Students seeking clarity on the situation in Iraq assembled in Kirkpatrick Chapel on the Old Queens campus yesterday evening for an event that promised to present a "factual and non-hierarchical discussion."
After randomly surveying over 400 students, Tent State University and Students for a Democratic Society, who hosted the Iraq Teach-in, found University students are curious about controversies such as economic motivations for the war, the involvement of the American government in Iran and other foreign policy issues.
The event featured a slideshow presentation that involved news clips, photos and statistics that outlined the public's general knowledge about the war and then contrasted it with the changing justifications for the war over time.
"A lot of people don't know where they stand on the war because they don't have facts," said Tent State volunteer Leah Rodriguez, a School of Arts and Sciences first-year student. Rodriguez said people usually get information about current events from friend or family opinions.
The presentation included a history of Iran and Iraq, as well as controversial topics including sanctions, oil, civilian death counts and the motives for war.
"We compiled statistics at the end of the survey and 35 percent said they wanted to know the truth," said Tent State volunteer Hoda Mitwally, a School of Arts and Sciences first-year student.
Researchers obtained information from public archives including news media and government Web sites to attempt and support its goal of using unbiased information.
"[The media and the government have] a vested interest in keeping accurate information from people," said Tent State researcher Anthony Shull, a University of Missouri, St. Louis graduate. "We went at this doing basic searches."
School of Arts and Sciences first-year student Mike Nicotra said typical research for the event began by highlighting a Wikipedia quote, matching it to dated quotes from major media sources, such as CNN or ABC. The results were then used to search through President George W. Bush's transcripts on the Web site whitehouse.gov.
"We did heavy research [that included] looking through archives, [such as] whitehouse.gov, [and finding] quotes that contradict each other," said Nicotra.
Compiling the research took an entire month and was conducted by as many as 10 individuals, Shull said.
Rodriguez said the event aimed to show students that the war doesn't just effect politicians, but also individuals.
"The entire point is to make people feel empowered by the situation. It isn't out of their league," Shull said. "The Iraq war, by the time it is over, is going to be the biggest event in young people's lives."
Shull said the surveys demonstrated that people feel disconnected from the war.
"I think the media isn't presenting the right information," said Cook College junior Lakhvir Kaur. "Most people think the Iraqis are bad people, but they're really just like us."
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