On Tuesday, Sept. 27, otherwise known as National Voter Registration Day, Chelsea Clinton invited students to participate in a conference call to discuss what is at stake for students, and the importance of registering to vote to make sure students’ voices are heard in the election.
At approximately 5:15 p.m., students from all over the country listened to Clinton respond to their questions regarding her mother, Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton, and her plans as president.
Before Clinton took questions, she discussed how there is “a lot at stake in this election” and that “there couldn’t be a more profound difference between my mom, who has a plan for debt-free college” and Republican nominee Donald Trump. She encouraged students to re-watch the de-bate and urged people to “think what really matters to them.”
When questions were taken, students from all of the country called in to ask Clinton about her mother and her plans for the United States.
Dan, a student from Pennsylvania State University, asked, “What are the significant changes between your mother’s policies regarding college and students versus Obama’s?”
In response, Clinton said, “My mother plans to focus on… enabling anyone to index loan repayments as a percentage of their income so no one has to make a professional choice trying to service their college or graduate school debt… We want to give people who are starting businesses a three-year grace period to pay off their debt… Federal government should not be making profit off students loan debt… Anyone should be able to go to community college tuition-free.”
Cassidy, a student from St. Louis University in Florida, asked, “What do you believe is the best way to get young students motivated to register to vote?”
Clinton responded with questions to encourage students to be more passionate about the election: “What do you care about? Do [students] care about the public school system? Climate change?”
Timothy, a student from the University of Michigan, asked, “How is it that [Hillary Clinton] is going to differ from Obama’s approach for climate change?
Clinton responded, “Obama doesn’t get enough credit… [It is] remarkable that he has preserved more land than Roosevelt… My mom in her announcement speech and through today said we need to set big goals, and one of those big goals needs to be having every home in America… be powered by renewable energy.”
She continued on discussing climate change and how to invest in it: “One of the things to do morally to fight climate change and to invest economically… [is to] create jobs, from engineers to designers to architects to builders and more.”
The call lasted about an hour but gave students enough time to ask questions that were lingering after the debate. Towards the end of the call, Clinton stated, “I’m hopeful that local and state pressure across the aisle will pressure Congress… to make serious progress we need to make.”
Samantha Mineroff is a third-year student majoring in English writings track with a minor in creative writing. She can be reached at SM825021@wcupa.edu.