Die-in raises awareness about genocide in Darfur

By Rachel Schwartz

Members of a Santa Clara social justice organization took over the Santa Clara Mall on Monday to bring awareness to ongoing genocide in the Darfur region of Sudan.

Over 50 members of Students Taking Action Now for Darfur held a "die-in" on the lawn outside of Benson Memorial Center to educate students on the current situation in the Darfur region as well as to recruit students to attend a "Day of Conscience for Darfur," a Bay Area-wide rally and vigil to be held in San Francisco on April 30.

Over 400,000 civilians have been murdered and 2.5 million civilians have been displaced to camps in Darfur and neighboring Chad, according to the United Nations.

"The loss of life is so extensive and the scale is just so large and so horrible," freshman STAND member Katie Ranney said.

During the die-in, STAND members laid on the grass to represent the thousands of murdered Sudanese, gave out flyers about the genocide and upcoming STAND events to students, made presentations and sang protest songs.

"A die-in for awareness is a little bit fun because everyone is getting together, but it's also very important because we are bringing the issue to the minds of the students," Ranney said.

The sight of giant posters and students singing the Buffalo Springfield protest anthem "For What It's Worth" drew an occasional giggle or raised eyebrow from students passing by.

"I think a lot of people may overlook it because of how cliché and stereotypical it looks," sophomore Matt Ambauen said. "However, it definitely catches people's attention."

Event organizers were pleased with the event and considered the 50 members that participated throughout the day to be a good turnout for a social activism event. Friends who wanted to show their solidarity for the issue occasionally joined STAND members on the grass, and the club was able to recruit about 20 new students to attend the San Francisco rally.

"This campus really needs some activism, so we decided to go big or go home," freshman Lindsey Dunn said.

STAND is a student activist movement that has over 200 chapters on high school and college campuses in the Unites States. The U.S. STAND coalition was founded in 2004 and is headquartered at Georgetown University in Washington.

The Santa Clara STAND chapter was founded in January by freshman Nick Obradovich. Obradovich founded the chapter after speaking to Canadian Parliament member David Kilgour, who suggested that he found the chapter as a way to affect change about the Darfur conflict. The two met at a Markkula Center for Applied Ethics' Ethics at Noon event about Darfur.

STAND meets Thursday nights in Sobrato Hall, room 19, and is always welcoming new members.

"We don't want to be a really political, hard-core social activist group; we want to include everybody," said Dunn.

Obradovich came up with the idea for a die-in after a STAND-sponsored national die-in that occurred last year, before the Santa Clara chapter existed.

"The ultimate goal of doing something to show there is a genocide going on was achieved," Obradovich said.