Matthew J. Stern, a senior at Boston University who chairs the student arm of Baker’s campaign, echoes the sentiment, pointing out that the current Massachusetts economy may seem inhospitable to recent graduates.

“People are graduating and students are leaving Massachusetts,” he says. “We have the top universities...and we want to make sure that we’re keeping people here.”

Stern brings up state funding for higher education as another issue that he says should matter to student voters: “Governor Patrick has decreased higher education funding more than any other governor in the U.S.”

Stern touts Baker’s plans to increase the number of public charter schools and to uphold the state’s current standardized testing system rather than conform to new federal education guidelines.

Wagley suggests that social issues should be a selling point in convincing undergraduates to cast their ballots for Baker. In the current election, both Patrick and Baker support gay marriage and pro-choice abortion policies, according to Baker. Since he is “by no means a social conservative,” Wagley says that she thinks Harvard students should “actually like Baker for those reasons.”

Stern says that the students from Boston-area universities who fill Baker’s phone bank—more than 30 volunteers on a given Monday or Thursday night—are drawn by Baker’s stance as “a social liberal and a fiscal conservative,” not by the desire to put the volunteer activism on their resumes.

“They’re not looking for a recommendation: they’re looking for change,” Stern says. “They’re looking to make sure we’ll have an economic future that will lead to success in the state.”

—Staff writer Julie M. Zauzmer can be reached at jzauzmer@college.harvard.edu.