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!
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:
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’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.
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.
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.)
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.’”
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.
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).
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 othersthink 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):
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.
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].
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.
Nope, I don’t mean medieval torture, but I do mean something almost as bad: moving back in with your parents.
The LA Times ran a pretty good article about the economic situation of young people, especially as it relates to the current recession.
The gist - young people are facing some tough economic times as they enter the job market, forcing many to move in or borrow money from their folks, as well as cut back on the lifestyle they are used to. Along with the steady trend towards higher student and credit card debt, the bursting economic bubbles have meant that young people are now more concerned with economic issues than, for example, ending the war in Iraq (although, of course, they are related issues - money spent on the war could help alleviate the crisis at home).
As you have probably heard, we are going through some rocky financial times. A “credit-crunch” fueled recession means that many financial institutions will have a harder time making ends meet, and this, of course, includes student loan companies, as the Washington Post points out today.
Higher education advocates are worried that these lenders are exaggerating the effects of the crisis on the student loan industry as a way to secure unneeded bailouts and get back some of the wasteful subsidies that Congress cut last year in order to increase student aid. They are also worried that all of the hype will mean debt-averse students may be discouraged from “investing” in a college education. Don’t worry – it is very unlikely that you won’t be able to get the loans you need to finance you education.
BMW just announced that they have just come up with a system to keep pesky dogs from urinating on their luxury vehicles. The “Canine Repellent Alloy Protection system” will not kill the pups under normal conditions, but some veterinary groups are worried that canines with heart conditions may be at risk.
BMW is touting the energy efficiency of its new system, which uses stored power generated during braking.
In other news, BBC has apparently discovered that some penguins can fly. Some are blaming it on climate change.
Inside Higher Ed has a story today about Marianne Kearney-Brown, a math professor at California State University East Bay who was fired for not signing a “loyalty pledge.” Read More »
The Center for American Progress and Campus Progress are pleased with today’s passage by the House of Representatives of the College Opportunity and Affordability Act (H.R. 4137). This legislation continues to build on Congress’s commitment to making college more affordable and ensuring that Americans are prepared to compete in an increasingly knowledge-based economy.
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