Democratic U.S. Senate candidate Russ Feingold addressed tuition in a meeting on campus Monday with the College Democrats, highlighting what students could do to improve the state of student loans in Wisconsin.

Feingold said a college education is the most direct path to financial stability, but the path to college is not the most straightforward. With 70 percent of Wisconsin students graduating in 2013 with an average debt of $28,000, Feingold said it is important to figure out how to make tuition less of a burden.

“Cost of school has increased,” Feingold said. “This is much more high, much more difficult and frankly much more unreasonable.”

Feingold is running against incumbent U.S. Sen. Ron Johnson. He said the state has dropped its commitment to tuition, encouraging student debt and creating a financial crisis. State tuition has risen by 33 percent over the last decade alone.

Referencing his status as a UW alumnus, Feingold said college was much less expensive when he attended. A student working a minimum wage job for 254 hours a year could pay for the $600 college tuition in 1979. Now, UW students would have to spend 1,436 hours working a minimum wage job to pay their tuition.

“Because of the debt they carry students today are delaying their adult lives,” he said.

Feingold said U.S. Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Massachusetts, proposed a bill that would refinance student loans, which he would co-sponsor in the Senate. He said he wishes to simplify FAFSA so that it is more understandable for students.

Feingold said loans, including personal loans for poor credit, should not be a partisan issue and profits from student loans should be put back into student loan programs.

“The consequences of this are far more about your lives than they are about mine,” he said.

Feingold encouraged students to speak out about the student loan problem. He said the current generation is already making an impact.

Feingold said this generation is committed to changing the world and asked students to do what they could to address issues affecting them.

“I’m going to give everything I got and I know you will too,” he said.