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Get Involved.
Programs, contests, & volunteer opportunities for Campus Progress readers
2006-2007 Student Board on Genocide Prevention
The US Holocaust Museum’s Committee on Conscience (COC) invites university students to join their Genocide Prevention Student Board. Board members will participate in: monthly online chats, network with one another; submit articles, interviews, blog postings, and other material for use on the COC website; provide suggestions for new programs and resources and feedback on past programs/resources; distribute Museum resources to their schools, communities, and regions; and conduct a yearly review of the COC and its genocide prevention efforts. Applications are due November 17th. Click here to apply.
A Quiet Revolution: The Right Wing Assault on Our Courts
Over the past quarter century an increasingly influential movement on the far right has waged a sustained war on the constitution as we know it. Ultra-conservative politicians, judges, professors and activists would overturn decades of precedent to shred the fabric of popular laws protecting workers, consumers and public health, expand executive power at the expense of basic civil liberties, and impose a narrow social agenda on the rest of the body politic. Alliance for Justice has produced a new, provocative short documentary, A Quiet Revolution: The Right Wing Assault on Our Courts. The film is narrated by Emmy award-winning actor Bradley Whitford and features U.S. Senator Barack Obama. Alliance for Justice is seeking student activists who are passionate about social justice issues to help coordinate events on campuses this fall to help unmask this extremist movement—its goals, its supporters, its tactics—and to educate the public about how progressive forces can fight back.
The Graduation Pledge of Social and Environmental Responsibility states, "I pledge to explore and take into account the social and environmental consequences of any job I consider and will try to improve these aspects of any organizations for which I work." Students define for themselves what it means to be socially and environmentally responsible. Students at over a hundred colleges and universities are using the pledge at some level. Graduates who voluntarily signed the pledge have turned down jobs with which they did not feel morally comfortable and have worked to make changes once on the job. For example, they have promoted recycling at their organization, removed racist language from a training manual, worked for gender parity in high school athletics, and helped to convince an employer to refuse a chemical weapons-related contract. Plus, see our newest web site which is geared to graduates in or about to enter the workforce (http://www.e-xplore.org).Contact NJWollman@Manchester.edu for information/questions/comments.
The nation’s largest pension fund, TIAA-CREF, which is a retirement fund mainly for educators, prides itself on being responsive to shareholders and a "concerned investor" with regard to social responsibility. The reality is that TIAA-CREF holds shares in some of the most controversial and notoriously unethical corporations. The Make TIAA-CREF Ethical Coalition urges the pension system to use shareholder advocacy to influence the practices of these corporations involved in human rights violations, and public health and environmental degradation. For over twenty years this Coalition has successfully lobbied and taken direct actions to promote more social responsibility within TIAA-CREF. To find out how you can get involved, click here.
Since their founding in 2004, the Roosevelt Institution has made great strides in organizing students at campuses throughout the United States to focus their energy on policy solutions to the most pressing issues facing our country. Now they are ready to make an impact.
The Challenges will involve both collaborative and competitive programming to inspire students to think critically and creatively about realizable short- and long-term solutions to the most pressing issues confronting this nation. Students will work to imagine and implement progressive change at the local, state, and national levels by choosing three Challenges for the year. Each Challenge will be in the form of a realizable goal, like “Reduce the incidence of asthma among young children nationwide.”
Over the next month, anyone can submit an idea for a Challenge. At the end of July, they will choose a handful of the most popular submissions. Representatives of Roosevelt Chapters will then vote in August for the top three. Once students get back to their campuses for the fall semester, the Challenges will be underway. To submit a Challenge, click here.
Our Education – A Million Voices, One Right
Have you ever thought that our nation’s public education system could be and should be a lot better? For example, a shocking two out of every three American students can’t read at grade level proficiency, and in 2003 our fifteen year olds finished only 24th out of 29 countries in math and problem solving. What’s more, stark inequality continues to persist in our schools along socioeconomic, geographic, and racial lines, and the ideal of the "American Dream" based on equality of opportunity has never been at greater risk.
It’s time for students like us to stand up and make a difference. Take a moment to check out a cool new youth-founded and youth-led campaign at www.OurEd.org, and be sure to sign Our Education’s national youth petition for an American right to high quality education. It will only take a minute to help send a powerful message to our country’s leaders: make our education a national priority. If you believe passionately in this cause, we’d love to hear from you (ethan@oured.org & aaron@oured.org) and talk more about how you can get actively involved in this effort!
Stop the Raid on Student Aid
Over the past three decades, higher education has become increasingly unaffordable for millions of students and families, due in large part to declining federal investment. StudentAidAction.com will work to reverse this trend, uniting students, faculty, and families in fighting for student aid increases. StudentAidAction.com offers materials and information about saving student aid and preventing the largest cut to student aid in history.
Semester in Washington for College Students
If you are interested in spending an exciting and educational semester in Washington, take a look at the Washington Semester Program. For a full semester of academic credit, you will intern at an organization or agency that you choose and attend seminars in a field of your choice (examples are American Politics, Foreign Policy, or Transforming Communities) with decision-makers, advocates and practitioners. Summer programs also available. For more information, go to www.washingtonsemester.com or email kkravet@american.edu.
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