Cover the night at Southeast in support of Kony 2012

Students at Southeast Missouri State University are preparing for Cover the Night, a project designed to make Joseph Kony and his Lord's Resistance Army household names.

Cover the Night, sponsored by Invisible Children, Inc., is a nationwide event where participants cover their cities with posters in one night to urge citizens and the government to stop Kony's murderous army.

Invisible Children is selling "action kits" on their website that consist of two serial numbered bracelets, posters, button pins and fliers. The organization's ultimate goal is for Americans to contact their policy-makers and push President Barack Obama to send troops to Africa to stop Kony.

Invisible Children helps African communities affected by the LRA by providing education and mentoring, rebuilding schools, rehabilitating kidnapped children and protecting civilians.

"We want to go to St. Louis, because we have more friends there, and cover the city with posters from the website," Southeast international student Orphee Ondo said. Ondo is participating with a group for friends not affiliated with a student organization.

Ondo's group bought an action kit for Cover the Night from the Invisible Children website in January.

"Kony murdered, tortured and kidnapped people," Ondo said. "It is not about the present, it's about the future. It doesn't matter if it is 10, 15 or even 20 years after the fact, he should still pay for his crimes."

By the time Southeast student organization Free the Slaves was prepared to purchase their kit in early April they were sold out.

"There are 20 students right now that are going to participate in the event," Free the Slaves adviser and student Amy Brinkley said. "They are going to make their own posters a mimic of the Kony posters."

According to Brinkley, students will put up posters and chalk about the movement around Cape Girardeau.

"I think for our club we are all about raising awareness on campus about global injustices, especially one that has garnered the interest of the community," Brinkley said.

While some students have answered the call to action, some Southeast professors are still reserving judgment on Kony 2012.

"The push is coming more from those groups than the nations themselves, pushing their own agendas," political science professor Dr. Debra Holzhauer said. "Social media has really popularized the issue, but this is nothing new. I look at it with a jaundiced eye and ask why now?"

Ten days after the KONY 2012 video went viral, its director Jason Russell was found pacing naked on a street corner in San Diego.

The CEO of Invisible Children said Russell's breakdown was due to "exhaustion, dehydration and malnutrition."

"I thought Kony 2012 would be [this generation's] opportunity," Southeast student Katie Herring said. "But given the controversy, maybe I was wrong."