Campus Progress
Encyclopedia
Campus Progress, launched in February 2005, is an American non-profit organization that promotes progressive political and social policy through support for student activists and journalists on college campuses in the United States. Based at the Center for American Progress
in Washington, D.C., Campus Progress has an affiliated advocacy organization, Campus Progress Action.
CampusProgress.org is a web magazine written by young people, primarily focused on journalism, analysis, opinions, cartoons, videos, and organizing tools. Articles including reports on youth activism, reviews of films and music, and interviews with well-known people like Noam Chomsky
, 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. Campus Progress distributes a print edition of its web magazine on college campuses and at events.
Campus publications network
Campus Progress supports progressive-leaning 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
, The Fine Print at the University of Florida
, Vanderbilt Orbis
at Vanderbilt University
, and The Dartmouth Free Press at Dartmouth College
.
student debt and access to higher education, the Iraq war, climate change, affirmative action, and academic freedom.
Campus Progress advocates on behalf of young people 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, 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 (Austin, TX), and the war in Iraq (Washington DC).
, and to music festivals including Bonnaroo, Intonation, and Virgin.
Campus Progress hosts an 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
and Rep. John Lewis. 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.”
The second National Conference, held on July 12, 2006, featured Senator Barack Obama
, Rep. Tammy Baldwin, Samantha Power, Majora Carter
, Rev. James Forbes, and rapper Fat Joe. The third National Conference was held on June 26, 2007, and featured Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi
, Sen. Russ Feingold, Rep. Keith Ellison, Sen. Tom Daschle, Ralph Nader, and Seymour Hersh. The fourth annual national conference was held July 8, 2008, with remarks by former Senator John Edwards, Rep. Linda Sanchez, musicians Ted Leo and M1, and actor Ryan Gosling. The fifth annual conference, on July 8, 2009, featured President Clinton, Speaker Pelosi, HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius, White House green jobs advisor Van Jones, John Oliver from "The Daily Show," and Joel Madden from Good Charlotte.
In partnership with The Nation magazine, 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, the economy, and climate change.
of Young America's Foundation 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.
Center for American Progress
The Center for American Progress is a progressive public policy research and advocacy organization. Its website states that the organization is "dedicated to improving the lives of Americans through progressive ideas and action." It has its headquarters in Washington D.C.Its President and Chief...
in Washington, D.C., Campus Progress has an affiliated advocacy organization, Campus Progress Action.
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.Journalism
CampusProgress.org magazineCampusProgress.org is a web magazine written by young people, primarily focused on journalism, analysis, opinions, cartoons, videos, and organizing tools. Articles including reports on youth activism, reviews of films and music, and interviews with well-known people like Noam Chomsky
Noam Chomsky
Avram Noam Chomsky is an American linguist, philosopher, cognitive scientist, and activist. He is an Institute Professor and Professor in the Department of Linguistics & Philosophy at MIT, where he has worked for over 50 years. Chomsky has been described as the "father of modern linguistics" and...
, Barack Obama
Barack Obama
Barack Hussein Obama II is the 44th and current President of the United States. He is the first African American to hold the office. Obama previously served as a United States Senator from Illinois, from January 2005 until he resigned following his victory in the 2008 presidential election.Born in...
, Helen Thomas
Helen Thomas
Helen Thomas is an American author and former news service reporter, member of the White House Press Corps and opinion columnist. She worked for the United Press and post-1958 successor United Press International for 57 years, first as a correspondent, and later as White House bureau manager...
, Stephen Colbert
Stephen Colbert
Stephen Tyrone Colbert is an American political satirist, writer, comedian, television host, and actor. He is the host of Comedy Central's The Colbert Report, a satirical news show in which Colbert portrays a caricatured version of conservative political pundits.Colbert originally studied to be an...
, Margaret Cho
Margaret Cho
Margaret Cho is an American comedian, fashion designer, actress, author, and recording artist. Cho is best known for her stand-up routines, through which she critiques social and political problems, especially those pertaining to race and sexuality. She has also directed and appeared in music...
, Larry David
Larry David
Lawrence Gene "Larry" David is an American actor, writer, comedian and producer. He is best known as the co-creator , head writer, and executive producer of the television series Seinfeld from 1989 to 1996, and for creating the 1999 HBO series Curb Your Enthusiasm, a partially improvised sitcom in...
and Seymour Hersh
Seymour Hersh
Seymour Myron Hersh is an American Pulitzer Prize-winning investigative journalist and author based in Washington, D.C. He is a regular contributor to The New Yorker magazine on military and security matters...
. CampusProgress.org regularly profiles conservative leaders in its right-wing speakers bio section. Campus Progress distributes a print edition of its web magazine on college campuses and at events.
Campus publications network
Campus Progress supports progressive-leaning student publications on more than fifty campuses including The Claremont Port Side at Claremont McKenna College
Claremont McKenna College
Claremont McKenna College is a private, coeducational liberal arts college and a member of the Claremont Colleges located in Claremont, California. The campus is located east of Downtown Los Angeles...
, Songhai News: The Black Collegiate Voice at the University of Houston
University of Houston
The University of Houston is a state research university, and is the flagship institution of the University of Houston System. Founded in 1927, it is Texas's third-largest university with nearly 40,000 students. Its campus spans 667 acres in southeast Houston, and was known as University of...
, The Big Green
The Big Green
The Big Green is a 1995 Walt Disney Pictures film starring Steve Guttenberg and Olivia D'Abo, written and directed by Holly Goldberg Sloan...
at Michigan State University
Michigan State University
Michigan State University is a public research university in East Lansing, Michigan, USA. Founded in 1855, it was the pioneer land-grant institution and served as a model for future land-grant colleges in the United States under the 1862 Morrill Act.MSU pioneered the studies of packaging,...
, The Fine Print at the University of Florida
University of Florida
The University of Florida is an American public land-grant, sea-grant, and space-grant research university located on a campus in Gainesville, Florida. The university traces its historical origins to 1853, and has operated continuously on its present Gainesville campus since September 1906...
, Vanderbilt Orbis
Vanderbilt Orbis
is a student-produced publication at Vanderbilt University, which provides an outlet for a broad array of progressive, left-wing and minority voices on campus...
at Vanderbilt University
Vanderbilt University
Vanderbilt University is a private research university located in Nashville, Tennessee, United States. Founded in 1873, the university is named for shipping and rail magnate "Commodore" Cornelius Vanderbilt, who provided Vanderbilt its initial $1 million endowment despite having never been to the...
, and The Dartmouth Free Press at Dartmouth College
Dartmouth College
Dartmouth College is a private, Ivy League university in Hanover, New Hampshire, United States. The institution comprises a liberal arts college, Dartmouth Medical School, Thayer School of Engineering, and the Tuck School of Business, as well as 19 graduate programs in the arts and sciences...
.
Issue Activism
Campus Progress works on national issue campaigns, includingstudent debt and access to higher education, the Iraq war, climate change, affirmative action, and academic freedom.
Campus Progress advocates on behalf of young people 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
Energy Action Coalition
The Energy Action Coalition is a North American non-profit organization made up of 50 partner organizations in the U.S. and Canada that runs campaigns to build the youth and student clean energy movement and advocate for tangible changes on local, state, national and international levels in North...
, US Action, MoveOn
MoveOn
MoveOn is an American non-profit, progressive or liberal public policy advocacy group and political action committee, which has raised millions of dollars for candidates it identifies as "moderates" or "progressives" in the United States. It was formed in 1998 in response to the impeachment of...
, American Federation of Teachers
American Federation of Teachers
The American Federation of Teachers is an American labor union founded in 1916 that represents teachers, paraprofessionals and school-related personnel; local, state and federal employees; higher education faculty and staff, and nurses and other healthcare professionals...
, 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, 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 (Austin, TX), and the war in Iraq (Washington DC).
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, academic freedom, the war in Iraq, 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 FightersFoo Fighters
Foo Fighters is an American alternative rock band originally formed in 1994 by Nirvana drummer Dave Grohl as a one-man project following the dissolution of his previous band. The band got its name from the UFOs and various aerial phenomena that were reported by Allied aircraft pilots in World War...
, and to music festivals including Bonnaroo, Intonation, and Virgin.
Campus Progress hosts an 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
Bill Clinton
William Jefferson "Bill" Clinton is an American politician who served as the 42nd President of the United States from 1993 to 2001. Inaugurated at age 46, he was the third-youngest president. He took office at the end of the Cold War, and was the first president of the baby boomer generation...
and Rep. John Lewis. 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.”
The second National Conference, held on July 12, 2006, featured Senator Barack Obama
Barack Obama
Barack Hussein Obama II is the 44th and current President of the United States. He is the first African American to hold the office. Obama previously served as a United States Senator from Illinois, from January 2005 until he resigned following his victory in the 2008 presidential election.Born in...
, Rep. Tammy Baldwin, Samantha Power, Majora Carter
Majora Carter
Majora Carter is an economic consultant, public radio host, and environmental justice advocate from the South Bronx area of New York City. Carter founded the non-profit environmental justice solutions corporation Sustainable South Bronx before entering the private sector.-Early life:Carter...
, Rev. James Forbes, and rapper Fat Joe. The third National Conference was held on June 26, 2007, and featured Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi
Nancy Pelosi
Nancy Patricia D'Alesandro Pelosi is the Minority Leader of the United States House of Representatives and served as the 60th Speaker of the United States House of Representatives from 2007 to 2011...
, Sen. Russ Feingold, Rep. Keith Ellison, Sen. Tom Daschle, Ralph Nader, and Seymour Hersh. The fourth annual national conference was held July 8, 2008, with remarks by former Senator John Edwards, Rep. Linda Sanchez, musicians Ted Leo and M1, and actor Ryan Gosling. The fifth annual conference, on July 8, 2009, featured President Clinton, Speaker Pelosi, HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius, White House green jobs advisor Van Jones, John Oliver from "The Daily Show," and Joel Madden from Good Charlotte.
In partnership with The Nation magazine, Campus Progress organizes youth journalism conferences including a West Coast conference in Los Angeles on January 26, 2008, featuring keynote speaker Naomi Klein
Naomi Klein
Naomi Klein is a Canadian author and social activist known for her political analyses and criticism of corporate globalization.-Family:...
, 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
Wellstone Action
Wellstone Action is a Saint Paul, Minnesota-based non-profit organization that was founded by Jeff Blodgett. The camp trains progressive citizens - and potential candidates for public office - how to succeed in winning elections, enacting legislation, and passing ballot initiatives. The...
, and lobbying days on issues including Sudan, Iraq, the economy, and climate change.
Leadership
Campus Progress is led by David Halperin, former speechwriter to President Clinton.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 and speaking with the press.Criticism
Campus Progress is frequently criticized by conservative groups for its policy positions and activities. In a video for Michelle Malkin's Hot Air in 2008, Jason MatteraJason Mattera
Jason Joseph Mattera is an American writer, activist, radio host, and editor of Human Events magazine. He entered conservative activism while attending Roger Williams University and has worked for Young America's Foundation....
of Young America's Foundation 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.