There are certain moments in time—events that impact our lives—that become vivid memories. We remember where we were when Kennedy was shot; when Neil Armstrong walked on the moon. Now, where we were
when the planes hit on September 11th.
The day dawned like any other at New York University, but by the end of it, the nation would be in a stunned silence, 2,200 NYU students would be displaced from their downtown dormitories, and the names of over 60 alumni would be placed on missing lists. (Memorial list on page 2.) As the events of the day unfolded, NYU, which shares more than its name and its spirit with its city, jumped into action. We share with you here just a small sample of the schools’ activities, both on that difficult day and in the ones that have followed. We hope that you, as an alumnus/a of this great university, share our pride in these actions.
School of Medicine
Under very difficult circumstances, faculty members, residents, and students at the NYU School of Medicine, who serve at Bellevue Hospital Center, NYU Downtown Hospital, NYU Hospitals Center, Hospital for Joint Diseases, and the Department of Veterans Affairs New York Harbor Healthcare System, worked as a team and took every necessary step to prepare for the arrival of wounded people.
Within three hours of the attack, the physicians, nurses, house staff, administrators, and security guards at Bellevue mobilized the entire hospital center to receive, treat, and save the lives of 1,000 victims. The psychiatry department offered immediate counseling to people who needed it. Immediately after the disaster occurred, the most experienced physicians at Bellevue, as well as the house staff and attending physicians, traveled to Ground Zero to deliver critical medical services to the wounded.
In the first 24 hours after the attack, the team of outstanding physicians at NYU Downtown Hospital—the medical facility located closest to the World Trade Center complex—provided medical treatment and support services to approximately 1,000 people affected by the disaster. Faculty members provided these critical services while operating on emergency generator power and sporadic communications capabilities.
Ehrenkranz School of Social Work
The School of Social Work was—and remains—in a unique position to render assistance in response to the disaster. The School began organizing its resources on the day of the attacks and immediately thereafter—providing counseling to students displaced by the disaster and crisis intervention to survivors, policemen, and firemen at hospitals, shelters, the Armory site, and Ground Zero. For several days after the attack, faculty members counseled staff at some of the hardest-hit Wall Street firms and worked at some of the most difficult locations in and around Ground Zero.
Within NYU, social work faculty members counseled displaced NYU students at temporary relocation sites and other NYU faculty members through the University Counseling Service and Faculty Staff Assistance Program. They also held group debriefing sessions at The Steinhardt School of Culture, Education, and Human Development, the Gallatin School of Individualized Study, the Faculty of Arts and Science, Bobst Library, and the Tisch School of the Arts.
To help alleviate longer-term needs, a free, five-session training program for social work and mental health professionals was organized to address a range of disaster trauma and loss issues. The School will be involved in further training efforts to meet the needs of affected survivors and their families, as wells as the professionals who will serve them over the next year. Social work faculty and staff members will also continue to organize long-term volunteer professional resources for affected employees of the Administration for Children’s Services and the NYC Housing Authority, who themselves serve some of NYC’s most vulnerable populations.
College of Dentistry
Students at the NYU College of Dentistry (NYUCD) volunteered everywhere they could in the aftermath of the attack. From Chelsea Piers and Bellevue Hospital to the Medical Examiner’s Office, they handed out water and face masks to people searching for loved ones.
Two international students in the implant dentistry program, Giuseppe Bianco and Luigi De Carolis, went on site to Ground Zero to set up a provisional hospital and help in the rescue efforts, as did senior student Ruben Cohen, who not only assisted at Ground Zero but also arranged for the donation of toothbrushes to NYU students displaced after the attack.
Forensics-trained NYUCD faculty members Dr. Kathy Agoglia and Dr. Jerry Gultz assisted with identification efforts at the Medical Examiner’s Office, while the College arranged a donation of half its X-ray processors to the ME’s office. Dr. Herb Frommer and staff member James Halprin also assisted at the ME’s office by building a darkroom to expedite the processing of dental records.
On Friday, September 14th, NYUCD held an abbreviated version of a continuing education course entitled “A Health Professional’s Response to the Terrorist Threat.” Based on the overwhelming response to the course, the College held another free continuing education course on terrorism preparedness, which was attended by over 350 alumni on November 3, 2001.
Robert F. Wagner Graduate School of Public Service
In the days that followed the tragedy, the Wagner School focused on how education can play a role in the comprehension of such acts. Wagner presented a number of seminars and events that focused on public service and health response to terrorism.
Among the seminar topics were “Relief and Rebuilding: The Public Service Response to September 11,” featuring Iris Weinshall (WAG ‘77), Commissioner, NYC Department of Transportation; and “The Health Response to Terrorism: U.S. and NYC,” cosponsored by the Wagner School and the Gallatin School, and featuring Margaret Hamburg, vice president for biological programs, Nuclear Threat Initiative; Jerome Hauer (GAL’75), managing director, Kroll Associates, Kenneth Raske, president, Greater NY Hospital Association, and Neal Cohen, commissioner, NYC Department of Health.
On February 7th, Wagner also co-sponsored a forum for over 600 citizens at the South Street Seaport in New York City entitled “Listening to the City: The Civic Alliance’s First Region-Wide Conversation About Rebuilding Downtown New York.” The forum was presented as an Electronic Town Meeting, with wireless laptops, polling keypads, and trained facilitators from AmericaSpeaks. Jo Ivey Boufford, dean of the Wagner School, was among the many civic leaders who delivered remarks during the forum.
Leonard N. Stern School of Business
Stern students responded to the attack on the World Trade Center in a variety of ways, including accounting for classmates and reaching out to businesses to secure donations of supplies for displaced students.
SCorp, Stern’s student government association, held an emergency meeting and formed committees to address a variety of needs, including organizing blood drives; soliciting clothing, food, equipment, and monetary donations; creating care packages; and supporting disaster clean-up. The 350 undergraduate Stern Scholars spearheaded a campaign to raise funds by selling patriotic T-shirts printed with the NYU flag and “United We Stand” in nine languages. At $10 a T-shirt, the effort raised $60,000, which was donated directly to the New York Fire Department’s relief fund.
The sense of community was further reinforced in two remembrance services held on campus in Schimmel Auditorium, one on September 14 for graduate students, faculty members, and administrators; and a second on Thursday, September 20 for undergraduates, many of whom had just returned to campus.
Ongoing efforts at the School include an initiative called Stern Rebuilds, an organization designed to harness the talents of Stern’s students, faculty members, and administrators, along with representatives of New York’s banking and legal communities, to help small- to medium-sized businesses regain their footing.
College of Arts and Science
As the students of the College of Arts and Science pitched in with volunteer efforts at various city agencies, faculty members rallied around them to try and aid in the process of understanding why the events of September 11th happened. Hundreds of students attended a colloquium for both students and faculty members entitled “Reflections on the Tragedy,” in which the College presented a series of seminars on democratic values, social solidarity, terrorism, international and humanitarian law, Islam, and Middle Eastern history and politics. While all of these subjects are normally taught as part of MAP (the Morse Academic Plan that makes up the College curriculum), the lectures explored these topics more deeply.
Among the highlights of the seminars were ”Solidarity” by Dr. Richard Sennett, professor of sociology and history, and “Humanitarian Law and Human Rights,” presented by Dr. Theodore Meron, the Charles L. Denison Professor of Law at NYU. In November, Dr. Meron will take a sabbatical from the University and participate, as one of 14 judges, on the United Nations War Crimes Tribunal at The Hague.
The focus on the lessons of terrorism will continue this spring when the College offers new courses that will continue to help students understand the themes of politics, religion, and terrorism. This summer, the Center for Ancient Studies will also focus its annual seminar on these issues. “Phoenix Rising: Ancient Responses to Misfortune and Disaster” is co-sponsored by the College and the Center, and will be held from June 10-14th. The seminar will focus on the ancient world and explore the human response to disasters, both those that occur naturally and those that result from human actions.
The Steinhardt School of Culture, Education, and Human Development
Students of The Steinhardt School of Culture, Education, and Human Development, including nurses, student teachers, and artists, were in the middle of rescue efforts at the World Trade Center site. Student teachers in classrooms at public schools in downtown Manhattan led the children to safety in the middle of the disaster. One of those students, Elizabeth Streibel (ED ’01), remembers, “We just kept reading stories and giving the kids activities to do. For me, it was scary being in that classroom, knowing that behind the closed blinds, the towers had just collapsed.” In addition to onsite student teachers, nursing students and faculty ministered to the injured on the site of Ground Zero and at area hospitals.
Another Steinhardt student, Sean Peppard (ED ’02), spent 12 hours on September 13th helping firefighters, emergency medical personnel, and police and military personnel from across the country search for victims in the rubble of what was the World Trade Center. An army veteran, Air Force reservist, and a volunteer fireman, EMT, and ambulance driver in Ft. Lee, NJ, Mr. Peppard recalls spending up to four hours extracting the body of a single victim from the debris. Though feeling somewhat guilty about it, Mr. Peppard also took photos of the scene: “I want everyone at home to see the horror that occurred, so that we never forget.”
Gallatin School of Individualized Study
Gallatin student leaders organized a coalition of volunteers from all over the University to solicit donations for the Red Cross. The students assembled thousands of white ribbons and presented them to the donors. The ribbons symbolized the city’s unity in a time of crisis. In just two days, 100 NYU students generated more than $22,000 in donations for the American Red Cross’ WTC Disaster Relief Effort.
Students enrolled in the Gallatin class “Walls of Power: Public Art” who were anxious to help the city’s recovery process after the tragedy used their skills to create a firehouse mural as a tribute to the firefighters who lost their lives on September 11th. A wall of Engine Company 279 and Ladder Company 131 of Red Hook (Brooklyn) now depicts a Maltese cross surrounded by flames. Above the banner image reads “Red Hook” and below “Brooklyn U.S.A.”
NYU Libraries
The Libraries joined with the rest of the NYU community in the effort to assist those directly affected at NYU by the attack on the World Trade Center. Bobst Library remained open throughout the crisis, operating with a reduced staff to provide a place where students could gather, watch the news, or find a quiet moment for their studies. The Libraries’ Website provided links to pertinent information throughout the crisis.
The Libraries’ Department of TV and Media Services worked overtime to maintain campus cable viability for television broadcast and cable news to the student residence halls, and to set-up television viewing sites in Bobst Library and throughout campus. To assist students who were evacuated from their lower Manhattan dorms, the Libraries made lockers available, and extra copies of textbooks were placed on reserve. In addition, the Libraries’ Community Services Committee assisted staff in donating relief supplies, blood, and financial contributions, and provided school supplies to P.S. 41 in Manhattan.
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