It’s the first day of volunteering for Hugo Gonzalez, a sophomore microbiology major, and he’s already collected several dozen signatures.
“I got a lot of signatures,” Gonzalez said, showing off a stack of “No on 23” postcards attached to his clipboard. “A lot of people are interested in the environment and how it’s going to affect them.”
Gonzalez is a member of a coalition between Cal State Long Beach and public-interest research group CALPIRG. Together they are trying to secure more than 10,000 signatures to raise student awareness on Proposition 23.
“I came to Long Beach because it’s the third biggest school in the state, with people who are up in the issues but least likely to vote,” said Jaafar Rizvi, a CALPIRG campus organizer.
Rizvi explained the relationship between CALPIRG and students.
“The student role in CALPIRG is pretty significant. The student government or body voted to give $3 of every student’s fee to have a CALPIRG chapter on campus and has remained a big part of what we do,” Rizvi said. “We’ve expanded to work on non-campus issues as well.”
According to CALPIRG’s website, it was formed to take on “powerful interests on behalf of Californians, working to win concrete results for our health and our well-being.”
A volunteer-student army
Rizvi said the focus of the “No on 23” campaign was to get the word out by speaking to students in classes and getting volunteers.
“[We] sent out e-mails to professors and asked to speak in class and make announcements, call and get them involved, and it grew from there,” Rizvi said. “A lot of professors said it was okay and volunteers made announcements.”
The next step was recruiting volunteers.
“A student came into my class and sounded so excited and made me want to get involved,” said Sabrina Bartell, sophomore communications major and volunteer. “I went to an information session and it just seemed really important. This is the only way to get the correct information and the correct response.”
Other volunteers became interested when they found out the effects of the proposition.
“This proposition was particularly interesting because it’s going to affect our generation,” said Amber Mello, junior communications and environmental sciences major and volunteer. “It’s a prop written with a lot of misinformation. We shouldn’t be looking at a small viewpoint, but looking at what is best for people, health and environment.”
An issue worth knowing
Proposition 23 would suspend California’s Global Warming Solutions Act, also known as Assembly Bill 32.
The measure was enacted by the Legislature in 2006, with the support of Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger. It requires the state to reduce its greenhouse gas emissions to levels equals to 1990 by 2020, about 30 percent below projected emission levels if the bill were not in effect.
The purpose was to reinforce California laws addressing climate change. But Proposition 23 would put Assembly Bill 32 measures on hold and prevent new ones until the state achieves economic recovery — four consecutive quarters of unemployment below 5.5 percent.
“We’ve been making class announcements and going up to people and talking to them,” Mello said. “I personally like talking one-on-one with people and talking about any concerns — what they’ve heard from the opposing sides; you get to stomp out confusion.”
Putting the information out into the public consciousness is still one of the biggest concerns facing the “No on 23” campaign.
“The whole idea about the campaign is to get students more aware of how to vote,” Rizvi said.
Political science major and junior Carlisa Van Buren has her own reasons why she joined the campaign.
“Being from an inner city, I’ve seen environmental racism,” Van Buren said. “Environmental racism is where a big company dumps waste in an inner city and the people in the city are unaware.”
Getting the public involved
“No on 23” utilizes a number of different tactics to alert people about what’s going on.
“Because of research and studies on how people vote, if they sign a pledge they are more likely to vote or get a call reminding them,” Rizvi said.
Talking to people is just one dimension of creating awareness; there is also the public protest aspect.
“We did a protest at Valero [gas station],” Bartell said. “We were out there for an hour and people were honking and showing their support. We’re going to get people to pledge.”
Valero Energy Corp. is a major supporter of Prop 23.
“Tabling, stopping students and engaging them, class announcements are just some of the ways to help out,” Van Buren said. “Anything you can do to spread the word is volunteering.”
Response from students
So far, the volunteers have gathered more than 3,000 signatures.
Lauren Van, freshman computer science major, is one of the 3,000 who will be receiving a reminder to vote no on Proposition 23.
“I’m interested in the environment,” said Van, explaining why she sign up for the postcard. “[The volunteers] were talking about stopping pollution.”
Volunteers say student response has been fairly positive.
“Most people are like, ‘Wow, I didn’t know what that’s about,’ ” Mello said. “Most are pretty appalled that [the proposition is] not in the public interest. It would repeal laws that took a really long time to implement in the first place.”
“We’re trying to [raise awareness] because we don’t want an oil company buying another election,” Van Buren said. “We have a voice and we should use it.”
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