A large group of University of Pittsburgh students joined several hundred community members in a march on Saturday that commemorated the fifth anniversary and 4,000th American casualty of the Iraq war.

About 100 to 200 students assembled outside the William Pitt Union and marched down Fifth Avenue, shouting protest chants and holding signs.

The students joined community members at Carnegie Mellon University’s Software Engineering Institute, which protesters claim has received funding for military projects, to form a group of about 400 to 500 marchers at the corner of Fifth Avenue and Craig Street.

Students from five colleges - Pitt, Carnegie Mellon, Chatham, Point Park and the Community College of Allegheny County - along with local high school students, attended the pre-march student rally at the Union. Student organizers, including leaders from various clubs, fired up the crowd in preparation for the march.

Marc Mancini, a Pitt sociology student, stood on the concrete benches and talked about how protesting is an important part of patriotism.

“If we didn’t question authority, we’d still be English!” Mancini said to a large applause from the crowd.