Madison Mayor Dave Cieslewicz made an appearance Monday night at the kickoff meeting for the Wisconsin Student Public Interest Research Group at Birge Hall.
Cieslewicz delivered a speech to the students regarding the issues that WISPIRG is planning to focus on this semester.
These issues have been divided up into five campaigns, which were introduced to the attendees through skits by the program coordinators.
The biggest problem today is the climate change,"" said Cieslewicz, who has made environmental policies a priority for the city of Madison since his first election in 2003.
Big Green Go Red, one of the group's longest-running programs, is devoted to global warming and environmental policy. They are working on a campus level to get students to reduce their energy use and make UW-Madison more efficient.
The Affordable Textbooks campaign is aiming for a bill that would require full disclosure to faculty of what coordinator Adam Porton called ""hidden costs"" of textbooks.
This bill would mean that textbook companies would need to fully inform faculty of what changes are made to new editions of books and whether or not the books come bundled with CDs or workbooks.
Group members said WISPIRG hopes to get the bill introduced into the state legislature by sometime next semester.
Other WISPIRG campaigns include Hunger and Homelessness, Conservation and Recycling and Clean Elections.
The group urged UW-Madison students to either volunteer or intern with a campaign that interests them most.
WISPIRG board chair Jeff Rolling encouraged the students to ""show Madison what students working together can do.""
The group stressed the impact on the campus community students can have if they get involved in one of these campaigns.
""A lot of other student groups seem pointless,"" a UW-Madison student said. ""With [WISPIRG], you actually feel like you are doing something.""
