Arizona Student Vote Coalition:
In 2006, Arizona PIRG, along with the Arizona Students’ Association and the student governments from the public universities across the state, founded the Arizona Student Vote Coalition.  The coalition has since helped to register thousands of Arizonans between the ages of 18-30 years old to vote and made tens of thousands of contacts to students reminding them to vote in the elections. 

During the 2008 election, volunteers with the Arizona Student Vote Coalition helped register nearly 10,000 students to vote (over 4,000 of which students working with Arizona PIRG's New Voters Project helped collect) and contacted over 25,000 students to make sure they voted on Election Day. That effort generated over 50 media hits across the state, support of the majority of Republican and Democrat state legislators and helped to get record numbers of young people to the polls on Election Day. 

Clean Cars:
Arizona PIRG students across the state worked to encourage Governor Napolitano to adopt Clean Car standards in Arizona.  The program would significantly reduce health-damaging pollutants, save consumers money at the pump and help to curb Arizona’s contribution to global warming. 

As part of this effort, they generated thousands of petition signatures, raised awareness of the issue through the media and recruited students from across the state to testify at a public hearing held by the Arizona Department of Environmental Quality.  Thanks to their work and to that of citizens across the state, Governor Napolitano adopted the Clean Car Standards in May 2008.  

Higher Education:
In May 2009, the Student PIRGs helped convince Congress to pass strong legislation, called the “Credit Card Accountability, Responsibility and Disclosure (CARD) Act” that will halt the most egregious abuses by the credit card industry. The CARD bill eliminates a lot of unfair practices, including: excessive and growing penalty fees, unfair billing practices, and unjustified and retroactive interest charges. It also restricts and requires greater transparency for marketing targeted exclusively at college campuses or consumers under the age of 21. Despite the credit card industry's lobbying to defeat or gut the bill, the Senate and the House both passed the bill with overwhelming, bi-partisan majorities.

In February 2009, The Student PIRGs helped convince Congress to include several key measures in the economic stimulus package.  The final package included a $17 billion increase in Pell grant funding, more work-study aid, and bigger tax credits for low-income students and their families.  The bill also included critical funding for programs that will create jobs and protect the environment, including $16 billion for public transit and $78 billion for clean energy and green infrastructure.

Arizona PIRG students joined students around the country to convince Congress to increase Higher Education funding by nearly $12 billion. In September 2007, we helped pass the College Cost Reduction and Access Act, the largest increase in federal student aid in 20 years. This law also made dramatic cuts in interest rates for student loans. We followed up by helping pass the Higher Education Opportunity Act, which was signed by President Bush in August 2008. That law contains several important policy changes, including an increase in the maximum authorized level of the Pell Grant to $9,000.

Students in Arizona worked with members of Congress, leaders in the Higher Education community in the state, and student government leaders in Arizona to call on Congress to adopt this monumental victory for Higher Education.