BSU students voice opinions about issues for the upcoming election

by commentnewspaper
Marissa Bean
Campus Life Editor

With the 2016 presidential election about a year away, Bridgewater State University (BSU) students are starting to think about the issues that matter most to them. Many students are concerned about issues that impact their lives now, or will impact their lives in the future. Students are most focused on healthcare, the retirement age, gun control, and free college tuition.

Healthcare and Retirement

Sophomore Maddie Corsi thinks that healthcare is the most important issue in the upcoming election. The issue is a personal one for her.

“I thought they were trying to make this [healthcare] more affordable. I thought they were trying to help us,” Corsi said. “I know my family struggles with healthcare, and that’s a big problem. It’s not affordable. My dad is self-employed, so he doesn’t get benefits, and that’s a huge issue. It’s not like he doesn’t work. He probably works harder than people with full-time jobs.”

Katherine McKenna, a sophomore, compared healthcare in other countries to healthcare in the United States.

“In Canada, they have universal healthcare, and they have a lower infant mortality rate,” McKenna said.

Corsi is also concerned about the fact that Americans are living longer than ever before and the impact that has.

“Our lifespan is growing,” Corsi said. “People are living in their eighties and nineties, I think our retirement age should also grow. There are people on Social Security for twenty, thirty, forty years. It was really supposed to be ten or fifteen [years].”

Corsi also said that in order for people to work longer, they need to be well-taken care of by their doctors.

Gun control

Senior Quinn Healy is most concerned about gun control.

“Gun control is something that is very important to me. I myself worry about going anywhere in fear that I could be killed, and I worry about the safety of future generations,” Healy said. “We need to stop letting any Joe Schmoe obtain a gun.”

Free college tuition

Sophomore Kristina Harding is focused on free college tuition, an issue recently raised and supported by Democratic candidate Bernie Sanders.

Harding likes the idea, but doesn’t think it seems plausible.

“I know it’s a good thing for now, but we’re going to be having to pay for everyone else’s college when we’re out of college. And old people who can barely afford anything will have more taxes to pay for college. It’s just not going to happen,” Harding said.

Who’s going to win the election?

The 2016 presidential election is still a year away, but students are still curious about who is going to win.

Sophomore Cici Brodie thinks Republican candidate Donald Trump could win the election.

“I think he [Trump] is only going to win because of popularity. He doesn’t know anything about the government,” Brodie said.

McKenna said, “I like [Republican candidate] Carly Fiorina, but she’s not going to win.”

Brodie agreed. She said, “I feel like she [Fiorina] knows a lot, but we’re not ready for a female president.

Marissa Bean is the Campus Life editor for The Comment. Follow her on Twitter @MarLaur16.

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