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A documentary film on Social Security funded largely by SSS and
CSA will be released in February 2006. This film is intended to
send the message that Social Security is too valuable to too many
Americans to be put at risk through privatization efforts. Look
for it on the SSS and CSA websites in the coming weeks.
SSS was highlighted in the American Society on Aging's
December 2005 ASA Connection Newsletter. Here is the article:
PUBLIC POLICY LINK: STUDENT ORGANIZERS TAKE TO THE WEB TO PRESERVE
SOCIAL SECURITY
If you've wondered about the position of student activists in what
might be the ultimate debate about their financial future, one answer
is to be found on the website of Students for Social Security (SSS).
With the full exuberance that all caps and exclamation points can
muster, the SSS site exhorts students to "Call President Bush
and Say NO WAY to ANY PRIVATIZATION PROPOSAL!"
According to the SSS website, the group is a "nonpartisan,
nonprofit organization working to inform students about the evidence-based
effects of privatization on young people, their families and the
economy in which they will soon be entering the workforce."
The site features an organizers tool kit, an events calendar and
fact sheets. The site also offers fliers, handouts and PowerPoint
presentations, as well as sample op-ed articles and letters to the
editor. In addition, SSS produces a monthly e-mail newsletter titled
"Our Shared Future."
Visit the Students for Social Security website at http://www.studentsforsocialsecurity.org.
Members of SSS and CSA attended the Gerontological Society of
America (GSA) conference November 18-22, 2005 in Orlando, Florida.
SSS and CSA were present at the Emerging Scholar and Professional
Organization (ESPO) and Sigma Phi Omega (Gerontology Honors Society)
breakfast/business meeting to introduce the organization and pass
out materials. SSS and CSA hosted a Social Security Speak-Out where
Carroll Estes, Fay Cook, Stephen Crystal and Brooke Hollister presented
on the importance of Social Security to young adults and students.
However, the highlight of the conference was the debate between
Dr. Carroll Estes, professor and co- founder of SSS/CSA, John Williamson,
Boston University, and Michael Tanner of the CATO institute in a
session titled "What's the latest on Social Security Reform?"
Dr. Estes had Mr. Tanner visibly flustered in front of this standing
room only audience, with his head in his hands through most of her
presentation.
On 11/16/05 CSA advisory board member Bob Binstock spoke to the
Student Aging and Geriatrics Interest Group of the Lerner College
of Medicine of the Cleveland Clinic Foundation, and the School of
Medicine at Case Western Reserve University. Among other things,
he educated them about the importance of Social Security for all
of its types of beneficiaries as well as the nature and consequences
of the attacks on Social Security.
SSS and CSA were highlighted in the September/October 2005 Association
for Gerontology in Higher Education (AGHE) Newsletter,
AGHExchange, in an article entitled "Concerned Scientists in
Aging Provide Resources for Social Security Discussions."
"Concerned Scientists in Aging (CSA), a non-partisan, non-profit
group of more than 200 scholars in aging, has launched an initiative
to provide educational resources on Social Security to faculty
and students across the country. CSA's goals are to advance evidence-based
knowledge concerning Social Security and the implications of the
policy proposals that challenge the existing system; and to disseminate
information concerning retirement security for all Americans including
the effects of privatization on the younger disabled, survivors,
women, minorities, and all wage earners and families. CSA members
are also working with a student-led group, Students for Social
Security, to inform the younger generation about Social Security
as a social insurance program protecting all Americans from poverty
in old age, after the loss of a spouse, or as a result of disability.
CSA faculty coordinators are Carroll Estes, University of California,
San Francisco, and Leah Rogne, Minnesota State University, Mankato.
Student coordinators are Brooke Hollister, UC San Francisco, and
Melissa Bartley, MSU, Mankato."
Check out the AGHE website for more information at www.aghe.org.
On September 16, 2005, Kristen Erekson, Student at Northern Illinois
University and Vice President of College Democrats, and member of
Women’s Alliance and Labor Rights groups, put SSS/CSA materials
and a pledge out on the College Democrats table at NIU’s Organizational
Exposition. The following week our petition was brought to their
meeting with about 30 signatures.
Carroll Estes and Brooke Hollister appeared on a panel with Congresswoman
Lynn Woolsey of Santa Rosa and spoke about Social Security and the
youth to 80 students at Santa Rosa Junior College on August 29,
2005.
SSS and CSA recruited members, handed out materials, and collected
signatures at the American Sociological Association conference section
on Aging and the Life Course meeting in Philadelphia, PA on August
15, 2005.
SSS/CSA were well-represented at the Social Security Birthday
Party put on by Nancy Pelosi, the minority leader of the House of
Representatives on August 4th, 2005 at San Francisco’s Dorothy
Day Senior Center. SSS member and co-founder Mauro Hernandez spoke
at the event. Several pictures were taken by the media.
Students for Social Security and Concerned Scientists in Aging is a project of Community
Partners. ©2005
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