An original figure created by Wichita State students, faculty and community members will be the first permanent sculpture to sit on the WSU campus.

Sitting just outside the Shocker Hall courtyard, a Peace Pole will be dedicated Friday by Global Faith in Action and the WSU Sculpture Guild, symbolizing commitment to unity and world peace.

As part of the international project called the “Peace Pole Project,” the Sculpture Guild spent hours crafting the more than 20-foot piece that features the phrase “may peace prevail on earth,” etched in seven different languages.

The pole is built around a metal sculpture bearing resemblance to a double-helix structure because all people contain DNA, Barry Badgett — associated professor of sculpture — said in a news release. It’s primarily made of metal, concrete and oil clay and was created in-house by the members of the Sculpture Guild.

“The base of the Peace Pole is designed to represent the globe,” Badgett said in the release. “Instead of continents or borders, the students chose to represent the atmosphere, something that everyone in the world experiences.

“…The students wanted to focus on what makes us the same.”

The idea sparked last summer from a local non-profit called Global Faith in Action. The idea was to create a student-led project that merged different offices at the university to work together for a common goal.

“I thought it would be neat to have young people be involved in interfaith work,” said Chandler Williams, Global Faith in Action’s sponsorship coordinator. “We do different projects each year, and we brainstormed ideas for a project that could involve different people.”

There are tens of thousands of Peace Poles located in 180 countries around the world. The pole at Wichita State is an addition to an international project that places Peace Poles as a reminder to visualize world peace. It’s a project, Williams said, that seeks to build an understanding through an international network.

“We want to continue to educate about religions and interfaith,” Williams said.