CalPIRG

CalPIRG is the California Public Interest Research Group. The local chapter has a blog, too.

They are a grassroots public interest group that lobbies for issues relevant to the general public, working with other PIRGs nationwide. CalPIRG is very effective at representing students and public interest and tries to work with other student groups such as UCSA. There are chapters at every UC, except for Merced (yet). CalPIRG recently opened a chapter at USC.

Pledge Sticker (slightly off-color)

Their current campaigns are:

• Higher Education, which fights for positive student aid programs and lower textbook costs.
  

• The House voted to cut 12.7 billion dollars from student financial aid with a vote of 216-214. Thanks for all your help, this is not the end! CalPIRG will keep fighting for the students!
  

• Along with ASUCD President Darnell Holloway and two students from UC Santa Cruz CalPIRG representative Dallas Cole went to Washington D.C. to lobby the Federal Commission on Higher Education to address student debt. They presented the findings of the Davis on Student Debt.
  

• ASUCD and CalPIRG recently joined together to create aTextbook Affordability Commission to explore ways to lower the price of textbooks, including working to lower publishing costs and creating a textbook rental program.
  

• Clean Energy, which advocates for solar homes and the building of the SRC to LEED Platinum standards, among other things.
  

• A LEED Platinum building reduces environmental impact by around 70% and reduces operational costs by 30-40%, this means that it will save us, the students and the university, 75 dollars per square foot as opposed to a mere 50 dollars per square foot with a Silver building.
  

• Currently: PASSED! The Student Resource Center will be LEED Platinum.
  

• Hunger and Homelessness, which fights to end hunger and homelessness.
  

• Community Homelessness Awareness Dinner
  

• Forest Protection, which is fighting the opening of 4.4 million acres of National Forests to oil drilling and other development.
  

• Arnold has promised to prevent this from happening, but he has already missed one deadline, so we're here to make sure he remembers his promise! We have over 250 petitions signed from just one tabling event, keep 'em coming!
  

• WE WON!!!! The Governor has appealed the plans to open the Forests because of our influence!
  

• Truly? Wow. —SteveOstrowski
  

• Voter Registration Campaign, which aims to give students a voice by encouraging student voter turnout. The November elections are a prime opportunity for students to speak out and get out the vote.

CalPIRG is always putting on events like call-in days or petition signings or even funerals, and they'’re always looking for new people to join the cause.

They have an office in 356 MU. The current campus organizer is Margaret Howe, who graduated from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. For the 2006-2007 school year the organizer was Tara Stafford who graduated from USC, and is currently directing a project to bring CALPIRG chapters to the Los Angeles Community Colleges. The campus organizers for the 2005-2006 school year were Andy Bemis and Ben Smith. You could often find Ben in a cow suit, or some other costume.

For the 2007-2008 school year, the campus chair was Michael Reagan, who was also the CALPIRG Statewide Board Chair. For the 2006-2007 school year Dallas Cole was campus chair and Michael Reagan was vice-chair. Dan Xie, AimeeMarie Munoz-Lopez, and Karen Park made up the other officers. In 2005-2006 the chairs were AimeeMarie Munoz-Lopez and Garo Manjikian.

Twice a year you'll find them on campus asking you to pledge $5 to them. This $5 pledge you make is deducted from your student account every quarter. You get a bright orange sticker that says, "I pledged CALPIRG". This fundraising may cause people to seek protection from CalPIRG. This funding keeps them on campus, fighting for you, or campaigning against you, depending on how they feel. It also gives them the opportunity to hire advocates and support staff. This staff is essential for CALPIRG. Campus organizers and statewide staff members train students on how to run effective grassroots campaign involving students in politics. Advocates provide students a voice in both the state and national capitols on such issues as protecting the environment and fighting student debt.

Many groups, especially conservative ones, criticize the issues that CALPIRG supports. Usually things like environmental issues.

The CALPIRG sticker, if properly placed within an amulet, is one of the Magic Items of Davis.

Before 1990 CalPIRG fees automatically appeared on a student's account statement. If a student did not want to pay the CalPIRG fee, they could check a box to opt out of it. This is the way it still is in PIRGs everywhere else around the country.

In the late 1980's CalPIRG launched a statewide campaign promoting an initiative to stop the use of certain pesticides in and around schools. Unfortunately this upset many large organizations and business owners (including some affiliated with members of the UC Board of Regents.) The Regents then took action to, and succeeded in, eliminating CalPIRG's funding, kicking them off campus. The Regents claimed that they were concerned about students paying the fee without knowing what it was.

CalPIRG was without funding for three years. After three years of lobbying for something to be done, the courts decided that the Regents' actions were illegal and mandated that they allow CalPIRG with 'some means' of acquiring money; to ensure this legislators withheld $1 million from the Regents.

Thus the pledge system was born. It is this writer's opinion that the intent of the pledge system (which requires at least 20% of the student body to be pledged at all times in order for CalPIRG to remain on campus) was to totally own CalPIRG - the Regents figured that either the students would be unable to meet the quota or be so enveloped in meeting the 20% that they wouldn't have time to run effective campaigns.

In 1993 CalPIRG had its first successful pledge drive and for the last 13 years, that's 39 quarters, at least 20% of the UC Davis campus (and other UC's) have found CalPIRG to be important enough to them to warrant 5 bucks a quarter.

• They helped pass the strongest clean energy law in the country, which mandates that 20% of California's energy be from renewable sources by 2017.
  

• By doing what, specifically?
  

• By strong grassroots actions, from petitions to call-in days to our representatives, showing them what their constituents want!
  

• They helped to pass the Million Solar Roofs bill, which will create a million solar roof bills in California by the year 2010 through a tax rebate program.
  

• Sounds like a cool program. What'd you guys have to do?
  

• Same thing! We showed the legislators that their constituents want this and put pressure on them to act through a massive grassroots campaign.
  

• They raised over $90,000 for tsunami relief.
  

• Awesome. How did they do that?
  

• Hardcore statewide grassroots movement to generate donations (utilizing our notorious harassment techniques), as well as organizing a "Swipe for Relief" in the DCs where students could donate the money from their swipes to the cause.
  

• They held call-in days to congressional representatives to fight the current federal budget cuts to student financial aid, and their last two call-ins generated 123 and 215 calls, respectively.
  

• Cool! Which CalPIRGs and which congressional representatives?
  

• Every chapter in the state, and other PIRG chapters around the nation participated in these events. Most, if not all, congressional representatives were called, and some were called so often that their normal business was interrupted by all the student voices.
  

• They held a funeral for all the unreturnable textbooks left behind due to unnecessary new editions and bundling.
  

• Successfully fought the opening of the Arctic National Wildlife Reserve to oil drilling in the Budget Reconciliation Act.
  

• Much much more that will be added later!

Consider making circular orange CalPIRG stickers online and selling them from $2.50. There might be a good market for this.

If you've decided that you hate the environment and cheaper textbooks, then you can go up to CalPIRG's office in 356 MU or call 530-752-3205 and ask them to remove you from the pledge list. This will restore your $5 a quarter, so you can buy one latte at Starbucks.

Comments:

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2008-09-17 21:36:40   I've donated a few times in my life from people who have come up to me and talked to me. Unfortunately, I also gave them my number. Now I've been getting calls almost every day around 6-9:30PM from their 800 number. I answered once and said no and I don't want anymore calls. They still call. This is my punishment for the sin of donating to a cause. There's no way I'm giving another dime to CALPIRG. Their numbers are 800-672-3012 and 800-672-3014. Google these numbers and find many others who are pissed. Getting approached once on the street or at home is one thing, having a computer dial your number at dinner or sleeping time almost every day is harassment. —CoffeeSnobDavis

2008-12-29 12:53:58   Please!! I do i get off their donation list?!?!?! thankz to whom ever in advance! =D —Dreabo0

• If you want to have any hope of getting off their pledge list, I think you need to consider the Importance of using your RealName. They can't depledge you unless they know who you are. But see the new "Depledging" section above. —BrentLaabs
  

2009-11-05 07:48:20   I do not really care for how I've seen some CalPIRG members badgering people to pledge. "No" or "I need some time to think about it" are not acceptable answers to some members. And if you are skeptical about renting textbooks, run. —RyanMikulovsky