Triangle students streamed out of classrooms into the sunshine Tuesday to shout, march and beat homemade drums in protest on the fourth anniversary of the start of the Iraq war.

The noontime rallies at N.C. State University and UNC-Chapel Hill were lively but nonviolent. Demonstrations were planned at more than 80 campuses across the country, organizers said. The events had a Vietnam-era feel with 21st century flair: Organizers spread the word through Facebook, a social networking Web site, and passers-by stopped to snap digital photos.

More than 150 protesters marched from the UNC-CH campus to the intersection of Franklin and Columbia streets, where lunchtime traffic stalled in four directions. Then the crowd paraded down the 100 block of Franklin Street, with police keeping a close watch but allowing the demonstration to move through downtown. There were no arrests.

Students carried drums fashioned from plastic buckets and held bedsheet banners. Signs screamed slogans such as, "I'd rather be in class, but then so would the troops," "College not combat" and "ACC Champs against the occupation."

Sara Joseph, 22, a UNC-CH senior from Lexington, Mass., took the bullhorn and asked why U.S. troops were still fighting and dying in Iraq. "My country has been at war for my entire career. ... U.S. foreign policy is a breeding ground for terrorism. I feel so much less safe today than I did on Sept. 12, 2001."

Later, as the student demonstration snaked through the campus, people stopped to watch the spectacle.

Martha Keever, director of the UNC Learning Center, stood by and flashed a peace sign.

"I was here in 1970," she said. "This is small, but I'm happy to see it. I like to see student activism."

Some didn't approve. Anthony Stevenson, 23, a second-year graduate student, marched in front of the protesters, taunting them with a red, white and blue scarf, and yelling, "Win the war! Win the war!"

Stevenson said he is not pro-war, but he sees disaster if the troops leave Iraq now. "I came out to support the troops and support their mission," he said.

In Raleigh, nearly 100 protesters marched from the Bell Tower to the Free Expression Tunnel at NCSU. Some came from Enloe High School, leaving class at 10:30 a.m. for the march. On the campus Brickyard, NCSU students planted gold paper stars on sticks, each bearing the name of a fallen soldier.

Larkin Coffey, 15, was only 11 when the war started.

"I hate that our government is causing so much misery in the world," said Coffey, an Enloe sophomore in a Che Guevara T-shirt. "I just got to the point where I was ready to start acting instead of just talking about it."

Students from several area high schools joined the protest. A spokesman for Wake County schools said each principal would determine how to handle the walkouts. Students will be expected to make up the work they missed.

As the protest moved through the Brickyard, students and professors stared, and a few heckled. NCSU freshman Michael Jimenez called out, "Go home, hippies!" as the protesters passed.

The 18-year-old from Davie County said he has three friends in Iraq and a brother in the Army.

"I think it's a slap in the face to the troops," Jimenez said. "They can have their opinions. But being disrespectful is not going to help."

Others said the protest was an important statement at a historic moment, and they wanted to be a part of it.

"The dead are our age," said Tara Ilsley, president of the College Democrats. "They're in their 20s. ... What are we doing now? The war isn't accomplishing anything. In my opinion, it's become another Vietnam."