Campus Progress

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Campus Progress, launched in February 2005, is an American non-profit non-partisan organization that aims to support the activism and journalism of young progressives.^[1]. Based at the Center for American Progress in Washington, D.C., Campus Progress has worked nationwide with young people on more than 500 U.S. college campuses and in communities. Campus Progress has an affiliated advocacy organization, Campus Progress Action.

1 Scope of Activity
2 Journalism
3 Issue Activism
4 Events
5 Staff
6 Campus Progress Action
7 I’m Voting For
8 Controversy
9 References
10 External Links

[edit] Scope of Activity

Campus Progress has programs in (1) journalism, (2) activism, and (3) events. In all three areas, Campus Progress has a national component and a local component.

[edit] Journalism

CampusProgress.org magazine

CampusProgress.org is a web magazine written by young people, primarily focused on journalism, analysis, opinions, cartoons, videos, and organizing tools. Articles including interviews with Barack Obama, Helen Thomas, Stephen Colbert, Margaret Cho, Larry David and Seymour Hersh. CampusProgress.org regularly profiles conservative leaders in its right-wing speakers bio section. A print edition of the web magazine is nationally distributed on college campuses.

Campus publications network

Campus Progress supports progressive student publications on more than fifty campuses including The Claremont Port Side at Claremont McKenna College, Songhai News: The Black Collegiate Voice at the University of Houston, The Big Green at Michigan State University, Vanderbilt Orbis at Vanderbilt University, and The Dartmouth Free Press at Dartmouth College.

[edit] Issue Activism

Campus Progress works on national issue campaigns, including student debt and access to higher education^[2], the Iraq war, climate change^[3] , affirmative action, and academic freedom.

Campus Progress advocates on behalf of young progressives by lobbying Congress and state governments, and producing media content, trainings, and other work with young people to advance their stances on these issues. On some of these national campaigns, Campus Progress works in coalition with other organizations including the United States Students Association, Student PIRGs, Energy Action Coalition, US Action, MoveOn, American Federation of Teachers, and other advocacy organizations.

Campus Progress also provides action grants to young activists engaging in campaigns on a variety of issues. Action grants include financial support, advice, support, and training. Some trainings focus on teaching young people how to effectively communicate in the media. Action grants have addressed a wide range of issues including LGBT rights, climate change, Sudan divestment, living wages^[4], fair trade, and the death penalty.

Campus Progress has also organized alternative spring breaks. In 2008, those programs addressed climate change (held in Santa Barbara, CA), the death penalty ^[5] (Austin, TX), and the war in Iraq (Washington DC).

[edit] Events

Campus Progress has worked with students and other partners to hold more than 500 speaking programs, film screenings, debates, spoken word, training programs, and social events. Events have included discussions on HIV/AIDS^[6], academic freedom^[7], the war in Iraq^[8], and climate change. Campus Progress events are held at colleges and universities and in communities across the country. On events, Campus Progress has worked with a wide range of partners, including Media Rights, PBS and the National Black Programming Consortium, HBO, Participant Media, Focus Features, independent filmmakers, and others. Campus Progress also has taken its work on tour with the Foo Fighters, and to music festivals including Bonnaroo, Intonation, and Virgin.

Campus Progress hosts annual National Conference in Washington, D.C. that includes 1000 young attendees. The first conference was held on July 13, 2005, and featured President Bill Clinton.^[9] From The Nation Magazine: “For the first time ever, campus progressives convened, conversed and organized at their own national conference ― something right-wing groups have done annually since the 1970s…The conference left students, from Young Democrats to radical activists, energized and teeming with hope. Almost everyone I spoke with left the conference believing that a real, thriving and broad-based progressive student movement was overdue, necessary and most importantly, possible.”^[10]

The second National Conference, held on July 12, 2006, featured Senator Barack Obama.^[11] The third National Conference was held on June 26, 2007, and featured Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi.^[12] The fourth annual national student conference will be held July 8, 2008, with a keynote address by former Senator John Edwards.

In partnership with The Nation, Campus Progress organizes youth journalism conferences including a West Coast conference in Los Angeles on January 26, 2008, featuring keynote speaker Naomi Klein, and an annual journalism conference held in Washington DC the same week as the National Conference.

Around the National Conference, Campus Progress also sponsors grassroots training days, with partners including Student PIRGs and Wellstone Action, and lobbying days on issues including Sudan, Iraq, and climate change.

[edit] Staff

Campus Progress has 20 full-time staff and about 10 interns. David Halperin, former speechwriter to President Clinton and to candidate Howard Dean, has served as the director of Campus Progress since its inception.

Campus Progress also has a student network presently comprised of 140 representatives, 10 chapters, and 15 student advisory board members.

[edit] Campus Progress Action

A partner organization of Campus Progress, Campus Progress Action, engages in advocacy, coalition, and media work on key policy issues of importance to progressive young people; advances grassroots issue campaigns on campuses and in communities; and trains young people in media, policy, writing, grassroots organizing, and other skills. Campus Progress Action has been recently engaged in organizing around the 2008 youth vote during the presidential nominating contests and the upcoming general elections by hosting events^[13] and speaking with the press.^[14]

[edit] I’m Voting For

In spring 2008, Campus Progress Action launched a new project, I’m Voting For, to highlight issues of importance to young people and bring them to the attention of the media and candidates for President. ^[15] The I’m Voting For site includes video testimonials of young people talking about how their personal experiences, ideas, and values are driving them to the polls in 2008.

[edit] Controversy

Campus Progress is frequently criticized by a number of conservative groups for its policy positions and activities. In a 2005 piece for National Review Online that took issue with Campus Progress’ national conference, Jason Mattera of Young America's Foundation asserted that “...students seeking guidance were given socialist solutions.” In a video for Michelle Malkin's Hot Air in 2008, Mattera criticized Campus Progress for their fund-raising tactics and questioned their relevance to young voters, criticism that Campus Progress addressed via their own taped response.

Front Page Magazine, operated by prominent conservative commentator David Horowitz, has also frequently targeted Campus Progress. Jacob Laskin, a senior editor of the magazine, wrote that Campus Progress “has clearly partisan goals.” Horowitz himself has referred to Campus Progress as “the baby farm of the Center for American Progress.” Despite his public disapproval for Campus Progress, Horowitz agreed to an interview in December 2007.