Amid a scandal at Towson University’s school newspaper, The Towerlight, our summer intern Rachel Fauber won a special election to become editor in chief. Congratulations, Rachel!
The Towerlight’s editorial board selected Rachel after the former editor in chief resigned in the middle of her term. Controversyerupted within and beyond Towson’s campus after that editor published an anonymous sex column encouraging mutual masturbation. (Gasp!)
Gawker made light of the situation, but I (and everyone else at Campus Progress) congratulate the talented, charming Rachel on her promotion. We have no doubt she’ll accomplish great things, and we wish her all the best.
Rachel Fauber herself!
Further reading: Campus Progress’ earlier coverage of the student sex column “movement” put the controversy at The Towerlight into perspective.
As us older people say, OMG. In 76 days, after eight years of decaying, destructive conservatism in Washington, a fresh progressive President and Administration will take the reins.
Campus Progress is ready to work with you, starting right now, to turn this immense promise into lasting positive change. We can be your gateway to participating in critical efforts ahead. Read on to see how we can work together.
Today’s young people have lived much of their lives under the fiercely conservative, cynical, and incompetent regime of George W. Bush. The current administration has stomped on our values and done tremendous harm to our society.
But the thousands of young people who have worked to build a resurgent progressive youth movement never lost hope. You have organized effectively around the urgency of progressive change, on issues from economic opportunity to global warming. Now you have a chance to come to Washington, and to organize on your campuses and in your communities, to make that change a reality.
It will not be easy. Powerful interests will be working to block progress. The conservative movement may be intellectually bankrupt, but it still has plenty of cash at its disposal. Millions of dollars also will continue to flow from entrenched special interests to K Street to pay lobbyists and lawyers for efforts to halt reform.
That’s where you come in. If you are young and progressive, you now have a chance to take over the world. Join with Campus Progress and our partner organizations, and let’s see what we can accomplish.
Work with us and our partners on our national efforts to generate alternative energy and halt climate change; to make education affordable, health care accessible, and good jobs available; to strengthen civil rights and liberties; to bring our troops home from Iraq and advance a smarter foreign policy. Work with this Administration when it leads for progress, and hold its feet to the fire if and when it disappoints. Apply for a Campus Progress Action Grant, so we can help you win an issue campaign in your own community.
Work with us to create events on your campuses and in your communities, with speakers, performers, and films that address the issues that matter most and inspire attendees to take action.
The Bush Administration has left a big mess to clean up. But few previous generations of young people have had such an opportunity to participate in the reinvention and reinvigoration of this country. You have done much to get us to this point. Here at Campus Progress, we can’t wait to be part of what you do next.
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.
South by Southwest (known as SXSW) is an annual interactive festival of film, music, art, and culture held in Austin, TX. For the third year in a row, they are giving the public a chance to weigh in on what panels they would like to see at the festival.
Campus Progress submitted a panel idea entitled "A New Wave? Iraq and Dissent in Cinema," which talks about the impact of Iraq War documentaries (event based on this panel held at NYU). While the online voting only counts for about 40% of the final decision, your vote could help bring us to the huge audiences at Austin next March! Read More »
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.
Want strengthen the progressive movement on your campus, bring engaging speakers and films to jumpstart dialogue, and engage in activism on local and national issues?
Then join the Campus Progress Student Network for 2008-2009! We’re currently still accepting applications to join the 100-student team of Student Representatives from the across the country who work with the staff and resources of Campus Progress to advance progressive causes at the local level and make their voices heard on the issues they care most about.
A C-SPAN clip from this week’s Young America’s Foundation conference came to my attention. YAF VP Patrick Coyle gave a speech claiming, astonishingly, that progressives are intent on stifling the speech of conservatives, and he specifically mentioned Campus Progress. If progressives, Coyle asked, are “so truly confident of their domination of the college campus, they would not try to stop speakers. They would say that we should go ahead and bring in their one conservative speaker… but they are so threatened.” Coyle continued by noting that Campus Progress is seeking “to train a new generation of so-called progressive leaders. Each year they hold a conference much like this one, and they have also started a campus lecture program to bring in even more liberal speakers to college campuses.” Coyle said that conservative students should go to progressive events and speak out.
Patrick, get real. Who is confident, and who is threatened?
Campus Progress invites conservative speakers to speak at our events -- like TownHall’s Amanda Carpenter, who appeared at our annual conference this summer, and Trent Lott, who spoke at one of our campus events this year with Tom Daschle. We invite conservatives to be interviewed on our website, like David Horowitz. Our interns cornered Ben Stein and convinced him to make a promo video for us. All these conservatives were gracious and interested in genuine debate on important issues. We admit young conservatives to our national conference as attendees, and we admit reporters from conservative publications like National Review to cover our conference. We have repeatedly denounced actions by people on the progressive side to shout down conservative campus speakers, throw pies in their faces, or otherwise interfere with honest, open debate.
Meanwhile, what has YAF done? The very YAF conference at which Patrick Coyle was speaking has repeatedly shut out Campus Progress-affiliated young people as attendees and journalists. This year they refused to admit our intern Chenwei Zhang, even after Amanda Carpenter herself called YAF, cited her positive experience at the Campus Progress conference, and urged YAF to be open minded. In 2006, when pressed after excluding a CampusProgress.org reporter, Julie Siegel, YAF said it would not admit a reporter from The Nation, whose contributors since 1865 have included Albert Einstein, Martin Luther King, John Steinbeck, and Franklin Roosevelt. YAF also ejected a reporter from the venerable Washington Monthly for the crime of also posting on the CampusProgress.org blog.
Patrick, do you actually believe what you are saying? Have you checked in with your colleagues Mr. Custer, Mr. Mattera , and Mr. Robinson, who have repeatedly barred Campus Progress from the doors of your events?
Who is confident, and who is threatened? Mr. Coyle also repeated the same tired argument conservatives have trotted out since we launched, that Campus Progress is unnecessary, because colleges themselves are the progressive organizing institutions: “What I think the leaders of Campus Progress are forgetting is that if you think about it, there is no reason for them to exist…. Typically, the counterpart to Young America's Foundation is usually the college itself.”
We’ve addressed that argument before. If there was no need for Campus Progress to exist, why do thousands of young people attend our events, participate in our campaigns, contribute to or visit our websites, apply for our action grants and publication grants? We’re not necessary? Yes, Patrick, it is the market working – supply and demand.
Campus Progress and our partner organizations are growing and gaining influence because young people are smart, engaged, and progressive. Working together – progressive groups and young people – we are getting things done: like making college more affordable, preventing efforts by conservatives to regulate the free speech of students and professors, moving campuses and communities toward clean energy, keeping the pressure on to halt genocide in Sudan, working for a stable outcome in Iraq, seeking to end government interference with freedom to marry.
YAF’s budget is seven times that of Campus Progress, but heaven knows how you are spending all that money. My guess is big fees to your speakers and consultants. If I were a donor or board member of YAF, I would start to wonder what the staff was actually getting done to make a difference.
Who is confident and who is threatened? We invite conservative voices, your ideas, and your participation. We want debate and dialogue. You lock the doors and keep us out, all the while muttering about George Soros and announcing, against all evidence, that Campus Progress has no reason to exist. You aren’t fooling anyone. And your movement is in shambles.
Award-winning investigative journalist Seymour Hersh was kind enough to speak at Campus Progress and The Nation's National Youth Journalism Conference last month in front of a packed crowd of 200 young journalists from across the country. Impressive as always, Mr. Hersh artfully explained some of the keys to becoming a great reporter as well as some amazing national security anecdotes. Some of his comments have been getting press over at ThinkProgress.
I know a lot of people have just graduated and are looking for jobs. Campus Progress hosts a page on our website called "Work in Progress" where we reguarly post recent job opportunities with awesome progressive organizations. Want a job you can be proud of? Check out Work in Progress! And email organize@campusprogress.org if you stumble upon any job openings that you think we should post on our site.
Anti-war leaders have bemoaned the current scarce coverage of the war in Iraq. The war is finally back in the headlines, so it’s a great chance for young people to make sure that they are part of the discussion.
I attended last year, and had the amazing opportunity to meet some incredible youth media producers, activists, and journalists all working to reform the mainstream media or create alternative media channels.
Tired of the adminstration censoring your voice? Frustrated that the daily paper won't cover certain issues or events?
Then do something about it.
Campus Progress supports over 50 progressive student publications across the country with funding, journalism training, content support, event assistance, and other tools and resources.
We want to help you make your voice heard.
Apply today to become part of Campus Progress's Publications Network either as a brand new publication or an existing one. But don't procrastinate, the priority deadline for applications is June 30th.
This past year alone, Campus Progress has worked with students who have successfully launched new publications at the University of Georgia, Michigan State University, DePaul University, American University, Brown University, University of New England, Kenyon College, and other colleges and universities.
We're here to help you with the great work you're doing on your campus. Feel free to e-mail publications@campusprogress.org with any questions.
Ramya Raghavan left the Campus Progress staff this week after two years here. Thousands of young people across America know Ramya because she did an amazing job working on Campus Progress's communications, media, outreach, organizing, issue campaigns, events, trainings, etc. Because I am temporarily sidelined, recovering from a bike injury, and because Ramya is headed to San Francisco to work at YouTube, I will type no more but will let this homemade video (made for Ramya's going away party), do the talking.
Campus Progress, along with the Scripps School of Journalism, is sponsoring a media reform conference this weekend at Ohio University. Campus Progress Student Advisory Board member Chelsea Toy is one of the lead organizers. Myself and Tanya from Campus Progress will be at OU for the event, which includes a film screening of A Soldier's Peace and a Q and A with producer/director/Iraq veterna Marshall Thompson. You can check out the full schedule of the conference here. Pre-registration is not required, so just show up Friday night and Saturday! Let Tanya or I know if you want to meet up and hear more about Campus Progress.
This Thursday, May 1st, is the 5th anniversary of President Bush declaring "Mission Accomplished" in Iraq. On this day in 2003, he stated that all major combat operations had ended and that our goals had been achieved.
If you're at a California school, watch out because Campus Progress is coming through on a road trip!
Starting this Thursday January 17th and all the way until our upcoming Journalism Conference on the 26th, a bunch of CP staff will be meeting with CA student activists and journalists to chat about the progressive movement, campus organizing and journalism, and any ideas about how Campus Progress can better support the work happening on campuses across the state.
We've newly revamped our Contribute to CampusProgress.org page under About Us, and we all think you should check it out. This page will explain all the steps you need to go through to pitch Campus Progress. The cool thing about Campus Progress is that we really want our readers -- that's you -- to be the writers on the site. After all, it's our job to publish young writers, whether they're still in school or just out of school and want to get a little writing experience. So if you think you have a great idea that we're just not covering, please, don't sit there and stew silently. Email us!
Please remember that Campus Progress' terms of use do not allow promoting or endorsing any particular political party or candidate for office. Posts or comments that do this will be deleted.
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