Victims of terror remembered

by Sarah R. Buchholz, Chronicle staff

During ceremonies at Mark's Meadow School, Andrew Effrat, interim dean of the School of Education, helps plant one of two aristocrat pear trees placed at the site in honor of the victims of the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks. Another tree was planted in memory of Robyn Konovitch, a guidance counselor at the school for 17 years until her death about 18 months ago. (Stan Sherer photo)

ells tolled off and on all day Sept. 11 as the campus community remembered the victims of the tragedy that occurred one year earlier. They rang to mark the moments when each of the flights hijacked by terrorists Sept. 11, 2001, crashed. At 6:45 p.m, the strains of a quartet led approximately 700 people to the steps of the Student Union facing the Campus Pond, where they attended a memorial ceremony. Administrators, faculty, staff and students gathered in more than 20-mile-per-hour winds to hear readings, both ancient and new, as the sun set.

     Campus community members representing Islamic, Jewish, Buddhist, Christian, and Hindu traditions read from sacred texts. Junior BDIC major Lindsey Tarsia read an essay she wrote about her experience Sept. 11, 2001, which she described as "the day we forgot to live and the day we finally began to think."

     Chancellor John Lombardi addressed the crowd.

     "I don't think ... we have all figured out how to integrate this experience into our lives," Lombardi said. "We must confront it, each in our own way, for every time there is a tragedy ... we must embrace it, understand it and deal with it." Lombardi encouraged the attendees to ask themselves, "How can I take this experience and make it into something that is somehow positive?"

     At the end of the ceremony, there was a tolling of the Old Chapel bells, followed by music from the carrillon, as most of the crowd dispersed. Approximately 70 students gathered afterward in the Student Union Ballroom to seek company in reflecting on the tragedy. Lombardi, interim dean of students Gladys Rodriguez, and other staff accompanied them.