Hundreds of college students across the globe will communicate with one another tonight via a live videoconference to discuss American power and global security.

The conference, held at the University for the first time, will be hosted by The Americans for Informed Democracy (AID), a non-partisan organization that seeks to increase global awareness on more than 175 U.S. university campuses and other campuses in more than 10 countries, in conjunction with the World Bank Group.

The event, which begins at 8:30 p.m. at 508 S. Sixth St., will feature a live video dialogue between students at the University, San Francisco State University and Oklahoma University, as well as students in Canberra, Australia, and Manila, Philippines.

“We are doing videoconferences on an ongoing basis to bring world views to college campuses,” said Seth Green, the national executive president of AID. Green said there will be about a dozen videoconferences held in various U.S. and international universities in the spring term.

Pete Ternes, President of the University Chapter of AID, established the campus chapter and worked to bring the conference to Champaign after attending an AID symposium, called “Bringing the World Home,” in Berlin during Thanksgiving break. Ternes was originally given the opportunity to fly to Germany after hearing about the program through an e-mail sent to him by International Illini. He was one of the nearly 100 chosen winners, out of 1,000 applicants, to attend the symposium. He had previously been active in the study abroad program, spending a summer in Italy and a spring semester in England.

Green said that normally the bi-annual symposium is geared toward students just about to return back to the United States. However, Ternes had come to Germany from the United States, which Green said is unique.

Ternes said the symposium helped students understand how to set up different programs on their respective campuses – the reason why he decided to bring it to the University.

“(The videoconference) is focused on students,” said Ternes, senior in LAS. “Hopefully we’ll get a nice turnout. I’ve already gotten a lot of responses from students who are interested in participating.”

Any interested student may request one of the 20 available spots for this particular videoconference, Ternes said.

The students at the conference will get a chance to speak with 150 to 200 international students on topics such as the U.S. invasion of Iraq, the role the United States holds as the world’s policemen, and the global war on terror.

Of the 25 to 30 countries represented at one of the multiple videoconferences hosted every year, Green said that most American students are surprised by how knowledgeable foreign students are when it comes to American politics.

“There is tremendous interest overseas to speak about American politics,” he said. “I hope people begin to realize the diverse foreign viewpoints towards America.”

Green said the videoconference will be an opportunity for people to understand the foreign perceptions of America through their own devices, instead of relying on the media.

“We generally only learn about the world on cable news or local news,” Ternes said. “It’ll be good to hear the opinions of Manila and Australia … hear opinions from students first-hand.”

Whitney Chappell, junior in LAS and treasurer of AID, said she feels the videoconference is an important event and will attract many people.

“I’m looking forward to it,” Chappell said. “I think we’ll meet a lot of open-minded and intelligent people who are concerned about international affairs.”