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September 14, 2011
Volume 63 | Issue 1
THE PACE PRESS Serving Pace University’s Manhattan Campus Since 1948
9/11 Special Edition
Pace University honors our 47 students and alumni who lost their lives in the World Trade Center tragedy in New York City on September 11, 2001. Edelmiro Abad Sharon M. Balkcom Inna B. Basina Bella J. Bhukhan Patrice Braut Bettina Browne-Radburn Thomas J. Celic Jean M. Collin Michele T. Coyle-Eulau Joan M. Cullinan Michael D’Esposito Palmina DelliGatti Rena A. Sam-Dinnoo Ronald C. Fazio, Sr. Sean B. Fegan Cono E. Gallo Brian F. Goldberg Timothy G. Grazioso Donald F. Greene David J. Grimner Susan Huie Denis F. Lavelle Francisco Liriano Laura M. Longing
Stuart S. Louis Lee C. Ludwig Ronald Magnuson Vita M. Marino Michael Massaroli Denis J. McHugh, III Robert M. Murach Edward C. Murphy Mario Nardone Keith K. O’Connor Dennis J. Pierce Gerard Rauzi Gregory Reda Kenneth F. Rice, III Venesha Richards Andrew I. Rosenblum Adam K. Ruhalter Vladimir Savinkin Frank G. Schott Mohammed Shajahan Linda June Sheehan Frank J. Vignola Garo H. Voskerijian
all photos by KIM BUI | The Pace Press
CANDLELIGHT VIGIL continued on PAGE 5
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NEWS
September 14, 2011
A Letter From
Dean for Students Marijo Russell O’Grady Welcome Back Students! A heartfelt welcome back to all the wonderful NYC students of Pace University. You are amongst a community of scholars and leaders who will assist you throughout your tenure at Pace. We hope that you will utilize all the resources available to you and to ask for help when you need (we all need help from time to time). Pace is a special place and we hope you will soon call it your home away from home. As your Dean for Students I am here to assist you, challenge you and support you. It is my hope that your Pace experience gives you the skills and talents to become leaders in this global society and world in which we live. Have a great semester and let me know if I can assist you in any way.
I have included a few helpful tips and hope you too, will find them helpful. All the best! - be true to yourself and honest in your interactions. it is much easier. - get to know and choose your friends wisely. - get to know your parents and your siblings. they are your best link to your past and will most likely stick by you your whole life.
- respect your elders. - laugh often, dance whenever you
can and pick and choose your battles
wisely. - become involved in your academics, be an active, engaged learner and reach out to faculty. - become involved on campus. you will meet your friends for life. - ask questions, use your head and your gut. - be smart about your choices: money, time, friends, experimenting and be safe.
Respectfully, Marijo Russell O’Grady, Ph.D. Dean for Students 41 Park Row, Room 907 Pace University, NYC Campus (212) 346-1306
A Letter From
Student Government Association President Michael Wellbrock
Dear Fellow Students, I would like to begin by welcoming the incoming Class of 2015, and welcoming back all of the returning students! For new faces and old, my name is Michael Wellbrock and I will be serving as Executive President of the Student Government Association/Student Body President for the 2011-2012 school year. I am very excited for the many amazing things happening at Pace this upcoming year! For new students, Pace has an unlimited amount of opportunities available to you. Your experience here is what you make of it, so take advantage of your fresh start from high school. Take the time to join one of the 50 clubs or organizations that meet each week around campus! Apply for jobs located around campus! Many of the departments are hiring new employees for the school year. Attend the events that all of the student organizations plan and get free food or giveaways! These opportunities will enhance your college experience and make your Pace experience truly some of the best years of your life. For the returning students, there are just as many opportunities available to you as the incoming students. A new year presents an opportunity to aim for a high GPA, to join the club that you didn’t have time for last year, or to spend more time with your friends. Don’t forget that it is never too late for you to get involved, and to challenge yourself to do better than you did last semester. The Student Government Association prides itself in advocating for student rights on campus. We advocate for new things students would like to see on campus, as well as existing things that may need improvement or change. We always welcome new members, and if you have questions, comments, or concerns, email us at StudentGovernment@pace.edu. Our meetings will be held during Tuesday Common Hour (3:30-4:30 p.m.) with the location to be determined. Freshman elections are approaching! Email us and sign up! We are looking forward to a productive year working with both students and administrators to strengthen the Pace community. Keep an eye out for all the awesome things we have planned!
September 14, 2011
NEWS
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World Trade Center Memorial opens as construction progresses
Downtown Manhattan continues to grow and rebuild on a steady schedule feet designed by architect Santiago Calatrava. The WTC retail space will also provide pathways to the Fulton Street Transit Center and the WTC Transit Hub which will include pathways to the A/C, 2/3, J/Z and R subway trains and the Port Authority Trans-Hudson (P.A.T.H.) trains. The WTC Memorial consists of two pools with running waterfalls and the names of the victims who died on Sept. 11 on the outer borders. The museum is set to open on Sept. 2012. It will have video, audio and photo exhibitions and is currently accepting submission offers from artists on its website 911memorial.org. According to Wtcprogress. com, there will also be a performing arts center that will serve as the main area for the Joyce Theater. The performing arts center is still in the planning stages with a pending date. Downtown NYC has seen a boost in tourism, sparking revenue, visitation and life back into Downtown since Sept. 11. The WTC progress has helped Downtown become a thriving area once again.
Ivonna Thompson Managing Editor The World Trade Center (WTC) opened its newly constructed memorial to pay tribute to the victims and their families of the Sept. 11 attacks. Additional construction has progressed on 1 WTC and 4 WTC, along with the completion of the WTC Visitor Center. Currently 1 WTC, formerly known as the Freedom Tower, is now 80 stories tall and is being encased with glass on the outer shell of the building. Concrete has been installed on approximately 68 floors to stabilize each floor. 1 WTC is set to open in 2013 with Conde Nast as one of the first companies to lease floors in the building. 4 WTC is going to be a 72-foot skyscraper and the fourth tallest WTC building. It currently stands 50 stories high and will finish outer construction by April 2012. It is also being encased with glass and is set to open in 2013 around the same time as 1 WTC, according to a press release from President of WTC Properties, Larry Silverstein. 2 WTC and 3 WTC both have completed foundations and are currently standing at street level height. An estimated date for completion for both of the buildings is pending. 7 WTC has been completed since 2006 and stands at 741 feet. It is located on 250 Greenwich Street adjacent to the WTC Site. Another feature of the new World Trade Center is the retail space which will be approximately 500,000
photo by IVONNA THOMPSON | The Pace Press
Left: One World Trade Center construction continues in Downtown Manhattan; predicted to be complete by 2013.
New York City on high alert for the 10th Anniversary of 9/11 Fotini sachpatzidis News Editor NYC law enforcement has taken extreme precautions, both seen and unseen, in preparation for the 10th anniversary of the Sept. 11 attacks. Details of a possible Al Qaeda bomb threat in New York or Washington D.C. were discovered at Osama bin Laden’s compound in May causing Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly to tighten security city wide. The list of security personnel includes bomb technicians, counter snipers, F.B.I. analysts, divers and thousands of NYC police offers. The security measures continued with bridge and tunnel checkpoints, Coast
Guard boats and reaction teams trained in counter-terrorism. Commissioner Kelly also had 1,000 anti-terror police officers armed with tanks and weapons and had counter assault tanks at different locations around Manhattan. Car drivers were subject to random searches at several checkpoints set up around the city especially in Lower Manhattan where President Barack Obama and former President George W. Bush gave memorial speeches at the World Trade Center (WTC) site. The service alone had hundreds of police officers guarding the site. The transit system was also protected by many armed officers at New York Penn Station, the Herald Square subway station
and Grand Central Terminal. All visitors and residents were urged to stay away from the Downtown area. Mayor Michael Bloomberg and Commissioner Kelly ensured not only ground safety and security, but also sky traffic with military planes and police helicopters. While the WTC site was a potential target, there were another 30 anniversary events happening the same week. Security and anti-terrorist forces were present protecting the events making sure to have all sides covered in preparation of an attack. There was also security that was unseen to the naked eye. Surveillance cameras were placed everywhere around both Lower and Midtown Manhattan to catch any potentially suspicious activity.
Undercover officers and analysts were on the streets checking for any potential threats. In real time, analysts record live information from camera feeds at a center in Lower Manhattan. Police Commissioner Kelly had a meeting about the details for security with Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano on Sept. 10 as the anniversary approached. In all fronts, the city was covered from land, sky and sea. In the CBS article, “Elaborate New York City Post-9/11 Security,” by Marcia Kramer, Commissioner Kelly believes the Sept. 11 security, “... has cost us at least a trillion dollars as a country.” As the hours passed, the city remained armed and protected with caution.
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NEWS
September 14, 2011
Pleasantville Remembers
A ceremonial balloon release with the Setter football team was held at the PLV campus on Sept. 10 to commemorate those lost on September 11, 2001.
all photos by Adam Samson | The Pace Chronicle
University holds candlelight vigil to honor the 10th anniversary of 9/11 Students unite to share stories, emotions and reflections as a community kim bui Editor-in-Chief The University held a candlelight vigil on Sept. 11 at 9 P.M. hosted by the Office of Housing & Residential Life and Legacy. Students gathered in the front of One Pace Plaza as Assistant Director of Housing & Residential Life Jeff Blaisdell and Resident Director of the St. George Matthew Alvo welcomed those in attendance. When asked if anyone would like to share a few words, many students stepped up to tell their story. From words of encouragement to personal, heart-felt stories, students from all classes shared and listened to one another. As each student spoke, the ceremony and the emotion of the group seemed to grow. Some of the courageous students who spoke included freshman Iris Same, freshman Mary Kate Kruhm, sophomore Sierra Chandler and senior Mark Kazinec. “I really think it’s great for students to see that there are people out there for them and that we really are a community. Not just a Pace community but a Downtown and New York community...to look around and see other faces who have been through what you’ve been through is really important, and that’s why we do it,” Alvo said on the vigil.
I really think it’s great for students to see that there are people out there for them and that we really are a community. Not just a Pace community but a Downtown and New York community...to look around and see other faces who have been through what you’ve been through is really important, and that’s why we do it.
-Matthew Alvo,
After students shared their stories and thoughts, a brief moment of silence was held as everyone faced away from the University and towards the World Trade Center. Candles were lit in commemoration of the friends and families effected by Sept. 11 and were carried down Broadway as the group walked to the World Trade Center. A banner was present for students to sign that would later be hung on behalf of the University to commemorate the event and those affected. “It is a legacy event for the housing department and we will be continuing with this event no matter what... We are the only institution who has done it since year one and I feel very fortunate to be at a school [where] we have been doing it since year one...it’s because you have to recognize the fact that 2,000 people died in this area within a very short period of time and Pace is a part of that history, and it makes a lot of sense that we do recognize that as our history,” Blaisdell said.
Resident Director
Please see page 5 for photographs from the New York City Campus Candlelight Vigil.
September 14, 2011
NEWS
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New York City Remembers
Top: Students shared personal stories and words of support to those in attendance at the Candlelight Vigil. Top: Candles were lit in commemoration of the family and friends lost in the event. Center: Students walked from One Pace Plaza to the World Trade Center site where candles continued to be lit in tribute to 9/11. Bottom: Students gathered in the front of One Pace Plaza for the Candlelight Vigil, being the largest turnout the annual event has had since started 10 years ago.
Center: Students gather to sign one of the many banners created to commemorate the event on behalf of the University. Bottom: The gates of St. Paul’s Chapel featured ribbons with personal messages as part of “Tie a Ribbon of Remembrance,” a temporary public art exhibit curated by Trinity Wall Street for September 11. all photos by KIM BUI | The Pace Press
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THE PACE PRESS Editorial Board Kim Bui Editor-in-Chief Kaitlynn Blyth Associate Editor Ivonna Thompson Managing Editor
September 14, 2011
Opinion and editorials DISCLAIMER: These opinions are expressed by contributors (students, faculty, administration and staff) to The Pace Press. These opinions are solely those of the individual writers and do not reflect the opinions of The Pace Press, the members of The Pace Press staff or Pace University. The Pace Press is not responsible and expressly disclaims all liability for damages of any kind of arising out of use or relevance to any information contained in this section.
Hilda Adeniji Creative Director Fotini Sachpatzidis News Editor Stephanie Hansen Arts Editor Craig Held Features Editor
KIM BUI | EDITOR-IN-CHIEF
Michael Oricchio Faculty Consultant
Walking to 41 Park Row on the morning of Sept. 11, you could just feel it in the air. It. Memories and worry lingered on every corner. The overcast skies seemed darker, the men and women in uniform have multiplied overnight and flags were seen at half-mast. Tourists were walking with caution, but it seems like we all were that day. Downtown is a mix of the business from Wall Street and the history of South Street Seaport, but on this particular morning everything
Staff
JON HAND | CONTRIBUTOR
Kate Hamzik Copy Editor Leucepe Martinez Advertising Manager Brian Rentas Web Editor Nazary Nebeluk Circulation Manager
Abby Beatson Betty Fermin Bethany O’Grady Ruveena Rossitto Julia Yueng
The Pace Press is the student newspaper of Pace University’s New York City Campus. It is managed and operated entirely by members of the student body as it appears above. The Pace Press welcomes guest editorials and letters from students, faculty, administration and staff. The Pace Press reserves the right to not publish any submitted material, both solicited and unsolicited. All submissions must include the author’s full name and contact information. The Pace Press 41 Park Row, Rm. 902 New York, NY 10038 www.pacepress.org editor@pacepress.org Copyright 2011
seemed quieter than usual. Being from Virginia, I did not really know what to expect when moving to New York. After living downtown for a few years, the city has become my home and the impacts of Sept. 11 have become more meaningful over time. Walking by the World Trade Center is a regular route for much of the University and sometimes we don’t even look up—which we should. Although we tend to live in our
9/11: I remember I don’t have a crystal clear recollection of that entire day ten years ago. I wish I did, but I was 12-years-old and didn’t understand the severity of the events that had just taken place. There are, however, certain moments that I will never forget. I remember my 8th grade English teacher being called out of the room for a few minutes. She returned to the class with a stern face, one that, even at 12-years-old, I could tell was a mask underneath which was a confused, distraught woman. I remember being angry about how the school handled this situation. They kept the events secret from us for at least 15 minutes, which, to 12-yearolds, seemed more like 15 eternities. I would later find out that she and all the teachers in the school, were specifically told not to tell us what had occurred until they were notified to do so. I remember a girl running down the hall crying and screaming. I remember seeing a T.V. for the first time. As soon as I got home I ran to the T.V. A few of my friends who were in the video room at school and had seen the footage told me about it in explicit detail for the long ride home from, so I had to see it for myself ASAP. All of us—my friend, my sisters and even my mom, who was holding my one-yearold sister, stood staring into the T.V. in disbelief. I wasn’t afraid. I wasn’t angry. I was in awe. Despite my youth— or maybe because of it—I thought the U.S. was indestructible. Invincible. It
was inconceivable to me that our country could ever fall victim to such a largescale attack. I remember my mom’s reaction to people jumping out of the Towers. I remember my dad saying to the T.V., “We are going to war,” and then he looked at my mom and said, “They might re-institute the draft, and we’re moving back to Ireland if they do.” I remember walking to my friend’s house later that day and being stunned by what I saw on the way. From Union Turnpike and Bell Boulevard—in Queens, over 13 miles away from Ground Zero—I could see towers of smoke bellowing into the sky and sweeping across the horizon. This was an eerie sight that I would see everyday for weeks. I remember listening to my friend’s dad describe what it was like to be in Manhattan. He looked exhausted and sounded distraught as he explained what a struggle it was to leave the island. Along with tens—maybe even hundreds of thousands of other New Yorkers, he climbed over abandoned cars as he walked across the Queensborough Bridge, and then made the long walk home from one end of the Queens border to the other. I remember the images in the Daily News on September 12. Specifically, I remember the picture of one man suspended in mid-air; it was just him and the blue sky in the picture—nothing else. Despite having no point of reference, it was clear by the angle and posi-
own little bubble of New York, the events of Sept. 11 had an impact on the world as a whole. For those of us who were very young at the time, what do we really remember? Or is the better question, what is it that we choose to remember and choose to forget? There are thousands of names we are never to forget, there is a day we are never to forget and always know that a name, person, place or idea can never disappear unless you allow it to.
tion of his body, along with the flapping of his clothes, that he was one of the jumpers. Next to this picture was an image of about a dozen bodies plummeting to the Earth from over 100 stories high. It was difficult for me to understand how so many people could choose to kill themselves until I read that it was so hot inside the building that their shoes melted to their feet. I remember watching the late night comedy shows—Jay Leno, Conan O’Brien and David Letterman. They seemed very out of their element talking about something in such a serious tone, but that was somewhat reassuring. It was comforting to see that even the Kings of Comedy were shook by the attacks. It was a long time before they could start making jokes again. I remember hearing about all the people who should have been dead, but weren’t in the Towers for whatever reasons. My cousin had been working construction in Tower 1 for weeks, but he was at the hospital watching the birth of his first child. My soccer teammate’s dad worked in an office of Tower 2 for years, and luckily he had a business breakfast meeting outside of the city. My friend’s dad was supposed to be working electrical in the basement, but he was at another site that day. I’m fortunate not to have lost anyone that day. I remember being told by everyone—parents, teachers, media, the President—that the world would never be the same again. Ten years later it’s easy to see that they were all correct.
September 14, 2011
OPINION AND EDITORIALS
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MARK HUSSEY | PROFESSOR
Teaching the Literature of 9/11 When I taught two sections of “Cultural Responses to 9/11” in fall 2008, nearly all of the students had been in middle school on September 11, 2001. Were I to teach the course now, for most of the students the events of that day might perhaps be as remote from them as my parents’ tales of growing up in London during Hitler’s blitz were for me when I was a child. Those sections of ENG201 were among the most successful of my nearly thirty years at Pace. Probably most teachers in the humanities have both latent and manifest motives and hopes for their courses. I remember vividly the palpable sigh of relief that swept the classroom when I made it clear that we were not going to discuss the United States’ military response to the events of 9/11, nor the proliferating conspiracy theories that some in the class told me they had already been subjected to in a previous semester. What we did was explore poetry, novels, film, music, comix and memorials produced after 9/11 in an effort to understand the story that the culture had begun to tell itself. My unstated goal was that the students would come to realize that narrative—the stories we tell ourselves and each other—is at the heart of our lives, our politics, our personal and collective interactions. What stands out for me from that course is the way some students took the opportunity to use their assignments to clarify their own thinking about the way the United States had responded
to the events of 9/11 and how they felt about that. I remember in particular the business major who revised and carefully revised again his research paper on “The Selling of 9/11.” I also remember the edgy young woman who seemed always to be scowling at me but who turned in a perceptive and challenging paper on the discourse of heroism that so quickly emerged and continues to dominate the media landscape. Others examined the culture of memorials, taking in the arguments that swirled around what to build at “ground zero” as well as the significance of the many local memorials that communities or even individuals created for themselves—ways of remembering by giving form to their feelings. Since teaching that course, I have introduced into other contexts some of the works that students responded to particularly well—for example, Laila Halaby’s novel “Once in a Promised Land”, and Jonathan Safran Foer’s “Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close.” The literature of 9/11 is by now a vast and growing field, and it is certainly not confined to writers in the USA. (In fact, Anglo-American writers have sometimes been criticized for a sentimental focus on the personal and domestic effects of 9/11, a day that for many around the world was when an ongoing war finally touched what Don DeLillo’s novel Falling Man describes as “the narcissistic heart of the west.”) Were I to teach “Cultural Responses to 9/11”
today, the course would necessarily have a more global perspective and also move beyond the constraints of “9/11 fiction.” The structures of terror and trauma have become deeply embedded in our daily lives, ordinary objects (bottled water, shoes, underwear) invested with the coding of “terror.” As the critic Pankaj Mishra wrote in 2007, there are many rich works of fiction that “describe American encounters with foreign peoples and cultures,” as well as engaging works of narrative non-fiction that examine and reveal how the events of 9/11 can be seen in a transnational and historical context. In “first writing since,” Suheir Hammad (a Palestinian-American poet living in Brooklyn) shows how the encounter with the events of 9/11 challenge the effort to communicate. Her poem begins: there have been no words. i have not written one word. no poetry in the ashes south of canal street. no prose in the refrigerated trucks driving debris and dna. not one word.
In the relatively safe space of a classroom, reading and discussing the words of others can be a first step to finding our own words, our own narratives.
THOMAS BREIDENBACH | PROFESSOR
“Professor, are you a spy?” On September 10, 2001, I hit my “American Scene” lit class right between the eyes. My goal was to challenge the Fox News-style clichés riddling many of the response papers students had handed in the week before, when on the first day of the semester I’d asked them to write a paragraph about what America means to them. In preparation for the idealism expressed in essays by Emerson and Thoreau that we were to turn to, during my first real lecture of the term I bluntly challenged what I found to be the students’ aggressive materialism. Toward the end of my harangue, one student, taken aback at my opposition to the militaristic sentiments of some students, finally asked whether I thought there was going to be a war soon. “Yes!” I found myself declaring. However impressive it may have sounded, my presentiment in no way prepared me for waking the next morning to the noise of a low-flying jet smashing into the North Tower. Like everyone else I was in shock. My prediction of war wasn’t especially prophetic, of course, given the public concern among officials about our country’s vulnerability to terrorism, and the predilection of the previous President Bush (a central figure in the massive arms consortium known as the Carlyle Group) for military conflict. My first day back at Pace was a painful one.
After the attacks I’d briefly travelled to an arts biennial in Turkey, for which reason I had missed the first day of resumed classes. I’d had little time to reflect on how things had been left with my class before the tragedy. Only as I was about to enter the classroom did the devastating awkwardness of the situation hit me. With a breath of resolve I strode to the podium, then turned to face the students. A faint, green metallic haze hung about the room (it would leave our throats itchy for days), and dozens of pairs of wide-open eyes were staring at me. A lanky arm shot up from the back row. The young man’s voice quivered with baritone New Jersey earnest, “Professor, so, first you gave us that lecture that day, then we get attacked, and then we hear you went to Turkey… Professor, are you a spy?” We all laughed at once. Once expressed, the tension and mistrust shattered, and something deeper set in. Suddenly they weren’t a bunch of spoiled kids of relative privilege anymore, but frightened young men and women looking for answers I didn’t have. “Do you think the air is safe?” “Do you think it’s okay to sleep down here at night?” One young woman reported nearly being killed when debris from the Towers started crash-
ing around the bus she was on (the driver quickly maneuvered the bus to safety with a skill the passengers felt was heroic). Others witnessed the cloud from the collapsing Towers billow over the front of the classroom building, and watched as security guards rushed to lock the doors, leaving those outside to grope their way around the facade in an effort to escape the choking dust. The only part of those outside still visible, a student reported, was their hands as they moved across the panes of glass. I suppose that we became aware of our mutual fragility and mortality, but also, at the same time, of what, and who, really meant the most to each of us. Walt Whitman’s poetry anchored that semester, and his “To a Stranger” conveyed with particular poignancy just how much can be shared by people, even though they may have barely met, and might never see each other again. Every semester since I have encountered students who were directly affected by 9/11. The critical perspective on that event which I’ve shared with subsequent classes stems from my acute awareness of the attack’s enduring impact on our community, as well as on our culture overall. Yet it stems as well from the empathy and trust that different people from varying backgrounds can develop when, as on 9/11, it suddenly matters most of all.
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September 14, 2011
CHRONOLOGY: THE UNIVERSITY AND THE ATTACKS
T
he former Editor-in-Chief of The Pace Press, Shams Tarek, meticulously recorded the events of September 11, 2001 which were published in a special edition of the newspaper the following week. To commemorate the anniversary, The Pace Press has decided to reprint his reporting.
7:30 A.M.: 18 members of the New York Campus security staff report to duty as
usual; they will not leave their posts for at least 17 hours. Supervisor Safeer Chowdhry, with no alternate to relieve him, will be on duty for at least 24 hours, with only two 15-minute breaks during that time.
8:45 A.M.: The first plane, a Boeing 767 American Airlines flight (11) from Boston to Los Angeles carrying 81 passengers and 11 crew members, crashes into the North Tower of the World Trade Center. Pacers in Maria’s Tower witness people jumping out of the North Tower. 9:04 A.M.: The second plane, a Boeing 757 American Airlines flight (77) from
Washington, D.C. to Los Angeles carrying 58 passengers and six crew members, crashes into the South Tower of the World Trade Center.
9 – 9:30 A.M.: University President Caputo and his executive board are having a meeting in the Midtown Center. After hearing about the crashes, Executive Vice President for Finance and Administration Leonard Sippel, whose office is in charge of the Security Department, goes to One Pace Plaza. 9:17 – 9:40 A.M.: The Federal Aviation Administration shuts down all New York City area airports and, later, all airports nationwide; the Port Authority closes all bridges and tunnels in New York City.
9:43 A.M.: United Airlines Flight 175, carrying 56 passengers and nine crew
safe, but that “phone service is erratic” and “Communications are difficult between campuses.” Three updates follow by 11:30 p.m.
4:30 P.M.: Maria’s Tower residents are allowed back up to their dorms. 5:30 P.M.: The 47-story 7 World Trade Center collapses from fire-related stress.
Electricity and gas service to One Pace Plaza and several local offices and residences are lost. Panic spreads in One Pace Plaza, where, under automatic emergency lights, students start to worry about the building’s vulnerability. Without essential utilities, the triage center set up by the New York City EMT in the Admissions Lobby is evacuated.
7:45 P.M.: The New York Police Department reports that at least 78 officers are missing in the disaster area. City officials also estimate that up to 200 City firefighters may have already been killed in the Towers’ collapse. 11:30 P.M.: A large generator the size of an 18-wheel truck is parked next to One Pace Plaza on Spruce Street in preparation for use as the building’s main source of power is restored. Gas is still unavailable, telephone service is erratic and water service starts to become intermittent. The data network is down, cutting off Internet access to the building. Later in the evening, www.pace.edu goes offline and the New York Campus’ emergency information, (212) 346-1800, “has been changed or disconnected,” according to an automatic message. The number and website are still unavailable as of 1:53 p.m. on Wednesday, Sept. 12.
members from Washington, DC to Los Angeles crashes into the Pentagon building in Washington, DC.
10:00 A.M.: Students in classes in One Pace Plaza are told that there is an emergency at the World Trade Center and are made to evacuate to Maria’s Towers. 10:05 A.M.: 80 minutes after the first collision, the South Tower of the World Trade Center collapses. Huge clouds of smoke pour through the streets, sending pedestrians on a frenzied rush up Church Street, Broadway and Park Row. Smoke also pours in through the windows in Maria’s Towers, forcing residents to wear masks.
10:10 A.M.: The Pentagon partially collapses. 10:10 A.M.: United Airlines Flight 93 from Newark to San Francisco crashes in the woods in Somerset County, Pennsylvania. 10:13 A.M.: The United Nations building evacuates. 10:28 A.M.: The North Tower of the World Trade Center collapses, sending more debris, dirt and smoke through the streets.
10:30 A.M. – 12:00 P.M.: President Caputo and several other members of the executive board are taken to One Pace Plaza from the Midtown Center by special police transport. 10:53 A.M.: New York’s primary elections scheduled for today are postponed. 10:57 A.M.: New York Governor George Pataki orders all state government offices
closed.
11:02 A.M.: Mayor Giuliani orders an evacuation of Manhattan south of Canal Street. 12:00 P.M.: Commuters are allowed to leave the campus. 2:00 P.M.: Maria’s Towers occupants are evacuated to the C-Level Gym following (false) rumors of a gas leak. 2:49 P.M.: Subway and bus service are restored in New York City. 4:00 P.M.: President Caputo publishes his first emergency message of the day on www.pace.edu. The message tells readers that One Pace Plaza and its students are Photos provided by SHAMS TAREK | shamstarek.com
September 14, 2011
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Photos provided by SHAMS TAREK | shamstarek.com
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ARTS
September 14, 2011
ARTS
September 14, 2011
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[Swi:t] Home: A CHANT, 9/11 Exhibit at The New Museum Bethany O’Grady Staff Writer
The New Museum in Lower Manhattan is currently showing artist Elena Del Rivero’s poignant piece, “[Swi:t] Home: A CHANT” in commemoration of the tenth anniversary of Sept. 11. To date; 1,506,124 tons of debris have been removed from the immediate site of the attacks. However, at the time of the event, debris continued to scatter across the surrounding area in the Financial District. The aftermath of the attacks left a collection of debris, dust and ashes in Del Rivero’s Cedar Street studio — which was located directly across from the World Trade Center. The artist’s personal response to the pool of singed office papers and fragmented memos amassing her space, was to sift through the rubble and meticulously clean and catalogue the documents. Over the course of five years, Del Rivero delicately hand-sewed the individual pieces of paper she inventoried onto rolls of white mesh-cotton, which then became “[Swi:t] Home: A CHANT.”
“[Swi:t] Home: A CHANT” is hung from the ceiling of the lobby gallery of the New Museum as if it were a billow of smoke advancing towards the viewer. The installation exhibits the remnants of 3,136 burned documents tenderly adorning the 500-foot cascade of fabric. The means in which the panel is draped evokes memories of the event itself when swells of smoke, dust, and charred documents flooded the streets of the Financial District. As a result, the symbolic semblance of the 3,000 artifacts in the piece becomes a synecdoche for the myriad of lives lost and the incalculable lives affected as a result of Sept. 11. The viewer is confronted by the large quantity of debris that Del Rivero gathered in her personal studio and recalls the even larger quantity that was left at the site. Del Rivero careens spools of gold and black thread throughout the work, which appear as locks of hair. This inclusion in the installation puts a humanistic touch to the piece and reinforces the harrowing notion that 2,819 unassuming Americans found their deaths in the hands of
terrorism a decade ago. Nasdaq reports, a floppy disc, Sweet ‘n Low packets, and a McCormick & Shmick’s lunch menu are all sewn on to the fabric. A majority of the artifacts are charred at the edges. Del Rivero sensitively makes stitches across a number of documents as if to suture the wounds of the past. Moreover, she fastens small pearls to a handful of remnants, which suggests the presence of serenity and optimism in terms of processing Sept. 11 as an individual and as a country, on the human level and on the National. Del Rivero’s decision to show “[Swi:t] Home: A CHANT” at the New Museum enables the exhibit’s patrons to have a notable experience upon exiting the museum. The New Museum is located at Prince St. and the Bowery, and as such, a broad view down into the skyscape of the Financial District is offered to visitors at the street-level outside of the museum. Patrons are able to physically observe that a decade later, the smoke from the attack has cleared and NYC continues to flourish. “[Swi:t] Home: A CHANT” runs through Oct. 2 at the New Museum in Lower Manhattan.
Courtesy of Elena Rivero and Corcoran Gallery of Art, Photos by Chan T Chao Artist Elena Del Rivero’s installation which hangs at the New Museum consists of found objects and debris from 9/11.
9/11: How the Attacks Affected Movies, T.V. and Music Stephanie Hansen Arts Editor
Pop culture is shaped by the events that go on in society. The immediate effects of the World Trade Center attacks on movies, music and T.V. were more than just a way to keep the movies up to date, they were done to show respect to those who were affected by the attack. NYC has one of the most recognizable skylines in the world. Any movie that takes place in New York features the iconic sweeping shot of Manhattan. But since the tragic events of Sept. 11 a part of the skyline is missing. It is not just the aesthetics of the view, but also a reminder of what happened. Because of this, the World Trade Center has been edited out of many movies. According to the 2001 CNN article, “Uncle Sam Wants Hollywood,” about 45 films had to be postponed or were edited due to Sept. 11. Movies that edited out the World Trade
Center include Serendipity, Zoolander and the trailer for Spiderman. But not all movies that were edited featured the World Trade Center, but moments in the movie that may have hit a little to close to home for viewers. In the film Spy Game, the amount of smoke following a bomb was reduced because it was too similar to the smoke at the World Trade Center wreckage. The Bourne Identity had to be edited because the plot revolved around terrorism. Even kids movies were edited. Before it was in it’s final stages The Incredibles featured a scene where Mr. Incredible vents his frustrations in an abandoned building and accidentally damages the building and the one next door. The original end scene of Lilo and Stitch was supposed to show Stitch flying a 747 through buildings, but was changed to Stitch flying a spaceship through mountains. Although many movies were altered
because of the attacks, there were movies that decided not to remove the World Trade Center. Producers of Vanilla Sky wanted Cameron Crowe to remove shots of the World Trade Center from the film, but the shots are still in the movie. Movies that took place before the attacks but were made after Sept. 11 digitally added the Towers into scenes. Miracle, a 2004 film that took place in 1980 added the Towers to the New York Skyline Rent, which is set in 1989 and 1990, included shots of the World Trade Center, even though the movie was released in 2005. Many television shows were affected as well. Some shows have never aired episodes that feature similar situations to the attacks and other shows have edited out scenes for the same reason. Episodes of “Rocko’s Modern Life,” “Jay Jay the Jet Plane,” and the opening
of “Futurama” were either edited, had delayed airings or were never aired at all because they featured plane crashes. The music industry also responded to the attacks, especially radio. After the attacks, many radio stations began to play songs like “God Bless the USA” by Lee Greenwood and Whitney Houston’s version of “The Star Spangled Banner” more frequently. On the other hand, there were certain songs that radio stations wouldn’t play. According to a CNN article from Sept. 20, 2001, Clear Channel Communications asked radio stations to avoid playing a list of 150 songs. The list included songs like “Sunday Bloody Sunday” by U2, “Crash Into Me” by Dave Matthews Band and “Fly Away” by Lenny Kravitz. Pop culture is more than just entertainment and celebrity gossip, it is also a reflection of our history and the events that shape our society.
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ARTS
September 14, 2011
Tobi Kahn’s Embodied Light: 9/11 in 2011 Stephanie Hansen Arts Editor The Embodied light installation by artist Tobi Kahn is a simple yet touching tribute to Sept. 11. One of the most captivating pieces is the glass case at the back of the gallery space, filled with small blocks. “In the spring of 2011, I gave by hand, ceremonially, 220 empty memory blocks of painted wood to my chosen community, for the 220 floors of two towers. Each hand-held block was returned by its recipient with a drawing or inscription that evokes a memory of September 11th. The blocks will be continually rearranged by invited New Yorkers over the length of the exhibition” Kahn said of the project on thememoryblockproject.com. On the stand next to the case of memory blocks is a booklet that contains the names of people who contributed their memory blocks to the installation and a poem or story about the events of Sept.11. The Memory Block Project extends to the internet and anyone may go to the website and submit their own experiences through images, video or text. “The Memory Block Project aims to inspire meditations on spirituality, values and remembrance through abstract associations. Combined, these individual contributions become a collective and democratic archive of what we wish to remember” according to gallery information. Embodied Light is a beautiful installation that brings a feeling of calmness to a disaster.
Visit Embodied Light Ernest Rubenstein Gallery 197 East Broadway Monday-Thursday 9 a.m. to 9 p.m. Friday-Sunday 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. all photos by Stephanie Hansen | The Pace Press
To submit to The Memory Block Project visit: www.thememoryblockproject.com
Top: Memory Blocks were hand painted by individuals in tribute of Sept. 11 Bottom: M’Ahl: wooden blocks painted white, displayed in the center of the gallery.
University professor pays tribute to 9/11 through prayer flags kim bui Editor-in-Chief University professor Carla Shapiro currently showcases her tribute to 9/11 at the Peter Fingesten Gallery with “Prayer Flags.” Using black ink and white vellum, Shapiro hand-wrote 2,500 obituaries from the New York Times onto the translucent paper and hung them outside for the course of a year. Over time, the paper would began to wear with the ink and writing washed away, leaving blank sheets of paper to become “prayer flags.” As Shapiro states on her website, Carlashapiro.com, “For twelve months the obituary-prayer flags hung in lines across the stream in my backyard in Chichester , New York . In each season they moved in the breeze, generating song through their movement, and creating patterns of light and dark. Each day I saw a new story, as every sheet of vellum told a different story, as every sheet of vellum washed away and became free of its story and became the pure whiteness I waited for—my way of honoring those who had died on 9/11.”
all images from carlashapiro.com
September 14, 2011
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Tragedy through the eyes of a freshman University Writing Center Director witnesses 9/11 attack through her dorm room window KAITLYNN BLYTH Associate Editor Many members of the current University community can recall their entire day on September 11th. Agie Markiewicz, Director of the Writing Center and former Pace University student was one of the many freshmen on campus in 2001 who witnessed the incident through her window in Maria’s Tower. “I was sleeping and my next door neighbor shouted, ‘They blew up the World Trade Center!’ Markiewicz said. Outside her window, she and her roommate saw the first tower in smoke. Everyone on the floor started gathering in the lounge, while Markiewicz woke up her Resident Adviser (R.A.) to tell him what her floor was witnessing. The R.A. received a phone call from University officials stating that there was no information on what was going on, but classes would resume. “I got ready to go to my classes, got ready to go downstairs, and there was so much confusion,” she said. “I decided to go back upstairs to grab my turtle.” Markiewicz made her way back to Maria’s Tower, where her roommate couldn’t stop watching the destruction unfolding in front of her eyes. Markiewicz joined. “There were people jumping from the building and it was so weird to see that,” she said. “I started taking pictures of what was going on.” Then, the second plane hit. It was now evident that the attacks were no accident. “Everyone started screaming,” she said. Sirens alerted everyone to evacuate. Markiewicz’s roommate was being picked up by friends, so she proceeded to meet up with her own friends at the school. To contain the confusion, everyone followed instructions to go the Clevel gym, as it was a designated fall out shelter. After arriving to the courtyard, the first tower fell. People were being pulled inside, covered in ashes. “I remember standing inside the courtyard doors and it being such a surreal moment,” she said. Everyone, including Markiewicz, kept asking, “How could this be happening?” Once arriving at the gym, Richard Abbinanti, Director of Security, shouted to see if anyone had medical training — Markiewicz did. One young woman in particular was having difficulty breathing due to all the dust bothering her asthma. Markiewicz tried helping her the best she could without any medical supplies or oxygen tanks. She sat down with the young woman, calming her down until oxygen tanks arrived. At this point, the University gave students the options of boarding a bus to the PLV Campus or leaving on their own to stay with family or friends. Most of Markiewicz’s floormates went to PLV; however, she went with a friend and made her way to the Williams Street residence hall to meet up with another friend. “There was calm, as calm as people could be. No one was freaking out and screaming. They tried to give us whatever attention they could. And then the buses came,”
she said. On the way out, Markiewicz realized she left everything back at One Pace Plaza, including her wallet with identification. Instead of clutching onto her purse, she held onto the turtle and carrier she purchased from Chinatown shortly before the start of the school year as they made the trek. “I have this distinct image of all these shoes lined up at City Hall Park, but they were just shoes, and I’m not sure how they got there, but it’s the details that really stick in my mind. There were papers, and pictures, and files — pieces of anything and everything everywhere,” she said. Markiewicz was wearing pants and a short-sleeved shirt. The dust soon covered her body, including her bare arms. “We got covered in the dust and I started itching. By the time we got to Williams Street, I was covered in red bumps and the rash stayed for two months,” she said. Once arriving at William Street, she changed into a long sleeve shirt borrowed from her friend. Once that building started evacuating, her group left as they covered their faces with bandanas and walked to Bushwick to stay with some friends.
I remember standing inside the courtyard doors and it being such a surreal moment.
-Agie Markiewicz,
Director of the Writing Center “It took forever and everything was a blur. We were all exhausted and still stunned,” she said. When the group made it to the apartment in Bushwick, they all climbed onto the rooftop and watched the smoke billow, and eventually fire flaring, from the World Trade Center. Markiewicz and a friend had recorded their journey on camera and the group decided to watch the video over and over. After, Markiewicz took a shower, finding particles of glass in her hair, which would not fully wash out even after the first few times. They all went to fall asleep, crowded in the apartment they were staying in, “There were so many of us in the apartment. Basically we all slept on the futon or covered the floor. We all went to sleep at some point,” she said. The next day, Markiewicz and a friend woke up to news that the P.A.T.H. trains were still running. Despite all the barricades into downtown Manhattan, the two made it all the way to One Pace Plaza; she was wearing a Pace hoody and he had his Pace I.D. card. “We managed to weasel our way past the initial barricades, and we almost made it, but I didn’t have my license,” she said.
The two started to walk uptown to catch the P.A.T.H. train, where some other friends had picked them up to bring them home to New Jersey. Once there, Markiewicz took another shower, the glass still remaining in her hair. “I wanted to be clean so badly,” she said. Markiewicz’s parents had called her “50 times to keep checking in,” and eventually, she made it home. Then, the question was brought up about returning to the University once it was safe to go back. “They were freaked out. They never wanted to make that decision for me and they knew once I made my decision, they couldn’t dictate me. They were definitely concerned and worried,” she said. In the weeks to come, Markiewicz and other students received letters via mail providing updates regarding new air filters in Maria’s Tower, that there was still clean up going on and then finally the letter saying the school was re-opening. Markiewicz unquestionably made the decision to come back. “Many people wangled back and forth and many people came back to classes and disappeared. “ But for those who didn’t escape New York City on that day, “It was an unanimous unspoken thing that we weren’t leaving,” she said. “It was my home base.” Despite her positive mindset, the effects of the attacks on Markiewicz came in physical form, “My hair started falling out and I couldn’t eat – I was physically ill...But I was going back, and I did.” Coming back on campus, Markiewicz described the atmosphere as “silent.” Many of her classmates who were locals got involved in the relief efforts, providing those coming back with updates on what was happening onequarter mile away. “It was a time when we sort of had to go through this historic moment…We were faced with a situation where it tested our maturity and ability to rally as a group. So in a way, the people who started college with me that year showed this sort of stubbornness and maturity,” she said. During her following years as a student, Markiewicz served as an R.A. Although it is impossible to prepare for something like 9/11, she says that the housing department and the University have successfully implemented programs and protocols for large scale emergencies, which they used during the blackout of 2003. As a professor, Markiewicz also realizes the importance of discussing the events of 9/11 in her classroom. “We won’t be doing a reading dedicated to it because it is too traumatic. Will I discuss it in class? Yes, I’ll let it come around organically rather than enforce it.” And ten years after the attacks, the University is an example of resilience. “Every incoming class is a statement of how strong the University is and how well we lived with the aftermath…I never had a student blurt out ‘Where were you?’ or ‘What happened?’ It speaks to the maturity of the students we get every year.”
The Pace Press would like to dedicate this issue as a tribute to the victims, families and courageous men and women of September 11, 2001.
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Many Questions, Outreach &
September 14, 2011
Answers
Documentation provided by Professor Nancy Reagin | Digital Illustrations by Hilda Adeniji
The University lost most telecommunications during the 9/11 attacks: no phones, website, or e-mail could be accessed due to result of the collapse of World Trade Center 7. Although there were website updates from former University President Caputo on the day of the incident, it is unknown how many individuals were able to get official information from the University and be accounted for. Professors Nancy Reagin and Bill Offutt from their unaffected home in New Jersey implemented one of the primary sources of communicating and locating students’ whereabouts through e-mails, IM and Yahoo! Groups “Pace News.”
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Featured are some posts and e-mail interactions between them and students. Names have been blocked for anonymity purposes due to the sensitivity of the incident.
Left: Yahoo! Groups “Pace News” served as a major distribution of information regarding the status of downtown and the University, starting out with approximately 875 people and being sent to an additional estimated 1000 - 2000 people.
Below: E-mails from students at the University to Reagin and Offutt show their concerns, worries and search for information.
9/13/01 4:49:21 P.m.
Hi my name is Catherine Larmor and I am enrolled in your Tues/Thurs 114 class. I have been having a great deal of trouble getting in touch with Pace (both online and via telephone) obviously due to the recent disastrous events in our NYC area. I am writing to see what the status is of the school and the schedule of classes is. I understand this is a truly chaotic time, but would appreciate it greatly if you could help me out and clue me in on any information I should know. I am sorry if this sounds incredibly pathetic but I am at my wits end on trying to get through to the school or anyone! Thank you for any information you can give me!
9/14/01 12:38:36 P.m.
9/14/01 7:33:40 A.M. Professor Reagin, I was there on Tuesday, and I am still feeling the emotional effects of wondering if my family members are alive. Currently, my uncle, who is a security guard at Tower 1 is missing. Worrying about classes isn’t helping matters, if you understand?... I also think it’s 100% necessary to have the students know we can’t blame all Islam, Muslim and/or Arabic people. For every one of those radicals there are thousands (if not millions) of Muslims worldwide who are against their actions. We have a lot of hot headed students who don’t always think before their actions, and we can’t have one group isolated from the Pace community because of fear. This is sincerely a time when the university can practice what it preaches! And believe me, I am willing to help in any possible way!
Hello, my name is Jackie Feldman. I am writing in regard to the World Trade Center tragedy. I am a student at Pace University and an RA for 75 West Street. After being involved in the whole situation, from the first plane hitting, to the crash of the towers, I have been unable to get any information on what provisions Pace is taking for their students at West Street. My residents and I were in the tragedy first hand. There are many mental and physical aspects that my residents and I have gone through. There are many questions that I do not have answers to and would like to get them resolved as soon as possible.
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NANCY REAGIN | WOMEN AND GENDER STUDIES DEPT. CHAIR AND PROFESSOR
Living without Pace.edu: Telecommunications after the attack The 9/11 attack had many horrible consequences: most importantly, the people we lost. But among the lesser casualties was Pace’s internet access and telecommunications, which forced staff, faculty, and students to devise other ways of communications during and after the crisis. The Pace Press has asked me write about the Yahoo mailing lists that Prof. Bill Offutt and I ran for a couple of weeks after the 9/11 attack, which served as an important source of information for many students, and which helped us to locate students who needed help. My husband, Bill Offutt, was downtown when the WTC attack happened, and didn’t get home until late Tuesday night; I never made it in to campus that day because the bridges and tunnels were closed soon after the attack began. We live in New Jersey, so — unlike people downtown or the administration out in Westchester, my husband and I had dial-up internet access during that period. On the morning of September 12, we realized as soon as we logged on that our university had lost telecommunications: there was no website and we soon found that FS Mail was down, and you couldn’t call the New York campus. This was because internet and telecommunications for both campuses were routed through a cable that ran through World Trade Center 7. When that building collapsed on the evening of Sept. 11th, Pace lost almost all telecommunications; even the Pleasantville campus couldn’t call outside of campus and had no internet access. From the standpoint of the students, the downtown NYC campus had vanished: you couldn’t visit a website, you couldn’t call, and the National Guard wasn’t letting anyone into the downtown area after it was evacuated. Bill and I were early users of the Internet, and have always done lots of emails and IM exchanges with students; dozens of students had us on their buddy lists. When we logged on that morning, we were hit with many IM notes from students, who wanted to know what was going on. Bill got through to PLV the afternoon of 9/12, and talked to Associate Dean Adelia Williams. She repeated what President Caputo had told the PLV faculty at their meeting that day, and told us that the New
York campus would not reopen until Wed. the 19th at the earliest. Pace was trying to locate all of our students to make sure that they were OK; some of the students in the dorms in and around the WTC were not accounted for in the immediate aftermath of the attack, and we knew that some students had been hurt, traumatized, or simply had lost their property as a result of the attack. So, Bill and I went through our electronic address books and email files, to dig out non-Pace email addresses for all the students and faculty that we had, since Pace email addresses were not functioning. Bill also had a print out from the Honors data base, which included many more students’ emails. By Wednesday afternoon, we had about 250 email addresses. We began to
added 100-200 more names to the list (this is approximate). We answered (I think) all of them. It was like standing under a waterfall of telecommunications. Like many of our colleagues at Pace, we worked very long hours that week. Our neighbors were wonderful and took care of our children for us, and one family allowed Bill to camp out in their basement with his laptop, plugged into their phone line, so that Bill and I could both email and IM with students at the same time. We began to type up lists of the students who we had located, with notes about who needed help, and faxed them in to two senior Admissions staff, Richard Alvarez or Joanna Broda, in Pleasantville. They used our lists as one of several sources for locat-
We could not have handled such a mass of communications without help from several friends and students. Two students, Natalie Rojowsky and my student aide Gille Disney, worked at home, typing up lists of students.
-Nancy Reagin compose emails to batches of students, telling them what we knew, asking whether everyone they knew was OK, asking whether they knew anyone who needed housing, and including our home phone, urging students who had a real problem to call us. Every student we sent it to apparently forwarded it on to many more friends. By Thursday evening, 9/13, we were hearing from many students (perhaps 30-50 emails an hour, at the height, more IM messages than I can keep track of, and many phone calls). These were students whom we had never met, but who had been forwarded our early emails by a friend of a friend. By Friday, we began hearing from some parents of Pace students, too. By Friday the 14th, we had collected about 600 emails from Pace students. Over the weekend, we
online If you wish to receive emergency notifications from the University, you can sign up online and get up to date information via email, SMS text and voicemail messages. To sign up for University alerts, please visit: pace.edu/general-services/safety-security 311 cards with further information can be found at the security desk located on the B-Level of One Pace Plaza.
ing and making sure that the dorm students were safe, and later, all students in general. If we heard from or about a student who needed housing, or was particularly traumatized, we would call Richard or Joanna to make sure that this student received direct attention from Pleasantville. It was a two way pipeline: we collected info on students and gave it to Pleasantville, but also continued to send out info to students about what was going on, using group emails with AOL. By Friday, we simply had too many addresses to mail to with AOL, and we decided to set up a Yahoo mailing list, which I did on the evening of 9/14. We enrolled on it all the students whose email addresses we had, and continued to post updates to that list. Associate Provost Bev Kahn was particularly helpful as a source of info for students:
through her, we learned of the walk-in counseling being offered in Midtown on Mon./Tues; the emergency loans available for students; special help for international students; and info about campus reopening, etc. As soon as we got that from her, we would post it to the list. I know that many more students than those I enrolled on the list have also bookmarked the site, and went to it regularly during this period to read our posts and updates. Through forwards, direct list posts, and IM, I would estimate that we ultimately contacted 1,000-2,000 students. We located hundreds of students, among them many dorm students, for Pleasantville. We could not have handled such a mass of communications without help from several friends and students. Two students, Natalie Rojowsky and my student aide Gille Disney, worked at home, typing up lists of students. Bill and I would write an answer to each student, and then forward the email to our helpers, who then typed up lists of names and contact info for each student---they then emailed the lists back to us, and I would fax them to Pleasantville. The recovery of telecommunications, like the cleanup of the campus itself, happened in stages over the course of September. The Pace website was relocated to a server somewhere else, and phone lines were working again downtown by late September. The university opened up a toll-free hotline in Pleasantville for students to call, and students who needed help were given that help: the Counseling Center in particular worked incredibly hard with a staggering workload that semester. It helped a lot when the fires in the basements of the WTC were finally put out that December: after that the air quality downtown improved, and academic life got slowly got back to where it had been before. The 9/11 attack was a horrible, tragic event. No one in NYC or at Pace was prepared for it, since of course no one could have imagined it ahead of time. We all did the best that we could during that period, and we did get through it, although we lost some people. I guess that’s the most one can hope for, in any similar tragedy: we got through it.
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Features
&
9/11 CHARITIES ORGANIZATIONS
CRAIG HELD | Features Editor While the Sept. 11 attacks were an immense tragedy, it wasn’t long before Americans banded together to create charities in order to help others emerge from one of the darkest times in U.S. history. In the ten years since the attacks, a number of organizations have been established to aid those affected from the children of survivors to the first responders. The Pace Press has compiled a list of charities for those who wish to donate. Tuesday’s Children: What started as a charity to just help the children of those lost on Sept. 11 has grown to help anyone afflicted by terrorist acts globally. www.tuesdayschildren.org Voices of September 11th: Voices brings together families affected by the attacks and promotes public awareness towards terrorism. www.voicesofseptember11.org Michael Lynch Memorial Foundation: This organization provides higher education scholarships to children of Sept. 11 victims in memory of Fire Department City of New York (FDNY) members and fellow Sept. 11 victim, Michael Lynch. www.mlynch.org Families of September 11: Founded shortly after the attacks, this group’s goal is to support anyone affected by Sept. 11, including victims’ families and first responders as well as lobbying for domestic and international policies regarding global terrorism. www.familiesofseptember11.org 9/11 Health Now: The survivors of the attacks continue to endure the aftermath in terms of health problems both physically and emotionally. This organization offers financial aid to anyone affected while promoting awareness of Sept. 11 health related issues. www.911healthnow.org The National September 11 Memorial and Museum: Besides creating a place to remember and reflect on the tragedies, the September 11th Memorial and Museum will educate future generations on the events of that day. www.911memorial.org
Digital illustration by HILDA ADENIJI | The Pace Press