There was a feeling of friendliness and community last Thursday night as almost 50 Iowa State students gathered in the Wallace-Wilson Commons to peacefully protest NATO bombings in the Kosovo conflict.

Geoff Zehnder, freshman in materials engineering, helped coordinate the protest with three of his friends. They were motivated to hold the rally, he said, as they learned more about U.S. involvement in the war in Kosovo.

“We’ve all been reading reports in Kosovo — it’s getting really disgusting,” he said. “This is how Vietnam started, and it could turn into another Vietnam or World War III.”

Another rally coordinator, Mark Kochen, freshman in art and design, said the group felt it was imperative to organize the protest. He also said the United States is short-sighted and is not considering future ramifications of its involvement.

“It seems like a really sloppy campaign so far,” he said. “We need to think about future goals.”

The rally consisted of music and speeches by Kochen, Zehnder, Ed Snook, member of the ISU Coalition Against NATO Intervention, and Sinisa Grozdanic, graduate student in biomedical sciences from Yugoslavia.

Organizers began publicizing the event Wednesday through fliers distributed on campus.

Allison Bouska, freshman in liberal arts and sciences, also helped coordinate the event. She said though the protest was spur of the moment, feedback generally was positive.

“Most people were really responsive,” she said. “I had only two negative responses, but everyone is entitled to their own opinion.”

Zehnder said many faculty members expressed support for the effort.

“Even professors that didn’t agree with stopping the bombing think it’s really positive that we’re doing this,” he said.

Kochen said the group hoped students who attended the rally would start looking at the crisis in Kosovo from a new perspective.

“We’d really like to invoke thought,” he said.

Zehnder also said he hoped that students went away from the rally with added insight.

“We hope people take time to see out of their everyday life, contemplate what’s going on,” he said. “We hope they have a new found respect for what’s going on there, a new-found awareness.”

Rally attendee Tina Turner, freshman in education, said the protest was effective and reflected that some ISU students are willing to take a stand.

“This shows that someone actually has something to strive for, actually doing something,” she said.

Both Zehnder and Kochen said they would be willing to plan more rallies if the student support was there and have contemplated having a relief concert for refugees of the Kosovo conflict.

Grozdanic, who spoke to the group about his experience as a Serbian refugee, said he would continue to support the student rallies.

“Absolutely, as long as I live, I’m going to support any anti-war activity,” he said.

Sasa Stankovic, graduate student in chemistry from Yugoslavia, applauded the group’s efforts in organizing the protest.

“They need to just keep up this work, keep as many people as they can informed about what’s going on.”

The ISU Coalition Against NATO Intervention already is planning another peace rally to be held Friday from 12:20 to 2:30 p.m. near the Campanile.