Many students across the country are faced with an almost existential challenge. Undocumented students, many of whom arrived as young children and barely remember their country of birth, must often contend with the threat of deportation, being separated from their family, and being forced to live in the shadows.
Students Working for Equal Rights (SWER) is trying to do something about it. SWER Is a student led campaign affiliated with the Florida Immigrant Coalition. It works to both pass the DREAM Act, which would give young people who attend two years of college, or serve in the military for two years, a path to legal status, and challenges the deportation and detention of students that would be eligible for the DREAM Act.
SWER has done some amazing work this month. As part of a statewide day of action, student leaders from across South Florida held a protest outside of the Broward Transitional Center, where several DREAMers are being detained:
Students elsewhere in the state held film screenings and other events, asked their college presidents for endorsements of the DREAM Act, and held a statewide call-in day to urge their Senator to get more involved in this issue.
By the way, if you don’t know much about the immigrant detention “system,” then you should reallylearnmore. The Obama administration recently announced some promising reforms, but there is much more to do.
SWER recently received an Organizing Grant through Campus Progress’s Action Alliance Program. Student and youth-led issue campaigns and movement building projects are eligible for up to $1,500 to organize for progressive social change.
If you work for yourself, you are literally screwed out of large sums of money every year for health insurance. There are few differences in cost based on region or state regulation. Ultimately, plans in Salt Lake City and Boston cost the same, about $17,000 a year (premiums plus deductibles). Despite the costs, many self employed are grateful to just have insurance since without it a major acute or chronic illness can bankrupt a family and the absence of care can be fatal.
The self employed are denied insurance on a regular basis due to preexisting conditions. When they're able to get health insurance, they pay more for premiums and their deductibles are higher than any other group. Even after a federal income tax deduction, the cost of health insurance is the equivalent of annual payments for a condominium, at the low end, or a medium sized home, at the top of the cost scale.
Let's Raise a Million, one of our star Action Grantees, just had a fantastic summer distributing over over 5,000 lightbulbs and 3500 water conservation kits to Atlantan neighborhoods.
The Atlanta Workforce Development Agency, Let’s Raise A Million (LRAM), Sustainable Atlanta and the Department of Watershed partnered up to start the Atlanta Mentorship Program for Sustainability (AMPS) . The program not only provided free energy saving light bulbs and low-flow water kits to modest mean residents throughout the city (particularly in communities like Ashby Park, Magnolia Park, Chappell Forest, Overlook Atlanta and Mozley Park), but also trained 20 Mayor’s Youth Program participants to install them. It is estimated that the initiatives of LRAM and AMPS have saved the city of Atlanta over $4 million in energy and water consumption.
The participating students were trained and supervised by college students from LRAM, a student-led urban ecological project, and recipient of Campus Progress "Action Grant". This initiative was housed by the Atlanta Workforce Development Agency (AWDA) and was responsible for training the 20 youths to install the energy-saving devices. In an increasingly environmentally-conscious world, AMPS and AWDA's mission is to develop and cultivate an adequate pool of qualified employees for a growing business market. This means focusing on training in energy conservation device installation and maintenance.
The University of Houston Students for Fair Trade (UHSFT) are hitting the H-town airwaves and newspaper stands after winning one of two awards for best issue campaign of the year at the 2009 Campus Progress National Conference.
The group was featured in today’s edition of the Daily Cougar, and you can hear them live tonight at 7:30-8 PM CST on the Houston Independent Media show on KPFT 90.1 between 7:30 and 8:00 pm. Non-Houstonites can stream it at http://kpft.org/.
We recently posted about some of UHSFT’s major victories here, and you can find out more information about the group at their website. Here is what we said about UHSFT:
While the University of Houston is traditionally a sleepy commuter campus with little political dialogue, UH Students for Fair Trade is working tirelessly to change this. They have received a Campus Progress Action Grant for several years now, and through their efforts, they have convinced the university to make the main coffee shop on campus 100% fair trade. They have helped to make fair trade coffee available in all dining halls, and educational literature about fair trade certified products in every coffee outlet on campus. When they reach an impasse in their negotiations with the administration, they utilize creative—and occasionally confrontational—tactics to draw attention to their cause and pressure decision makers to do the right thing. This fall they will be working with the Student Farmworker Alliance to make sure that campus food outlets are paying a fair wage to farm workers.
Quick note – The Daily Cougar article contained a small error, five coffee outlets at the University of Houston are now fair trade, not all of the outlets.
The University of Houston Students for Fair Trade (UHSFT) recently won a major victory on their campus. Their university administration decided this month that Java City, a campus coffee shop located in UH’s student center will only serve fair trade certified coffee starting in the fall. This has been a major request of UHSFT for some time.
Some of UHSFT’s other victories have included:
Made fair trade coffee available in all campus corporate coffee outlets (but not the dining halls)
Made Fair Trade greeting cards available in UH’s Barnes and Noble-run campus bookstore
Helped make a small business, Hope for Women, become an official vendor for all Barnes and Nobles campus stores nationwide
Made fair trade coffee available in campus dining halls
Placed signage and brochures about fair trade coffee at every coffee outlet
Generated quite a bit of local and national publicity,
UHSFT has received Campus Progress Action Grants for two years now. Action grants make $200-$1,000 available to progressive issue campaigns led by college students and young people. Grantees will also get assistance with events, publicity, training, and other resources.
Some in the UM administration have downplayed the role of SESJ and student activism in their decision:
Yet, UM Vice President Jim Foleyon Tuesday said the university didn't sever the contract with Russell because of the students' protest. The university has been looking into worker-rights violations by Russell for several years, far before the students got involved, he said.
The university came to its conclusion after discussing findings with the Workers Rights Consortium and the Fair Labor Association.
UM joined the WRC because of a SESJ campaign, and even the official UM press release announcing the decision mentioned SESJ.
Either way, SESJ is applauding the university’s decision, and will continue to work with the administration, students, and others to stop sweatshops.
The SESJ have received a Campus Progress Action Grant for several years for their anti-sweatshop activities, and were recipients of the 2008 Campus Progress “Action Campaign of the Year” award. Action grants range from $200-$1,000, and are awarded to students working on hard-hitting, progressive issue campaigns. The image in this update was taken at a 06-07 SESJ rally.
UPDATE: The Montana Kamin (the University of Montana - Missoula's student newspaper) ran an editorial on the SESJ victory today (3/5/09), and they also pointed out that this decision was directly linked to student activism:
With all respect due to Foley, who’s a smart guy, B.S. meters should be shooting through the roof on this one. [...] While it’s certainly plausible that Foley would have decided to sever ties with Russell if it had never appeared in the newspapers or been the focus of rallies, it’s far more likely that the issue would have died. So SESJ, your greatest achievement here was raising public awareness on a matter that may have otherwise gone unnoticed.
The Students for Economic and Social Justice at the University of Montana (UM) made the news again for their campaign to convince the UM administration to cancel their contract with Russell Athletic.
The company, which makes university logo clothing for UM and other colleges, has been under fire from the Worker Rights Consortium (WRC), student groups, and universities for its decision to close its Jerzees de Honduras factory. There is substantial evidence that the factory was closed because of “anti-union animus.” Jerzees de Honduras and a “sister facility” have also been the focus of recent union-busting action by Russell. Both factories are now closed, and represented Russell’s only unionized factories in a country not known for its union-friendly atmosphere.
The Students for Economic and Social Justice are encouraging students to sign a petition to the UM administration, and attempting to schedule meetings with key school officials. They also held a rally/press conference on Febuary 20th, and have hung large banners in “the quad” to raise awareness. You can join the campaign against Russell’s union-busting spree by taking action online or bringing the campaign to your campus.
The Students for Economic and Social Justice have received a Campus Progress Action Grant for several years for their anti-sweatshop activities, and were recipients of the 2008 Campus Progress “Action Campaign of the Year” award. Action grants range from $200-$1,000, and are awarded to students working on hard-hitting, progressive issue campaigns.
After nearly 20 minutes of rallying, SESJ members marched into Main Hall to deliver a petition of 360 signatures to Dennison. SESJ members gathered student signatures this week on the Oval to urge UM Administration to break its contract with Russell. [...] Dennison came out of his office and took the petition when Ella Torti, a regional organizer for United Students Against Sweatshops and a junior in human biology and International Developmental Studies, handed it to him. [...] Torti said SESJ was protesting because UM hasn’t acted. Administration has delayed meetings with the group too, Torti said. Thursday’s protest was a direct result of Foley [a UM official] canceling their meeting that was scheduled for that day, she said. “We are asking for immediate action,” Torti said.
Other schools are quickly joining the effort - twomore universities announced that they are dropping their contracts with the troubled company on Friday.
Divest Nebraska, a student organization at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln (UNL), was recently awarded a grant of $400 from the non-profit Campus Progress for their campaign to convince Nebraska lawmakers to divest from targeted companies. Targeted companies are those companies operating in Sudan that provide few to no benefits to Sudanese citizens and generate revenue used by the Sudanese government to fund genocide. Read More »
Student Activists for KatrinaRita Survivors (SAKS) received a grant of $1,000 from Campus Progress to raise awareness in the American University community of the ongoing human rights abuses occurring on the Gulf Coast following the hurricanes of 2005 and the most recent devastation caused by Hurricanes Gustav and Ike. Today they are kicking off a week-long series of events to raise awareness. Read More »
{Posted by Jeff Gustafson, Campus Progress Action Grantee and SustainUS delegate to Pland}
Of the many symbols of American culture, perhaps none is as iconic or sacred as the National Mall. The Mall is hallowed ground, the monumental core of the capital city. Stretching from the Capitol Building to the Lincoln Memorial, the National Mall is truly the "people's park." This is where millions of Americans have come to rally, protest, and recreate; where powerful words were uttered that changed the nation's course forever; where the past and future collide and the "stage of our democracy" is set. Today, over 25-million people visit the National Mall every year - more than any other National Park.
Walking from museum to museum or monument to monument, it's easy to overlook one the most ubiquitous elements of the National Mall experience: trashcans.
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.
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.”
Students who spent their spring break fighting the death penalty in Texas were featured on MTV. Check it out!
Texas Students Against the Death Penalty organized the event, and received an Action Grant from Campus Progress for the second year in a row. They heard from interesting and moving speakers, many of whom were directly impacted by the death penalty. They also lobbied, rallied, attended skills and issue workshops, held a press conference, and watched documentaries.
By the way, I recommend getting in touch with the Journey of Hope if you want to have an event on the death penalty.
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