Drawing nearly 200 students, the Wisconsin Public Interest Research Group held its spring kickoff meeting Wednesday to draw attention to its varying campaigns, which deal with issues ranging from homelessness to clean water.
WisPIRG, the Wisconsin chapter of a national organization working on social and environmental objectives, was established 12 years ago, according to Emily Larson, a UW-Madison junior and chair of the Madison chapter board.
\We're a statewide environmental consumer and democracy organization,"" Larson said. ""WisPIRG exists because people recognize problems on campus and we work with professionals to improve them.""
Currently WisPIRG has approximately 7,000 citizen members across the state, with between 150 and 200 student members including 35 hired interns at UW-Madison.
UW-Madison senior, campaign coordinator for clean water, Jessica Garrels opened the meeting by introducing the organization as a public organization working for the welfare of the public.
""We're using student power, citizen members and research to implement policies in the public's best interest,"" Garrels said.
Since recruitment was one intention of the meeting, Garrels added that manpower is the most important weapon WisPIRG has against special interest groups which are backed by strong financing.
""Special interest groups have a lot of money and they are using it to protect [themselves],"" Garrels said.
One of the new campaigns that will be emphasized this spring is Big Red Go Green, which works to improve energy efficiency specifically at UW-Madison.
""We're hoping that campaign will kick off this spring,"" Larson said.
Garrels said energy efficiency on campus has become an important issue to WisPIRG members, especially since utility spending at UW-Madison went significantly over budget last year.
""We are going to make sure our university has an efficient energy policy because last year [it] was $7 million over budget,"" Garrels said.
Hunger and Homelessness was another campaign addressed at the meeting. Speakers cited such numbers as the more than 750,000 homeless people in the United States each night. WisPIRG will be working with the National Student Campaign Against Hunger and Homelessness on April 6 for the annual hunger cleanup.
