ATHENS — On a brief break from studying for his final in evolutionary biology, sophomore A.J. Rizzo sat on a bench under a big oak tree on the University of Georgia’s campus this week and admitted, with some guilt, what he doesn’t know.
He is willing to acknowledge that he is a pretty good student. He got into UGA, right? He’s a genetics major. He’s also working toward a minor in music and plays jazz for fun, intrigued by the different kind of thinking it requires.
But this Israeli-Palestinian crisis, the one that has been going on long since before he was born, before even his parents were born, and that has claimed tens of thousands of lives since October? He has no answer for it or what side he will take.
“I’m not educated enough to have a position. I probably should. I feel like it’s my responsibility to know what’s going on in the world,” Rizzo said.
In recent days pro-Palestinian demonstrations have settled on college campuses around the nation, including in Atlanta and Athens. One organizing group in Athens suggested UGA’s administration, by not condemning Israel’s war in Gaza following a Hamas attack, hasn’t sided with “the overwhelming force of student opinion.”
But it appears that, like Rizzo, many students at Georgia’s flagship public university aren’t sure what side to take, based on interviews with nearly 30 students around campus on Wednesday.
About the Author
