Syracuse University’s chapter of Students for Barack Obama aims to mobilize young voters with an outdoor concert and voter registration drive Friday.

Barack the Block is an event featuring food venues and performances by local music groups in an attempt to get students and community members involved in the upcoming election.

The event, which organizers expect to draw approximately 1,000 students and residents, will be free of charge and held at the Thornden Park Amphitheatre from 3 p.m. to 7 p.m.

Mike Short, the group’s New York state field director, said the event is open to all of the public, regardless of political party affiliation.

‘The function of it is to get everyone excited,’ said Short, a senior political science and public relations major at SU.

He said he hoped the event could lead to students getting actively engaged in the election.

Jonathan Papazides, a sophomore in The College of Arts and Sciences, said he looks forward to meeting others with similar attitudes.

‘I think it’s a great opportunity, as well as very important, for students to get out and meet some people who have similar political views,’ Papazides said in an e-mail.

With only a few weeks remaining until the presidential election, a major priority of the event will be getting voters registered. Organizers will also focus on reaching students who are not yet sure who they will support.

‘We’re trying to make sure we can target those students,’ Short said of undecided voters who live in swing states.

The concert is volunteer-oriented, but SFBO is receiving funds from a local group called Syracuse for Obama, which is sponsoring the event.

Short said he expects a turnout of more than double the Palace Theater event, in which about 400 students and community members watched Obama accept his presidential nomination from the Democratic Party.

‘That was just when we started the SFBO on campus,’ said Short. ‘Now it’s accessible to students and the community. We’ve had a lot more time for publicity and getting in touch with everybody.’

The group is looking for speakers to talk between the bands, which include The Smash Brothers, White After Labor Day, Troop K, Native Informant, Nick McCann and O-Jam-A. Short also said the group is in the process of getting well-known political figures from the Upstate area to come to the event, but nothing is definite yet.

Barack the Block will happen regardless of weather conditions, and SFBO will have large tents set up to accommodate the public in case of rain.

Ethan Brown, a freshman engineering major who plans to attend, said he believes students aren’t involved in politics like they were decades ago, even though this is an important stage of their lives.

‘College is supposed to be the one time when everybody is passionate about politics, but it seems it hasn’t been that way since everybody was worried about getting drafted into Vietnam,’ Brown said in an e-mail. ‘This is a time that affects all of us.’

Courtney Egelston, a sophomore magazine and political science major, also referenced the turbulent ’70s and said students now have a chance to change the country just like the youth of that era did.

‘We see these old videos of our parents’ generation protesting Vietnam and rallying for change,’ she said in an e-mail. ‘And this is our turn as college students and as young people to do the same.’

mcboren@syr.edu

Published on October 1, 2008 at 12:00 pm