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.

What happened when states paused and contemplated the pros and cons of this public policy? If anything, more Americans came to question whether the death penalty is really necessary. And more Texans learned that without the death penalty, the word doesn't turn upside down, murder rates don't skyrocket and death-row inmates don't run away from prisons murdering more people. During this period, more people questioned what we are accomplishing and if the significant costs of conducting trials and appeals could be put to better use.

In Montana, the Students for Economic and Social Justice (SESJ) were featured in a story describing their commitment to keep on pushing for their university to join the Designated Suppliers Program in order to ensure that clothing with the university’s logo is not made in sweatshops. The held a sit-in at their college president’s office, and several of the members were put on suspension. My favorite quote of the story:

However, this punishment has not deterred the members from their commitment to the cause. Saara Snow, an SESJ member who received a suspension, said, “I just have more time on my hands to do more activism,” she said.

Lemons to lemonade! SESJ has received a Campus Progress Action Grant for several years in a row, and won the award for “Action Campaign of the Year” at the Campus Progress National Conference in July.