Eric Heilmann, Campus Organizer, PIRGIM Campus Action
In the fall of 2024, PIRGIM significantly increased its membership across Michigan. At Michigan State University (MSU) in East Lansing we were able to grow our chapter from three to over 40 members this semester! PIRGIM at Wayne State University in Detroit doubled its membership over the course of the semester! We are also establishing a PIRGIM club at Grand Rapids Community College (GRCC) and we increased our collaboration with the K Votes coalition at Kalamazoo College.
PIRGIM ran six different campaigns this fall across these various campuses. Here are some highlights:
New Voters Project
By far the largest campaign PIRGIM ran this fall was the New Voters Project, which aims to turn out young people to vote on college campuses, cultivating a lifetime of civic engagement for these new voters.
From August to November 2024, PIRGIM
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Helped register nearly 400 students to vote at six campuses across Michigan (MSU, GRCC, Kalamazoo College, Lansing Community College, Wayne State, University of Michigan Ann Arbor)!
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Worked with nearly two dozen professors at MSU, GRCC, and Lansing Community College to register students to vote in classrooms!
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Collected nearly 400 pledges to vote!
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Made over 1,700 get out the vote (GOTV) contacts to voters before the election, helping them make plans to vote!
At Michigan State, where a substantial portion of PIRGIM’s New Voters Project occurred, 2024 voter turnout at the five on-campus precincts was 66%, 24 points higher than youth voter turnout nationwide (42%).
Throughout the New Voters Project, PIRGIM ran many events on numerous campuses, some of which I will highlight below.
The Vote Goat On the Move
PIRGIM’s 10-foot inflatable “Vote Goat” made an appearance at campuses across Michigan this fall, encouraging students to vote in all its goatly glory. It was a big hit among students, faculty, and other community members alike. We even made a board where students could write love letters to our Vote Goat and those were hilarious to read.
National Voter Registration Day
This fall PIRGIM registered nearly 400 Michigan students to vote, over a third of which occurred the week of National Voter Registration Day (September 17, 2024). That week, PIRGIM hosted tables at eight locations at MSU and GRCC and made eight visits to classrooms, registering students to vote at GRCC and MSU.
Michigan Voter Registration Deadline
PIRGIM’s voter registration activities went until the very last day, October 21, 2024, Michigan’s voter registration deadline. That day, PIRGIM and its up-and-coming club at GRCC registered students to vote in classrooms and at a table in the Student Center with our Vote Goat, putting PIRGIM above our voter registration goal for the fall!
All Hands on Deck for Get Out the Vote (GOTV)
Eight days before Election Day, PIRGIM worked with Michigan Voices, the ACLU, All Voting is Local, the Fair Elections Center, and Alliance for Justice to organize a Pep Rally at the Polls at MSU to promote early voting! At the event there were taco trucks, a DJ, lawn games, and goodies, and MSU mascot Zeke the Wonder Dog (pictured above) made an appearance! PIRGIM helped staff the event and assisted over 200 students in making plans to vote. A big thank you to all our partners for making this awesome event happen!
A week before Election Day, PIRGIM worked with local owner Bridget Kavanagh from Happy Goat Lucky Ewe Fiber Farm to bring baby goats to MSU for a “Plan to Vote Pet a Goat” event! Throughout the semester, we’ve used our Vote Goat to promote voting to students so we were very excited to bring real live cute and cuddly baby goats to deliver the same message. At the event we helped over 100 students make plans to vote!
On National Vote Early Day, October 29, 2024, PIRGIM visited Kalamazoo College and worked with the K Votes coalition on campus! Handing out food, beverages, and goodies, PIRGIM and K Votes helped over 100 students make plans to vote! For their outstanding efforts and success at getting students out to vote on their campus, Kalamazoo College has received numerous awards from the ALL IN Campus Democracy Challenge.
On Election Day, PIRGIM volunteers at MSU handed out cookies and water at four on-campus polling locations – reminding students to vote, helping students make plans to vote on the final day of voting, and making sure students brought photo ID with them to the polls! We coordinated with the organization Un-PAC to ensure all on-campus polling stations were covered at all times.
CLEAN
This fall, PIRGIM also ran the Clean Energy Ambassador Network (CLEAN) campaign, the newest iteration of the Save Money Save the Environment campaign. The CLEAN campaign seeks to educate students and community members about available rebates and incentives for homeowners to make clean energy upgrades such as rooftop solar panels, electric vehicles, electric stoves, and more.
This fall, PIRGIM educated 1,267 students at MSU on these available programs and gathered over 1,000 petition signatures to expand clean energy programs on the Michigan state level similar to those available through the IRA. These efforts included a CLEAN week of action – in which PIRGIM educated over 300 students – before Thanksgiving, when students returned home to their families and (hopefully) spread the word about these programs. PIRGIM’s main tactic to inform students was our tables, featuring our volunteer-made “We’re Cooked” climate sign, seen below.
Hunger & Homelessness
Spearheaded by our club at Wayne State, PIRGIM ran a successful Hunger & Homelessness campaign – collecting food to donate to those in need in our communities. At Wayne State, PIRGIM collected more than 200 food, hygiene, and clothing items throughout the semester, spreading awareness about the canned goods drive at in-person tables and on social media. PIRGIM at Wayne State partnered with the Gleaners Community Food Bank and the organization Swipe Out Hunger for its food, hygienic product, and clothing drive.
For Hunger & Homelessness Awareness Week in November 2024, PIRGIM at Michigan State hosted a table in which they educated students about the MSU Food Bank, specifically its existence and days and hours of operation.
Food Quality
At Michigan State, students came up with their own campaign idea – PIRGIM’s Food Quality campaign – working to increase transparency about the nutrition of food being served at on-campus dining halls. The Food Quality campaign sought to have MSU’s dining halls include QR codes next to food items taking students directly to nutrition facts so students know exactly what they are eating.
One of the campaign’s coordinators serves in Michigan State’s student government body, ASMSU, and managed to get a resolution sponsored and passed to have the dining halls do just that! In recent communications with PIRGIM MSU, MSU’s dining services said they plan to implement this change next semester!
Close
It’s mind-boggling to me that fall is already over. For me it feels like yesterday that the semester/quarter began. While the time has flown by, so much has been accomplished. I am so very proud of everyone who made PIRGIM Fall 2024 what it was: professors who allowed us to make announcements in their classrooms; university administrators (notably at GRCC and Kalamazoo College) without whom we could not have coordinated our New Voters Project activities there; partner organizations with whom we worked to put on fun and special get out the vote (GOTV) events; partner organizations with whom we worked to collect and donate food; funders whose contributions enabled us to do so much more than we otherwise would have; and of course, the student volunteers and interns who drove this whole thing.
I want to thank the student volunteers and student leaders who showed up and showed out to register people to vote, get people out to vote, educate people on clean energy programs, provide for those in need in our local communities, and more. You all made what we did possible.
Of course this is all just one semester/quarter. PIRGIM’s work is not nearly done and we have much to tackle in Spring and in the coming years. We look forward to continuing our efforts next semester to protect our one Earth, advocate for consumers, make college more affordable, combat hunger and homelessness, and create a new generation of civically engaged Americans.
The battles we are waging cannot be won alone, so if you would like to join the fight, feel free to fill out this interest form. We would love to have you on board.