UMass Amherst to Commemorate 20th Anniversary of 9/11 Terrorist Attacks with Slate of Events in September

AMHERST, Mass. – The University of Massachusetts Amherst will commemorate the 20th anniversary of Sept. 11, 2001 with a slate of events honoring those who lost their lives in the terrorist attacks on the United States. 

Commemorations this week include:

• The UMass Amherst Air Force ROTC cadets will do their physical training starting at 6:30 a.m. on Thursday, Sept. 9 at McGuirk Alumni Stadium, where they will run 110 flights of stairs to commemorate the former World Trade Center in New York.
   
• On Saturday, Sept. 11, the campus will hear the ringing of the bells in the Old Chapel at 8:46 a.m., 9:03 a.m., 9:45 a.m., and 10:10 a.m. marking the times of the attacks on the World Trade Center towers in New York, the Pentagon in Washington, D.C., and the crash of United Flight 93 in Pennsylvania on that day.
   
• On Sept. 11 at the UMass-Boston College football game, a moment of silence will be observed during the pre-game festivities at McGuirk Alumni Stadium. The game starts at 3:30 p.m.

UMass Amherst lost 10 alumni, including one who was also an university employee, in the terrorist attacks.

Special event with Alumnus Kenneth Feinberg

In addition to this week’s events, a centerpiece of the university’s remembrance will be a fireside chat on Tuesday, Sept. 28 with Chancellor Kumble Subbaswamy, Kenneth Feinberg ’67, ’02H, and Feinberg’s business partner Camille Biros. Feinberg and Biros played a lead role in determining compensation for 9/11 victims.

Feinberg, the subject of the new Netflix film “Worth,” is one of the nation’s leading lawyers, specializing in mediation and alternative resolution dispute. He and Biros have helped administer the response to some of the most complex public crises in American history, including the 9/11 Victims Compensation Fund, Agent Orange, executive compensation following the 2008 financial crisis, the BP Deepwater Horizon Gulf oil spill, the Boston Marathon bombings and the 9/11 Victims Compensation Fund. Feinberg’s book What is Life Worth has been adapted into the recently released Netflix film Worth starring Michael Keaton and Amy Ryan.

The UMass Alumni Association is sponsoring the 6 p.m. free virtual event. More information can be found on the Alumni Association website.

In 2011, Feinberg donated 2,000 boxes of his personal papers, including documentation of his work on the 9/11 Victim Compensation Fund, to the UMass Amherst Special Collections and University Archives.