Civic Participation

Eleven students at the University of Texas at Dallas are working behind the scenes with a Richardson City Council member, Amir Omar, to gain real world experience in regional planning and city policy. The group of students, which meets nearly every Friday morning with Omar, has been working over the past year to research proposed project ideas and develop strategies for improving the city of Richardson. Some of the ideas presented by the group have been adopted by the city council, such as the Tree the Town initiative, which aims to increase the number of trees planted throughout the cit

By Shane Ersland shane-ersland@uiowa.edu Veteran Jess Woods’ constant paranoia and vivid flashbacks from his deployment in Iraq have made it difficult for him to get reacclimated to civilian life, including the realities of college life. A first-year student at Scott Community College in Bettendorf, Iowa, Woods has trouble communicating with fellow students and concentrating on his studies. “It’s hard being around people I don’t know,” he said. “It’s hard to talk; I’m always paranoid. It seems they’re in a different world t

Census workers in D.C. are trying to convince college students, a chronically undercounted group, to register for the census so that D.C. can access more federal funding. The district is home to nine universities, and an estimated 23,000 students. "What's at stake is nearly $2.5 billion in federal funds that could potentially go to the District," said Harriet Tregoning, director of the D.C. Office of Planning. "A low response rate equates to millions of dollars lost over a 10-year period for vital community services and development, over $3,500 per resident per year, while a high response r

After some students took legal action against Lexington landlord Mike Haley for refusing to return a security deposit, the City of Lexington and state officials are now looking into Haley’s management of his rental properties. The City filed a motion for an injunction against Haley, arguing that his rental homes violated the city's zoning ordinances because they meet criteria to be considered boarding houses.   On December 17, Judge Thomas Clark denied the motion for an injunction, which would have forced students to move out of Haley’s properties.  The case against Haley

The Concerned Active and Aware Students at Kansas University held a Health Policy Awareness Campaign Monday and Tuesday to help other students navigate the new health care bill.   Cara Smith, one of the coordinators of the organization, said “We were just thinking about how there’s all this news about health care and reform in the media now, but neither of us really knew what any of it meant. And I got the impression from other people I talked to that they didn’t really know either.”   Smith and co-coordinator Stephanie Atwood hoped to present the information about the bill in an

Medical students at the University of Iowa are using their group, Medical Students for Liberty, to push for a minimally regulated health care system. Founded Oct. 28, the group is gaining members and support from members of the medical community at UI. The group is in favor of health care reform, but thinks that the legislation being considered by Congress should be more amenable to the free market. “It’s very important for everyone to get involved,” said founder Dustin Krutsinger, a second-year medical school student in the UI Carver College of Medicine. “We’re trying to reach out to th

On Oct. 29, the Rutgers Law School’s Voter's Rights Project and NJ PIRG held a rally on campus to encourage students and residents to vote in the election Nov 3. Rutgers has been involved in city elections since 2004, when a group of law students started the Voter's Rights Project to educate voters and ensure that state elections laws are properly enforced. "It is so vital that you vote in this and every other election," Student Government Vice President Sean Brown told the crowd. "Not voting is the same as voting for someone you disagree with.” Law students held voter registration dr

Students at Duke University, the University of North Carolina, and North Carolina State spent October 20th collecting petition signatures to protest legislation they say would increase the cost of generic drugs.   The proposed legislation in the health care reform bill would allow drug makers to keep patents on their pharmaceutical formulas for longer, preventing generic drugs from copying the formula and entering the market. Generic drugs provide cheap alternatives to expensive name-brand products.   The prices of conventional drugs fall an average of 40 to 80 percent after gene