‘Want better gas mileage? Make sure your tires are properly inflated,’ read a poster hanging on the wall at the ActivUs campaign kickoff meeting Monday night.

Campus climate change and student debt were the main issues discussed at the meeting.

ActivUs is a student group on campus that runs Public Interest Research Group (PIRG) campaigns at a local and national level.

“Activism is very simple, we do it because it affects change,” said Kathleen Cogan, Iowa PIRG campus organizer. “And we have the power to affect change.”

Devin Hartman, ActivUs president and senior in political science, led the meeting, discussing campus climate challenge.

The campaign has three ways to implement change. The first is to get Iowa State to conserve energy.

“The time has come when climate change is an issue and it cannot wait any longer,” Hartman said. “If we fail to address this issue, the effects are irreversible.”

ActivUs also wants to focus on education and awareness about global warming.

“We need to make sure the students on this campus know that global warming is an issue,” Hartman said.

The third way ActivUs hopes to improve global warming is by pushing for political action at federal levels.

“Our ultimate goal is to ensure that in the 2008 election, global warming is a hot priority issue,” Hartman said.

ActivUS strives to form coalitions with other student organizations on campus to improve its cause.

They are sponsoring a showing of Al Gore’s documentary “An Inconvenient Truth,” at 7 p.m. Tuesday in 1105 Pearson Hall.

The other campaign that ActivUs kicked-off was the Student debt alert.

“About two-thirds of students across the country have to borrow to pay for their college,” said Valerie Gleason, Student Debt Alert coordinator and senior in English.

Student debt alert is focused on making college more affordable and accessible, Hartman said.

“In addition, we also want to increase the amount of Pell Grants up to $5,100,” he said.

They plan to put pressure on politicians to make sure student loan rates are low.

“It is important to make politicians know that this is important to us,” Gleason said.

At the end of the meeting, members dispersed into groups and brainstormed ideas to make the campaigns successful.

One of the ideas mentioned was having a competition among dormitories to see which was the most energy efficient and offering prizes.

Another idea was making recycling bins more visible in the buildings on campus.