KEN THOMAS, Associated Press

TEMPE, Ariz. (AP) — Former Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton is encouraging college students to ensure that the so-called millennial generation is what she terms the “participation generation.”

Clinton and her husband, former President Bill Clinton, are helping open an annual meeting of college students who seek to tackle challenges around the world.

Joining them Friday night at Arizona State University is the state’s senior Republican senator, John McCain. Bill Clinton jokes that McCain is a good friend but, as Clinton puts it, “we permit him to deny it at election time.”

McCain was the GOP’s 2008 presidential nominee. Hillary Clinton is considering a presidential campaign for 2016.

The weekend Clinton Global Initiative University is drawing more than 1,000 students from about 300 colleges and universities to the ASU campus in Tempe.