The air is getting cooler, the leaves are turning and falling, and all across Minnesota, kids are settling in to their lives as students. New dorms, new classes, and a host of new responsibilities. This week, Al and TeamFranken are traveling the state listening, learning and picking up some enthusiastic supporters.

Students today don’t have it quite as easy as when Al and Franni were going to school - at least, students today don’t have quite the same safety net. When Franni went to college, she did because of a Pell grant, which had the federal government pay 90% of her school costs. Today, the new Democratic Congress had to fight to get that same Pell grant to cover just over 40%. Today, students work two or three jobs to pay their way through school, and take out ever larger loans to cover the difference.

But it isn’t just tuition that will cost these kids.

College-age kids will inherit more than the mortgage-sized debt they expect to graduate with. They’ll inherit the government’s failure to address our health care crisis. When the baby boomers get older, and lack sufficient health insurance, or can’t afford their prescriptions, who do you think will take care of them? When climate change, well, heats up, who do you think will pay the price? Who do you think is paying the price today in Iraq?

Students are ready for change. They’re engaged, motivated, informed and ready to get to work solving some of these crises before Washington can completely pass the buck off to the younger generations. And we saw evidence of that all week.

Sunday started us off at Macalester, where Al spoke at the very start of his campaign back in February. This time there were a few more students, lots more questions, and if I’m not mistaken, WAY more ice cream. On Monday it was Anoka-Ramsey Community College and Minneapolis Community and Technical College in the morning. At MCTC, Al addressed about 100 kids involved in the bi-partisan political science group called “the Party.” You can read the preview at the school’s paper here.

That afternoon, it was a rally at the University of Minnesota. There were balloons, snacks, music, photos, and hundreds of students ready to cheer for Al. And the best part of it was - it was Franni’s birthday! Al managed a surprise even in the middle of our busy day - he gave her flowers from on stage. Mostly he talked about what America was like when he was going to Harvard, and what we can do to get ourselves back on track. But before we can start changing things for the better, we’ve got to get past the election - and that means turning out students to caucus for Al!

Liz Riggs from The Minnesota Daily was there to cover our appeal to the youth vote.

Will Howell, college director at the Franken campaign and senior at Macalester College in St. Paul, said the purpose of “College Week” is to demonstrate that the campaign takes college students seriously as important members of the electorate.

A moment should be taken here to recognize some of the hardest working and most talented members of TeamFranken, our student interns and volunteers. We have dozens of kids like Will without whom we just couldn’t build the kind of people-powered machine we need to win. This week we had a student liaison to the press, student coordinators, student organizers and college democrats across Minnesota who made College Week a success.

We have learned so much already. On Tuesday Al met with student leaders like Caleb Anderson, who was appointed to the MNSCU board by Governor Pawlenty, the Mankato State University student body president, his vice president, and editors past and present of the school’s newspaper. For an hour and a half they talked to us about what life was like for students at MSU, where over half the student body is employed full time in addition to their studies.

They make it work, they sacrifice sleep and sanity, they maintain their grades despite the added stress, and they graduate into a riskier job market than their parents could have imagined.

But there is a hope and optimism among these young people, the youngest of whom were just 11 when George W. Bush took office. They may not remember a time when our President wasn’t arrogant and our government wasn’t incompetent, but they’re seeing signs of the turnaround after the ‘06 elections, and their sights are set on ‘08.

Tuesday afternoon, Al met with the college dems at Gustavus, where he spoke and then stayed around to answer some questions - a couple of those questions were asked by a non-student reporter from KEYC. You can check out his video here.

The night closed at St. Olaf, where College Dem president Daniella had worked overtime with her team to pull together a crowd of at least 400. The rally was a wild success, with the audience on their feet by the end of Al’s speech.

Tuesday morning was a little smaller, but no less enthusiastic. St. Cloud State University students gathered for breakfast and politics. Between coffee and muffins, the crowded classroom heard Al talk about the race for the senate and why he wanted to represent them. KSAX has an excellent run-down of the event here.

It wasn’t exactly a college, but still very educational - next we headed off to Little Falls so Al could speak to a room full of teachers at the Education Minnesota convention. Rep. John Ward and Rep. Al Doty were there, and central Minnesota is lucky to have the knowledge and enthusiasm of these two representatives. Al got to talk about College Week and all he’s learned - everyone he’s met. It’s been an incredible tour - and we can remember all winter the hope and optimism of the thousands of students we’ve seen this trip.

The last day brought TeamFranken to Moorhead and a classroom packed with over a hundred kids. There was coffee, cinnamon rolls, TV cameras , and wonderful questions from the audience for over an hour. The Fargo Forum has a great write-up here.

Next we traveled south, where Al got to tour the wind turbine at the U of M Morris. He also saw the site for their new biomass gasification plant. UMM is doing some of the most exciting things in the country when it comes to renewable energy. Their campus will be carbon neutral by 2010. And their investment in our future is an absolute inspiration. Like Al says, this is America. And we can do this.

The final stop on the tour was at the Science Auditorium in Morris, where Al brought down the house for what might have been our largest crowd yet (way to go Adam and the UMM dems!). Hundreds of students packed in to hear about Al’s campaign for change. The Morris Sun Tribune has the story.

Last week was the 50 year anniversary of Sputnik, and Al likes to talk about what that meant to him as a kid. It inspired America to get into gear and put a man on the moon. Well, the time has come for America to step up again. The last six years have been devastating, but with courage and leadership we can turn it around. We can meet our domestic needs and our global needs. We’re the country that took down fascism, communism, and mapped the human genome. And we can make sure that the future these students graduate into is as bright as any of their imaginations.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, October 16th, 2007 at 12:54 and is filed under From the Trail, News Clips. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.