Members of the University of Wisconsin’s Campus Antiwar Network are hoping to bring Iraqi students to the UW campus.

The group is working to establish the Iraqi Student Project, in which one or more young Iraqi citizens would be brought to America to continue or begin their college studies.

The students would have tuition waived, and according to CAN, the project has successfully been implemented at other U.S. universities.

In a sit-down interview with The Badger Herald, five CAN members detailed the project and said they plan on having one to three students on campus as early as fall 2008.

"Once Iraq did have a very prestigious educational system — the University of Baghdad was very respected," UW senior Paul Pryse said. "Now the U.S. government has failed to do anything to meliorate the situation. If the U.S. fails to do anything about what they've caused to their educational system, we're going to reach out our hands."

Pryse said ISP has two main organizers, one located in the U.S. and another in Iraq, and they work simultaneously in recruiting students.

"They will be working to screen students [who are] academically prepared, who have taken the same kind of English foreign language test as other students have, and also screening for people who are emotionally capable of relocating to the United States," Pryse said.

The CAN members said they are currently trying to schedule meetings with Dean of Students Lori Berquam to talk about how to develop the project.

UW spokesperson John Lucas said the ISP is "definitely a worthy cause," but details on how to fund it would have to be more thoroughly explained.

"It sounds like an intriguing idea, but we would need to know much more of the program before we could commit to anything," Lucas said.

UW sophomore Sam Finesurrey said there are millions of Iraqi refugees who have been forced to flee the country at several levels of schooling.

"Some have had a college education, but if that hasn't happened yet, we'd like the UW System to provide it," he added.

The project also requires that a support group be set up for the Iraqi students.

"This support is more or less responsible for providing a home away from home [and] moral support," UW freshman Jenny Wustmann said.

Finesurrey said it is important that UW accepts more than one student in order to provide enough emotional support.

CAN is holding an informational session today to raise support for the cause, the students said.

"[The meeting] is to see if people have interest on the project, for them to have a common knowledge of what's going on," Wustmann said. "We'll tell them about the ISP, organize ourselves, give them a way to help. It's obvious that in order for the administration to help this, there is going to have to be a lot of support."

Lucas said CAN members have a meeting scheduled with Berquam, and the dean will not provide comment until she knows further details.