This week marks the fifth anniversary of the U.S. Invasion of Iraq. Despite the war still being in effect, only 28 percent of U.S. citizens are aware that approximately 4,000 Americans have died in the Iraq war, according to a study from the Pew Research Center for the People and the Press.

Lindsey Milem, freshman in fashion and textile management, feels that this percentage is an accurate reflection of student knowledge about the war.

“I think it’s accurate because not many people know exactly how many [soldiers] have died,” Milem said. “I guess people are losing hope and think we’re not getting much done.”

Agreeing with Milem, Jen Corriher, a freshman in agricultural business management, said she did not think very many students follow the war and would know the death toll. However, Corriher said many U.S. citizens would not know that number because it is a relatively “small number of people that have died in a war that has lasted for 5 years.”

Corriher also said the lack of knowledge by U.S. citizens may be due to the fact that opinions have changed since the war began.

“I think that people are just more apathetic because everybody’s gotten used to [the war],” Corriher said.

Josh Schroder, a junior in business management, agrees that he has seen a change in student opinions, but feels that people are now just against the war.

“I’ve talked to a lot of students who are for Ron Paul, who is very anti-war,” Schroder said. “I think the longer the war is going on the more students are against it.”

Milem, Corriher and Schroder all agree that the war is going to have a large influence on the presidential race.

“Right now I see a lot of older voters being OK with staying in the war and a lot of younger voters wanting to get out,” Schroder said. “When it gets down to the Democrat and Republican candidates, it’s going to be a big issue.”

In response to the Bush administration that drives the war policy and the University administration that promotes militarism, the UNC-Chapel Hill Students for a Democratic Society is holding a Coalition Against the War walk-out today in the UNC-CH Pit at 12:30 p.m., according to an e-mail sent by Clint Johnson, junior in political science at UNC-CH.

According to Johnson, over 500 students participated in the walk out which occurred at more than 80 other schools nationwide.

Corriher and Schroder agreed that the event will be a good way for students to express their opinions, but they will not be attending it.

“I personally wouldn’t attend because I don’t feel strongly enough… . I haven’t been fully convinced that this war is completely a bad thing,” Schroder said.

While they said they would not attend the walk out, Milem, Corriher and Schroder all said that more could be done to make students more knowledgeable about the war.

Schroder said that the government should help more in making the population more aware by making a “Web site where you could find out negatives such as the death toll, but also the positives of what’s going on with the Iraqi government.”

Milem and Corriher, on the other hand, both feel the University should make more of an effort to make students more aware of the war.

“I think a lot of students don’t necessarily get a lot of outside news, but if they would put more information and statistics into student-run newspapers, then students could become more informed,” Corriher said.