Abstract

I have an honors thesis due by the end of the year(?). It's going to be about student political organizing and action. which is logical because I've been deeply involved with the student-version of the Public Research Interest Group, (or PIRG for short) so I've gotten a lot of first hand experience on the issue. However, this paper isn't going to just be a diary; I plan to produce an actual, intellectual document on the issue of how students politically organize themselves, and for what reasons. I figure the best way to write about this topic would be to start writing.

I'm the current Board Chair of MassPIRG, so a lot of my stuff is going to focus on that, for now anyways. PIRG is a useful analytical tool for this issue, since the organization acts as a petri dish for how student activism works for the broader network of the progressive policy lobbying in the US. But PIRG isn't the whole story either, and my analysis needs to be aware of that. As a side-note, I will (and have) been critical of PIRG in some aspects. But I'm still very committed to the work I do with it, and think highly of its goals and staff. I feel a there are a few (fixable) issues with it that hinder its performance.

I'd like to invite any one reading to invite their own experiences and opinions, especially if they contrast with my own.