OSPIRG's recent victory a prime example of service
Guest commentary
By: Guest Commentary
Posted: 1/25/08
Thanks to the Daily Emerald for its in-depth look at OSPIRG ("The
OSPIRG you can't see," ODE, Jan. 22). The article did a good job
painting a broad brush stroke, including many of our accomplishments
and the important blend of student activism with professional staff.
Sometimes, however, the best way to understand an organization is to go
in-depth on just one accomplishment. Fortunately, a recent victory
helps illustrates OSPIRG's service to the student body.
Last October, President Bush signed the College Cost Reduction and
Access Act, one of the biggest expansions in student aid in 15 years.
The new law will increase the maximum Pell Grant award by $1,090 over
the next four years; allow borrowers to repay their loans as percentage
of their income; and reduce interest rates on student loans for student
borrowers receiving subsidized Stafford loans.
OSPIRG student chapter money was not used, of course, to lobby for this
bill. However, Congressional insiders say that our policy and education
work over the last three years - on campus here in Oregon, through your
Washington, D.C.,-based Higher Education Advocate Luke Swarthout and
through the other Student PIRG organizations - was the key force that
led Congress to finally act.
OSPIRG has been sounding the alarm about rising student debt and
falling financial aid for over a decade now, authoring over two dozen
reports describing the problem and the various policy solutions.
Swarthout has become one of the nation's leading experts on financial
aid policy, a trusted source for members of the media, education
associations and Congress alike. However, even as recently as two years
ago, the financial and political clout of lenders like Sallie Mae had
stymied meaningful action.
In early 2005, public opinion was starting to rally around college
affordability in a big way. We theorized that we could tap into that
enough to overwhelm Sallie Mae's clout and shift the political winds in
our favor. We launched a campaign called Student Debt Alert
(www.studentdebtalert.org), the perfect "one-two punch" of student
activism and professional staff.
Swarthout used his considerable expertise to author five reports that
broke down the problem and solutions in a way that was easy for the
public to understand. He met with key Washington, D.C., players on this
issue - education associations, government officials, reporters and
members of Congress - and worked to persuade them to support our policy
solutions.
Meanwhile, students in Oregon and around the country mobilized,
releasing Swarthout's research to the local media, packing local
government hearings with students, and collecting thousands of personal
testimonies of the problems of student debt. Our work precipitated news
story after news story about the problems of student debt and financial
aid. To be sure all this was heard in D.C., Swarthout personally sent
every press clip and testimony to the Washington, D.C., insiders.
Our breakthrough occurred in last fall when the new Congressional
leadership announced that they would enact many of the very policy
solutions we had been calling for. Insiders in Congress tell us that
Swarthout's impeccable research and policy arguments, combined with the
impressive size and discipline of the students' grassroots operation
made the difference.
The results? A more affordable education for UO students. A real-life
lesson in government and politics. Hands-on civic engagement
opportunities for hundreds of UO students who volunteered or wrote
their Congress representatives letters. For $2 per student, that's a
bargain!
Jesse Hough
Co-chair of the UO chapter of OSPIRG
© Copyright 2008 Oregon Daily Emerald
