ATHENS, Ga. — On a brief break from studying for his final in evolutionary biology, sophomore A.J. Rizzo sat on a bench under a big oak tree on the University of Georgia’s campus this week and admitted, with some guilt, what he doesn’t know.

He is willing to acknowledge that he is a pretty good student. He got into UGA, right? He’s a genetics major. He’s also working toward a minor in music and plays jazz for fun, intrigued by the different kind of thinking it requires.

But this Israeli-Palestinian crisis, the one that has been going on long since before he was born, before even his parents were born, and that has claimed tens of thousands of lives since October? He has no answer for it or what side he will take.

“I’m not educated enough to have a position. I probably should. I feel like it’s my responsibility to know what’s going on in the world,” Rizzo said.

In recent days pro-Palestinian demonstrations have settled on college campuses around the nation, including in Atlanta and Athens. One organizing group in Athens suggested UGA’s administration, by not condemning Israel’s war in Gaza following a Hamas attack, hasn’t sided with “the overwhelming force of student opinion.”

But it appears that, like Rizzo, many students at Georgia’s flagship public university aren’t sure what side to take, based on interviews with nearly 30 students around campus on Wednesday.

Several demonstrations at UGA protesting Israel’s invasion have occurred this week, some attracting dozens or 100 or more demonstrators. Another pro-Palestinian rally is planned for Friday.

But at a huge university with around 41,000 students, strong convictions on the conflict do not appear dominant. More than half of those interviewed said they didn’t have a stance on the issue. Only a handful voiced firm support for one side or another. And even a few students who said they have taken a stance in the conflict volunteer a nagging self-awareness that there are gaps in their knowledge of the issues.

Meghan Jacobs, a junior majoring in entertainment and media studies, said she wanted to go to a couple of the protests at UGA earlier in the week but had to work at her job instead. Israelis and Palestinians present “a very complicated issue that I probably don’t have all the facts on,” she said. Unprompted, Jacobs said she doesn’t know the full history of the creation of Israel or what the solution is to violence that has roiled the region for generations.

But the carnage in Gaza is too much, she said. “I just know that I think there should be a ceasefire because there are too many lives that have been lost.”

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