Many ISU students from out of state left their peaceful homes this week to attend the Iowa caucuses. For Iowa to maintain its first-in-the-nation caucuses, the date was moved forward to Jan. 3 – more than a week before student return for classes.

“When the caucus date got moved up, we knew that we had to step in and help out,” said Jane Fleming Kleeb, executive director of the Young Voter Political Action Committee.

Young Voter PAC offered its services to students who live outside of Iowa but still wanted to vote in the caucuses. The group offered gas money and housing to any interested college students, averaging about $150 per student and encouraging carpooling.

“Basically, all they had to do was go on the Web site and fill out a form,” Kleeb said.

Response for the group, which is funded by private donors, exceeded expectations. Kleeb said she was expecting about 75 respondents, but as of Thursday afternoon more than 150 students had benefited from the service. Kleeb said the potential of young voters’ impact was to critical to ignore.

“Younger voters are a vital bloc for Democrats,” she said. “Eighteen to 35 year olds make up 30 percent of the electorate.”

One student to take advantage of the group’s funding was Reginald Blockett, graduate student in educational leadership and policy studies. Blockett drove into Ames from his home in Detroit, Mich., with another ISU student, Val Erwin, graduate student in educational leadership and policy studies.

Blockett pledged his support for Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill.

“I’m all about making some political change,” Blockett said. “I side more with him and his political views than any other candidate.”

Blockett was not alone in his support. Kleeb said Obama is receiving the most accolades from student voters so far.

“He talks about young people as agents of change,” Kleeb said. “He tells them that they have political power, and they want to use that political power to change people’s lives.”

Kleeb said the group supported only about 20 students from Iowa State. The most support went to students from Grinnell College, which has a much higher out-of-state student population than Iowa State.

Iowa State helped its own student voters returning to Ames by opening Wallace Hall up to students who wanted to come back for the caucuses. Participation was about as slim as possible – Thursday afternoon, only two students were at the residence hall.

Karen Torara, senior in meteorology, drove in from Rochester, Minn., for the caucuses. The only other student present was community adviser Holly Figueroa, sophomore in liberal arts and sciences. Torara said she came to Ames because she believes voting to be hugely important for young people.

“Students should take the opportunity to do what they can when the opportunity is given to them,” Torara said. “Of all the voters, we are the ones who can vote who are going to be living with decisions made by this upcoming president the longest.”