Trinity ConnPIRG

Trinity students pose with Secretary of the State Denise W. Merrill during a Voter Registration Day event on the Gates Quad run by CONNPIRG in September 2019. Photo credit: CONNPIRG.

Public Interest Research Groups, or PIRG, advocate for the public interest, including but not limited to: public health, democracy, economic reform, and climate solutions. The PIRG movement was founded in 1970 by Ralph Nader. At the college level, PIRGs help raise student awareness on a variety of topics. The structuring of a PIRG involves a hired team of professionals and experts who students work with to conduct research, educate the public, and interact directly with community groups, legislative bodies, and governmental agencies. Participating students can earn academic credit for their work with a PIRG. These groups are completely student funded and student run (initially, the Trinity chapter was financed by $2 from each student’s Activities Fee per semester, unless they opted to receive a refund). The Connecticut Public Interest Research Group (ConnPIRG) was first conceived of in Fall 1972, and by Spring 1973 several Connecticut colleges and universities had successfully petitioned for the establishment of a PIRG at their institutions. By summer 1973, Trinity had contracted with its board and ConnPIRG became a financial reality.

Throughout the 1973-74 school year, Trinity ConnPIRG supported efforts to educate the public about toy safety, investigate phone installation charges, survey the checking account policies at local banks, and compile a directory of local medical practitioners. In 1975-76, ConnPIRG surveyed grocery prices in the area, provided Trinity students with free legal aid, surveyed sex discrimination in employment agencies, and studied Hartford’s public transportation.

An official Trinity ConnPIRG office was established in 1974. In October of that year, a Consumer Complaint Center headed by Steve Batson was set up within that office. The Center received any and all complaints regarding an article of purchase or service used. Trained operators would hear the complaints and then contact the salesmen, companies, and manufacturers involved, acting as “watchdogs” for the consumers of the Trinity area. In 1978, this service was expanded with a grant from the Comprehensive Employment Training Act to serve all residents of the Greater Hartford Area in providing consumer counseling. Beginning in 1975, the office also housed a lawyer retained by ConnPIRG who was on campus two hours per week to advise any students who wished to seek legal guidance. In April 1974, Ralph Nader visited Trinity to deliver a speech on the Quad, praising Trinity ConnPIRG for their work.

Throughout the 1980s and 1990s, Trinity ConnPIRG continued to engage in local and national political and social reform, including sponsoring sustainability initiatives, encouraging student voter registration by supporting SUAVE (Students United for Achieving Voter Education), lobbying legislative movements that affected student life, and raising awareness about hunger and homelessness. The Student Activities Fee was also raised to $5 to support the growth of the organization during this time.

Trinity ConnPIRG continued their work on campus in the 2000s and 2010s, as they took up resolutions to lessen the cost of textbooks for students and to make the Trinity campus more environmentally aware. In addition, they helped sponsor initiatives to improve the tenuous social standing of Greek life on campus. In 2006, the group advocated “to get the attention of Connecticut senators to re-examine existing legislation to help the homeless” in conjunction with the nationwide Annual Hunger Cleanup. The 2008 election prompted Trinity ConnPIRG to strengthen their efforts to increase student voter turnout, resulting in 700 Trinity students being successfully registered by the registration deadline. The midterm elections of 2014 sparked a similar movement by the group to exceed their goal of registering 150 students to vote by the October deadline for registration in Connecticut. On November 2, 2017, Trinity ConnPIRG hosted the inaugural Trin Talks, an event designed to encourage dialogue among students of differing political views. Discussions among several students representing the Democratic, Republican, and Libertarian viewpoints touched on several key political topics relevant to Trinity and the greater political culture in the United States.

In 2020, the group helped educate and register students to vote, increasing the percentage of voters by 21.5 points in comparison to the 2016 election. Trinity College received the 2021 Silver Seal award in the ALL IN Campus Democracy Challenge, recognizing select higher education institutions, educators, and students for their extraordinary work in student voter engagement during the 2020 presidential election.