Students walked across campus Sunday night in silence led by candle light and the beat of a peace drum in an effort to protest any military action in Iraq by the United States.

About 30 students and other participants gathered Sunday at the peace pole near Newman Catholic Center and marched to Old Main. The march was the start of a 24-hour protest fast for some students and a time to simply voice their opinions for others.

“We need to be peace-makers and not just peace lovers,” said Ryan McClure, a junior art major and organizer of the event. “We need to claim our opinions about peace.”

The march started with readings from students and organizers, including words of guidance from Roy Lanham, campus minister at the Newman Catholic Center, about the significance of fasting and marching.

“(Fasting) is to lend your body to a cause,” he said.

Lanham urged participants to use their hunger pains as a source for strength. The pains and headaches remind fasters why they are protesting and can help them redirect their energy into meditation and prayer for peace.

“It’s supposed to help you cleanse yourself,” he said.

Lanham said he feels there is an inevitable threat of war that the United States is instigating in Iraq and he believes peace is the solution, rather than fighting.

Jillian Phillips, a senior English major who is fasting, said she hoped the march helped others believe peace can be accomplished through non-violence and that killing people is not an answer to conflict.

“We can achieve things without violence,” she said. “Unfortunately, we still feel there are no answers besides war.

“It makes me be able to get through this 24 hours easier,” she said. “It makes me feel that (I am not) helpless or hopeless because I know there are other people out there.”

Fran Nelms, a senior early childhood education major, said she hoped her presence would add solidarity to the group as they work to push for non-violent solutions to Middle East conflicts.

She said she took inspiration from a passage by Peter Price, an Anglican Bishop, that was read by Phillips, saying she not only wants peace, but wants to be a peace maker.

Lanham said it is the individual responsibility of everyone in the community to support the movement by calling their local congressman and expressing their views on the peacemaking process.

He deemed the event a success, despite a disappointing turnout, saying that progress in not always expressed in numbers.

“It’s our light together walking down that dispels the darkness,” he said.

Another march from Old Main back to the Newman Center took place last night to conclude the fast.

*Campus editor Melissa Nielsen contributed to this report