Chaos. Confusion. Busy signals. Eyes glued to newscasts. Heartbreak.
As do many others across the nation and around the world, members of the Syracuse University community recall the events of Sept. 11, 2001, with unusual clarity, considering how much time has passed since that stark morning.
What would’ve been an ordinary September day on campus turned into anything but as a coordinated terrorist attack against the United States was executed, with planes crashing into the North and South Towers of the World Trade Center in Manhattan and, less than an hour later, the Pentagon building in Washington, D.C. Nearly 3,000 individuals, including 30 alumni and countless friends and family members of those affiliated with the University, lost their lives that day.
Below, six members of the University community recall their experience on campus on that day. Today and every day, we honor the lives that were lost in the Sept. 11 attacks and in the global war on terror that has since ensued.
“I remember that day vividly. It was a couple of weeks into my sophomore year and I had an early class. I got up like any other morning and got ready for class. Before heading off, I turned on the news and watched Katie Couric report on what was going on in New York City. I watched for a few moments and turned it off before I was late. As I was walking from DellPlain Hall across the Quad, there was an eerie silence. No one really knew what was going on yet, but you knew something was wrong.
“I arrived to class a few minutes early and a student walked in and simply said: ‘We’re under attack.’ With those three words, chaos ensued. The professor walked in, canceled class and everyone made their way out. I had heard that New York and Washington, D.C., were under attack and I quickly ran to find a pay phone in the administration building as it was the closest to my class. I tried calling my boyfriend (now husband), who was in New Jersey and had family working downtown, and my parents who were in Arlington, Virginia. I couldn’t get through to anyone, for hours.
“I quickly went to find my friends and we met up at one of their apartments on South Campus and watched the news all day and all night. We cried, we hugged, we sat in shock. Classes were canceled for the next couple of days so students could connect with loved ones and process what was happening. It was a time we came together as a campus—and just a point in time that you will never forget where you were or who you were with. Always remember.”
“As assistant director of Food Services at the time, I was in Kimmel Food Court, which was open for breakfast back then. I remember a young student eating his breakfast when the news came on TV. He became agitated and upset; his parents worked in the towers and he was trying to call them. Some of the staff sat with him while he waited for a call. His mother finally was able to contact him and said that they had planned to go into work late that day and were not in the towers. It was good news for him—but a very sad day.
“No one knew what to do. We had to feed students but also needed to be with our families. People were watching the TVs all over campus nonstop. The Orange community came together to support our students as we always do. I went home that night to my neighborhood and the community having a moment of silence by holding a candle on our front porches. Everything was so quiet.”
“On Sept. 11, 2001, we stood in the lobby of the second floor of Maxwell staring at the TV screens. Students, staff and faculty drifted in at various times and joined the growing crowd. People huddled in small groups and hardly anyone spoke. The televisions were showing the same images over and over so that when the second tower fell, we thought it was a replay of the first tower falling. It took the shouting of the newscasters for us to understand it was happening again. Nothing seemed real. There were rumors that the White House was under attack and then the State Department. An ever-shifting number of planes were unaccounted for throughout the day.
“Sometime in the late morning, faculty from the national security studies office came out and said they were going to meet if we wanted to hear their thoughts on what was happening. Everyone pushed into a conference room, folks standing, sitting on the floor, desperate for someone to make sense of what was going on around us. In that conference room was the first time I heard someone talk about Osama bin Laden and the Taliban. Faculty told us we had witnessed an act of war. It was barely the third month of our public administration program and later that day some of our classmates who were in the military reserves were deployed.”—
“I was with the iSchool dean and others in a meeting with executives from Alcatel, who provided networking technology and had promised a large grant and equipment to the iSchool to continue investing in our network computing programs. On Sept. 11, 2001, the school’s budget director asked me to step out in the hall. The first plane had hit the North Tower. The next hour was spent finding a television, informing our hosts, developing a plan to tell students and faculty, and calling our families. The airports shut down. We had students on campus for a weekend class, faculty at conferences in other cities, executives from a company based in France, and alumni in New York City working in and near the Twin Towers and Washington, D.C., working at the Pentagon.
“We spent the next three days helping those that needed to travel, making certain everyone was safe and finding out about those that were not. One of the iSchool faculty in Washington, D.C., was late for a meeting and found himself stuck at an exit watching the smoke coming up from the building where he was supposed to be. One of our alumni spent the next 24 hours in a bar with others, unable to get out of Manhattan. One of our staff spent the day walking until she was finally able to get out of the city.
“At 9:15 a.m., my wife was able to phone the United States Military Academy at West Point where my oldest son was a student. She was one of only a few parents that were able to call into the academy that day. Even in those early hours of 9/11, we knew what this meant for our son. He had gone to college to play lacrosse, found out he also had to attend class and now realized he would be called on for something more. Years later he returned from Iraq with a Bronze Star and a Purple Heart. As parents, we were blessed. Over 500,000 sons and daughters from the United States, Iraq, Afghanistan and allied forces were not able to come home because of the events of Sept. 11, 2001.”
“How vivid the memories are of that fateful day. I worked in the comptroller’s office as the director of financial analysis at the Skytop Office Building. We were working with the Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS) to negotiate fringe benefits rates for the following years. Their offices were in New York City near the World Trade Center, which they could see out their windows. I was on the phone with one of the agents that morning and he needed to go because there was some commotion, while I went to speak with my supervisor about something down the hall.
“As I walked out of his office, I could see the comptroller’s secretary’s computer screen and there was a building on fire that turned out to be one of the towers. She said a plane had just plowed into the building. It was a horrific scene and a small crowd of us had gathered to watch the events inconceivably unfold before us. We stood there for hours just numb. It was several hours before I called my DHHS colleague back and of course got no answer, at the time not knowing the proximity of his office to the tragedy.
“When I got in my car that evening, I broke down sobbing, probably from shock, disbelief and fear. The next few days were a blur. After a few weeks, I researched and found the home address and phone number of my DHHS colleague, just to find out how he was doing because his office phone was still unanswered. He told me that his building was damaged and they had been evacuated immediately. He also said that his supervisor was standing at the window of his office and saw, firsthand, the first plane hit the tower and started screaming to call for help. That was the commotion he was hearing as we were getting off the phone. I was so grateful that he was okay. But really, none of us were ‘okay’ after that. None of us will ever forget that day.”
“I was a doctoral student in the School of Education and using a copy machine in the Center on Human Policy, which was part of the Hoople Building on Crouse Avenue. A secretary informed me that a small plane had crashed into the World Trade Center. As a private pilot who had flown numerous times past the World Trade Center, I surmised it was a tragic accident.
“Twenty minutes later, the secretary told me a second plane had crashed into the World Trade Center. That’s when I knew it was not accidental. Almost immediately my wife telephoned to ask that I come home. When I got home, the TV showed the Twin Towers in flames and billowing smoke. We broke down and cried for our beloved hometown and for America and the world.”
Please note, these anecdotes have been edited for brevity and clarity.
