Steve Lee '05 got out of class Tuesday morning, Sept. 11, 2001, walked back to his room, and flipped on the television to check the weather. But, instead of finding the temperature, the scene of planes crashing into the World Trade Center came into view. "I was pretty shocked," he said, adding then that he found out the Pentagon had been hit as well. He then woke his roommate to tell him what had just happened. As the news continued, he called home to Brooklyn, to make sure that everything was okay. Lee knew people who worked in the World Trade Center and he later found out that his neighbor was one of the victims. He said that day gave him a whole new perspective on Manhattan and said he had previously looked to the towers to find his way in New York City. "Driving to Manhattan, you don't see the towers anymore," he said, "It was just a part of life in New York."

Elliot Kendal '04 said he used to take a shortcut through Usdan to get to class, and noticed that morning was unlike any other. By 10:30 a.m., cell phones ringing, people crying and the television blaring in the student center confronted Kendal and others returning from their 9 a.m. classes. Kendal said he was walking, half-asleep, but when he neared the television, the replay of the planes crashing into the World Trade Center made him alert. "Everyone was pretty shocked," he said, "I didn't feel a lot to begin with. It was very unreal."

Jon Nusholtz '03 arrived at his 10:40 a.m. class, unaware. He had his notebook open, ready to take notes, when suddenly, someone announced the towers were gone. He said he felt shock and disbelief. He added that, even though his peer had made an announcement, the professor went on with the day's lecture. "It didn't seem like the right response to me," he said, "He (the professor) said we should continue with our work."

Other professors made it a point to recognize the day; even if they were not teaching that day. Professor Hollie Harder (COML) did not teach her French 10a class on Sept. 11, and the next day, she asked her students to stand for a moment of silence. She said she felt in a French class, unlike a politics class, a discussion of Sept. 11 was not pertinent to the curriculum, so she said a moment of silence was the way to recognize it. "I think that most classes are about getting things done and I think that to take a moment out of it (for silence), it made an impression on me," she said.

First-years sound-off

Nearly one quarter of this year's student population did not experience Sept. 11 at Brandeis; rather, they experienced it from their homes, some abroad.

Burou Yuksel '06 and Lalin Anik '06 attended an American high school in Turkey and said that some students who lived in the dorms at the high school were not allowed to return home on weekends. They also said their high school had flown two flags before that day: an American flag and a Turkish flag, and that the American one was taken down by the school's administration in an effort to distance themselves from the United States. "We lived through moments . the media and TV's showed it minute by minute . We've been living through these terrorism things for 30, 40 years," Anik said.

Omar Baderkhan '06 also experienced Sept. 11 from abroad. He said that he was living in Jordan and he came back from school to see his mother watching TV. "When I first saw it, it was like a movie . I was really shocked," he said. "I wasn't scared to come to the United States . I was scared they wouldn't give us the visa to come to the U.S."

Some first-years were in the Big Apple itself. Gil Harel '06 was sitting in class at LaGuardia High School in Manhattan, one mile away from where the World Trade Center was. He was in his computer science class at about 10:30 a.m., when he logged onto the Internet, and learned of the events. "There was this hysteria that consumed this whole area . because we had been so close," he said.

Harel said that shortly after class, he, along with some of his other classmates went to Ground Zero, after seeing the rising haze outside. "We were scared shitless," he said. He also witnessed firefighters rushing up to the towers in panic. "Every cloud has a silver lining. and if there was a silver lining on this cloudy day, it was the professionalism and heroism that was demonstrated by the NYPD and fire department," Harel said.



News coverage of Sept. 11

On Sept. 11, every channel, even those that generally never have hard news, - including Animal Planet, Comedy Central, and MTV interrupted their broadcasts for days to provide continuous coverage, including repeated images of the planes crashing into the World Trade Center with smoke billowing out, as well as reports of the crashes at the Pentagon and in Pennsylvania.

"I think on the day of the attacks, most journalists did an extraordinarily good job. Afterwards, I think a lot of journalistic organizations had to wrestle with the question of patriotism," Professor Michael Socolow (AMST), who lectures in the Journalism Program, said. "They may have suspended their natural skepticism and cynicism a little too much. I think they are still working on the proper balance, trying to independently assess America's global threats while not necessarily swallowing everything coming out of the White House."

Teaching communications at the University of Western Ontario last September, Professor Laura Miller (SOC) said Canadians empathized strongly with the United States following the events of Sept. 11. "Canadians would slip up and say 'We were attacked' instead of the U.S .," Miller said.



Looking forward

While many current Brandeisians were not on campus on Sept. 11, 2001, these newcomers will join other returning students and faculty to commemorate the one-year anniversary with student-planned events beginning with an 8:46 a.m. moment of silence this morning.

"Since we've been living through it the whole year, I felt that the best thing for everyone would be a quiet way to sit down, forgetting about politics, and remember the people that died," Ari Stein '04, who helped plan the event, said.

Assistant Dean of Student Life Alwina Bennett said today's events will focus on remembering the victims and honoring their families, rather than politics. "I think that Wednesday's events are about how valuable human life is, and how the loss of life diminishes us. Wednesday's events are about reminding people of what's been lost."

"It will be reassuring to find myself with the same people I was with when it happened," Harder said.

Bennett said students will have a chance to express themselves. "I think the students that have been involved in planning and discussing the events feel a profound sense of loss, that something special has gone out of our lives and that by remembering we have a chance of perhaps recapturing what was lost."

- Elana Margulies'