Anti-war students at UNC-Chapel Hill plan to walk out of class for a noon rally in the Pit.

Meanwhile, students from N.C. State University and Enloe High, Raleigh Charter, Green Hope High and Cary High plan to rally at 11 a.m. at the Bell Tower at NCSU.

The Raleigh group plans to march down Hillsborough Street and through campus, ending with a rally at noon on the south end of the Free Expression Tunnel.

Dante Strobino, a graduate student in electrical engineering at NCSU, said he expected the Chapel Hill rally to be the largest of the area protests. That rally, he said, has been planned for weeks.

Strobino, 25, said he did not know how many students to expect at the NCSU rally. But he said organizers were driven largely by the enthusiasm from high school students who wanted a place to rally.

NCSU organizers distributed flyers to call attention to today's event, he said.

The national organization Students for a Democratic Society has called for students to show opposition to the war today in a “national student and youth day of action.”

Throughout the past weekend and into Monday, the fourth anniversary of the U.S. invasion of Iraq, anti-war activists held protests around the country and called for an immediate withdrawal of U.S. troops from Iraq.

Demonstrations in San Francisco led to 57 arrests, mostly for blocking a street. And 44 people were arrested outside the New York Stock Exchange on disorderly conduct charges.

President Bush, meanwhile, has asked for patience, saying his plan to stabilize Baghdad with more combat and support troops needs time to work.

More than 3,200 members of the U.S. military have been killed in the war. Iraqi civilian deaths are estimated at more than 54,000, possibly much higher.