STUDENT IDEAS, REALIZED BY STUDENTS
The Waterloo Public Interest Research Group is proud to present our organizational archives, now fully digitized. Browse the website to explore a selection of over 40 years of student research and action on issues of social and environmental justice at the University of Waterloo and beyond. We hope this website and the collection will be a permanent resource and inspiration to students, faculty and staff, and the wider community at the University of Waterloo and the Waterloo Region.
For over four decades, students came to WPIRG with ideas that didn’t fit the mold, or challenged it. On a campus that makes claim to thinking “beyond ideas”, WPIRG carved space for critical, visionary student ideas overlooked by university administration and traditional curricula.
Our members were the driving force behind the first recycling programs on campus (1989), the beginnings of the wildly successful Fossil Fuel divestment campaign (2016—), and countless radical programming on political issues from Indigenous solidarity, anti-Black racism and white supremacy, fighting apartheid from South Africa to Palestine, tenants’ and workers’ organizing, and making space for sexual and gender diversity.
While in operation between 1973 and 2018, WPIRG ran countless workshops, hosted international speakers, held concerts, produced independent radio, and provided space, funding, and educational tools to some of the brightest and most forward-thinking students passing through Waterloo. Our funding, resources, training, staff support, and volunteer base made it all possible.
LOOKING FORWARD
WPIRG closed its doors in 2018 following a difficult couple of years fighting for our funding on campus. For forty-three years, an annual student levy of $4.75 per undergraduate allowed WPIRG to provide countless resources to campus, including staff expertise, a robust library, technological tools, a constant roaster of educational programming, project and research funding, and most importantly, a strong community.
We are certain our work does not end here. These archives are a testament to the tireless activity of students in their commitment to the most pressing social and environmental issues of their time. What we see in these pages is evidence of the power of communities getting organized for what they believe in, and if that is the spirit WPIRG fostered for over forty years, we know it won’t end with this acronym.
MANDATE
The Waterloo Public Interest Research Group was a student-run and student-funded organization in operation between 1973 and 2018 with the mission of fostering and supporting UW students and others to research, educate, and take action on environmental and social justice issues while:
Motivating community participation and responsibility by encouraging members and others to be concerned, informed, and active in their community.
Recognizing the interconnectedness, and pursuing an integrative analysis, of social justice and environmental issues.
Respecting and encouraging local and global ecosystem integrity.
Encouraging diversity and social equality for all people by opposing all forms of oppression such as those based on gender, “race”, class, sexual orientation, age, cultural heritage/ethnicity, religion, gender orientation, ability and physical appearance.
Working in a cooperative and non-hierarchical way, employing a consensus decision-making process and recognizing the necessity of people affected to participate in those processes.
