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How War with Iraq Changes Student Views and Lives.

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Title: How War with Iraq Changes Student Views and Lives.
Language: English
Authors: Young, Jeffrey R.
Source: Chronicle of Higher Education. Apr 2003 49(33):A36-A40.
Peer Reviewed: N
Page Count: 5
Publication Date: 2003
Document Type: Journal Articles
Reports - Descriptive
Descriptors: Activism, Attitude Change, College Students, Higher Education, Student Attitudes, Student Experience, War
Geographic Terms: Iraq
ISSN: 0009-5982
Abstract: Six students' experiences illustrate how the conflict in Iraq has affected their views and their lives. (EV)
Entry Date: 2003
Accession Number: EJ668183
Database: ERIC
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  Value: <anid>AN0009633722;crn25apr.03;2003Apr30.16:33;v2.0</anid> <jsection id="AN0009633722-1"> STUDENTS</jsection> <title id="AN0009633722-2">How War With Iraq Changed Student Views and Lives </title> <p>The U.S. war in Iraq seems to have jolted many college students out of a spell of political apathy. Over the past few months, students angered by U.S. foreign policy have walked out of classes, marched in the streets, chalked sidewalks, fasted, or even gotten arrested for civil disobedience. Meanwhile, many other students--often bearing flags and yellow ribbons--are angry with the protesters and have held their own demonstrations to show support for the war and for the soldiers fighting it.</p> <p>For the most part, demonstrations on both sides have been peaceful. But passions about the war have led to tension on some campuses.</p> <p>At Yale University, for instance, a group of male students allegedly entered the suite of Katherine Lo, a sophomore who had hung a flag upside down in her window to protest the war, and left a threatening note. Campus police are investigating that and six other incidents of harassment against students who oppose the war.</p> <p>At the University of Iowa, officials have been worried about harassment of supporters of the war. Instructors have stopped requiring cadets in the Reserve Officer Training Corps to wear their camouflage uniforms to class, out of concern that they might be confronted by students who oppose the war.</p> <p>No majority viewpoint on the war seems to have emerged among students. Opinion varies depending on which student you ask, or which campus you visit.</p> <p>At Hampshire College, Kai Newkirk says it is hard to find students who support the war. Mr. Newkirk, a senior, is an organizer for the National Youth and Student Peace Coalition and helped plan a nationwide "campus day of action" against the war in March that involved some 400 colleges and high schools.</p> <p>"There have been a lot of local actions, marches, rallies, teach-ins and civil-disobedience actions" against the war, he adds. "There has been a lot of anger and outrage and sadness mixed with a deep commitment to continue" protesting.</p> <p>At Texas A&M University, however, you would be hard-pressed to find a student against the war, says Matthew Maddox, a junior. He helped organize the College Station Rally for America, which was held in conjunction with similar patriotic rallies on other campuses across the state.</p> <p>"The purpose was to show that college students aren't all opposed to the war," says Mr. Maddox.</p> <p>Mr. Maddox says that some students may be swayed by the views of their professors, many of whom oppose the war. "Students are indoctrinated at a lot of colleges against this by professors, which is a real shame."</p> <p>Yet for all the political theater, some students say the fighting started and largely wrapped up before they had time to read up on the conflict or take a stand one way or the other.</p> <p>Even the most active student leaders admit that it can be tough to persuade busy students to take time to join rallies. "As dedicated as people are, students still are students," says Minou C. Arjomand, a freshman at Columbia University and an organizer for the Campus Anti-War Network, a national coalition of student groups. She adds that she expects fewer protests as the semester draws to a close, no matter what happens next in Iraq. "We still need to do our final exams."</p> <p>The Chronicle talked to six students about their views regarding the conflict, and about how reactions are changing as the fighting in Iraq appears to wind down.</p> <hd id="AN0009633722-3">At Harvard, Joining Rallies Meant an End of Military Plans</hd> <p>WHEN MICHAEL GETLIN decided he opposed the U.S. war with Iraq, it turned out to be a life-changing decision. Mr. Getlin, a sophomore at Harvard University, had long planned to pursue a military career, and he had already been accepted into the Marine Corps's Officer Candidate School, which he was to begin training for this summer and join full time after graduation.</p> <p>On the day before U.S. troops began their assault on Iraq, however, he called his commanding officer and withdrew his candidacy for the Marines, deciding he could not on principle carry out the policies of the current administration.</p> <p>"It was one of the more difficult decisions I ever made," he says, noting that becoming a Marine pilot is "what I have worked for most of my life" and that his father and uncle served in the military He says his soul-searching began after a friend e-mailed him a resignation letter by John Brady Kiesling, a longtime U.S. diplomat who was serving at the U.S. Embassy in Athens. "The policies we are now asked to advance are incompatible not only with American values but also with American interests," Mr. Kiesling wrote. "Our fervent pursuit of war with Iraq is driving us to squander... international legitimacy."</p> <p>Mr. Getlin had never participated in a protest, but on the day the war broke out last month, he spoke at an antiwar rally in Harvard Yard, telling his story to about 1,000 students, faculty members, and others before the crowd began marching through the streets of Cambridge to join another peace rally</p> <p>"It was a great experience to be marching alongside my fellow students and to have that kind of support and get compliments about my speech," he says. "At the same time, it was kind of bittersweet because I was still coming to terms with it."</p> <p>He says his parents have been generally supportive of his decision, "but I know my dad is disappointed."</p> <p>In the past few weeks, Mr. Getlin has remained active in the Harvard Initiative for Peace and Justice, a student group that opposes the war, but he does not always see eye to eye with fellow protesters.</p> <p>"We damage ourselves as the antiwar movement for being too radical at times," he says, noting that he is particularly bothered by slogans like "Bush is a murderer."</p> <p>"Many people get so wrapped up in one side of a situation ... that it becomes very easy to focus on your opinion and create an absolute truth out of the position that you have taken and dismiss all else," he says.</p> <p>He worries that his position against U.S. foreign policy inevitably damages the morale of U.S. troops in Iraq, some of whom are Mr. Getlin's friends. "No matter how we spin it as protesters," he says, "we are still protesting the actions that are getting them and their friends killed."</p> <p>But Mr. Getlin says he decided that it was more important to show the Bush administration that "they cannot simply silence a nation by calling them to arms."</p> <p>Even after seeing tanks roll into Baghdad, Mr. Getlin says he stands by his decision to leave the Marines.</p> <p>"I don't know what will happen next--I'm glad the war is over and somewhat terrified that we succeeded," he says, adding that the war represents "a turning point in America's position internationally."</p> <p>"It is not necessarily this conflict that concerns me the most," he says. "The trend we have set in foreign policy now will very likely take us down a path where we will be engaged in this type of conflict in the near future--and indefinitely."</p> <rj></rj> <rj>--Jeffrey R. Young</rj> <hd id="AN0009633722-4">At Old Dominion, Worrying About Loved Ones</hd> <p>KIMBERLY TANSEY cannot talk to her boyfriend, a senior airman who is stationed somewhere in the Middle East, so she sends him e-mail messages each day. She calls his family. Before she goes to bed, she slips into the Air Force sweatsuit he wore at boot camp.</p> <p>"Everyone in the dorm sees it, everyone knows I have some connection" to the war, says Ms. Tansey, a senior at Old Dominion University, in Virginia. Some of her dormmates ask her for regular updates and offer support. Ms. Tansey says the conversations help them as much as they help her.</p> <p>"People our age, if we don't have a connection to anyone over there, we're kind of a little distant," Ms. Tansey says. "If you have no connection to this war, a lot of people aren't going to take the time to research what it's really about. You'll just form an opinion based on whether you voted for Bush or not."</p> <p>Ms. Tansey, 21, did not vote for President Bush, but she says she supports his decision to attack Iraq. She believes the United States was right to attack because of the concern that Saddam Hussein harbored nuclear and chemical weapons. She agrees with her father, a former marine, that the administration must have had compelling evidence to that effect when President Bush decided to go to war.</p> <p>Since the conflict began, she has felt a stronger sense of patriotism. She feels that the same is true for many of her peers. At Old Dominion, which neighbors the largest U.S. naval base, approximately one in four students has an immediate family member in the military.</p> <p>Recently, Ms. Tansey said goodbye to her best friend, Casandra, an army reservist who was deployed to northern Iraq. Ms. Tansey gave her a prepaid telephone calling card as a farewell gift.</p> <p>Each day, Ms. Tansey thinks of Casandra and her boyfriend when she checks the Web for updates on the war. At night, she takes a study break to watch at least an hour of television news. She worries more about friendly fire and helicopters crashing than she does about the threat enemies may pose to those she loves.</p> <p>Learning how to juggle her academic responsibilities with worry has made her stronger, she says.</p> <p>"I'm one of those people who always has to keep herself busy--it keeps your mind off the what-ifs of the world," Ms. Tansey says. "Remaining involved, not letting this disturb what you had before is vital to your survival. He's a soldier, but I'm the fighter. I'm the one back home who has to deal with what's gone."</p> <rj></rj> <rj>--ERIC HOOVE</rj> <hd id="AN0009633722-5">At Madison, Taking Antiwar Protest to the Next Level</hd> <p>THE NIGHT BEFORE he got arrested at an antiwar rally last month, Josh Healy attended a training session on the finer points of civil disobedience. He says that he learned about his legal rights and "how to stay calm in a tense situation and remain nonviolent."</p> <p>At some point during the next day's rally, which took place near the west lawn of the U.S. Capitol, policemen told protesters that if they crossed a certain line, they would be arrested. Mr. Healy and several others calmly crossed and were taken into custody.</p> <p>Mr. Healy, a freshmen at the University of Wisconsin at Madison, had come to Washington during his spring break to protest the U.S. war with Iraq, which was about to begin, and to visit his parents, who both work for left-leaning advocacy groups there.</p> <p>He describes the arrest as orderly, and his seven hours in a D.C. detention center as almost dull. "Once they took off the handcuffs, it was no big deal," he says. After filling out paperwork, getting photographed and fingerprinted, and paying a $50 fine, he was free, and ready to protest again.</p> <p>At 18 years old, Mr. Healy is already a seasoned demonstrator. He joined his first rallies in high school, opposing World Bank and International Monetary Fund policies. At Madison, he has helped organize several antiwar rallies as a member of the campus group Stop the War. Many of the group's rallies have been planned to coincide with rallies on other campuses, so he has been in touch with student leaders from around the country via e-mail and telephone conference calls.</p> <p>He says getting arrested was simply the "next logical step" in trying to get his message heard.</p> <p>"I've done the big rallies, and I've done the letter writing, and I've done the teach-ins and talking to people, and we still couldn't stop the war," he says. "This was really more of a symbolic action, but I felt it was really important to show that this is my level of commitment to this cause."</p> <p>Even though the hostilities in Iraq appear to be ending, Mr. Healy plans to continue to protest U.S. foreign policy.</p> <p>"Of course I welcome the fall of Saddam Hussein's government ... but I think we're making the U.S. less safe because we're sparking more hatred towards us," he says.</p> <p>And he says the student groups and the networks of existing campus organizations that have been created to protest this war will remain active.</p> <p>"We're not going to stop because this battle might be over," he says. "What we've done over the last year or so is set the base for this broad movement for peace and justice."</p> <p>"There might be a lesser amount of energy" after the war, he adds, "but it will pick back up because the policies behind this war are not going to stop."</p> <p>Though he says he has made many friends through his activism, he challenges those who dismiss demonstrators as protesting for the sake of protesting.</p> <p>"Those are just people trying to silence dissent," he says. "I don't protest for fun. All of the people out there are very serious about what we believe in and what we're doing."</p> <p>"Years from now, when people ask me 'What were you doing when the war on Iraq started?,' I can tell them, 'I was in the streets. I was trying to stop the war.'"</p> <rj></rj> <rj>--JEFFREY R. YOUNG</rj> <hd id="AN0009633722-6">At Brandeis, Seeing the War as 'Necessary'</hd> <p>AS THE UNITED STATES inched closer to war in Iraq last month, word spread that antiwar protesters at Brandeis University were planning to stage a classroom walkout. Students had a choice: Go make noise with the demonstrators, or do nothing.</p> <p>Tobias Harris and a handful of other students who support the war decided there should be another option, so they formed United We Stand, an organization that they describe as "pro-America."</p> <p>The morning after the first missiles hit Iraq, as some students left their classes to attend an antiwar rally in downtown Boston, Mr. Harris and other members of the group stayed on the campus. They passed out fliers, handed out yellow and red-white-and-blue ribbons, and urged students to sign a petition supporting the war against Iraq (160 did).</p> <p>"We wanted to let it be known, especially for students who are intimidated by the orthodoxy, that there was an alternative," Mr. Harris says. "People who support this war aren't 'pro-war'--nobody is. We just feel this war is necessary."</p> <p>Mr. Harris, a sophomore from Lincolnwood, Ill., describes himself as a libertarian-leaning conservative. September 11, 2001, he says, strengthened his belief in the need for a "robust" U.S. foreign policy.</p> <p>He has espoused that view in Concord Bridge, a magazine he founded and edits, and which publishes conservative and libertarian writing by students. After their Wednesday-night meetings, staff members, some of whom are foreign-policy wonks, stick around to discuss current events.</p> <p>"That's the positive side of being in college at a time like this--people want to discuss it," says Mr. Harris. "We agree on basic principles, but differ on smaller issues. There's the possibility that your mind might be changed."</p> <p>As Mr. Harris watched live footage of Iraqi citizens tearing down statues of Saddam Hussein on television this month, he tried to understand how anyone could "be against Iraqi people being free."</p> <p>"While freeing the Iraqi people wasn't the primary reason to go to war, it was an important reason," Mr. Harris says. "It isn't like Vietnam."</p> <p>The night that American troops gained control of Baghdad, Mr. Harris, 20, spoke to his father on the telephone. The two discussed the mind-set of antiwar protesters.</p> <p>"In his younger and more naive days, in college, my father was a socialist, so he often puts what I see in perspective," Mr. Harris says. Before hanging up, his father left him with a quote from John Maynard Keynes: "When the facts change, I change my mind."</p> <p>Mr. Harris has helped change the landscape at Brandeis. Recently, United We Stand collected more than 250 signatures in support of the organization, in order to become an official student group, and the student government subsequently granted it a charter.</p> <p>"Our focus next year will be to transition from a wartime footing to become a lasting organization to figure out our long-term purpose," Mr. Harris says.</p> <p>The group plans to host speakers to discuss the war against Iraq and the war on terrorism, a canned-goods drive in support of U.S. troops, and an "American spirit party" that will feature patriotically renamed snacks, such as "Constitution cola" and "democracy doughnuts."</p> <rj></rj> <rj>--ERIC HOOVE</rj> <hd id="AN0009633722-7">At Santa Clara, Looking to Faith During Wartime</hd> <p>FOR ERIN BISHOP, a senior at Santa Clara University, being Roman Catholic not only has led her to oppose the war in Iraq, but it also has shaped the way she opposes it. The angry signs and in-your-face shouting she has witnessed are not, she believes, the right way to get one's message across.</p> <p>Instead of marching, Ms. Bishop, 21, has prayed.</p> <p>A peace vigil and prayer service at Mission Santa Clara de Asis, the main church on her campus, in February, she says, attracted about 100 people who were uncomfortable with the impending war and needed a place to wrestle with their thoughts.</p> <p>"A lot of people said, 'You know, I think I'm against this war, but I don't know how to go about [expressing] that,'" she says. Such comments showed her that it is important to offer people room to reflect, rather than bombard them with opinions and information.</p> <p>Ms. Bishop has had some wrestling of her own to do. She believes that all human beings are part of "the body of Christ." Thus, to kill Iraqis--even Saddam Hussein--is a sin. But how can someone so evil be part of God?</p> <p>That seeming paradox has occupied her thoughts a lot lately. "How do I love him as my enemy?" she asks. "I don't have any beautiful, articulate way of saying how I do that. I don't even know if I do that."</p> <p>Although Pope John Paul II has also opposed the war, Ms. Bishop is aware that plenty of other Catholics are in favor of it. More than once, she has heard proponents use the Biblical passage about Jesus storming into the temple and angrily turning over the moneylenders' tables. In the same way, they argue, the United States needed to enter Iraq to put a stop to the atrocities Mr. Hussein committed against his people. She responds by noting that Jesus ultimately sacrificed his life for others, and that "an action against Iraq is not giving ourselves up, it's taking a misguided and ill-informed measure."</p> <p>Such disagreements extend into her own conservative, Catholic family. Her mother, she notes, "says I have a simplistic version of my faith and there is pure evil in the world we need to address."</p> <p>More recently, there are the images of Iraqis dancing in the streets of Baghdad, overjoyed by Mr. Hussein's defeat. "It does make me take a second doubt and think, 'Well, thank goodness these people won't have to live with that anymore.' ... But for me, the end does not justify the means. How many people have to die for that to happen?"</p> <p>She admits that she hasn't devised any detailed plan on how to deal with people like Mr. Hussein, but she is guided by the words of Pope Paul VI, who said that if you want peace, work for justice.</p> <p>"We need first of all to stop using violence as a means to peace," she says. "I just think that is a contradiction. What we need to use is peace in order to get peace. And that can happen in terms of dialogue, people to people."</p> <p>Ms. Bishop plans to put her beliefs into action. After graduation, she is going to perform a year of service in the Jesuit Volunteer Corps. Ms. Bishop will be spending time in homeless shelters, low-income schools, and other places where she hopes to follow Jesus' example of serving the poor.</p> <rj></rj> <rj>--BETH MCMURTRIE</rj> <hd id="AN0009633722-8">At U. of Washington, Too Busy to Take a Stand</hd> <p>IF IT WEREN'T for students protesting on the campus, professors sporting antiwar buttons, and a constant barrage of e-mail messages urging Carly A. Bridge, a junior at the University of Washington at Seattle, to participate in walkouts from class, she might not think about the war in Iraq at all.</p> <p>"I feel badly that I don't have the time to get more involved and more informed," says Ms. Bridge. "There just isn't time right now because of school. ... My life is going on as normal."</p> <p>It's not that Ms. Bridge is loafing around. In fact, paying for college has consumed most of the time she might otherwise spend watching the news or expressing political views.</p> <p>She had first attended Bryn Mawr College, in Pennsylvania, but the 20-year-old had to come back home to Seattle to get a more affordable public education because the private college was too expensive. But even an in-state education is not cheap. A pre-med student with a double major in neuroscience and dance, Ms. Bridge juggles her studies with two part-time jobs--as a baby sitter of two toddlers and a clerk at Pottery Barn--to help pay for college.</p> <p>Although a $1,500 research grant has helped to ease Ms. Bridge's tuition costs, it has also made her schedule even tighter. She spends about 10 hours a week in a laboratory doing research and developing mathematical models to chart the growth of brain tumors.</p> <p>With such a full plate, Ms. Bridge says that walking out of class would be a waste.</p> <p>"I'm here to get an education, and I feel like my time is better spent in the classroom," says Ms. Bridge. "My mom and I work hard to pay my tuition, so I'm not just going to just get up and leave to be another face in the crowd."</p> <p>However, Ms. Bridge is quick to add that she thinks it is worthwhile for other people to get involved in pro-war rallies and antiwar protests if they are sincerely "passionate about the cause."</p> <p>The problem she has with many of her fellow students who wield signs and distribute leaflets is that they don't seem to be doing it for the right reasons.</p> <p>"Everybody wants to be able to say 'I did something about it,' to have a great story to tell their kids and grandkids," says Ms. Bridge. "It just doesn't seem like it's all about people who are passionately against the war. They just want to get out of class."</p> <p>A perfect example of this, says Ms. Bridge, was when she was watching the news with other students and one remarked that he "totally would have gone" to a protest in Vancouver if he had known about it, just so he could say he had been there.</p> <p>Her ambivalent feelings regarding the war in Iraq also make her hesitant to take a firm stand.</p> <p>"The reason I don't really have an opinion one way or the other is that I feel like there's so much we don't know," Ms. Bridge says. "There are things we aren't being told by our government, we don't really understand their government .... And I can't read the paper and watch the news every day, so I don't want to make a decision one way or another."</p> <rj></rj> <rj>--ELIZABETH F. FARRELL</rj> <p>PHOTO (COLOR): Michael Getlin, Harvard University</p> <p>PHOTO (COLOR): Kimberly Tansey, Old Dominion University</p> <p>PHOTO (COLOR): Josh Healy, University of Wisconsin at Madison</p> <p>PHOTO (COLOR): Tobias Harris, Brandeis University</p> <p>PHOTO (COLOR): Erin Bishop, Santa Clara University</p> <p>PHOTO (COLOR): Carly A. Bridge, University of Washington at Seattle</p> <aug> <p>By Jeffrey R. Young; Eric Hoover; Jeffrey R. Young; Beth Mcmurtrie and Elizabeth F. Farrell</p> </aug>
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