PGHIMC - Pittsburgh Independent Media Center

Area university students seem indifferent to war
by Matthew Epstein TRIBUNE-DEMOCRAT Saturday, Mar. 22, 2003 at 12:56 PM

As weekly peace marchers set off across the Indiana University of Pennsylvania campus, it�s apparent the war they are fervently protesting doesn�t grip the student body the way Vietnam did a generation ago.

Area university students seem indifferent to war
By MATTHEW EPSTEIN, TRIBUNE-DEMOCRAT EDUCATION WRITER
March 19, 2003

INDIANA � These aren�t their parents� war protesters.

As weekly peace marchers set off across the Indiana University of Pennsylvania campus, it�s apparent the war they are fervently protesting doesn�t grip the student body the way Vietnam did a generation ago.

Most students seem to feel they don�t have a stake in the matter, protesters said. Of the more than 15,000 college students in the Johnstown region, only about two dozen have been called to active duty.

�Most people we talk to tend to be reluctant to form an opinion either way,� said Celeste Bocchicchio, 21, a junior from Kent, Ohio, who is steering committee coordinator for Voices for Peace, an IUP student group.

Yesterday, with just 24 hours left before President Bush�s deadline for Saddam Hussein to leave Iraq or face war, Voices for Peace mustered about 50 people for its weekly march. Many of those 50 were community members, not students.

�I really believe these students need to get fully involved,� said Patricia Rawls of Indiana, who declined to give her age.

Rawls is not a student, but she joined them yesterday in her �no blood for oil� T- shirt. �It�s going to affect their future,� she said.

While many students politely accepted the fliers, only a few stopped to debate the war. There was also a heckler during the two-hour rally on the Oak Grove, the central space of the IUP campus.

�Nothing too terrible,� Bocchicchio said. � �Cut your hair,� �get a job,� �go back to Iraq.� �

One person shouted �you should die with the rest of them,� she said.

The apparent apathy probably has something to do with the fact that few students know anybody who has been deployed.

About two dozen students have deployed from area colleges since the semester started, some to Iraq and others to Kosovo, where the Pennsylvania National Guard is assigned to peacekeeping duties.

�Being deployed for the military is an admirable thing,� David Wilson, St. Francis University director of counseling and health services, said in a telephone interview from his Loretto office.

As is the case at other colleges, St. Francis administrators have tried to give their deploying students as smooth a transition as possible.

Soldiers called out of classes get a penalty-free withdraw no matter how late in the semester, along with a full tuition refund.

Room and board fees are refunded to the extent they haven�t been used. If it is late enough in a semester, faculty will often work out a way for student to get credit by completing their tests or papers.

But the work has to go fast.

�For two of the three who were called up, one came in and said, �I�m leaving this week,� � Jon Gonder, associate vice president for academic affairs at University of Pittsburgh at Johnstown, said in a telephone interview from his Richland Township office. �Another came in and said, �I got my papers today, I�m leaving tomorrow.� �

All three UPJ students called up are serving in Kosovo.

Mount Aloysius College in Cresson had two students called up, along with the husband of a staffer. Two more students are awaiting orders.

IUP had a dozen students called up out of more than 12,000.

Campus officials are staying out of the anti-war fray, what there is of it.

At St. Francis, the administration has tried to organize a show of support for the deployed soldiers. At IUP, the protest is tolerated as any other political event would be.

�We�re glad to have students protest reasonably, as long as they are respectful in their discourse,� IUP spokeswoman Michelle Fryling said in an interview at the university.

The protesters there say they support the military, just not it�s mission.

�I wasn�t going to join if I had found people were anti-American,� said Tony Bezich, 40, an IUP graduate student in political science and former army officer from Slickville, Westmoreland County.

�Everyone I�ve met loves this country and is deeply concerned with the troops overseas,� he said.

Voices for Peace members said they are taking their support where they can find it. Bezich said he voted for Bush, but opposed the idea of a pre-emptive war. Some students said they are pacifists, while others said they had a problem with the path taken to this war, which now seems a certainty.

�I�m opposed to unjust war,� said Joe Santamaria, 21, a junior from Harrisburg. �If we had visible proof � I would be in favor of the war.�

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