University of Maryland, College Park

Maryland PIRG teaches the citizenship skills necessary to have practical impacts on the issues we care about. We have been on campus to defending the public against power special interests for over 40 years. We are focused on getting real results on issues that matter to students. So far this year we registered nearly 1,500 students to vote, helped to pass a measure that allows small donor matching programs in Howard County, and educated the student body about the overuse of antibiotics in the meat industry. 

 
Through Maryland PIRG, UMD students have built a unique institution combining student volunteerism and the skills of professional staff to work for the betterment of our community, the environment and our quality of life. Students involved with Maryland PIRG learn things you can’t learn in the classroom, like how to recruit and train volunteers and how to get a newspaper to cover your issue. Maryland PIRG students do thousands of hours of service every year – from helping those in need through our Hunger and Homelessness campaign, to registering students to vote.  Students actively involved with Maryland PIRG and even students who just sign our petitions and read our emails, graduate Maryland as more well-rounded citizens.
 
This semester, we've been working on...

• Saving the bees by collecting petitions to urge the EPA to ban neonics
• Protecting our democracy by getting small donor matching programs in Howard County
• Stopping the overuse of antibiotics by convincing KFC to buy antibiotic free meat
• Making higher education more affordable by promoting open source textbooks 
• Registered students to vote and reminding them where their polling place is located

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