The Penn State Students for Barack Obama group held a party in the HUB-Robeson Center last night to celebrate the current president’s acceptance speech at the Democratic National Convention.
Obama accepted the nomination for a second term as president. The event also encouraged students to register to vote in time for the upcoming election.
“We just wanted to come in front of the HUB to show our support,” said Taylor Garland, the president of the group. “It’s a large student traffic area and we want more people to know that we exist.”
The three main speakers at the DNC included Senator John Kerry, Vice President Joe Biden, and President Barack Obama.
Garland (senior-public relations and political science) said another reason they held the party was to generate excitement for the upcoming election, because she said attitudes about it have been negative and apathetic so far.
“I want him to get people and the volunteers all across the country as well as Penn State riled up because we need to register voters and make sure students are voting in this election,” she said.
Garland said they also hoped to find more volunteers for the group at the party.
Justin Kilner, a member of the group, said they spread the word to students by their Facebook page and by word of mouth.
Kilner (freshman-marketing) said they would supply students who came to the event with voter registration forms.
“I just hope that [Obama’s] able to reach the other people who are still in the middle, and that they believe his words and understand,” he said.
Like Garland, he said the party would provide a morale boost and help to interest students in the election.
Taylor Witter (freshman-biology) said she heard of the event through her friend, and went to prepare for the upcoming election.
She said she wanted to know the current issues in the election and determine whether or not Obama would do good things if he were to be reelected.
Several members of the Students for Barack Obama group also said they were confident that he would win the upcoming election against Republican nominee Mitt Romney.
However, Garland said because of the lack of enthusiasm about the election, there was no guarantee of who would win the election.
“It’s not something that’s going to happen easily,” she said. “It’s going to be just as hard as the 2008 election was, if not harder.”
