Campuses
Commemorate 9/11
Campuses across the country, including most CIC institutions,
commemorated the one-year anniversary of the 9/11 terrorist
attacks with prayer circles, candlelight vigils, and memorial
services. Many brought in speakers who were connected with the
attacks or featured art or other physical remembrances of the
tragedy.
Rollins
College (FL) installed a memorial stone on campus containing
a World Trade Center fragment; St. Bonaventure University
(NY) students created quilt panels to honor three SBU graduates
killed on 9/11, and sent the panels to New York City to be woven
together with other quilted tributes; Flagler College
(FL) professor Sister Diane Couture, who teaches the only certified
course in stained glass window design at an American college,
created a window depicting firefighters at the scene of the
devastation that was installed at the Church of St. Francis
of Assisi, three blocks from Ground Zero; and Jacksonville
University (FL) dean and artist Terry Nitter created
a “Windows on the World” exhibit that opened in France on 9/11.
The
Robert Morris University (PA) ceremony included
a presentation of “America Talks,” a documentary produced by
RMU students; Assumption College (MA) created
a Garden of Remembrance; Barry University (FL)
students dressed in red, white, and blue t-shirts formed a 50-foot
“living” American flag; and Goshen College
(IN), Lesley University (MA), and others sponsored
art exhibits featuring works by students, faculty, and staff
created in response to 9/11. Ferrum College
(VA) students volunteered 911 hours of community service, and
first-year students at Franklin & Marshall College
(PA) dedicated a public service project to the victims and rescuers.
In
an unprecedented move, Benedictine University
(IL) offered firefighters in the area the chance to earn a college
degree free of charge; an anonymous gift enabled King’s
College (PA) to establish a permanent memorial honoring
three alumni who lost their lives in the WTC attacks; and Urbana
University (OH) established a fund to sponsor programs
to promote and support the cause of peace in the memory of alumna
Alicia Nicole Titus, a flight attendant on one of the planes
that hit the WTC.
Calvin College (MI) heard reflections about
what it was like to be at the Pentagon on 9/11 from Herm Keizer,
a former military chaplain who was working in Washington that
day; Nyack College (NY) featured remembrances
from two survivors of the World Trade Center attacks about how
the events impacted their lives; Campbellsville University
(KY) hosted Col. John Brinsfield, chief of chaplain staff operations
with the U.S. Army Forces Command, who is writing a history
of the 9/11 event and its impact on the Pentagon, and some Campbellsville
students visited Ground Zero as part of a class on terrorism
that is being taught this fall. Greensboro College
(NC) cancelled classes and offered an “alternative day of learning”
that featured several panel discussions on historical perspectives
as well as contemporary and religious issues.
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Marywood
University (PA), as
part of its 9/11 commemoration ceremony, installed in the campus
Rotunda a sculpture titled "Now Hallowed Ground" created
by Bill Leth, a member of the art faculty. Crushed marble representing
the fallen towers' debris and rubble as well as polished river
stones representing the human victims surround the base of the
sculpture. |
