New Voters Project: INPIRG Students at IU Bloomington partnered with student leaders across the country to help register and turn out record numbers on Election Day. In one student-heavy precinct, there was at least a 287% increase in voter turn-out from the 2004 election.  3114 people voted in 2008, while only 804 voted in 2004. This election, young voter turnout surged by at least 2.2 million votes over 2004 levels this election, according to new data released by the Center for Information and Research on Civic Learning and Engagement. For the first time, young voter share of the electorate also surpassed that of voters over 65, with young people making up 18 percent of the electorate and those over 65 making up 16 percent. 

Global Warming Solutions: INPIRG's Campus Climate Challenge campaign was reported on by Fox News in Indianapolis as part of a story on mercury pollution in water and fish. At IU, the Biker Phantom greatly increased the awareness of the Campus Climate Challenge and INPIRG on campus, while promoting alternative transportation. The Biker Phantom raised awareness about the benefits of riding a bike to campus as opposed to driving, by tagging bikes with leaflets that listed facts about how much energy was saved and pollution was not put into the air by biking. Some bike riders won prizes just for riding their bike that day.

Hunger and Homelessness: INPIRG students organized a call-in day to Sen. Lugar’s office, and got 140 students to ask him not to cut money from the food stamps program as part of the budget process. The next week, Sen. Lugar stated that his committee would not cut funding from the food stamps program and cited “constituent pressure” as the reason. At IU's Hunger Cleanup, students raised over $9,300 to support a local homeless shelter, as well as national and international anti-poverty efforts.

Higher Education: INPIRG mobilized in response to federal cuts to higher education funding by organizing students to speak out to the U.S. Department of Education's Commission on the Future of Higher Education. Students organized a press conference at the commission hearing, bringing together students from across the IU system, including the Student Body President from IU Kokomo and the Student Representative from the Indiana Commission on Higher Education. The press conference was covered by papers in Bloomington, West Lafayette, and Kokomo. INPIRG also researched loan debt on IU’s campus (over 2/3 of IU students graduate with loans and they average over $17,000) and coordinated a task force comprised of student leaders, administrators, and faculty to discuss the causes and ways to address the rising levels of debt at IU.

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.

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 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.

Affordable Textbooks: In August 2008, we helped get an Affordable Textbooks provision included in the federal Higher Education Opportunity Act. The provision helps lower the cost of textbooks for millions of students by requiring publishers to disclose textbook pricing and revision information to faculty and requiring publishers to offer textbooks and supplemental materials "unbundled." It also asks colleges to provide the list of assigned textbooks, including prices, for each course when students are registering for classes.