Geneseo President Christopher C. Dahl's
September 11th Message to the College
Community
The following is the complete text of SUNY Geneseo
President Christopher C. Dahl's message to the college community on the eve of
9/11.
To the College Community,
The task of reminding each other and ourselves about
September 11, 2001, is all too easy. The memory of that day's events is quite
simply and quite painfully inescapable. The task of discovering and creating
the meaning of those events, however, is another matter.
Today, Geneseo will join the state of New York and the
nation in commemoration ceremonies for the fifth anniversary of the attack on
the World Trade Center and the Pentagon, and the crash of Flight 93. In the
intervening years it has become increasingly clear to all of us that, even if
we had never been to the Twin Towers or never spent much time in New York City,
the attack hit home. No one needs to be reminded that it happened. The need
stems from our obligation and our yearning to renew a personal connection with
the moment.
Geneseo lost four alumni—James Kelly ('83), Richard
Bosco ('89), Dennis O'Berg ('95), and Yan Zhu Cindy Guan ('99)—that day
working in the Towers. Staff and students lost family and close friends. And
all of us saw our previous understanding of world events instantly displaced by
something much less secure—and still not altogether clear or certain.
On September 11, 2001, Geneseo students, faculty, and
staff—who only the day before were casually settling into the second week
of fall semester—gathered on the MacVittie Union patio late in the
afternoon. We spoke to each other, and passed candles, and sang to each other.
Then we fell silent for a while. Then we spoke and sang again. Around the
periphery of the very large gathering dozens of small conversations took place
in whispers: faculty who had just been in the city that weekend; students with
close connections to the city figuring out how they might get home—if
only for a day—because the distance from home was unbearable; administrators
trying to figure out how to balance the debilitating shock of the attack
against the need to carry on with the work of the College. "9/11" was something
we all had to deal with, in all senses of the word.
It still is.
Today, the Alumni Carillon will toll at 8:46 a.m. to remind
us of the time that the first plane struck the north tower of the World Trade
Center. At 6:30 p.m., students, staff, and community members will hold a brief
memorial service in the Roemer Arboretum to remember and honor our four alumni
who lost their lives. At 7:30 p.m., there will be a remembrance on the College
Union Patio. White bags, on which students have written their feelings about
9/11, will be arranged with illumination around the patio. Students, faculty,
staff, and community members are invited to read the bags and join in singing
and silent prayer. Students have created American flags with their handprints
which will be displayed in prominent locations this week. We thank the
Residence Life staff, Student Association officers, Inter-Residence Council,
and the Undergraduate Alumni Association for their roles in planning these
tributes.
We may not, as the saying goes, always be interested in
history, but history is always interested in us. Few if any of us are likely to
live long enough to see 9/11 pass into obscure historical trivia. If only it
would. Today we commemorate a day when history became too interested in us. We
commemorate the victims we lost, the families and friends who held them most
dear, the heroism of police and fire fighters and others on the rescue scene,
and the indomitable spirit of a miraculous city. Perhaps most significantly,
today we honor the compassionate spirit of community that heals the deepest
wounds history can inflict upon us.
Please join your fellow students, faculty and staff in
today's commemorative activities.
Sincerely,
Christopher C. Dahl
President