MASSPIRG FAQ
What is MASSPIRG?
MASSPIRG is a statewide, student-directed organization that works to solve
problems facing our society. Our environment and public health are threatened,
students are being ripped off, poverty is on the rise, and our decision makers
aren’t listening to ordinary citizens. MASSPIRG combines the idealism of
students with the expertise of professional staff who conduct research,
education, and grassroots organizing for the public.
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What does MASSPIRG do?
We get results. This semester alone, MASSPIRG staff and students convinced
Congress to cut federal subsidized Stafford loan interest rates in half, saving
students $4000 over the lifetime of their loans after 2011. We also
played a huge part in getting Governor Patrick to rejoin Massachusetts into a
regional initiative to cut global warming pollution.
Last year across the state, MASSPIRG raised over $12,000 to fight hunger and
homelessness. Right here at Mt. Wachusett, we raised over $130 for the Gardner
Community Action and Battered Women’s Resources, and a carload of clothes for
Battered Women’s Resources.
Currently we are working to increase renewable energy in the state of
Massachusetts. Students, faculty, and staff at Mt. Wachusett signed almost
300 petitions to support Senator Resor’s Renewable Energy bill. This bill will
increase the use of renewable energy in Massachusetts by 14% by 2020. With the
Earth Day Committee, we are showing "An Inconvenient Truth" on April
26th.
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How is MASSPIRG funded?
Students at Mt. Wachusett have voted every couple of years to fund MASSPIRG
through a $9 per student per semester waiveable fee that appears on the tuition
bill. Students at Clark have been a part of MASSPIRG for 17 years, pooling
together their resources statewide with other MASSPIRG chapters to hire staff,
such as researchers, advocates, grassroots organizers, and lobbyists to work
with them on issues that they care about. Students decide how best to spend
their resources on the issues that they care about, such as fighting
homelessness, working for affordable higher education, and working for more
clean energy.
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Why go to the ballot?
We've been going to the ballot every couple of years since MASSPIRG started at
Mt. Wachusett as a way to reaffirm student support for the work that we do. The
mandate from the student community that says that Mt. Wachusett students want
clean air, clean water, affordable tuition, and an end to poverty gives us the
ammunition it takes to get our work done. By having students vote to fund
MASSPIRG with a per student fee, we can count on those resources to keep doing
our work in the future.
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What are the priorities for the next few years?
To protect and enforce the consumer and environmental laws we already have in
order to clean our water and protect our forests. President Bush has lined
himself up as one of the most anti-environmental presidents ever. It seems as
if there is a new environmental rollback everyday - everything from clean air,
to endangered species, to pristine wilderness is in trouble. MASSPIRG will save
these laws, and keep pushing for environmental policies that will actually
start cleaning up our waterways, reducing air pollution, and fixing our current
energy problems. And then there are all of the cuts that he and Congress have
made to federal higher education programs, and programs that help the poorest
people in our country - things like food stamps and Medicaid.
But we're not just playing defense. We're working on new ways to make higher
education affordable through new grants and lower interest rates. We're
fighting to lower the cost of textbooks. We're looking to ban some of the most
dangerous toxins from entering our waterways. We're working to get college
campuses to start leading the way in terms of addressing global warming and
being leaders in clean energy.
And we're working to alleviate hunger and homelessness in our community.
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How does MASSPIRG spend the funding it receives?
We use it all to tackle Massachusetts' biggest problems and win positive reform
for the state. When you look at the things we've done- protect 58.5 million
acres of forests, ban the most dangerous pesticides from daycares and schools,
clean up the air all across the country - it's pretty clear that it's money
well spent. The staff we hire and the campaigns we run do take resources, and
with the challenges facing Massachusetts and the rest of the country over the
next few years, you can be sure that our staff and students will use these
resources to stand up to the special interests and win. Our clean water, our
land use protections, consumer and student rights - they all rely on our
ability to hire a crack team of experts and professionals to fight for
students.
Besides, polluting industries spend millions of dollars each year just on
campaign contributions to elected officials (that doesn't include their
lobbyists, their propaganda, their campaign ads, etc.), a $9 fee every term is
small change in comparison to what we're up against.
That small change makes a big difference - they might spend tens of millions
of dollars trying to avoid pollution regulations, but with the help of students
here at Mt. Wachusett Community College, we are able to protect our environment
and public health. Student support gives us the opportunity to make a
difference at the local, state and even national level.
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Where is the money spent?
Off and on campus, but mostly it goes to wherever MASSPIRG's resources will
make a difference on the issues that students care about. The whole point of
establishing MASSPIRG is to be able to have the resources to hire a staff of
professionals - attorneys, researchers, organizers, and advocates - to work
with students to fight against the special interests wherever they are trying
to pollute the environment, rip-off consumers, or corrupt the democratic
process.
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Why does MASSPIRG hire staff?
The problems that MASSPIRG undertakes are large, statewide, often national in
scope. Staff are an important part of having an effective statewide
organization. They bring expertise to student's ideas and continuity to long
term student campaigns.
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Do students in each chapter decide what issues to work on?
Students decide on the campaigns that they want to work on both locally and at
the statewide level. Student can bring campaign ideas to the statewide board,
where students from different chapters get together, to work on across the
state. The problems that we face aren’t just local: everyone is fighting
poverty, environmental destruction, and for affordable education across the
state and the country.
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Why does MASSPIRG work statewide?
The problems that Massachusetts faces do not only occur on campus. In order to
clean up our waterways, protect our national forests or lower textbook prices
our staff need to go to the decision makers all across the state and in
Washington D.C. With statewide grassroots support as well as our staff tackling
problems from Boston to the Berkshires, we are able to take on the special
interests that create these problems and actually win for students and the
public interest.
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