Last Friday’s voter awareness rally at the east lagoon centered on the lack of voting by college students and served as a political forum for students and politicians.

Though the lack of interest of students to vote is not as big a problem as the total amount of public apathy, Fred Azcarat, United States Student Association representative, said students need to be more concerned about political issues.

“We want to bring the level of student voter awareness on campus up,” Azcarat said. “We want to set forums for the 1988 election year so we all can have a better understanding of the issues.”

The festival atmosphere of the rally was designed to bring more people out to a function that normally would not attract many people.

“We wanted to add some variety,” Rene Lilly, Student Committee on Political Action chairman, said.

The rally began with only a few people listening to the music of June Bug Massacre, but soon grew to a crowd of more than 70 people.

Candidates for local elections wandered through the crowd, shook hands and conferred with party allies. The candidates also were made to answer questions from varying campus organizations.

The rally served as a public forum for those who wanted to air disappointments and disagreements with candidates.

Phil DiMarzio, candidate for circuit judge, found his name on two banners. Both banners advertised feelings from the John Lennon Society that indicated displeasure with DiMarzio’s term as state’s attorney.

One of the banners, which read “Dump DiMarzio: Persecutor of Students,” was meant to address the still pending cases of those who were arrested during last semester’s Day of Action protests.

“We are still waiting for word as to whether we will be going to court soon or not,” student Greg Wojcik said. “It is unfair because I feel they (DiMarzio’s office) are using our case politically for the upcoming election.”

Wojicik added that the system is not being just. Instead, he said he feels the students are being persecuted.

“Because they are dragging their feet, we have had to suffer with a court supervision hanging over our heads,” Wojcik said. “We may have to deal with supervision for another year the way it looks now.”

DiMarzio commented on the signs, saying, “It is good to see that freedom of speech under the first amendment is alive and well on campus, but that is all I would like to say right now.”

DiMarzio did say the cases concerning Day of Action are still pending and he cannot comment on such cases. However, he said he has done his job and the decision is now up to the judge.

The Young Democrats, College Republicans, Student Committee for Animal Welfare, Student Association Recycling and The Forum for Marxist-Humanist Thought all had booths at the rally.

Jamie Pennington, first vice chairman of the Young Democrats, said it is vital for students to become more aware politically, because the student vote in the county elections probably will decide the winners.

“Students are here (on campus) for nine months of the year,” Pennington said. “Students need to be well informed, because they will be greatly affected by whoever wins office.”