For months the U.S. buildup against Iraq attracted almost no notice on U.S. campuses, including those at the forefront of anti-war protests in the past. But opposition is beginning to stir, although nothing even vaguely resembling a movement. PNS reporter Annie Decker, a recent Harvard University graduate, surveyed editors at a dozen college campus newspapers, from the Stanford Daily to Virginia Tech's Collegiate Times. This is part of an ongoing series on the politics of the twenty-something generation.

A few ripples in the sludge of college life over the past week suggest the United States confrontation with Iraq could catalyze a considerable student protest.

So far, however, an informal survey of campus newspapers across the country reveals that students are informed but uncommitted on the issue.

Most student newspapers use an Associated Press digest for national and international news, and pieces on the U.S.-Iraq conflict have appeared infrequently at best.

UC-Berkeley's Daily Californian, a flagship for the anti-war movement in the 1960s, printed only one article in the first weeks of February that even mentioned Iraq -- and that was about an off-campus demonstration. At nearby Stanford, "students are keeping up with the news about Iraq," said the Daily's Editor-in-Chief, Teresa Lee. "If asked if this means the existence of debate or protest, the answer is 'no."'

In its weekly poll, the on-line version of Harvard University's newspaper, the Crimson, asked "Should the U.S. go to war with Iraq?" This drew 15 "yes" and 17 "no" votes on February 11. The next week brought 54 "yes" and 78 "no." The Crimson for Feb. 11 also reported a rally protesting economic sanctions and the possibility of bombing that drew 300. But coverage has been spotty -- since Oct. 23 of last year, only 12 stories that mention Iraq have appeared in the Crimson, and some of these have little to do with the conflict with Washington.

"Until just this past week, Harvard student activism (on the Iraq crisis) has happened primarily through the Society of Arab Students (SAS)," says Amahl Bishara, a student and activist.

But the mood has begun shifting, Bishara and others note. A Feb. 16 teach-in about the Iraq crisis at Smith College drew 300-400 students, more than ten times the usual number, according to Michael Klare, head of the Peace studies program for a five-college consortium in the region. "The brazenness of the American government seems to be the main cause of this change," Klare says. An editor at the Smith Sophian was more cautious, noting that few students are willing to put aside their studies to do anything about the issues the paper reports.

A similar teach-in at the University of Michigan on Feb. 12 may have spurred the college daily to its recent coverage, including articles from the Washington Post and the LA Times. Under a Feb. 17 headline announcing that "Iraq Discussion Hits Campuses," the Michigan Daily reported that 15 campus organizations are coming together to protest the economic sanctions. Students at the teach-in "wept as disease-stricken children flashed across the screen," the paper noted.

Howard University's weekly Hilltop, the largest Black student newspaper in the country, ran an editorial on Feb. 20 opposing U.S. military action against Iraq -- but it was the first piece on Iraq the paper has run since last November, according to editor Natalie Moore.

Earlier than most, about 100 University of Wisconsin student protesters stopped traffic on Feb. 12 on Madison's main University Avenue, recalling the university's history of anti-war protests. The University of Texas at Austin's Daily Texan, which has run daily AP coverage of the crisis, last week offered two editorials, one pro-war and one con. Virginia Tech's Collegiate Times ran an editorial denouncing air strikes, although one student government representative suggested that most students "aren't taking (the issue) seriously because they don't see it as a personal or national threat."

Reading through college papers and talking with their editors, it is clear that students are not moved so much by political philosophy as they are by images from documentaries, statistics from the United Nations and, above all, pronouncements from the White House.