The Up and Up goes to Arizona 🏜🌵: Part 1
Insights from a listening session with students from the Maricopa Community Colleges at Mesa Community College. Hot topics: The cost of living, higher education, and jobs.
I spent the end of last month in Arizona, where I held three listening sessions in three cities: Mesa, Tempe, and Tucson. Arizona is one of the top states that both presidential campaigns are focused on as they map their potential path toward electoral victory.
When it comes to the significance of youth voter turnout, Arizona ranks #3 on the Center for Information & Research on Civic Learning and Engagement at Tufts’ (CIRCLE)’s list of the top 10 states where young voters are predicted to have the biggest impact on the results of the 2024 presidential election.
More on Tempe and Tucson to come, but today we’ll start with Mesa.
Mesa Community College
At Mesa Community College I spoke with a group of seven students from across the Maricopa Community Colleges, including Glendale Community College, Scottsdale Community College, and Chandler-Gilbert Community College.
Of the seven students, five said they are planning to vote in November.
Asked why one of the self-proclaimed non-voters, Xander, doesn’t intend to cast a ballot, he said: “If I put my name on that ballot and mark the people I want, what’s going to change?” He cited homelessness and police reform as two issues he cares deeply about, but feels voting won’t affect. But on the contrary, Luisa, who is planning to vote, said: “I think of one of my teachers, who was like, ‘If you don’t vote, then don’t complain.’ Obviously we all have certain feels about our candidates, but either way, we should participate.” The issues at the top of her mind are immigration, abortion, housing, and the cost of living, she said.
The Issues
Like in Nevada, much of our conversation centered around the cost of living, jobs, and housing. All of the students are currently working while in school. They described cramming to fit everything into a week, and one student (who asked to remain anonymous) said: “You can’t explore who you are as a person because all your money is getting spent on things to get yourself by. Mental health takes a huge dip.”
ZD (who asked to be quoted using his initials) said: “If I work 40 hours a week, all of it’s going to is housing, food, and essentials. Not fun with my family, friends, or doing the fun stuff that the world has to offer.”
Tiffany described the students current situation: “It’s more like surviving.”
There was a consensus amongst the students that there’s a shortage of jobs that pay well and are also enjoyable — forcing the young Arizonans to work a job they described as “sustainable” over one they would have organically sought out without the incentive of a stable income.
But we also spent a chunk of time discussing higher education and community colleges in particular.
Luisa, who graduated from a Catholic high school, said she’s well aware of what she described as a “stigma” around community colleges and was wary about feeling held back while her high school friends went off to university. Not only did Luisa seamlessly ease into community college culture, joining student government (ultimately becoming vice president of the school), but she also received scholarships that alleviated the financial burden of higher education, she said.
“I was on a presidential honors scholarship… and so every scholarship that I was going after was just pocketed. I already had my first year in my tuition paid off and I hadn’t spent a dime on education. I was literally getting paid to go to school, so why was I having any doubts in anyway. And even if I did have to pay out of pocket, it would be like $2,000 vs. $12,000 like at ASU [Arizona State University],” Luisa said. “I fell into the stigma, but now I’m trying to actively break it for other people because it is ridiculous how expensive tuition is.”
When it comes to working through school, students said their most accessible options have been the jobs they’ve found on campus.
“There are so many modalities and options in how we want to attend class, explore hobbies, and work jobs,” said one student (who asked to remain anonymous). This student plays on the school’s basketball team, which is a big part of their collegiate experience. They’ve been able to play basketball, attend class, and work on campus. “The job opportunities on campus make it a lot easier to do school.”
‘As a generation, we’re trying’
The Maricopa Community College system students described key differences in the way they view the world as compared to their parents’ or grandparents’ generations, including when it comes to politics. Though many of the students lean left, there was a mix of ideologies in the room, and most said they don’t identify with a specific party.
“I don’t necessarily side with one party or another because there is a lot of gray area, and with parties it’s always black and white. I’m ok with sitting in the gray area,” one student said.
Across the board, the students said they care about mental health and respecting each others’ opinions.
“We try to care about environmentalism, animal rights, disabilities, it’s like, we’re trying,” said Luisa.
“I feel like as a generation, we’re trying,” said another student.
“I feel like even just what you said right now, where you’re like, ‘I can see where they’re coming from,’ it shows that you have compassion,” said Nina, referring to a back and forth dialogue between the students just minutes prior.
On trust
After former President Donald Trump’s guilty conviction, I wrote that young people in both Arizona and Nevada fear that partisanship and political motivation, as well as the 2016 and 2020 elections in general, have contributed to a breakdown of national trust. The students in Mesa said there’s an overall “hesitancy to accept it as it is” that stems from an information overload on social media.
On science, a nursing student said: “Of course I do believe in science, and trust the WHO [World Health Organization], all these institutions, but then [after] COVID, now I don’t know what information I’m supposed to be trusting… I’m always going to be cross referencing. There’s still trust there, just not as much as there was before.”
When it comes to news, Xander said: “I take everything with a grain of salt.”
And whether it’s due to a lack of trust or just overall dissatisfaction with the country’s electoral system, the students expressed disdain for the electoral college.