Students Taking Action Now Darfur has grown from a group of college students at Georgetown University to an international effort in universities and high schools around the globe to end genocide and other atrocities.

Currently, the University of Northern Iowa does not have a chapter of STAND, but English professor Stephen Gaies and others are hoping to change this. On Oct. 20, Gaies will host a lunch at 12:30 p.m. in the Piazza’s private dining room for students interested in starting a STAND chapter at UNI with Ellen Kennedy, the interim director for Holocaust and Genocide Studies at the University of Minnesota. Interested students can reserve a spot at the lunch by e-mailing Gaies at [email protected].

UNI senior Abigaile Juhl plans to attend the lunch. Juhl said that she took a Capstone course on genocide with Gaies and was shocked by what she learned.

“When I started professor Gaies’ class, I had no idea about (genocides in history and now), I consider myself to be educated,” Juhl said.

Juhl hopes starting a STAND chapter at UNI will raise student awareness about genocide.

“UNI has enough people that if they were educated and aware, they could do some amazing things,” she said.

Gaies said that a successful STAND chapter at UNI needs to be led by students.

“The only way anything is going to happen here is if students take the initiative and sustain it … This is a student organization,” he said.

Gaies added that Kennedy will be an excellent starting resource for students.

“Ellen Kennedy has a lot of experience in helping student organizations with this kind of thing. She’s eager to meet with students who have an interest,” he said.

In addition to meeting with UNI students at the lunch, Kennedy will be giving a lecture at 7 p.m. Oct. 20 in the Curris Business Building Room 109 on how the Rwandan genocide is remembered in Rwanda and elsewhere.

“She’s going to talk about how individuals in Rwanda, as well as the Rwandan population in general, are remembering the genocide,” Gaies said. “It’s a pretty complex issue because some people would just prefer to let go and move on, and other people just can’t let go.”

The lecture will be sponsored by the Center for Multicultural Education, the UNI Faculty Senate, the Departments of Sociology, Anthropology and Criminology and the College of Humanities and Fine Arts.