Sean McAllister stood and cheered as he watched President Barack Obama, smiling and shaking hands, walk into the House Chamber to deliver his final State of the Union address.

McAllister, a junior finance major in the Martin J. Whitman School of Management at Syracuse University, was sitting to Obama’s diagonal right in the upper balcony, a vantage point that allowed him to see firsthand some of the most powerful men and women in the country — including the president.

“Just being in the same room as (Obama) was insane,” McAllister said. “I was in more shock than I thought I was going to be. It was almost like a shell shock where all I was doing was just focusing on him.”

Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) brought McAllister as his invited guest to the State of the Union on Jan. 12. All Congress members are given one ticket to a bring a guest — anyone of their choosing — to sit in the visitor’s gallery.

McAllister was one of nine college students brought by Democratic senators to the State of the Union as part of the #InTheRed campaign, according to Roll Call. The hashtag was used online to promote a set of policy proposals aimed at lowering student debt and increasing college affordability. Leading up to the State of the Union, Democratic politicians used the hashtag on Twitter and wore red pins as a part of the campaign.

Time to fight for young people who have made the right choices, worked hard, & drowning in student debt. #InTheRed pic.twitter.com/UEoxRgXyoa

— Claire McCaskill (@clairecmc) January 13, 2016

.@POTUS & the @SenateDems are fighting for students & families #InTheRed. It’s long past time for the GOP leadership to join us.

— Elizabeth Warren (@SenWarren) January 12, 2016

“With tuition costs continuing to rise, middle-class families and their children are forced to take on significant debts in order to obtain a college diploma,” Schumer said in a release the day before the State of the Union address. ”Because of this, student loan debt is a huge burden on the shoulders of millions of young Americans, and it is holding back their ability to achieve the American Dream and is a significant drag on our economy.”

McAllister interned at Schumer’s Syracuse office last semester. When he got an email asking for students interested in accompanying Schumer to the State of the Union address, he said it was “an opportunity of a lifetime.”

McAllister was chosen in part because his story emphasizes the need to decrease student debt. He said he is already $30,000 in debt and works two jobs in addition to being a full-time student at SU.

“It’s scary because getting a job out of college is not a guarantee anymore. I’m not even sure if I’ll have a job coming out,” he said. “And then coming out of college without a job, I’ll be starting to pay back these loans, but how am I going to do it?”

Five days before the State of the Union address, McAllister said Schumer’s office called him with the news that he had been chosen. At the time of the call, McAllister was on his way back from playing golf.

“I thought someone was playing a joke or something,” he said. “But they said it was real and they explained why and I immediately knew I wanted to do it because it’s a good cause.”

Before the address, McAllister met and spoke with high-ranking Democratic senators such as Harry Reid (D-N.V.) and Debbie Stabenow (D-M.I.), who also brought college students as part of the #InTheRed campaign.

McAllister said they stuck to just talking about the #InTheRed campaign.

“They really wanted to push for students, which I thought was interesting because there’s not necessarily a major voice for students when it comes to laws and politics,” he added.

The president did talk about college affordability briefly in his speech, though.

“We have to make college affordable for every American. No hardworking student should be stuck in the red. We’ve already reduced student loan payments to 10 percent of a borrower’s income,” Obama said. “And that’s good. But now, we’ve actually got to cut the cost of college.”

Although McAllister was in shock during most of the speech, he said it felt like an accomplishment when Obama addressed student debt.
“Just the fact that he mentioned it is a good start,” he said. “Whether or not I think he should have talked about it more, I would leave that for politicians to decide. But I would say that, we went there with a mission and he mentioned it in his final State of the Union address. I think it’s at least a great first step, definitely a positive step.”

Published on January 18, 2016 at 9:20 pm

Contact Rachel: rsandler@syr.edu