Students and faculty on campus have recently become involved in a nationwide campaign called Up to Us, to bring awareness and provide solutions for fiscal issues and national debt. Southeastern Louisiana University is currently the only university participating in the competition. 

The campus organization, which consists of faculty and students has coined the name, Up to Us Southeastern.

According to itsuptous.org, students build crucial skills in leadership, strategy development and community engagement. 

Junior computer science major and SGA senator Subash Mishra was the first student to act as a representative for the campaign at the University, and is now the team leader of the organization. 

According to Mishra, the main goal of the organization is to make students aware of fiscal issues and start conversations about it.

“[They] do what they can to come up with solutions [for issues] such as the long-term national debt the U.S. government has,” said Mishra. “It’s the first time being done at Southeastern, we might not be that impactful, but we are trying to be.”

It’s Up to Us Southeastern is supported by SGA, the History and Political Science Society (HIPS) and various other clubs on campus.

According to itsuptous.org, the winning team will receive $10,000 and the runner-up will receive $2,500. Core members of the winning team will have the opportunity to attend an all-expenses paid trip to the 2016 Clinton Global Initiative University meeting. Members of the winning team will also be eligible to apply for a paid internship at Net Impact, which includes a stipend for lodging during the summer of 2016.

Team leaders were invited to attend an all-expenses paid trip to the Net Impact Conference, which occured in November 2015. According to itsuptous.org, the Net Impact Conference is a forum for students and professionals to use their careers to tackle the world’s toughest social and environmental problems.

According to Mishra, all of the participating schools were given specific grants by the Net Impact. The organization had to submit their campaign proposal with a budget. In a final report, a budget containing the receipts and uses of the grant was also done.

Campaigns were judged based on the organizers of the competition and a panel. Judges will also focus on the success of campaign activities and the creativity behind creating them. Teams are required to participate in events like, My Two Cents Day and create additional unique events.

On October 22 2015, It’s Up To Us Southeastern held My Two Cents Day. 

According to Mishra, the organization had a very good response from the students.

“Two Cents Day was the breakout event to say we exist on campus,” said Mishra. “We had gift cards as an incentive.”

It’s Up To Us Southeastern will be holding a blogging competition starting on February 1, and prizes will be given towards the end of the month. 

Articles will be submitted to the organization’s blog, and based on the number of likes and shares, the first place winner will receive $200. Each runner up will receive $100. Submissions can include video, text, animation, sketch and graphic novels.

According to Mishra, plans for the event are still in progress. A car smash will possibly be used as an attraction to get students informed about national debt and sign the pledge. 

 “Signing a pledge on our events will pressure the local representative to take action on this issue,” said Mishra. “Our pledge signing platform will send an email to our representative that we care about this issue.”

Through these events, the organization is trying to create a discussion to show what will happen if these issues are not corrected.

It’s Up To Us Southeastern also plans to hand out informational pamphlets. According to Mishra, it is possible that a representative from Congress will attend, or a documentary movie night will occur. Free food may also be available. 

It’s Up to Us Southeastern had seven core members in the fall and now has three members. 

Director of Student Engagement Dr. Pamela Rault serves as the organization’s advisor.

 “At first, I looked for people in business departments, but then I sent a mass email to a lot of students about interest meetings who were interested in this program,” said Mishra.

Leaders of the core team have specific duties that have been divided among them. 

Freshman outreach leader Richard Davis Jr. serves as the outreach leader. He works with the student media on campus such as the Southeastern Channel, KSLU and “The Lion’s Roar” to promote the organization.

Wildcard leader Karah Morris is in charge of planning events that are unique and new.

Logistics leader Pankaj Sherchan is responsible for having resources such as registration, food and venues for events.

Engagement leader Bradley Watson connects students and other departments at Southeastern with the campaign.

Davis attended SGA meetings and met Mishra and Watson, vice president of SGA, and It’s Up to Us Southeastern member. He was invited to an interest meeting and quickly became aware of the immensity of our national debt.

 “The United States national debt is currently over $18 trillion dollars and rising at a rate of about $2.4 billion dollars a day,” said Davis. “Lawmakers have made little to no progress over the past few years to address this issue. I feel that the first step to make a change is to encourage my generation to put pressure on the national government to do something about this massive amount looming over our generation and future generations.”

According to Davis, fiscal responsibility and national debt are important to his future after life as a college student.

“…It’s important to budget and save in order to have a prosperous future,” said Davis. “With that being said, I would expect that my country’s leaders would have the same mindset when it comes to the national budget.”

Davis urges students who do not see fiscal issues and debt as an important issue to consider their possible future.

 “If the national debt continues to rise unhindered we can see budget shortfalls when it comes to social security, national defense, as well as future tax increases and an overall unstable economy,” said Davis. “In the words of Mahatma Gandhi, ‘Be the change that you wish to see in the world.’ It’s up to us.”

Students can send an email to [email protected] if they are interested in Up To Us Southeastern. Students who wish to sign up for events can send emails to [email protected].  Applicants for the blogging competition can send their submission to [email protected]. According to Mishra, it would be posted on the blog uptoselu.blogspot.com.

A conformation email will be sent, and then posts will be shared for likes and comments. 

For more information about the national campaign, Up To Us, visit itsuptous.org.