OSPIRG at UO Fall 2021 Newsletter

This year was a huge transition, from completely virtual work to mostly in-person life again. We wanted to share some of our highlights from the fall, and give you an update on what we’ll be working on in Winter term.

And, if you’d like to volunteer or take on leadership with any of our projects this Winter – sign up here!

We were excited to see that the return to Eugene brought plenty of new student engagement with it! Almost 1,000 students filled out our interest cards and our largest meeting hosted 64 students.

*UO students at our Fall Kick Off Meeting*

While students at OSPIRG made the most of online organizing, we were grateful to get to connect with each other and our communities in-person this term as well (vaxxed and masked, of course!). This winter we’re continuing our campaign for a just and equitable transition to 100% Renewable Energy in Oregon, and furthering our work on our Hunger & Homelessness and Indigenous Water Rights campaigns. You can sign up here to join us.

That said, I wanted to highlight all the great work UO students did to make social change on both local and statewide issues this term!

*OSPIRG volunteer collecting petition signatures from students for 100% Renewable Energy*

This Fall, students at UO collected over 1,000 petitions for a statewide commitment to 100% renewable energy. We also hosted a youth climate rally on CNN’s global #CallToEarth Day with 7 different groups from the Eugene and UO community to highlight youth climate action.

For our Fast Fashion campaign, students organized a clothing swap to raise awareness of the environmental and human toll of fast fashion and rehomed hundreds of clothes while donating a suitcase full of clothes to a local shelter. The following week, our Indigenous Water Rights campaign held a panel on water sovereignty with Klamath Tribal Chairman Don Gentry and Native American Student Union (NASU) Co-Director Ashley Younger. Meanwhile, our Hunger & Homelessness campaign raised enough money to fund a week and a half of Burrito Brigade’s meals and collected a wagon-full of food donations for our annual Trick-or-Can event!

*100% Renewable Energy’s #CallToEarth Day Tabling Fair*

*UO students at the Fast Fashion Clothing Swap*

*OSPIRG volunteers collecting food donations at Trick-or-Can event*

*Klamath Chairman Don Gentry and NASU Co-Director Ashley Younger speaking at Indigenous water rights panel*

At our virtual lobby day, our students met with representatives from across the state to discuss the work we’re doing and the push for more bold climate action. We also met Congressmen DeFazio and Wyden to discuss the Build Back Better bill and thank them for fighting for stronger climate protections in DC.

*UO students meeting with Congressman Peter DeFazio to thank him for his climate advocacy*

All this work is just the beginning this year — we have a lot more in store for the upcoming terms! We couldn’t have made it happen without the incredible work from UO students as well as our great on- and off-campus partners.

Thanks for all your support, we couldn’t have done it without you. If you’re looking to get involved as a volunteer, leader, or with a course-credit internship, sign up to learn more.

Warm wishes,

Christie Clark
OSPIRG Board Chair
UO Class of ’22