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Working through a tragedy

What covering 9/11 meant to student reporters

Twenty years ago, in the windowless basement of the UMass Campus Center, a group of college kids running a student newspaper watched the biggest event of their lives unfold on television. Then, as countless journalists did in Boston, New York, Washington, D.C., and everywhere else in the world that day, they found a way to cover it. 
 
Sam Wilkinson ’02, Collegian managing editor: I remember—it is burned in my brain—the brightest blue sky you have ever seen, just an incredibly beautiful morning.  
 
I always stopped by the Collegian before I went to classes. I walked into the office, and there were already people gathered around the old-school television. . . 
 
Dan Lamothe ’04, assistant op-ed editor and columnist: I was in one of my first journalism classes that morning. It was a news writing class. Your basics—the inverted pyramid, that stuff. [Norman Sims, the professor] disappears to his office across the way for 15 minutes and comes back, and you can see the look of shock on his face. 
 
I walked straight to the Collegian from there. Part of it, I think, was feeling compelled to participate in some way, and part of it was this fascination: How are we going to deal with this? 
 
Scott Eldridge ’04, staff photographer: Once I was in the Campus Center or the Student Union, I started to see more TV screens with the news on. By the time I got to the newsroom, it was clear that whatever was going on, we would try to document it. This was not news going on in Amherst, but it was news that was affecting Amherst. So, it was sort of, how do you capture that idea or capture what was going on without being at the place where everything is happening? It’s sort of telling a story of people finding out about a story. 
 
Lamothe: There was already a big group of staffers [in the newsroom]. People were already working the phones. I remember cellphones were down, so it was a struggle to reach people in New York—it was a struggle to reach people who might have actually seen this. But I recall that there were enough people with connections in the region and in the city that we were actually working the phones, not unlike any other professional newspaper. Not to recast what we were seeing in other newspapers but to actually do the work ourselves. . . . I think a lot of us grew up that day. 
 
Wilkinson: So, here’s this enormous thing that happened—what is going on in our local community, the community of UMass, and the broader community of the Five Colleges? 
 
Jim Pignatiello ’03, assistant sports editor: It was the first time I’d ever had to work through something tragic. It showed the different mentality that we have to have in our field. Looking back at the paper and the performance of everyone, I think it’s so impressive to see the quality of the work. It’s a student newspaper. . . It was something to be really proud of.



Excerpted from “‘A lot of us grew up that day’: Reflections from Collegian staff who covered 9/11,” first published on the Massachusetts Daily Collegian website.

Scott Eldridge ’04 is assistant professor in journalism studies and media at the University of Groningen in the Netherlands. Will Katcher ’21 is a freelance reporter for MassLive. Dan Lamothe ’04 covers the military, the Pentagon, and national security for the Washington Post. Jim Pignatiello ’03 is the director of sports coverage at MassLive. Sam Wilkinson ’02 is a senior project manager at the West Virginia University Research Corporation.



Hanging plaque reads “In memory of University of Amherst Alumni who lost their lives on September 11, 2001” and lists the names: Christopher M. Castanjen ’00, Tara Shea Creamer ’93, Todd R. Hill ’90, Thomas N. Pecorelli ‘92, Sheryl L. Rosenbaum ’90, Geoff

In living memory 

In April 2002, UMass journalism students traveled to the World Trade Center memorial site in New York, known at that time as Ground Zero. They honored the 10 UMass alumni who lost their lives on 9/11, reading their names aloud and placing a wreath at the site. They also recognized Peter J. Ganci, chief of the New York City Fire Department, whose daughter Danielle is a member of the class of 2000. In September 2003, the Alumni Association’s Board of Directors voted unanimously to commemorate the alumni lost in the attacks with a bronze plaque in Memorial Hall.