SU Students Divided on Possible U.S.-Iraq War

www.winchesterstar.com By Andrew Martel The Winchester Star

The subject of war with Iraq has come up in curious places at Shenandoah University.

A resident advisor posted a survey on a hallway bulletin board to measure his floor’s support.

A business class discussed the impact of a potential war on international economics and finance.

The looming international crisis has even been a topic in a class on state and local government.

SU students say they do not discuss the possibility of war much, but they almost all have an opinion.

William Shendow, SU’s political science program chairman and director of the school’s John O. Marsh Institute for Government and Public Policy, polled 35 students in two of his entry-level political science classes three weeks ago.

In the four question survey, Shendow said he found a nearly equal distribution of those fully against the war and those fully supporting it, and then twice as many students somewhere in between.

Shendow said he starts every class with an open discussion on the latest news of the potential war.

“I’m giving all of my classes the opportunity to talk about the politics of the world around them,” Shendow said. “A war with Iraq will have an impact on their lives.”

One of Shendow’s students, a junior who was considering a run for student body president, left school earlier this semester after his reserve unit was mobilized.

The in-class survey of Shendow’s introductory political science class and his class on local government found that students outright opposed to the war slightly outnumbered students who outright support it.

The majority of students said the United States should go to war only with the endorsement of the United Nations. But 35 percent of these students added that their support would wane if more than 500 American soldiers were killed.

The biggest reason to go to war, the respondants stated, is Iraq’s possession of weapons of mass destruction. Students also think the war should be fought to lessen the threat of terrorism, free the Iraqi people, and protect U.S. oil interests in the Middle East.

The biggest reasons to stay out of a war, the students said, are the fear of both U.S. and Iraqi casualties, harm to the U.S. economy, and opposition to a preemptive assault on Iraq.

So, if the United States goes to war against Iraq, SU may not be a hotbed of anti-war protest, but there may be friction between the differing ideologies.

For now, though, the campus is largely quiet, many students say.

Freshman Andrew Greenwood said he does not discuss the prospect of war with friends often.

Greenwood’s resident advisor took a survey of his floor, which was overall in support of U.S. action, but Greenwood added that it’s an all-male floor and offers an incomplete representation of the entire campus.

“I think opinion’s divided, maybe slightly in favor,” said Greenwood, who is against the war.

Brad Tatum, Greenwood’s resident advisor, said he is not sure how he feels about the war, but he sees merit to arguments both for and against it.

Junior Brian Jones said the war is discussed often in his business classes, particularly how it would affect global markets.

He is opposed to the conflict, as are many of his classmates, he said.

“We don’t believe the war is our only option. There are other methods that can be taken,” Jones said.

Shendow said he feels opinion is divided not only among students, but faculty as well.

Support for the war varies depending on whether people study or work in the conservatory, the business school, or the College of Arts and Sciences.

Some of the quietest students are among the most opposed.

Several students in SU’s international student community say they are very much against the war, although it does not come up much within their circles.

“I don’t think international students worry about it much,” said Baola Maduro, an English as a Second Language student from Venezuela.

Maduro added that she is opposed to the war, but she feels it does not affect her as much as it would others.

Freshman Mariana Pino, from Panama, said the prospect of war has her scared, “because I’m so far from home.”

Pino said she agrees that Saddam Hussein has committed some terrible crimes, but it is not worth of an invasion of another country.

Her experiences growing up in Panama have given her a unique perspective.

“It brings back memories from when the other President Bush invaded our country,” Pino said, speaking of the U.S. siege in December 1989 to overthrow Panamanian President Manuel Noriega.