Winter 2002

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Around the Pond

IN A HEARTBEAT

by Karen Skolfield '98G

DECEMBER 6TH AND THE WEATHER feels all wrong, warm, students in shorts walking across campus. This is a winter when even the flowers are confused, stray irises unfurling, azaleas budding out in improbable orange and pinks, blooming as if there were some floral way of comfort. The sun is on schedule, though, and is dipping below the hills by 4 p.m., time for the final seminar of a series on the terrorist attacks of September 11. Outside of 227 Herter Hall a small crowd has gathered, mostly in pairs, mostly students. It’s been nearly three months since the attacks, and I’d expected almost no one to appear – what is the acceptable period of mourning for national events? – but the auditorium is at least half full. What becomes clear very quickly is that this is not about mourning. That happened earlier, as a UMass community around the Campus Pond. This is a way for our brains to engage what our hearts have felt for months. “This is the intellectual part of the university bringing itself to bear,” says Glen Gordon, dean of social and behavioral sciences and one of the organizers, at the request of Provost Charlena Seymour, of the seminar series. “We need to grieve, but then we need to figure out what’s going on.” The series is being broadcast on HSCN, the housing services cable network. FLOODLIGHTS CLICK ON AS THE audience enters, two by two. In typical classroom fashion, most attendees sit toward the back. The pre-seminar chatter is jovial, click of juice cans opening and the incongruous smell of cookies. It’s a strange sensation, discussing terrorism while smelling peanut butter. The series is called “Understanding the Unthinkable,” though it seems that terrorism has become all too thinkable by now. “This is an effort to keep acknowledging the events in a formal way,” Gordon says. “Life returns to normal. Students are doing what they normally do.” Jennifer Hedly, a junior in communications, and Laura McEvoy, a junior in BDIC, are both here for a class – their assignment, to observe a public speaking event. But it’s personal, too. “My life revolves around this now,” says Hedly. “I still see it on the news, and it brings back everything. But it’s getting better.” McEvoy and Hedly, like most people I talk to, lack a ready name for the events of September 11. They use ambiguous referents – “it” and “this” and sometimes “September.” They gesture in the air as if terrorism has a place, somewhere behind and away from them. Today’s seminar on the American response to terrorism follows earlier ones on the roots of terrorism, its targets, its effect on civil liberties. Today’s panelists, James Der Derian and Peter Haas of political science and Tayeb El-Hibri of Judaic and Near Eastern studies, discuss politics and diplomacy and the concept of “virtuous war.” This is not talk about sadness. It’s truly about understanding our new world and new political awareness. There’s a lot of nodding among the people gathered here, among this thinking group, this intellectual arm of healing. IT TURNS OUT THAT A good number of those attending are political science students. One of them, graduate student Rebecca Root, describes the seminars as a “safe haven” for discussion and analysis. If there were a way to measure the emotional heat of a room, Herter 227 would remain a cool blue this afternoon – even when participants raise normally contentious issues. Reference to violence against abortion clinics, mention of a Palestinian state – still no heated outbursts. Such coolness is by design. The campus-wide announcement of the seminar series asked for “civility in the face of unspeakably uncivil behavior.” The purpose was “shedding light, not heat,” says Gordon, who had “heard from other places” that uncapping these topics can lead to shouting matches. But at least in these settings “It’s worked,” he says. “We’ve had no hostile exchanges. I’m very proud of how people have been behaving.” Some of the credit goes to time, another political science grad student, Tom Roberts, believes. “We’re a couple of months away from the event,” says Roberts. “There’s a critical distance now, when at first there was a very visceral response.” Grieving, we’re told, occurs in five stages: denial, anger, bargaining, depression, acceptance. When grief is on a national level, somewhere in the course of those stages comes analysis. “It’s good to respond to emotions,” says Roberts. “But it shouldn’t block out your ability to analyze.” We think longingly of a time when the word “homeland” sounded quaint as quilting. But we’re different now, say these students. “We know we can go any second. In a heartbeat,” says Laura McEvoy. “It’s no longer all about us, us, us.” Jennifer Hedly nods: “It’s sad this had to happen to change things.” SEVEN DAYS LATER, I AM in the Blue Wall as students crowd near the big-screen TV in the corner, watching the videotape of Osama bin Laden discussing the attacks. The students are mostly silent, though they will quietly fill in new arrivals on what bin Laden has said so far. We are waiting, I realize, for a confession. Something in our five stages of grieving demands this. When the translated subtitles seem to provide it – “The brothers, all they knew was that they have a martyrdom operation and we asked each of them to go to America” – a Campus Center staff member turns to me, broom in one hand, dustpan in the other. “He said it, didn’t he? He said it.” He turns back to the screen. I nod, though I know he can’t see me.

[top of page]

Truth, reconciliation, action

TRUTH: larger image

COMMENCEMENT 2001: a catchup

IN A HEARTBEAT: a faculty response to September 11

LOSSES, RESPONSES: ten alumni lost; six alums' response

RECONSTRUCTIVE SURGERY: Coolidge Bridge project underway

RECONSTRUCTIVE: larger image

HIGHLIGHTS: rich fish - sounds grotty, but pogy oil’s good for you

Fish: larger image

Damp distinctions: water polo fourth in U.S., shower research scores Ig Nobel

Damp distinctions: larger image

Usefulness U: the Translation Center

Plus: Acid rain update, UMass bragging rights, and the soles of insects