When I was in college I lived in Barrington Hall, a UC Berkeley student co-op notorious for both its activism and its sloth. I saw bands–most famously the Dead Kennedys and X–play in our dining hall, and joined forces with Berkeley’s hippie population to march in whatever rallies were happening. One of my dormmates liberally graffittied the exterior of a UC Berkeley building the night before the CIA was holding a recruitment there. We didn’t really have money to donate to causes, but we had voices and cans of paint.

 Students today-equally passionate about social justice–are faced with even greater economic and educational pressures.  They want to make a difference, though time and money are tight. But what’s the one thing students must have? Textbooks! 

 So last week a group of student activists, in partnership with the California College Democrats launched Textbooks for Change, an innovative program that leverages the Amazon Associates Program, and thousands of student textbook purchases, into cash for California’s Courage Campaign and their ongoing efforts to repeal Prop 8.  By simply using the link on Textbooks for Change as the portal to Amazon and buying textbooks through the online merchant, approximately 7% of the purchase price goes to support ongoing efforts for marriage equality in California.

It almost makes me want to go back to school and like, get my degree…