Campus Peace Centers: Building a Culture of Peace, One Campus at a Time
an article by Deborah Moldow

Students from Vassar College handed out programs at the launch of the Campus Peace Centers project at UN headquarters in New York on 25 October 2007 during the Week of Spirituality, Values and Global Concerns celebrating the United Nations 62nd anniversary. Deborah Moldow of the World Peace Prayer Society opened the event with silence and a shared prayer, “May Peace Prevail on Earth.”

Campus Peace Centers is an innovative project to encourage university students working for the various aspects of a culture of peace to form local meeting centers, as well as an international on-line network highlighting UN campaigns and youth initiatives. Deborah and Dr. Neil Altman, of the Society for the Psychological Study of Social Issues, are spearheading the project with a Working Group from the UN NGO Committee on Spirituality, Values and Global Concerns-New York. The Campus Peace Centers web site at www.campuspeacecenters.net already has an Advisory Council of educators from universities across North America.

Prof. Gordon Fellman, Chair of the Peace, Conflict, and Coexistence Studies Program at Brandeis University presented the Peace Room he established, an example of a Campus Peace Center set to join the new network. Ms. C. Janet Gerson and Mr. Tony B. Jenkins, Co-Directors of the Peace Education Center at Columbia University’s Teachers College, discussed nurturing social justice and transformation.

Aaron Voldman, a junior at Brandeis who is National College Director of the Student Peace Alliance, spoke about connecting young people with inspiring causes, such as creating a Cabinet-level Department of Peace.

The United Nations was well represented by Ms. Yvonne Acosta, Chief of the Academic Partnerships Unit in the Outreach Division of the UN Dept. of Public Information, and Ms. Rochelle Roca Hachem, Programme Specialist for Culture at the UNESCO Office in New York, who spoke in support of future collaboration for a culture of peace.

May Peace Prevail on Earth.

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