Student PIRGs

WASHINGTON — A newly announced agreement will protect the finances of millions of Americans who owe money on student loans. 

Publishers and education tech companies offering temporary free access codes, but using content with restrictive copyrights, has downsides. We want to make sure educators know about the high-quality resources that are permanently free to students, and ensure faculty independence and student data privacy.

The COVID-19 pandemic is disrupting campuses nationwide. Here are a few of the ways that institutions are stepping up to meet students’ basic needs in this moment of uncertainty: 

While many states have plans to deal with emergencies like power outages, natural disasters and other one-off situations, very few states are currently set up to successfully run an election where large public gatherings, such as polling places, present a public health risk.

We are taking recommendations from college and university leaders and public health experts and taking proactive steps to mitigate the potential impact of COVID-19 in our campus and off-campus communities.

The Student PIRGs and Environment America, along with students across the country, will launch 50 campaigns in 15 states this year, imploring colleges and universities to generate 100 percent of their energy from renewable sources.

On October 2nd, the U.S. Department of Education announced that it would be rewarding its first grant through the Open Textbook Pilot grant program to 12 higher education institutions which are working to adopt and promote open educational resources.

On Tuesday, October 2nd, the Save the Bay campaign held our first official table to kick off Plastic Free Tuesdays here on campus.

On Monday, September 24th, MaryPIRG held its biannual campaign Kickoff. It was an informative and engaging event with great speakers (including the past mayor of College Park, as well as each individual campaigns’ managers) and the chance to discuss semester-long strategy with each of the respective campaigns.

Today, Congress set aside $5 million to renew the Open Textbook Pilot program for FY19, which gives grants to colleges and universities to promote adoption of free and open textbooks by professors. The program could save students up to $50 million!