On Thursday night, PSU Votes held its second open forum, in Hertiage Hall at the HUB, and this time the focus was primarily on Penn State students.
The second of four "What's at Stake?" information sessions featured Anna Griswold, executive director of student aid, and Paul Whitehead, professor of labor and employment relations, as the panel speakers for the event.
Each speaker gave insight of how opposing presidential candidates' Barack Obama and Mitt Romney's policies could impact student's everyday lives and educational futures, ranging from tax cuts to the support of the grants.
"Students at Penn State struggle to pay the cost of college. My office sees this everyday because there are insufficient funds in these programs to begin with," Griswold said. "Your vote for your candidate has never been more important."
While Griswold's presentation mainly focused on the issues involving student loans, such as decreased funding with hopes to decrease the cost of college tuition, Whitehead's points centralized around the unemployment rate for young Americans.
Throughout the forum, students were given index cards, and were urged to ask questions for the two panel speakers to answer at the end of the assembly.
To conclude the forum, Whitehead said that he wishes for Penn State students to vote not only for themselves, but also for the community and country as a whole, and to spread the word.
"Everyone has an enormous voice," Whitehead said. "Some university is going to produce the highest student turn out. Why shouldn't it be here at Penn State?"
