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Fall 2001 Departments
Exchange
Around the Pond
Branches of Learning
Extended Family
Great Sport
North 40
Performing Arts
Contributors
Features
Classic Turf
Berkshire Nightingales
A New Road to Learning
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Around the Pond
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"THE KIND OF PEOPLE WE HAVE HERE"
The campus on September 11 and 14
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by Patricia Wright
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"HOW CAN WE ABIDE THIS GRIEF:" from the library terrace on the evening of September 11. Photo by Scott Eldridge II. |
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From The Massachusetts Daily Collegian, September 12, 2001:
"The normally relaxed atmosphere of the Bluewall was interrupted as students and professors alike flooded in, most still in a state of shock. The entrances and exits became nearly impassable as crowds of students gathered to watch CNN footage. Other students sat together at tables, wept and embraced one another, and made frantic calls on cell and pay phones.
"'Who did this? Who did this?' cried one student to a friend.
"For the most part, however, there was solidarity and quiet . . . Matt Mello, a senior graphic design major, clocked in for work at the Bluewall Deli at 11 a.m. He saw '100 people – silent – just looking at the TV.'
- Suzanne Furst and Elizabeth Pariseau,Collegian staff
THE ACCOMPLISHMENT OF THE COLLEGIANwas both considerable and emblematic. In the terrible hours that began on the morning of September 11, the staff of UMass’s daily student newspaper got themselves together, kept themselves going, and produced a September 12 edition of impressive quality.
Virtually the entire contents of the 14-page issue represented original reporting, photography, and editorial work by the all-student staff. Most of the images were credited to staff photographer Scott Eldridge II, a sophomore in journalism. Eldridge’s view at left is from the Du Bois Library terrace, looking out over a candlelight vigil on the evening of the attacks.
“The bells of Old Chapel began to ring shortly before 6:30 last night, a sound few University of Massachusetts students have ever heard.” reported senior in journalism Alicia Upano in the September 12 Collegian. An estimated 4,000 people, mostly students, attended the vigil, organized that afternoon by administrators, student leaders, and campus religious groups. Illuminating it were some 1800 candles donated by the Yankee Candle Company at the initiative of the Student Government Association.
The SGA had also been in touch with the Peter Pan Bus Company, reported The Collegian, to try and ensure students needing to get home to New York City could do so. Other groups and offices were also pitching in, with whatever they had to offer – cookies, coffee, TV sets – to comfort and help those around them.
Expressions of concern for, as well as from, Muslim students were an immediate part of the discourse. As a display of community, responsibility and tenderness, it was as moving as it was harrowing to observe.
“Campus has to come together,” student senate speaker Aaron Saunders told The Collegian. “This is when we’ll see what kind of people we have here.”
“HOW CAN WE ABIDE THIS GRIEF . . . these multiple and conflicting emotions?” asked Chancellor Williams three days later, near the beginning of remarks to a second all-campus gathering. And in ending those remarks, as if answering her own question: “Remember. Remember. Remember.”
On September 14 on the south terrace of the Student Union, the chancellor stood once more before an eerily silent outdoor assembly of students, faculty, staff – over 5,000 this time, in the late afternoon sun. The Old Chapel bells had begun tolling again shortly before three, when the hour-long gathering, “in the spirit of President Bush’s call for a day of prayer and remembrance,” began.
The hour was beautiful in many ways, among them the observance, by both speakers and the huge crowd, of 30-second intervals of silence between each verbal or musical offering. Beautiful also were poems read by the chancellor and by professors of English James Tate and Dara Wier; words by speakers transparently struggling to find the simplest, truest ones; prayers, including this from doctoral student and residence director Rana Al-Jamal –
“In the name of God, most gracious and most merciful: May God help us get through this crisis and time of hardship. From God we come, and to God we return. May the families of the victims find peace. May God protect us from the evils of ignorance, and may He let love prevail over hate. May peace be with you.”
– followed by verses of The Holy Koran sung by Ahsem Sayad Achmal.
The music, lingering in the mind as melancholy horns, included vocal, choral, and instrumental interludes by music faculty and students. Those to which we listened in silence were exquisite; those in which we joined voices, the patriotic hymns “America the Beautiful” and “God Bless America,” were cathartic.
This program of shared grief and homage brought to a close what must surely have been one of the most traumatic weeks in campus history. It ended in a final silence broken by the four o’clock tolling of the bells, and those gathered began quietly to murmur among themselves, to embrace and walk away. |
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[top of page]
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The people we have here
SIDEBAR: Personal losses - alumni lost September 11
"SEPTEMBER 11, UMASS" - photos by Scott Eldridge II
"NO MORE DEATH IN THE NAME OF GOD" - photos by Arthur Falbo
HIGHLIGHTS: Under Quabbin - Ed Klekowski's new video
Look sharp: new togs for the marching band.
SOM sprouts wing: Alfond Center rises on campus
"Reprogramming" Butterfield: big changes at the old dorm
Snapshot: Whatever has happened to dorm food?
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