the contra-antidisestablishmentarianist review

Stop Media Harassment at the RNC Protests

pdelatorre — Tue, 02 Sep 2008 16:35:29 EDT

Trouble in the twin cities - police have arrested, detained, and harassed many independent journalists covering the protest on the RNC, including Amy Goodman, host of Democracy Now! You can read more about what happened here and here.

Free Press has just put out an action alert urging people to take action:

Stop the Arrests of Journalists. Sign the Letter.
Police in St. Paul arrested several journalists during protests of the Republican National Convention, including Democracy Now! host Amy Goodman and an AP photographer as they were covering the demonstrations. Police also raided a meeting of the video journalists' group I-Witness with firearms drawn to arrest independent media, bloggers and videomakers. Arresting and detaining journalists for doing their jobs is a gross violation of free speech and freedom of the press. Journalists must be free to do their jobs without intimidation. Please click here to demand that press intimidation in the twin cities ceases immediately, and that charges against the arrested journalists are dropped.

Check out more action alerts here!

Students working with Campus Progress in the news

pdelatorre — Fri, 29 Aug 2008 10:52:22 EDT

Students that work with Campus Progress in both Texas and Montana have started the year with a bang by getting stories in their campus papers.

In Texas, former Campus Progress Student Advisory Board member Hooman Hedayati wrote a powerful op-ed about what we learned from the de facto seven month moratorium on the death penalty caused by a supreme court challenge to the legality of lethal injection. Here is a snippet:

During the recent moratorium on executions, several notable things happened. Three states - California, North Carolina and Tennessee - launched studies of their death penalty systems. Two states, Maryland and Nebraska, debated abolishing the death penalty in their state legislatures. A third state, New Jersey, did away with capital punishment altogether. For the first time in Texas, Rick Reed, a candidate for the Travis County district attorney's office, ran on a platform opposing capital punishment.

Campus Progress on the Tavis Smiley Show

pdelatorre — Tue, 12 Aug 2008 17:33:28 EDT

Erica Williams, Policy and Advocacy Manager for Campus Progress, and Mark Savage, who was a Student Advisory Board member for the 2007-2008 school year, were featured on the Tavis Smiley Show on a segment about college affordability on August 8th. Check it out!

Click here if you want to get involved in Campus Progress’s efforts around College Affordability, or become a Student Representative for the 2008-2009 school year.

I'm Voting For at Virgin Fest '08

pdelatorre — Mon, 11 Aug 2008 13:55:34 EDT

Campus Progress Action, our sister organization, went to the Virgin Music Festival this weekend to get people involved in the I’m Voting For campaign, and in the progressive movement in general.

They collected over 100 video testimonials, let hundreds of people know about Campus Progress and Campus Progress Action, had dozens of people paint what they were voting for on the graffiti wall, and had Foo Fighters guitar player Chris Shiflett visit the booth to sign autographs and take pictures with fans.

Check it out:

If you are having trouble loading the slideshow, click here.

Congress Passed the Higher Education Opportunity Act

pdelatorre — Fri, 01 Aug 2008 09:58:31 EDT

Campus Progress congratulates Congress on the passage of the Higher Education Opportunity Act. This legislation takes another small step toward an affordable and accessible system of higher education, and will finally reauthorize the Higher Education Act of 1965.

Top 10 Reasons to Become a Student Rep

pdelatorre — Wed, 30 Jul 2008 17:48:12 EDT

The top ten reasons to sign-up to be a student rep are:

10. Getting a whole lot of help to put on events on your campus about the issues you care about

9. Unlike your school, we don't sell your information to credit card companies

8. Getting help, funding, and training to run your issue campaigns and other projects

7. Meeting awesome progressive student leaders from around the country

6. Conservative student leaders can't cook tofu very well

5. Becoming a part of the coolest “socialist smear group” ever

4. The chance to work on important issues like climate change, ending the war in Iraq, college affordability, or making sure that your campus remains a free and open forum for all ideas (even the ones Anne Neal doesn’t like)

3. Bottle-opening key chains, ping pong balls, and condoms

2. The chance to help build a stronger, broader, and smarter progressive movement on your campus and beyond

******DRUM ROLL******

1. Fewer spiral hugs than any other progressive youth organization

To sign up to be a Student Rep for the 2008-2009 school year, click here!

More Coverage for Campus Progress 2008 Award winners

pdelatorre — Fri, 25 Jul 2008 14:12:14 EDT

The Missoulian just published a great article on the Students for Economic and Social Justice, a student group at the University of Montana (UM) that has received a Campus Progress Action Grant for several years in a row for its anti-sweatshop campaign.

The group has already convinced the UM to join the Worker Rights Consortium, and is currently attempting to get their campus to join the Designated Suppliers Program. After running into an impasse in negotiations with the UM administration, they occupied the college president’s office.

Here is an excerpt of the Missoulian article:

Eight of the students involved with the sit-in were arrested and later given three-day suspensions for trespassing and violating the campus student conduct code.

While their activities raised the ire of campus officials, the UM group also garnered national accolades.

Earlier this month, the group was notified it had been awarded the Action Campaign of the Year by Campus Progress, an arm of the Center for American Progress, a Washington-based nonpartisan progressive organization. […]

“We were all pretty pleased to get that sort of validation,” Newman said. “Not only for our work but for the cause in general. There are lots of schools working on these issues. The more attention we can bring to them is all the better.”

Tell Congress to Protect Credit Cardholders

pdelatorre — Fri, 18 Jul 2008 16:26:29 EDT

Campus Progress wants you to take action on abusive credit card practices! Check out this action alert:

With the rising costs of college, gasoline, food, health care, and other expenses, credit cards are becoming the "safety net" for an entire generation. Unfortunately, credit card companies are using unfair and even predatory practices to increase their profits at the expense of the financially vulnerable or inexperienced. Luckily, there are several efforts in Congress and in the Federal Reserve Board to reign in these anti-consumer practices. In fact, the Credit Cardholders’ Bill of Rights will probably be considered in the House Financial Services Committee by the end of the month. We need your help to make sure that your representative takes this issue seriously. Take Action Now!

Dont forget to check out our Action Alerts Page to make your voice heard on other issues that matter!

Work in Progress

pdelatorre — Thu, 17 Jul 2008 11:58:17 EDT

Campus Progress wants you to work for progress! That is why we maintain a section of our website devoted entirely to posting great job openings and internship opportunities in great progressive organizations and interesting publications. If you or someone you know is editing and re-editing cover letters, check out Work in Progress. If you know of some interesting opportunities that our readers should know about, let us know! Email them to organize@campusprogress.org.

By the way, Campus Progress is also hiring for several positions – check them out. If these jobs don’t suit you, take a look at some of the more interesting opportunities we have come across recently below:

Take Action for Fair Loan Payments!

pdelatorre — Tue, 15 Jul 2008 13:29:00 EDT

The Department of Education recently proposed policies that detail how it will implement the new Income Based Repayment (IBR) and Public Service Loan Forgiveness Programs created through the College Cost Reduction and Access Act last year. These programs will limit monthly payments to manageable percentage of a borrower’s income, and forgive student loans for borrowers who choose a career in public service (click here to learn more).

While most of what the Department of Education has proposed is good, the proposed policies include two unnecessary and costly obstacles for borrowers. Borrowers interested in Public Service Loan Forgiveness would be left in the dark for years on whether their jobs count as eligible public service, and in IBR, some married borrowers would have to pay twice as much on their monthly payments.

Let ED know that they should remove these obstacles – take action now!

Dont forget to check out our Action Alerts Page to make your voice heard on other issues that matter!

Campus Progress Testified in Congress on Credit Cards & Student Debt

pdelatorre — Thu, 26 Jun 2008 14:35:41 EDT

Campus Progress’s Erica Williams, along with the PIRGs and several other organizations, testified at the House Financial Services committee today on credit cards and student debt.

You can read her testimony here, and watch the hearing here.

Giant Coffee Bean for Justice

pdelatorre — Thu, 19 Jun 2008 16:25:07 EDT

The University of Houston Students for Fair Trade, who have received a Campus Progress Action Grant, were featured in the Houston Chronicle yesterday for their long running and energetic campaign make all coffee sold on campus fair trade certified.

Check it out:

Students carrying a giant replica of a coffee bean stormed Chancellor Renu Khator's office at the University of Houston on Monday, the latest skirmish in their two-year campaign to force the school to offer only fair-trade coffee in a library kiosk. […]

The student government association last year approved a resolution supporting the proposal. Letters and other documents distributed by the student group indicated Aramark plans to install a Starbucks in the library, building the kiosk with $60,000 in student fees. (Starbucks buys some fair-trade coffee but not exclusively.)

Iraqi Student Project

pdelatorre — Thu, 05 Jun 2008 11:26:54 EDT

In both the US and Iraq there are efforts to get more Iraqi students to American universities.

In the states, educators have been working with their counterparts in Syria to help relocate students. NPR reports that they have formed the “Iraqi Student Project,” in which fourteen universities are currently participating. It sounds like they are doing good work:

…program coordinators visit promising applicants in their homes for personal interviews. Students are selected after further review of their academic performance and grasp of English; then, they spend time working with tutors on their English and other skills. Students then apply to participating American schools that offer programs in their major fields of interest.

Students from the Campus Anti-War Network and other groups helped to pass a referendum at UW-Madison that would raise money from student fees to help bring Iraqi students to campus. Apparently, it wasn’t too hard (so you should do it too!):

“It was actually a lot easier than I thought it was. I wasn’t expecting people to be as supportive of this as they were,” said Wustmann, who was heavily involved in collecting signatures. “Some reactions were so enthusiastic, like ‘how can I help this? It’s such a great idea.’”

Animated Graffiti

pdelatorre — Wed, 28 May 2008 15:05:34 EDT

Check out some very cool, if slightly unnerving, graffiti coming alive in Buenos Aires:

Student/Farmworker Alliance Victory in BK Campaign

pdelatorre — Fri, 23 May 2008 17:03:46 EDT

The Coalition of Immokalee Workers (CIW) and the Student/Farmworker Alliance just announced another victory in their campaign to improve the wages, working conditions, and rights of tomato pickers and agricultural workers.

This Whopper™ of a victory must be even tastier (sorry - couldn’t resist) as it comes after the discovery that Burger King hired a company to spy on the Student/Farmworker Alliance.

Senate to Vote on GI Bill of Rights Tomorrow

pdelatorre — Wed, 21 May 2008 10:45:18 EDT

The GI Bill of Rights for the 21st Century (S.22) is expected to be on the Senate floor this week, and America's veterans need your help. S. 22 would make sure that veterans who served on active duty after September 11, 2001 have education benefits that measure up to the needs of today’s veterans.

Since the first GI Bill was signed in 1944 benefits have been scaled back while tuition has skyrocketed. Currently, it covers only 60-70% of the average costs of a four year education at a public college. The House of Representatives has already passed similar legislation, so please call the US Capitol at (202) 224-3121 and urge your Senators to support our veterans by passing the GI Bill of Rights for the 21st Century (S.22).

Something for Nothing: More on the Pseudo-Student-Loan Crisis

pdelatorre — Mon, 19 May 2008 11:52:17 EDT

As you have probably heard by now, the “credit crunch” has been making the student loan market less lucrative for many lenders, and has caused a bit of a controversy in the world of higher education.

To recap – lenders are trying to argue that problems in the credit markets will lead to a crisis for students who need loans to attend school, while most others think that the affects for most students will be small. Congress and the Education Department have created new policies to make sure that, no matter what happens, students will be able to access financial aid, but lenders, who already receive government subsidies to make loans to students, keep pushing to get a sweeter deal for their bottom line (as opposed to sweeter deals for students or taxpayers).

I thought this new article in the Chronicle of Higher Education might help point to the difference between planning for the worst (good), and unnecessarily wasting taxpayer money (not so good):

Grocery Store Using Secret Biometric Photos to Prevent Underage Drinking

pdelatorre — Wed, 14 May 2008 13:26:55 EDT

In what may be another step toward some kind of dystopian teetotaling surveillance state, a grocery store in London is using secret photos that measure biometric facial features of folks buying booze and cigarettes to help prevent underage drinking. The photos are compared to a database of “known underage buyers,” and they are hoping to network the database with other stores across the UK.

Creepy. I wonder how long until grocery stores here start using similar technology.

Student Loan Providers Want More Easy Money

pdelatorre — Wed, 14 May 2008 11:27:11 EDT

The Quick and the Ed has a good post today taking apart a letter to the editor where Kevin Bruns, the executive director of America’s Student Loan Providers, pouts about a recent Washington Post editorial about direct loans.

U. Colorado Creates Endowed Chair – Progressives Need Not Apply

pdelatorre — Tue, 13 May 2008 12:39:15 EDT

As Free Exchange on Campus points out, the University of Colorado’s Chancellor is planning on raising $9 million for an endowment to fund a “Professor of Conservative Thought and Policy” in an effort to bolster the campus’s intellectual diversity. [Campus Progress is part of the Free Exchange on Campus Coalition].

As argued by Free Exchange:

Again, there's nothing wrong with seeking job candidates who either specialize in conservatism as a substantive area of study or who bring a conservative perspective to their field. However, rather than setting up a token conservative job opening - especially one that privileges political leanings over scholarship - CU should consider working with its faculty and academic departments to create positions for these specialties within the traditional university structure.