The Rise of Hunger on College Campuses

Hunger On CampusWe're excited to announce the release of our new research report, “Hunger On Campus,” on the issue of campus food insecurity.Read more


UTSA President Connects Students with City Government

We recently spoke with Ileana Gonzalez, the President of the University of Texas at San Antonio Student Government Association (UTSA SGA). She spoke about her experience as president and her work to engage the campus with San Antonio's city government.Read more


Wichita State Opens New Campus Food Pantry

We recently interviewed Kiah Duggins, Chief of Staff for the Wichita State University Student Government Association, about their new campus food pantry.Read more


DePaul Students Urge State to Fund MAP Grants

We recently interviewed Vanessa Cadavillo, President of the DePaul University Student Government Association (SGA), about her organization's campaign to win funding for Illinois' MAP grant program.Read more


University of Nevada Students Connect With City of Reno

We recently interviewed Nick Andrew, the Speaker of the Senate for the Associated Students of the University of Nevada (ASUN). We spoke to him about ASUN's "Campus to the City" initiative to connect students with the city of Reno.Read more


UCSB Shares Voices of Hunger

ASUCSB Food BankWe recently spoke with Juli Nguyen from the Food Bank run by the Associated Students of the University of California, Santa Barbara (ASUCSB). She told us about "Voices of Hunger," the Food Bank's new campaign to raise awareness about student food insecurity.Read more


Ending Hunger on Campus

Toolkit coverHunger is a reality everywhere – even on college campuses.

As college becomes less affordable, more students are living on the edge. For some, it's an ongoing struggle just to get enough to eat.

Recently, this problem has prompted some colleges to set up on-campus food pantries to help students in need. New pantries are opening every semester.

Many student governments are interested in opening a campus food pantry, but aren't sure where to start. That's why we've created this toolkit to provide the resources you need to create and operate a successful food pantry on your campus.

Please download the toolkit today!


Join the Textbooks Team

The school year has barely begun, but we've already seen exciting breakthroughs in the movement to use open textbooks on campus.

The skyrocketing cost of textbooks is making it even harder to afford a college education. Fortunately, we have a solution to this problem in the form of “open textbooks” – high-quality books that the authors have decided to publish online for free or for a very low cost in print. With open textbooks, we can help make higher education more accessible to everyone.

Just in the past month, we've seen exciting changes on this issue:

  • Thanks to hard work by students in California, the state legislature passed a bill this month that will expand the use of open textbooks at California's public universities. This comes just a few months after Oregon passed a similar law.
  • Many schools are considering the creation of open textbook programs. Most notably, the University of Maryland University College announced a plan to eliminate the use of all paid textbooks.
  • The open textbooks market keeps growing as new books are released, including new books on algebra, trigonometry, and chemistry from the popular OpenStax program.

With more and more of you working to make textbooks affordable, we're expanding our work to support open textbook programs.  As part of this, we're creating a new campaign team around this issue.

Join our Open Textbooks Team to get special campaign updates and network with other students around the country who are involved with this issue.

And if you haven't done so yet, download our open textbooks toolkit to get resources on how to bring open textbooks to your campus.


ASUNM Develops Next Generation of Leaders

ELL LogoWe recently spoke with Kyle Biederwolf, the director of Emerging Lobo Leaders at the Associated Students of the University of New Mexico (ASUNM). Emerging Lobo Leaders is a program that provides leadership opportunities for incoming UNM students. It serves as a vehicle to recruit and train future leaders for ASUNM and other student organizations.

Please tell us your name and current position in student government. Please also tell us a little bit about who you are: your year, major, and any other background info you’d like to share.
My name is Kyle Biederwolf. My current position is Executive Director of the Associated Students of the University of New Mexico’s (ASUNM’s) Emerging Lobo Leaders. I am a junior studying Marketing at the Anderson School of Management. I love Lobo basketball, “The Office” and changing peoples lives.

How did you get involved in ASUNM?
I knew right when I came to UNM that I wanted to get involved in the student government. I was a part of Youth in Government in high school and really found my passion, so there was never a question of whether or not I would join ASUNM. In the spring of my freshman year, then-ASUNM Presidential candidate Rachel Williams and Vice Presidential candidate Jenna Hagengruber reached out to me about running for a seat on the student senate. I immediately agreed, and the rest was history.Read more


How to Make Textbooks More Affordable

textbooks toolkitWe're excited to announce the release of our newest campaign resource, a toolkit for our Making Textbooks Affordable program.

The high cost of textbooks has become a serious obstacle to the affordability of a college education. The textbook market is rigged so that publishers can generate huge profits and engage in bad practices at students’ expense.

Fortunately, we have solutions to this problem, most notably in the form of “open textbooks” – high-quality books that are available online for free or for a very low cost in print. With solutions like these, we can break the publishers’ stranglehold on the market and help make higher education more accessible to everyone.

Our new toolkit provides the resources that student governments need in order to bring open textbooks to their campuses and save students money. Download it today!