Hey all,

I just wanted to give everyone a quick summary of what NYCSU has been working on since the last posts.

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On May 18th, representatives of the NYCSU will be leading the education committee, one youth politics subcommittee and one environment subcommittee at the New York City Youth Congress. In the past this annual congress has lead to the creation of peer courts and the birth of a City Council bill which would lower the municipal voting age to 16. We hope to make an impact at this years congress and look forward to working with ‘Future Voters’ in the future.
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On March 22nd, 18 NYCSU members met with Governor Eliot Spitzer’s policy director Peter Pope for our first run at lobbying the Campaign Against Student Apathy. We are currently planning to lobby CASA to other politicians and hope to stay in contact with Mr. Pope. More to come…
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In early February, the NYCSU met with Class Size Matters’ Leonie Haimson who spoke to the union about the issue of Class Size in New York City’s schools.
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Also in February, The NYCSU, in coordination with Future Voters of America, organized a forum on youth involvement in the education system at Pace University. Panelists included Chairman of the City Council’s Education Committee Robert Jackson and representatives from the Department of Education as well as CUNY Professor Stanley Aronowitz. The forum shed light on some important factors in youth organization and was overall a very successful event.
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During Regents Week in January, 6 NYCSU representatives led workshops for eighth graders in both general and special education programs at MS 51 in Brooklyn. The workshops centered around how the students could make a difference in their school now and when they get to high school.
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In addition to preparing for the Youth Congress and internal restructuring (see last post) the NYCSU is in final planning stages for several projects to be announced soon.

– Seth Pearce