September Activist Newsletter Content

IRAQ

Bush is squeezing in his last minutes of airtime before his second term runs out. Last Tuesday he gave us another version of his “victory” speech where he announced the withdrawal of about 8,000 troops from Iraq to be redeployed to Afghanistan. What Bush neglected to mention, as The Washington Post points out, is that he will be leaving office with more troops in Iraq than there were before the surge strategy was introduced in 2007.

Brian Katulis, Iraq expert here at the Center for American Progress, counters the rosy claims in Bush’s speech by reminding that “Iraq has not moved forward substantially.” There continues to be fragmentation and political stalemate. And moving 8,000 troops won’t mean all that much in a country that still has over 130,000 troops stationed there. 

The timing of The Washington Post associate editor Bob Woodward’s new book couldn’t be better. The War Within reveals that the Bush administration has conducted an extensive spying operation on Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, his staff, and others in the Iraqi government.  Iraqi Spokesman Ali al-Dabbagh expressed outrage at this revelation, stating that “the institutions in the United States are used to spy on their friends and their enemies in the same way.”  The unveiling of this covert operation makes us wonder what else has been committed in our name in Iraq.  

So we’re taking to the streets. On Saturday, September 20, 25,000 volunteers will contact one million people in neighborhoods across the country and ask them to sign a petition urging the next Congress to bring U.S. troops home from Iraq within one year. Join Million Doors for Peace and help bring the antiwar movement to every door in America!

COLLEGE AFFORDABILITY 

As the dust settles from the student loan scandals that New York Attorney General Andrew Cuomo helped bring to light, unethical student loan industry activity jumped back into the news this month. This time around, Cuomo is investigating misleading marketing practices being used by lenders that directly target students. So far, seven student loan companies have settled with Cuomo for a total of $1.4 million, and eight have signed a code of conduct. Some of the worst practices Cuomo unearthed include sending mail to students that looks like it’s from the federal government, offering borrower benefits that do not follow the loan after it is sold to another financial institution, and misleading students to believe that their private loans have better rates and terms than federal loans.

Colleges have also been receiving a critical eye for some of their own financial aid and admissions policies. Colleges are again being criticized for legacy admissions, for examples, which means that they give preference to applications from the children of alumni, who are often white and wealthy. At Harvard, the legacy admission rate is 40%--which is higher than the percentage of all minority students – and Harvard is not the only school with disturbing figures. Check out this recent debate on the subject between New America Foundation’s Michael Dannenberg and USA Today. 

There has also been quite a bit of scrutiny about the relatively small amount of endowment returns that more wealthy colleges and universities spend. Endowment funds are tax-deductable, and most foundations are legally obligated to spend at least five percent of their endowments. Colleges are exempt from this requirement, however, which means that billions of dollars that could otherwise go to student aid, retention programs for low-income or underrepresented students, or high school outreach programs are sitting around untouched. At a joint Congressional roundtable held early this month, Congressmen and women heard from higher education policy experts that want to nix the special treatment for universities, but not everyone agrees.

The Center for American Progress, Campus Progress’s parent organization, just released several major reports about systemic reform for the higher education system in the U.S. Some of the broad themes include: increasing the proportion of Americans receiving a college education (it is still a good investment); helping students through academic and economic barriers to degree completion; and systemic reform.

As we think about how to make the U.S. higher education system more just, efficient, and accessible, we should consider what other countries are doing. According to the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, many other wealthy, industrialized countries are facing the same pressures as the United States. Increasing enrollment makes it more difficult to fund higher education. Many countries, like the U.S., South Korea, the U.K., and Japan have shifted increasing amounts of the financial burden to students. Other countries have increased national investment in higher education, and some have neither increased public investment nor increased costs for students, which has led to financial problems for schools.

CLIMATE CHANGE 

Last week, oily Department of Interior officials were caught with their pants down, their nostrils flaring, and their blood alcohol content inflated with industry-provided cocktails while dealing with Big Oil representatives--Chevron and Shell to name a few. That image essentially describes the state of American energy policy these days: politicians chant ‘Drill, baby, drill’ and a country star sings a song called “Drill Here, Drill Now,” proving the success of the conservative energy smear machine.

This summer, the American Southeast is facing at least four major hurricanes, Polar bears are swimming in open sea to the point of exhaustion, the North Pole became an island for the first time in 125,000 years, and Appalachian mountains are inching closer to annihilation. Yet our politicians keep on pandering and compromising, proposing half-solutions and endorsing appealing lies. 

But, as we often point out, hope is not lost! Climate warriors worldwide are gaining momentum and winning battles while Google is advocating the bold and realistic solutions we need. The next month and a half, with the election looming and hogging all media bandwidth, it is more vital than ever to bring the climate crisis to the forefront of the political debate by joining PowerVote! 

AFFIRMATIVE ACTION 

This month, Ward Connerly’s anti-equal-opportunity initiative was not certified for the Arizona ballot, as it failed to reach the number of signatures required by the state.  Connerly, asserting he did acquire the number of necessary signatures, filed and later withdrew a lawsuit, effectively ending any chance of the proposal making it onto the ballot. That leaves only Colorado and Nebraska voting on affirmative action bans this Election Day.

In Colorado, Initiative 82, a proposal that aimed to proactively preserve the state’s affirmative action and equal opportunity programs, has failed to gather enough signatures to make it on the ballot. Connerly’s anti-opportunity campaign will continue in Colorado without Initiative 82 to counter it.

Though a student challenged the confusing language of the initiative proposed in Nebraska, a judge has ruled that the wording is acceptable and will appear as-is on the November ballot. Harvey Perlman, Chancellor of University of Nebraska-Lincoln, criticized the amendment in a recent national address and stated that UNL will continue to seek diversity in their student body even if the initiative is passed on November 4^th.

Want to get involved and help students in Nebraska and Colorado save equal opportunity? Campus Progress will be partnering with other national organizations to set up phone banks in those states as the election approaches, so stay tuned! If you are eager for some action, e-mail organize@campusprogress.org.

STUDENT PROFILE

Jeff Gustafson
Environmental Studies and Political Science
George Washington University
Graduated 2008

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How did you become politicized?  What got you to where you are today? 

As a young kid growing up in suburban Maryland, I spent nearly all my time outside in the woods and creeks surrounding my house.  For as long as I can remember I've had a passion for environmental protection.  I remained un-political and unorganized until my sophomore year in high school when I helped plan and launch an environmental engineering academy; to enable students to apply the lessons of the classroom to the real world, and I founded my school's first environmental activist group.  From there, I've worked with a number of environmental youth and community groups.

Tell us a little bit about your group and your accomplishments over the last two years.

The group that I'm most excited about is the D.C. Youth Environmental Alliance (DCYEA).  Unlike any other state in the U.S., the District of Columbia has a large number of major universities within walking distance of each other–and the Congress.  DCYEA was created over a year ago to unite the many environmental youth and student groups in the District to share resources and establish a powerful coalition of students working together to bring about a sustainable capital city.  Working with the incredible student leaders at American, Catholic, Gallaudet, Georgetown, George Washington, Howard, and Trinity Universities has been a true pleasure.  Though DCYEA is relatively young, with only a few accomplishments under our belt so far, we are looking forward to an action-packed year.  DCYEA is currently working to launch a high school branch, create a political action academy to demand from Congress real solutions to the energy, climate, and environmental crises, and to reach out to similar student networks.

Young people today are not seen as being particularly interested in issues, and many student activists complain about apathy on their campuses.  How have you managed to overcome this in your organizing?

There will always be some degree of apathy.  One of the truly wonderful aspects of working on an issue such as sustainability, however, is that the possibilities of partnership are endless.  The umbrella of sustainability encompasses an incredibly diverse group of people, from environmentalists to green job advocates to faith groups to hunters and more.  Bringing this group of people, each with their own interests, together to work on a common goal has been the most successful way of reversing apathy and building community that I've seen—on campus and community levels.

Why does our generation need a youth lobby group?

There is no question that young people are unrepresented in government.  Decisions are made every day on issues that will shape our future—climate change, energy production, foreign policy, etc.—but with hardly any input from young people.  DCYEA is working to launch a political action academy to empower young people with the skills necessary to lobby effectively, work with the media, conduct effective political actions, and more.  From this, DCYEA will put together a team of professional-grade student lobbyists to represent young people from across the country in the halls of Congress whenever an important issue is raised and to demand action on a core platform of issues to be developed soon.  It is vital that young people be represented as we begin acting on climate change, high fuel costs, etc. 

What are your next steps?  What's next for you in terms of activism or personal goals?

This year is bound to be exciting!  Personally, I look forward to continuing my work with DCYEA and engaging a growing number of youth activists in the D.C. area.  Power Vote, a project of the Energy Action Coalition, will serve as a fantastic outreach tool to kickoff the school year and the DCYEA political action academy will be ready to take it from there.