INPIRG call out draws crowd

IU graduate student Jordan Vinson recognized a problem with recycling in Bloomington apartment complexes of and wanted to figure out a way to solve it.
“I believe that organized effort can go a long way,” Vinson said.

He, along with more than 120 students, went to Tuesday’s Indiana Student Public Interest Research Group call out meeting in Woodburn Hall to show their interest in volunteering to help the Bloomington community.

INPIRG is a student-led, student-funded nonprofit organization that ultimately aims to help solve various social problems, such as recycling to homelessness.

The most recent achievement for INPIRG was convincing Congress to vote to stop student interest loans from doubling, which saved students an average of $1,000.

“We don’t complain, we implement solutions,” INPIRG Chapter Chair Faith Nebergall said. “We provide service to Bloomington, Indiana, and the United States.”

INPIRG has different campaigns for each different social problem.

During the meeting, INPIRG introduced the five main campaigns and their campaign coordinators for this semester, which included Sustainable U, Democracy, Renters’ Rights, Cheaper Texbooks and Hunger and Homelessness.

After the introduction, each campaign broke off into smaller groups and into different classrooms, then had attendees flock to which campaign interested them the most.
Each campaign group discussed semester goals, brainstormed new ideas and interviewed for the various internship jobs available.

Sustainable U, coordinated by Vince Tite, aims to have landlords start their own recycling program for their residents and educate students on issues of waste.

Democracy, coordinated by Rachel Bond, aims to introduce a constitutional amendment to the House of Representatives to debunk corporate heads.

Renters’ Rights, coordinated by Sherouk Omara, aims to educate students about their landowning rights by creating a rating system for each landlord in the Bloomington area.

Hunger and Homelessness, coordinated by Carmen Heredia Rodriguez, aims to help those in poverty. Last semester, they collected more than a 1,000 items for the homeless.

Cheaper Textbooks, headed by Kyra He, aims to help IU students save money when buying textbooks. Goals include convincing professors to choose cheaper textbooks and they plan to have a textbook swap event at the end of this semester.

“Our volunteers and interns have been making announcements in classes, been recruiting volunteers at tables set up around campus, and phonebanking nearly every night to get new volunteers so we can accomplish our campaign goals this semester,” INPIRG Outreach and Internet Coordinator John Barth said.

Tuesday’s meeting had the best turnout that INPIRG has ever had, Nebergall said.