Students and faculty convened in the U.B. Ballroom to discuss Invisible Children's documentary "Kony 2012" on Thursday afternoon.
Invisible Children's short documentary, "Kony 2012," went viral after its release, attracting over 74 million YouTube viewers. The 30-minute documentary raises awareness about Joseph Kony, a Ugandan war criminal who has harvested child soldiers and sex slaves. The intention of the film is also to encourage discussion with its vivid illustrations of the atrocities committed by Kony and the Lord's Resistance Army in Central Africa over the past two decades.
The film was met with a multitude of criticisms including the ways in which the group spends their finances, whether it encourages low-effort activism and how Invisible Children promotes the thought that white foreigners are needed to solve Africa's issues.
Political science professors Brett O'Bannon and Deepa Prakash and Joyce Dixon-Fyle, a member of the Roy O. West Collections Development department, led the panel.
Students who attended wanted to learn more about the cause after viewing the documentary or after being educated about the issue in class.
"When I saw the video I wanted to learn more," said Katie Tozer, freshman. "I came to the panel because I'm curious about what the panel has to share."
Like a lot of DePauw students, freshman Demar Ayee wants to become more educated about Kony.
"I'm here because I've been trying to follow this issue and learn more about this," Ayee said. "I feel like a lot of DePauw students only know about Kony from the video and this is a good learning opportunity for students to become informed."
The film has been a big topic in DePauw classrooms, causing many students to become invested in the issue.
Senior Kelsey Moore, an anthropology major who has studied abroad in Africa is interested to see what DePauw thinks of this issue.
"I have been very interested in conflicts," Moore said. "I've been interested in Kony since high school and I am interested to hear what DePauw thinks about it."
Freshman Kreigha Henney recently completed a class project on the subject.
"I first saw the video a week ago and did a project on it for one of my classes," Henney said. "Initially, I was sucked into the video and after analyzing it more it gave me a different perspective. A lot of people don't know about this issue and need to be educated."
Senior Kelly Weber recently wrote a paper on the Lord's Resistance Army (LRA), a militant group in northern Uganda.
"When I saw this happening, I was interested to learn more about the conflict," Weber said.
Professors said Kony provides DePauw with a teachable moment to provide conversations throughout campus, to bring awareness about the issue and to create ideas for how students can take action.
Students offered a diversity of opinions and reaction to the video and Invisible Children at the panel discussion.
While many students like the video, some expressed objections or critiques.
Sophomore Abby Prine presented a problem the video presents with social media.
"The video makes it seem like liking it on Facebook or Twitter we have made a difference when really we have not," Prine said.
Another student at the panel supported the video, saying it has done a good job bringing awareness, sparking activism and dialogue to allow DePauw students to go deeper into the situation.
Sophomore Chelsea Mucha, enjoyed the panel. She feels as if this is just the beginning of DePauw's discussion and students' reactions.
"Invisible Children did something, and now it's our turn to respond positively or negatively to this issue and make a difference," Mucha said.