Brandeis Coalition for Change, which aims to make issues of violence, the environment and poverty priorities for President-elect Barack Obama's administration, is now encouraging students to express which issues they feel are most important for the new administration to address by using Obama's www.change.gov Web site, according to Coalition representative Ned Crowley '10. The Coalition is a collaboration among Student Peace Alliance, Students for Environmental Action and Positive Foundations. The Brandeis CFC created a Facebook event called "My Vision Is...," which represents the Coalition's first effort "to pass on our visions for Obama's administration," Crowley wrote in an e-mail to the Justice.

Alex Epps '10, a member of SPA, explained that SPA, SEA and PF each chose three issues, or "asks," and that Brandeis students will select one from each group's list to form a message to Obama.

SPA wants the new administration to establish a cabinet-level U.S. Department of Peace, make the prevention and reduction of youth violence a priority in the federal budget and ensure nonviolent and conflict resolution to the U.S. military and representatives abroad.

SEA is pushing for a rewrite of the Farm Bill to support smaller-scale family farms, local food and organic and heritage farming. It also wants the U.S. auto factories to start producing flexible-fuel vehicles, by 2010, of which 30 percent must be electric vehicles by 2015. The third goal is the creation of 5 million jobs by investing $30 billion a year in green industry.

PF is advocating the reduction of the number of people living in extreme poverty in half by 2015 and devoting 0.7 percent of the U.S. GDP to foreign aid and global sustainable development. It also wants the U.S. to pay off its debt to the U.N.

Last week, the Coalition hosted the weeklong event "My Vision Is.," which involved tabling in the Shapiro Campus Center and in Usdan Student Center. Students could access the Web site after speaking to club representatives about the different "asks," Schmidt explained. The Brandeis CFC will continue tabling until Inauguration Day, Jan. 20.

According to the event group on Facebook, 212 students planned to participate in this initiative. Crowley wrote in an e-mail to the Justice that the Coalition hopes to send a minimum of 1,200 messages by Inauguration Day.

Programs that "look at the root causes of [youth violence have] drastically reduced" crime levels, McConnell explained. McConnell said that organizations that examine the root cause of youth violence are a "legitimate source that needs to be financed" by the government.

SPA believes U.S. military and representatives abroad do not have "proper trainings in cultural norms," said McConnell. The limited training in cultural sensitivity and conflict resolution currently offered are inadequate, she added.

Schmidt said that SEA's first issue, which asks for the the rapid reduction of the use of fossil fuels and irrigation water, can be achieved through organic farming. Schmidt believes that organic farming stands for a "more sustainable agricultural industry" because it does not exploit the use of fossil fuels.

SEA wants to see the U.S. auto industry start producing only flexible-fuel vehicles by 2010 in order to conserve emissions. Flex-fuel vehicles are "designed to run on gasoline or a blend of up to 85 percent ethanol," according to Fueleconomy.gov. Although Schmidt admitted, "An ideal car would be an electric car with no emissions," he said that "[an FFV] is just a long transition to what we would like to see."

Schmidt explained that the growth of green industries, such as solar panel factories, would enable the government to provide more jobs, as well as push the economy in a more environmentally friendly direction.

Executive Director of PF Allyson Goldsmith '10 explained that the issues PF is focusing on are based on the United Nations Millennium Development Goals, eight international development goals that U.N. member states and international organizations have agreed to achieve by 2015.

Goldsmith said the U.S. is a "way off hitting the margin [because the U.S.] only donates 0.2 percent [of the U.S. GDP] to foreign aid when it has agreed to contribute [0.7 percent of U.S. GDP] under the Millennium Goals." She believes that the U.N. "cannot work effectively" and continue to be "instrumental in ending poverty" if the U.S. does not pay its debt of $65 billion to the U.N.