The September 11 terrorist attacks have revived a spirit of activism on college campuses across the United States. During the course of the fall semester, thousands of students volunteered their services in support of relief efforts. A few campus activists even built organizations that advocate alternative responses to the terrorism threat.

For Marjorie Rhodes, a junior majoring in biopsychology at the University of Michigan, developments since September 11 have reinforced her belief in non-violent means of conflict resolution. Meanwhile, Josh Fryday, a political science-philosophy major at the University of California-Berkeley is leading efforts to promote awareness of Islam with the aim of helping Muslims at Berkeley feel more secure.

At Columbia University in New York City, Laurence Berg, a graduate student at Columbia University's School of International and Public Affairs (SIPA) wants to develop a method to evaluate the effectiveness of the actions of the US and its allies in Afghanistan. Berg believes that a thorough understanding of the causes of the September 11 attacks is a key to success in containing the terrorist threat.

"There are different opinions as to how extensive a military response should be. Should we be reinforcing US global dominance, or reassessing the impact of US foreign policy on other parts of the world that engender grievances?" Berg asks.

Berg founded Columbia's SIPA Responds within a week of the attack, garnering school administration's support for discussion forums aimed at advancing sound policies in the aftermath of September 11.

Berg, who served as a human rights monitor in Bosnia for four years with the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe, knows the importance of a sound terrorism policy. The United States managed to hammer out a tenuous peace to end ethnic conflict in Bosnia in 1995 after creating conditions for a settlement through economic sanctions and the use of force.

"I don't believe that the larger terrorism (issue) can be adequately dealt with a military approach. Whether or not it's appropriate to use military force now, it's not going to make much of a difference in the long term," says Berg.

Indeed, while the US-led anti-terrorism campaign continues, many students are seeking paths to a sustainable peace. Rhodes, 21, leads the University of Michigan's Students for a Peaceful Alternative, a group that began as an informal discussion forum. Like Columbia's SIPA Responds, the events of September 11 prompted them to seek official recognition as a student organization. The group's mission statement declares: "The international demand for justice should not be controlled by an angry cry for retaliation and vengeance. Violence has not been, and will never be, an effective solution for stopping violence."

Rhodes spent much of the autumn working to promote greater awareness among students about international events, specifically trying to place the September 11 events in a global context. Students for a Peaceful Alternative also sponsored a vigil that called on the anti-terrorism coalition to adhere to international human right norms in its fight against the Taliban and al Qaeda.

Fryday, 20, as external affairs vice-president of the Association of Students of the University of California, says views on campus are mixed regarding the conduct of the US anti-terrorism campaign. "The actions may be disputed, but for us, the less violence, the less military action there is, the better," he told EurasiaNet.

Recalling September 11, Fryday says: "One of the first things that ran through my head was 'we need to make sure that the Arab-Muslim students don't become targets,'" of hate crimes. "The second was, what caused this hatred? What made the people responsible for this, do this?" UC Berkeley, which has a sizeable Arab-Muslim student population, has established informational displays and held educational forums to promote greater awareness about events and traditions in the Islamic world.