The Brandeis chapter of Students Taking Action Now: Darfur (STAND) was chartered at last night's Union Senate meeting, culminating a summer of planning to support aid efforts in Darfur. But the group's work-raising awareness about the genocide in the Sudan and encouraging the U.S. government to send more relief-is far from over. The next big date is Oct. 6, when STAND hopes three to five million people worldwide will fast from one meal or refuse luxury goods and donate the money saved to relief efforts in Darfur. Known as Darfur Fast, this movement aims to be "a luxury fast simple enough that everyone can be involved," according to Weldon Kennedy '06, who helped write STAND's national bylaws and worked to create the Darfur Fast Web site.

STAND began last September at Georgetown University, and has since expanded to about 200 schools in the U.S. and Canada. It became a unified national coalition at a conference at Georgetown this August. According to Masaya Uchino '06, this status as a national movement helps the organization achieve more than many other student groups. STAND has partnered with the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum and mtvU, the college-oriented branch of MTV.

Extensive outreach has attracted famous participants for the Oct. 6 fast, including actor Bill Cosby, Archbishop Emeritus of Cape Town and Nobel laureate Desmond Tutu, and New York Times columnist Nicholas Kristof.

The list even includes NBA player Dikembe Mutombo and the chief rabbi of Poland-two strikingly different figures.

"This is not a partisan issue; this is for everyone," Kennedy said.

The celebrity names "give more legitimacy to the student movement," said Patrick Schmitt, a senior at Georgetown who is one of the key players in STAND's national endeavors.

Kennedy said that the fast can be a "foot in the door" for people, and a way to "register your discontent with genocide." He said that most people are aware of the Sudan crisis, but are not aware of its complexity, or of "how terrible and minimal are the efforts" to end the killing.

"The U.S. has been idly sitting by, with declared genocide," Kennedy said. "This is almost disgusting to me."

In early 2003, two rebel groups in Sudan attacked military installations, leading to retaliations by Janjaweed, or government-sponsored militias. This intensified a 20-plus-year civil war, and quickly escalated into genocide, as officially recognized by U.S. Congress in July 2004 and then-Secretary of State Colin Powell in September 2004.

The Darfur Fast Web site (www.darfurfast.org) cites recent reports by the World Food Program, the United Nations and the Coalition for International Justice: 3.5 million people are now hungry and 400,000 people have died in Darfur since early 2003.

In addition to the fast, STAND-Brandeis plans to hold a vigil and teach-ins led by students and professors.

The chapter is encouraging Brandeis students to call the State Department all day on Sept. 13 and urge the government to increase aid to Darfur.

A benefit dinner is slated for early October, with a panel of speakers including John Prendergast, advisor to the president of the International Crisis Group. On the agenda for the fast day itself is a rally in Boston.

Sean Lewis-Faupel '08 is working with the Massachusetts Coalition to Save Darfur to plan this event. Oct. 6 is an appropriate date, as it occurs during Ramadan, a period of fasting in Islam, and is also Tzom Gedaliah, a fast day in Judaism that commemorates the assassination of a religious leader.

STAND is merging with Brandeis Against Genocide in Sudan, a group formed last spring. Matt Rogers '08, one of the presidents of last year's group, said that the merge will allow more work on a national level.

Kennedy said the group can make everyone at Brandeis more aware and knowledgeable.

"This is going to be intense," Kennedy said. "We are going to push people to the point of compassion fatigue.