Andrew Schwab was walking across the quad in the late morning. The weather was perfect, he said. It was dry and mild with no clouds in the sky.

Students were gathering on the quad to connect with and comfort one another. Then Schwab saw fighter jets fly low over Syracuse University’s campus.

The date was Sept. 11, 2001.

Alumni who were on campus during the fall of 2001 talked with The Daily Orange about where they were when they heard that the World Trade Center in New York City collapsed. They also recalled what campus was like in the weeks following the event. While none of the alumni The D.O. spoke with lost anyone close to them in any of the attacks that day, they all said this day was one of the defining events of their college careers.

SU’s campus was a more carefree environment before the attacks, said Schwab, who was a junior at the time. Students, some of whom were away from their parents for the first time, thought about the safety of their families or pondered whether another sudden attack on American soil would happen, Schwab said.

“Many of us might say we lost some innocence that day,” Schwab said. “When you hear, for the first time in your life, fighter jets flying over campus as they were patrolling the northeast, you feel as if your world gets much bigger all of a sudden.”

He noticed a large shift in his policy studies courses after that day. While topics in the class typically included gun control and education funding, they suddenly became discussions on national security and surveillance.

Eleni McCready, a freshman at the time, was running up the staircase in Brewster Hall coming home from her 8 a.m. Spanish class. Another student was in the staircase and informed McCready a plane had hit one of the Twin Towers.

McCready didn’t think much of it until she walked into the lounge on her floor. The TV was on, and everyone was watching. As soon as McCready walked into the room, the second plane hit the South tower. Some students broke into tears, others froze.

While most people consoled each other — especially those from the New York City area — some students ran to their rooms to call or instant message their parents, McCready said. But phone communications went down that morning because of the attacks. Social media was nonexistent.

At the time, McCready’s father worked as a contractor in the Pentagon. He was not there that day, but McCready said she didn’t know that because there was no way to contact him.

“You think you’re 18, going onto campus. I’m an adult. I’m away from home for the first time. I know things,” McCready said. “And then something catastrophic happens that none of us can comprehend. Then I really thought, now I’ve grown up.”

Barb Fanning had just moved into her house on Euclid Avenue. The television was blaring through the thin wall between the living room and her bedroom, so she got up to quiet down her roommates.

She looked at the TV and saw fire coming from the North tower then watched as the second plane hit the South tower.

Fanning didn’t try to contact her parents in Arizona, who were likely still asleep. She got dressed and ran to the Schine Student Center, where students typically went to find out information about campus. Everyone there was just as confused as she was, she said.

Many professors canceled classes for the rest of the day. But some political science professors continued to hold class and used it as a time to discuss what had transpired and what led up to that moment.

Fanning went to her 10:30 a.m. political science class in the Maxwell Auditorium. There, the professor broke the news of what had happened. Some students hadn’t heard yet.

“You heard from the back of the room a blood-curdling scream out of some girl in the class, and she ran out the door,” said Fanning, who was unsure if that student had a loved one who worked in the World Trade Center. “I will never forget the sound of that girl’s scream.”

Pam Fisher, another SU student at the time, also said she did not fully understand what was happening that morning. After going to her 10 a.m. class and seeing it was canceled for the day, Fisher walked across the quad back to her sorority house. Students had gathered on the quad, many trying to call their families, and others trying to console each other.

The following day, Fisher’s classes resumed. She went to her women’s studies class, where the teaching assistant opened up the class to a discussion about anything on students’ minds.

Fisher remembers many students, including herself, feeling a mix of anger and patriotism following the attack.

One student in the class wrote in Sharpie on a piece of paper “I will not be afraid,” stood up from his desk and began to talk about how terrible Palestinian children are, referring to video footage from East Jerusalem showing children cheering. The video she was referencing was recorded before the World Trade Center was attacked and was mistaken by some people as a reaction to the event.

Behind Fisher sat an international student who wore a hijab. She did not normally speak up during discussions in class, Fisher said.

“Please don’t be mad at the children,” Fisher remembers the international student telling the other student. “They only know what they know from being in those small villages. The only people they know are the people in that village teaching them.”

Fisher said hearing from her fellow classmate changed her outlook on people and conflicts outside of the U.S.

Jen Kachel lived on South Campus with two roommates. She normally turned the television on every morning to watch the news while getting ready for class. But then classes were canceled, and all three of them stayed in their apartment to figure out what was happening. She said students were most fearful of the unknown: who was safe, what were students supposed to do and where would the country go from there?

At that time, many students had an instant messaging program on their computers, which were typically stationary in students’ rooms and apartments. It was one of the only ways to contact other students. Kachel and her roommates stayed up the entire night with their eyes glued to their TV and computers hoping to receive updates on the situation.

Kachel said she remembers the following days when students tried to figure out ways they could help people who were affected by the attacks, either through supporting other students and their families or donating blood to help rescue efforts in New York City.

The following semester, Kachel studied abroad in Scotland. The entire travel process was now unfamiliar to Kachel, who had previously studied abroad in London. Airport security was strengthened, and some people, including Kachel’s mother, were skeptical of airplane safety.

While in Scotland, Kachel met other students from the U.S. studying abroad. Many of the students she met there wore pins depicting the Canadian flag or a maple leaf on their backpacks to avoid being identified as an American student, as some parents were afraid Americans may be targeted in other countries, Kachel said.

Alumni said that although most students in college today were either born after Sept. 11, 2001, or were too young to remember the day, they hope students will take the time to remember why the day is significant.

“It gets remembered by survivors and people who were around when it happened,” Schwab said. “With the privilege of time, you’re able to see what the long-term ramifications of it are. Then it becomes something in a textbook rather than something lived through.”

Each generation has an event that everyone remembers, Kachel said. But those events and memories are hard to pass down to the next generation.

“There was a time when the world wasn’t that scary,” Fanning said. “(Sept. 11) really isn’t talked about that much anymore. But I will tell you: I have never forgotten it.”

Published on September 9, 2021 at 1:19 am

Contact Richard: rjchang@syr.edu | @RichardJChang1