To increase student awareness about national issues in preparation for the 2004 presidential election, Undergraduate Student Government, in collaboration with homecoming week, is holding an Issues Fair on the Ohio Union’s west lawn from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. today.

“It is a joint event between homecoming week and USG,” said Aftab Pureval, president of Undergraduate Student Government. “Homecoming week is already on the schedule, so the lead is homecoming week, and we help them out and supplement their efforts,” he said.

USG wants to help students to educate and energize themselves about the presidential election, he said.

“Everything student government is doing – with respect to voter registration, absentee ballot education, OSUvotes.com – is all within the same idea of making sure that students vote Nov. 2,” Pureval said. “That’s the No. 1 priority for us. We want to make sure that our generation and our age group go to the polls and is heard.”

The Issues Fair is one tangible form of their effort.

“The Issues Fair is born out of the idea that we want, as the student government, to provide opportunities and venues for the students to be exposed to national issues, to connect those issues and to realize those issues affect their lives at Ohio State and after they graduate,” Pureval said. “It’s all about creating opportunities for students to educate themselves on the issues so they feel the power to make an educated vote on Nov. 2.”

Most participants at the event will be student organizations from Ohio State.

About 10 to 15 student organizations are expected to be attend, said Deb Mason, vice president of USG.

“We’re going to have Buckeyes for Bush there and Students for Kerry, and also student organizations who are interested in specific issues like Vox, which is a women’s group, which is kind of informing students that if they want to they can pick up information about the certain issues that they consider important to them,” she said. “And then we’ll also have some nonpartisan groups there, like 10TV will be there, just giving students the CD-ROMs they’ve made that are nonpartisan.”

Many different issues will be present at the fair, Pureval said.

“A wide spectrum of issues, from domestic to foreign policy, from social to economic issues, will all be present at the Issues Fair,” he said.

There will be groups presenting social issues such as gay rights, foreign policy and other things of great importance, he said.

“If the students can’t attend the Issues Fair for whatever reason, I would urge them to educate themselves by visiting the USG website at OSUvotes.com or doing independent research,” Pureval said. “Please, please connect to the national issues.”