Dear Senator Obama:
We cannot deny that your candidacy inspires American and international constituents of all ages and backgrounds, and we at The Campanil count ourselves among your supporters. In fact, newspapers across the United States have endorsed you more than three times as often as they’ve endorsed your opponent John McCain. Yet we would like to do more than just endorse your bid for president.
We want to hold you accountable for those changes we’d like to see implemented should you win the presidency – changes that your campaign has promised in its platform.
First, we want to see more affordable college costs for everyone. You have advocated two important policies for future college students: a $4,000 tax credit in exchange for community service -$4,000 doesn’t go that far in paying for a Mills student’s education, but it’s a step in the right direction – and a streamlining of the application process for financial aid. We want to look back four years from now and see that these promises have been kept.
Your campaign has also designated healthcare coverage as one of its most important issues to resolve. You promise affordable healthcare by mandating coverage for all Americans, a goal that people such as Hillary Clinton have laid the groundwork for since 1993.
We would like to see this plan help us as college students, especially those of us with disabilities. We would especially like to see it help those at Mills who are most in need, such as LGBT students who have been financially abandoned for coming out to their families, or students who are trying to gain an education as single parents.
We consider the current economic situation, and believe the American people must come first. We hope that the $1,000 tax credit you propose for working families will help many parents in funding their children’s Mills educations. Our tuition is rising steadily each year, so we would like to see this happen during your first term. It might help decrease the number of Mills women transferring to other schools or otherwise leaving because Mills becomes unaffordable for them.
Last, but certainly not least, the issues of global warming and rising gas prices are worrying Mills environmentalists and hitting the pocketbooks of commuting students hard.
While we do not support your solution of offshore drilling along California’s coasts, we are satisfied with your promise of short-term relief at the pump through enacting a windfall profits tax to provide a $1,000 emergency energy rebate to Americans.
We realize that this is a lot to ask of one president in one term. But we have high hopes that future generations of Mills students will experience a stronger, safer America than the one we live in now. We are ready for the change of which you so passionately speak.
Although most current Campanil staff members will graduate in the next two years, we hope we can return as alumnae one day to see, as a result of your potential presidency, a better Mills College than the one we will leave behind.
Sincerely,
The Campanil
