Higher Ed RallyThe Student Government Resource Center strengthens student governments and state student associations into more effective vehicles for student engagement and empowerment. We provide them with resources designed to help build a culture of organizing and advocacy.

For more than thirty years, we’ve been providing student government leaders with the training and resources to succeed, from how to run productive meetings to how to win changes in campus policies. We give student governments the skills and know-how to accomplish their goals and be effective advocates for students.

Working with Us

There are several ways that you can take advantage of our resources:

Our History

The Student Government Resource Center was founded in 1984 by student body presidents from around the country who were working together on the first-ever National Student Campaign for Voter Registration. Formerly known as the Student Empowerment Training (SET) Project, we have worked with student leaders in every state to help them develop stronger organizations and win concrete victories for students.

Here are just a few of our accomplishments over the years.

2021 – Worked with the University of South Florida Student Government to integrate vote registration to freshman orientation.

2020 – Partnered with the UNC Chapel Hill Student Government Association to build support for textbook price transparency measures, resulting in the campus adopting a voluntary course marking program.

2019 – Helped stop an automatic textbook billing proposal at UNC Chapel Hill, resulting in an opt-in rather than opt-out model for textbook purchasing at the university.

2018 – 2020 – Provided ongoing consultation with the UCLA Undergraduate Association to integrate voter registration into course registration.

2017 – Built a nationwide coalition, the Open Textbook Alliance, to demand that schools rapidly adopt the use of open textbooks.

2016 – Released a groundbreaking research report, “Hunger on Campus,” about the growing problems of food and housing insecurity on college campuses.

2015 – Published the most comprehensive toolkit available on how to open and manage an on-campus food pantry.

2014 – Hosted nonpartisan voter registration and get-out-the-vote trainings for student governments in California and Texas.

2012 – Ran statewide trainings with State Student Associations in Michigan and North Carolina on nonpartisan strategies for student governments to mobilize young people to vote in the 2012 election.

2011 – Partnered with the Student Association of Michigan (SAM) to help them develop a statewide higher education campaign and worked with them to organize a rally and lobby day in Lansing that had more than 300 students in attendance and generated ten media stories.

2008 – Worked with the Associated Students of the University of Utah to host the first Conference for Political and Civic Engagement, training student government leaders from across Utah on voter registration skills.

2008 – Trained student leaders from 18 schools from across the country on traditional and new media voter mobilization techniques at the Harvard Institute of Politics’ National Campaign Spring Conference.

2008 – Provided ongoing training and consultation to the Colorado Student Association as they successfully passed a bill to lower the cost of textbooks in Colorado.

2007 – Trained hundreds of students at regional Student Leadership Conferences held in Tempe, AZ, and Cambridge, MA.

2006 – Provided ongoing training and consultation to the South Carolina State Student Association as they won a campaign to stop the Governor’s “Education Cap” proposal.

2006 – Worked with the California State Student Association on a campaign to expand California’s premier financial aid program, generating over 1300 handwritten letters to key targets in the state house and numerous media stories, including in La Opinion, the nation’s largest Spanish language daily.

2006 – Helped students at The Evergreen State College in Washington State launch the school’s first-ever student government.

2006 – Hired and trained two staff for the Minnesota State University Student Association’s field organizing project, which worked with Minnesota students to protect federal financial aid, lower textbook prices, and engage students in the caucus process.

2005 – Provided ongoing training and campaign consultation to ActivUs at Iowa State University, a student government activist group, to assist them in running a voter registration and get-out-the-vote drive.

2005 – Provided conference support, including recruitment and planning, to the Minnesota State University Student Association’s “DC Summit.” The Summit brought together 210 students from 25 states to discuss the rising costs of higher education and potential efforts to solve the problem.

2005 – Provided conference support and ongoing consulting to student government leaders within The State University of New York (SUNY) system as they re-launched their state student association. We also helped secure a $30,000 allocation for SUNY students to use to develop the Student Association of the State University of New York (SASU).

1999 – Worked with the Arizona Students’ Association to develop a statewide campaign plan that resulted in a student victory for higher education funding.

1998 – Conducted an intensive group training for the staff of six state student associations: Washington Student Lobby, Oregon Student Association, Arizona Students’ Association, Minnesota State University Student Association, Wisconsin United Council, and the Colorado Student Association.

1994 – Worked closely with students at the University of Wisconsin-Madison to recreate their student government, the Associated Students of Madison, which had been dissolved one year earlier.