MPOWER candidates have been organizing around numerous student issues, and in recent weeks we’ve had several major victories for students in Madison. MPOWER is not a registered student organization, but as individuals we have contributed to each of these victories, and we wanted to make sure you had heard about them:
Student Aid and Healthcare Reform passed! Multiple MPOWER candidates lobbied legislators to pass student aid reform and healthcare reform, including four candidates who traveled to Washington, DC to advocate for these bills. This historic legislation means that government subsidies to banks that have been swindling students will now be invested in the government’s Direct Loan program, which means that more than $6 billion will now be going directly to students instead of banks. With the College Democrats of Madison, Beth Huang helped organize Healthcare Week last October, and now that healthcare reform has passed, students will be able to stay on their parents’ insurance until they’re 26, which is particularly important given that our age group consistently has the highest unemployment rate.
Support for Student-Worker Solidarity! Members of the Student Labor Action Coalition, including five MPOWER SLACkers (Sam Stevenson, Jonah Zinn, Jeni Le, Beth Huang and Tina Trevino-Murphy), escalated direct actions throughout the year, culminating in a major rally — the next day UW-Madison became the first university in the country to cut our licensing contract with Nike in response to their egregious violations of workers’ rights in Honduras and India. SLAC persevered for over eight months, resulting in this major victory for students, workers and our university.
The Campus Women’s Center received an historic grant! Jessi Indresano and Tina Trevino-Murphy wrote an operations grant that made history — the CWC was awarded $33,100, which by far exceeded the previous record of $8,800. Through the efforts of over 100 CWC volunteers and supporters and these two candidates, the CWC now has the funds to continue providing their services to campus next year.
Affordable Textbooks Campaign! Three MPOWER candidates and Academic Affairs Committee members, Peter Lorenz, Zach Ivins and Jonah Zinn, have expanded ASM’s work on textbooks beyond the biannual “Textbook Swap” and created an active grassroots campaign. Currently, they’re in the process of forming a new shared governance committee that would bring faculty, students and staff together to address the rising cost of textbooks.
And now new issues are coming up in the state and federal legislatures — with the passage of the state DREAM Act we are losing money every year that the federal DREAM Act is not passed. Legislation is currently being proposed in the state Legislature to help students get jobs after graduation and to increase the impact of the student vote in Wisconsin. As we raise the issue of campus safety, MPOWER candidates are working on the annual Take Back the Night march to the State Capitol on April 29. The fight is not over. MPOWER has proven that we can make major progress on important student issues, and we will not stop when we are elected to ASM.
Molly Bryers, Beth Huang & Tina Trevino-Murphy of MPOWER
