and that of wildlife by stopping industrial plastic-making facilities from discharging tiny, pre-production plastic pellets into waterways all over the country.
“This year, we’re meeting with six Pennsylvania congressional offices to talk about supporting the Plastic Pellet Free Waters Act, which would require the Environmental Protection Agency to act to prevent the industrial discharge of plastic pellet pollution. Last year, we were able to schedule two meetings on this issue – so, we’re making some progress.
“Getting results takes time and patience, but more and more students at Pitt want to see action to stop microplastics from entering our environment and our bodies – definitely more students this year compared to last year. I’m excited to talk with legislators about that and see how that translates to political momentum on waste issues of all kinds, in Harrisburg and DC.”
Caleb and Akshita are two great examples of the optimism, thoughtfulness and tenacity I see from PIRG student leaders all the time. Their advocacy work this past month is a testament to the power of a pragmatic approach to important issues. Now it’s time to get back to work building more broad public support for the world we want.
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Dan Xie Political Director Student PIRGs @DanLikeDawn |
| About The Student PIRGs |
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| The Student PIRGs’ mission is to ensure students have the skills, opportunities and training they need to create a better, more sustainable future for all of us. Our youth civic engagement network of 501(c)(3) and 501(c)(4) student-directed and funded organizations across the country has nearly 300,000 dues-paying student members in 11 states. Each year, 4,000 students get their first hands-on experience in organizing and activism while volunteering with us. Every year, we reach hundreds of thousands of students and generate 150,000 grassroots actions. Since our founding, the Student PIRGs have trained over 1 million volunteers. |