Students representing our Minnesota State universities will walk for 100 miles from Minnesota State University, Mankato to the Minnesota State Capitol.
Follow our walk virtually by using the hashtag #FundTheFuture and by following us on social media. Also, our State Chair Joe Wolf will be taking over our Snapchat account (Students7United) for the duration of the walk, so make sure to follow our story to see how our walkers are doing!
when are we walking.
Sunday, May 7 - Wednesday, May 10
the route.
why are we walking.
College affordability was chosen as one of our four issue campaigns for the 2016-2017 academic year. Then again, for the 2017-2018 year students passed affordability to be one of our three issue campaigns.
Our students see the need for tuition relief as urgent and are willing to walk 100 miles to draw attention to the issue. The walk was named "Fund the Future" because investing in current Minnesota state university students is an investment into Minnesota's economic future. The average bachelor's degree graduate in Minnesota has over $31,000 in student debt. This ranks Minnesota as the fifth highest in the nation for student loan debt (source). The goal of this walk is to create conversations that lead to solutions for tuition relief.
want to come but don't want to walk.
On Wednesday, May 10th we will be arriving at the Capitol around 2pm. We welcome any supporters to join us on the Capitol steps (east side) to cheer on our walkers as they reach their finish line. If this is something you are interested in, feel free to meet us at the steps on Wednesday or join our Facebook Event to get more details!
history of the walk.
This will be the fifth time Mankato students embark on a 100 miles trek to the Capitol. However, our current State Chair Joe Wolf, a Mankato student, and State Chair-Elect Faical Rayani, who is the current student body president at Mankato, wanted to incorporate more than just Mankato students into the walk. For this reason, Students United helped coordinate the walk and make it a state university walk for all our students.