Touting the slogan "Apathy is Not Sexy," the Declare Yourself tour stopped by campus yesterday.
Declare Yourself is a national campaign organized to encourage students to vote in the upcoming election.
"Instead of waiting for them to come to us, we are coming to them to make the process easier," Declare Yourself Associate Director Mary McGuire said in reference to the voter registration.
The tour features live spoken word and music shows as well as on-site voter registration.
Penn is the 15th stop on the 18-city college tour that started in January.
MTV's Real World's Norman Korpi and Road Rules' Holly Shand were the emcees for the performances yesterday in Houston Hall and answered questions about voting.
An original copy of the Declaration of Independence was also a feature of the campaign. This copy was discovered a few years ago hidden behind a painting.
Although many of the volunteers were members of the national tour, at least 15 campus organizations helped to host the event.
"Normally I'm not a political person ... but here people have the opportunity to unite and make a difference," student organizer Keri Vislocky said.
Students were also given the opportunity to record their thoughts about voting on a Web cam provided by Yahoo! From these recordings, Yahoo! will pick one college student to interview the presidential candidates.
AXA Financial Inc., along with Home Depot, is sponsoring the entire tour. According to the Declare Yourself Web site, 18- to 24-year-olds have the lowest voting population in the country.
Though the event was crowded, many of the attendees did not intend to come to it.
"I was just walking by, and I decided to register," College sophomore Jessica Hertle said. "It's probably not as likely [that] I would have done it if not for this," she added.
"Was this advertised?" College sophomore Rachel Gross asked. "It's not really a good job communicating what's going on."
However, most viewed the program positively.
"The event is great because it makes politics come alive for students," College freshman and Undergraduate Assembly representative Georgiana Cavendish said.
"It should be our goal to raise political awareness and have everyone interested in politics or at least educated about it."
