Students concerned with the military action of the United States against Afghanistan met this past Tuesday evening in the Grove House at Pitzer to form a coalition advocating peace.

The meeting was publicized by Salina Espinosa, a third year senior at Pitzer, in response to the many comments she had heard about the need for such a group. "There are a lot of individuals who had approached me with their concerns, and there are several groups who are already beginning to do things. This meeting is an effort to bring everyone together in a coalition to unite our efforts," said Espinosa.

The activist movement has begun in other southern California universities. Students at UCLA have already staged two protests, including one at the Westwood federal building on the first day of the bombings in Afghanistan. Students at USC and Cal Tech have also held demonstrations.

Groups on campus, such as "Art for Action," have already begun to respond to military actions taken by the United States. "Art for Action" has taken a large mural to dining halls around the 5-Cs for students to express their thoughts on the events that have occurred in the last month.

However, most of the awareness has been in the form of information. Whether in the form of flyers or forums, the flow of information has been through passive mediums rather than active ones.

The gathering at the Grove House hoped to be just the opposite. "We should be active. We should not be just talking so that we can understand. We don’t want to feel powerless," said Lenny Molina ’02 at the meeting.

Molina had just returned from marches of about 10,000 people in Washington, D.C. and volunteered to use his connections to many regional and national peace movements to benefit the movement on the Claremont Colleges.

Though the presence of highly involved peace activists, such as Molina, were obvious, the group was marked by those interested in learning more. "I was feeling ignorant because of all the work I have (at school). We don’t really have time to know what’s going on outside of the colleges. I just wanted to know more," said Kat Ayer ’04.

The coalition also discussed ways to be active in the Claremont community. "We should arm people with information. Inform them about the myths of war," suggested Mary An SC ’04.

The group has plans to join a Claremont pro-peace organization to demonstrate on the corner of Indian Hill Blvd. and Arrow Highway. Students from the five colleges will meet at Mallott Commons Thursday evening and march through the campuses of Claremont Mckenna and Pomona before joining the demonstration at six.

"We want to inform people of the importance of peaceful solutions," said Molina.

People questioned the logistics of a large scale protest on one of the five colleges. Because of the problems with protesters and Bernard Field Station, the 5-C policy on demonstrations has changed. Power has been extended to college presidents over students from other colleges. The presidents no longer need permission from the other president to bring judicial hearings against students. This means that a student can be more easily apprehended for disturbing business at one of the colleges.

However, as long as protesters do not disrupt school business, there is no problem.

Molina urged those who were planning the march to the demonstration area to make sure that people stay on the sidewalk and away from disrupting traffic. "As long as you stay on the sidewalk, you’ll be fine," he said.

The group is also planning to distribute a large assortment of posters advocating peace and readings from non-U.S. news sources, which tend to be less patriotic and biased in favor of war.

Assignments were also made to find teachers for large-scale teach-ins, which are in the works. "I know a lot of smaller size teach-ins have been going on throughout the five colleges, but we should try to organize something that will garner more attention," said Espinosa.

The gathering actually began about fifteen minutes late because some students were arriving from a teach-in at Pitzer.

For the Pomona-Pitzer Homecoming on October 22, the group is planning for an information booth to advocate peace. There are also plans for a trip to the West Coast Peace Rally in Berkeley on November 11.

The group hopes to coordinate and join forces with another organization that will be meeting this Friday October 12 at noon in Collins, the CMC dining hall.