For Iowa State-based pro-peace group A Time For Peace, it was time again to pick up its protest signs outside of Parks Library at noon Thursday and weigh in on the issue of arming campus police.

The group also protested with another Ames based anti-war group, calling themselves The Iraq Campaign, to encourage students to call their representatives to end the war in Iraq. The Iraq Campaign’s mission was to hand out materials and to have students specifically request State Rep. Tom Latham, R-Iowa, and Sen. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, to end their support for President Bush and the war as a whole.

“[We want to] set up a booth for people to call their representatives to end the war in Iraq and also get involved in political actions,” said Kathleen Kennedy, junior in animal science and a member Time for Peace.

Since the regents had postponed their vote on the arming of campus police, Kennedy said this was an opportunity “to express our concern” about the issue.

“We thought this was a window of opportunity for people in Iowa to come together and come up with a different solution,” Kennedy said.

In light of the recent Tasering incident in the University of Florida, the issue of the police using excessive force to provide security on campus is ringing loudly across the student population.

“I guess it seems outrageous to me. It seems like a threat to public discourse [as a whole], and that is alarming to me,” Kennedy said.

Gregory Bonett, senior in electrical engineering and treasurer for Time for Peace, said protesting the war in Iraq and protesting arming the police are cut from the same cloth.

“There is a similar mentality between arming police and arming a country,” Bonett said. “I think these concerns [about security] are driven by fear. I think the DPS are complete in keeping the campus safe.”

Nitin Gadia, a traveling representative new to the Ames Iraq Campaign office, said he felt that as an outsider from the ISU community, the arming decision was caused by fear.

“I feel it is a decision driven [by] fear. The Virginia Tech police had guns and it wasn’t stopped. There are much deeper causes for violence. I don’t think there is any legitimate use of violence,” Gadia said.

Narren Brown, graduate student in political science, said he felt mixed about the arming issue, even in light of the Florida occurrence.

“It’s not like I don’t trust the police, but I don’t trust criminals either,” Brown said. “In my limited time here, I’ve seen a lot of alcohol abuse and wild parties, and I can see it getting out of hand.”

As students passed by the group’s table, some stopped and called either Latham or Grassely and left messages for them.

Leah Hirsch, freshman in child, adult and family services, said she felt good about calling her representative.

“I felt good about actually saying something. I feel like people need to start saying something, because we got ourselves into this and we need to work with the Iraqi people to get ourselves out,” Hirsch said.