 "Photo: Andrew Lamberson")
On the second floor of the Teacher's College, a hidden hallway leading to Professor Eric Buhs' office has been converted into a memorial to those who have died in the Iraq War.
"Once the obituaries started appearing in the paper, I started to think about how it was kind of a somber sign of the effects of the war," Buhs said.
In 2004, the educational psychology professor started collecting obituaries with his wife from the local newspaper every morning before work. Now, there are nearly 3,000 obituaries tacked to the walls of the hallway.
When Buhs started putting up the obituaries, he used the bulletin board outside his office. After awhile, he was forced to expand to the boards of colleagues.
It wasn't long before the limited space caused Buhs to halt his hallway archive, he said. The ones that didn't fit on the walls now sit in manila envelopes.
"I'm not really sure what I was thinking I'd do with them when I started cutting them out," Buhs said. "I didn't realize how many there would be. I think everybody thought the war would end by now."
Though Buhs started the wall as a reminder of the cost of war, he said people have started to forget about it. In general, there is less attention to the war in the media, Buhs said. The little news there is is stuck in the back pages of newspapers.
"It's mentioned every day in the news, but it's not shoved in our faces like it used to be," said Jamese Coty, a junior psychology major and one of Buhs' students.
The wall brings attention back to the war, Coty said. The wall brings the situation closer to home.
With the sheer number of names and faces on the wall, people at UNL could know someone, Buhs said.
"I really didn't think it was going to have a public impact," Buhs said. "I was just thinking it was something important for someone to do."
The obituaries that are up will stay until the war is over.
"I don't feel comfortable taking any of them down," Buhs said. "I'm not sure what I'd do when the war ends, I just hope I get to stop one day."
mimiabebe@dailynebraskan.com
is a member of the 
