New Voters Project:
WISPIRG’s New Voters Project completed its fall 2008 voter registration drive, with over 8,000 students completing voter registration forms at campuses throughout the state.  New Voters Project students were conducting massive registration efforts at six campuses, including UW Madison, UW Milwaukee, UW Stevens Point, and UW Green Bay.  To help register their peers, student leaders used flyers, Facebook events, partnerships with other student groups, and hosted on-campus visibility efforts to maximize registration.

This fall’s young voter mobilization drive comes on the heels of massive increases in youth turnout in this year’s primary contests. According to the Center for Information and Research on Civic Learning and Engagement, youth turnout rates in the Wisconsin Democratic primary nearly doubled, increasing by 93% when compared to 2004.

Since the launch of the National Student Campaign for Voter Registration more than 25 years ago, WISPIRG’s non-partisan New Voters Project has worked to mobilize youth turnout, spearheading massive registration and ‘get out the vote’ drives to turn millions of young people out to the polls.  Wisconsin’s premier young voter mobilization effort since 2004, WISPIRG’s New Voters Project has used time tested and academically reviewed methods to help register over 160,000 18-30 year olds to vote and made 200,000 personalized voter turnout contacts.

Global Warming Solutions:
WISPIRG students at UW Madison, Milwaukee and Stevens Point organized grassroots support statewide this fall to all on the Wisconsin Public Service Commission vote down a proposal to build a coal-fired power plant in Cassville, WI.  After successfully building support on campus, more than 50 student leaders also 40 WISPIRG students attended the Public Service Committee hearing to speak about the harmful environmental effects of Alliant Energy’s proposed coal-fired power plant.  The Commission voted unanimously to reject the plan to, and noted the significant outcry from citizens and students across the state.

WISPIRG's Big Red Go Green campaign helped convince the UW-Madison administration to pledge to reduce energy consumption by 20% by 2010. In addition, WISPIRG helped to organize the second-annual Midwest Student Clean Energy Conference, which had 150 attendees from more than 20 schools, representing 12 states and three countries.

Clean Water: WISPIRG students and advocacy staff led the campaign that passed the nation's strongest clean water law here in Wisconsin to control runoff pollution.

Higher Education:
In May 2009, the Student PIRGs helped convince Congress to pass strong legislation, called the “Credit Card Accountability, Responsibility and Disclosure (CARD) Act” that will halt the most egregious abuses by the credit card industry. The CARD bill eliminates a lot of unfair practices, including: excessive and growing penalty fees, unfair billing practices, and unjustified and retroactive interest charges. It also restricts and requires greater transparency for marketing targeted exclusively at college campuses or consumers under the age of 21. Despite the credit card industry's lobbying to defeat or gut the bill, the Senate and the House both passed the bill with overwhelming, bi-partisan majorities.

In February 2009, The Student PIRGs helped convince Congress to include several key measures in the economic stimulus package.  The final package included a $17 billion increase in Pell grant funding, more work-study aid, and bigger tax credits for low-income students and their families.  The bill also included critical funding for programs that will create jobs and protect the environment, including $16 billion for public transit and $78 billion for clean energy and green infrastructure.

In September 2007, we helped pass the College Cost Reduction and Access Act, the largest increase in federal student aid in 20 years. This law also made dramatic cuts in interest rates for student loans. We followed up by helping pass the Higher Education Opportunity Act, which was signed by President Bush in August 2008. That law contains several important policy changes, including an increase in the maximum authorized level of the Pell Grant to $9,000.

Textbooks:
Summer 2008, WISPIRG’s Make Textbooks Affordable Project helped to pass an Affordable Textbooks provision to the Higher Education Opportunity Act on the national level. The provision outlines three key criteria: (1) the mandatory disclosure of all prices and new edition information to professors and faculty, (2) required unbundling of all pre-packaged class materials so that the primary textbooks may be purchased separately, and 3) a minimum two-week advance notice of materials to be used in all classes so that students can pursue the best prices through markets outside of their local university bookstore.