As a part of a nation-wide tour traveling through the swing states before the presidential election, the Call to Renewal Bus Tour will bring its message of social justice and poverty awareness to Marquette's campus Saturday.

Call to Renewal is a program created by the Sojourners, a Christian organization that believes in applying their spiritual beliefs to promote social and economic justice, according Christa Mezzone, a representative of the organization.

Created in the 1970s in the inner city of Washington, D.C., the Sojourners publish magazines, newsletters and Web sites covering political, social and faith-oriented issues. Along with their publications, the Sojourners are active in their community through teaching, volunteering and organizing events.

The Sojourner's Call to Renewal program is a national network of churches, individuals and organizations working together to overcome poverty. Mezzone proposed political candidates start being aware of these issues.

"Poverty should be a non-partisan cause with a bipartisan commitment," Mezzone said.

"Poverty seems to often fall by the wayside," said Marcus White of Interfaith Conference of Greater Milwaukee.

Marquette students should be concerned about poverty because of Marquette's urban environment which forces students to "walk past poverty everyday and see it all around them," said Katie Line, an employee at Interfaith Conference of Greater Milwaukee and a College of Arts & Sciences senior.

Mezzone recognized the fact that Christians everywhere volunteer and service their community in many different ways in order to defeat poverty. However, she said they "don't realize that changing laws and policies can help just as much or more to fight poverty" in the national spectrum.

Line encouraged students to become aware of the issues and to cast an informed vote and to ask themselves, "is the candidate that I'm voting for going to do something about poverty in my community?"

The Call to Renewal Program will be followed by a panel discussion with panelists Jim Wallis, a Sojourner founder, Sherrie Tussler, executive director of the Hunger Task Force, a student representing College Republicans and a student representing College Democrats. Both Wallis and Tussler will discuss their work and experiences with poverty while addressing the political scene today by focusing on what the candidates can do to combat it. The two students representing their respective candidates will then discuss what they believe their candidate can do about the poverty situation in America.

Following the discussion, the panel will take questions from the audience. The event, free and open to the public, will be held in Ballroom E of the Alumni Memorial Union from 4 to 5:30 p.m.