Jumpstarting his mission to get the college vote, President Barack Obama kicked off his two-day college campaign tour at UNC-Chapel Hill Tuesday to voice his opposition of the proposal to increase student loan interest rates.

CHAPEL HILL — Jumpstarting his mission to get the college vote, President Barack Obama kicked off his two-day college campaign tour at UNC-Chapel Hill Tuesday to voice his opposition of the proposal to increase student loan interest rates.

As of July 1, federal student loan interest rates will double from 3.4 to 6.8 percent, affecting well over 7.4 million students with college loans — a measure that Obama said cannot happen.

“Whether you’re here at a four-year college or university, or you’re at a two-year community college, in today’s economy, there’s no greater predictor of individual success than a good education,” he said. “We can’t make higher education a luxury. It’s an economic imperative — every American family should be able to afford it.”

Starting off in the Tarheel state and continuing to Colorado and Iowa — all battleground states for November’s election, Obama says he understands the frustration of tuition hikes, and the mounds of loans students are now building up.

“This is something Michelle and I know about firsthand,” he said. “We’ve been in your shoes —we didn’t come from wealthy families, so when we graduated from college and law school, we had a mountain of debt. When we married, we got poorer together.”

This is the first time in history that student loan debt has surpassed credit card debt. In North Carolina, 160,018 students are now piling up on average over $20,000 worth of debt in federal student loans. Keeli Ogron, a UNC-CH sophomore global studies major from Swannanoa, N.C. is one of them.

“I panic every time I think about the future,” she said. “Obama said students shouldn’t be in debt when they graduate, I wish that was the case but it’s not and that’s why I freak out about the future.”

Ogron takes out $23,000 worth of loans per year — the maximum amount available through Federal Stafford Loans. She said her parents say that this is the only way she can pay for college.

In tough economic times, middle class and low-income American families are barring the brunt of these ever-high climbing tuition and loan fees. The Federal Reserve Bank of New York estimates that about 37 million people have outstanding student loan debt. With these bills continuing to climb, many of these Americans are finding it difficult to pay for anything other than their student loans.

“When a big chunk of every paycheck goes towards loan debt, that’s not just tough on you, that’s not just tough for middle-class families,” said Obama. “It’s painful for the economy, because that money is not going to help businesses grow. The sooner you can start buying a house, that’s good for the housing industry. The sooner you can start up that business, that means you’re hiring some folks — that grows the economy.”

Obama is not the only one stressing the need to keep interest rates low, his likely Republican opponent in November’s election Mitt Romney is also joining Obama’s plight.

“Given the bleak job prospects that young Americans coming out of college face today, I encourage Congress to temporarily extend the low rate,” Romney said in an earlier statement.

Not only are students at UNC nervous about this interest rate hike, but also students at N.C. A&T.

“As a student I feel the education system is very expensive already,” said Danielle Neal, a junior biology major from Decatur, Ga. “For them to increase the rates even more, that really hurts my pocket, and has me questioning whether or not I can continue my education and come back here next year.”

Neal takes about $10,000 in loans a year, and as an out-of-state student she said she had to become a resident assistant in order to help with the cost of tuition.

Despite her on campus job, she said it barely helps.

UNC-Chapel Hill’s chancellor, Holden Thorp stressed that Obama’s visit to the campus was only right being that they are the first public institution of higher learning in the nation.

“This is a rare and pleasurable thing for a university to be able to host a sitting president of the United States,” he said. “It’s even better to get him here to talk about college affordability, an issue that has been on our mind for 200 years.”

Obama also visited the University of Colorado at Boulder on Tuesday, and will be speaking at the University of Iowa today.

“What he is doing is great, but without Congress and more support nothing is going to get done,” said Neal. “I’m glad he’s advocating, however we the students, and the parents need to get out there and voice our opinions against this bill.”

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• Kelcie McCrae, Editor in Chief