For those in New York City on Sept. 11, 2001, the memory of burning towers, a frenzied nation and almost 3,000 killed will never fade. Five hundred miles away, a set of Athens-tinged memories is just as vivid.
Current Ohio University students, faculty and administrators, as well as those who were on campus 10 years ago, have distinct memories of a Tuesday turned tragic.
‘Everyone was feeling the same emotions’
Kristine Kascak, a 2005 OU alumna who studied online journalism and Spanish, had been on OU’s campus only a few days when the attacks occurred.
Kascak, who now is an administrative program coordinator at Cleveland Clinic, watched the news develop on TV in her residence-hall room and, like many other students, tried to check in with her family.
“For me, it was a bit more personal because my uncle worked in one of the towers and we have a lot of family and friends who live in New York,” Kascak said.
Although Kascak’s uncle was able to escape the tower, a friend of Kascak’s family was one of 343 New York City firefighters who died on 9/11.
“It was sad for everyone, but also personally sad, too,” Kascak said.
Brittany Ritchey, a 2004 OU alumna who studied magazine journalism, was sitting in the coffee shop in OU’s old Baker University Center when she heard about the attacks over the radio.
Ritchey, who now works as web editor at Progressive, was a reporter at The Post at the time and headed directly to the newsroom. The normally busy room had stopped in its tracks, she said.
“All the TVs were turned to it, and then the second tower was hit,” Ritchey said. “There were other people in the office who did have relatives in New York. I remember people crying, people standing there in shock like I was.”
As the days passed, students at OU found common ground, Ritchey said. Perfect strangers were suddenly tied together, and everyone on campus had something to discuss.
“Things were unfolding so quickly that you didn’t know what was in store for everybody in the United States,” Ritchey said. “Everyone was bonding together. Everyone was feeling the same emotions, even if it was a different mix or to a different degree.”
Although classes were not canceled in the days after 9/11, professors and students made individual decisions about class attendance, and security was heightened around campus, then-President Robert Glidden said.
Glidden spoke at a candlelight vigil the evening of the attacks, encouraging students to band together and to avoid pointing fingers or responding with anger.
“Please remember that it was hate that caused this tragedy, and hate will not undo it,” Glidden said. “It will not help us heal, nor will it resolve any differences.”
Of particular concern to Glidden was the way international students might be affected by news of the attacks. The president urged the student body to avoid pointing fingers and emphasized that international students were not at fault for the tragedy and should be included in mourning.
He said: “(International students) are a part of our community and they are as horrified by this as anyone. I want to be sure that we have no incidents that make any members of our international community uncomfortable. Of one thing we can be sure, they are not to be blamed.”
‘I’ll always remember where I was’
Current OU students and faculty also remember where they were when they heard the news about 9/11.
Eric Nelson, who graduated from OU in June with a degree in environmental geography, was sitting in his seventh-grade science class in Massachusetts.
Nelson’s older sister was living in New York City at the time, and Nelson said the building she was in shook when the towers were struck.
“At the time, I didn’t really know what the World Trade Center was exactly. I just knew it was a building in New York,” Nelson said. “I went to a friend’s house and watched the news and talked to my mom and learned my sister was okay. I don’t remember everything, but I’ll always remember where I was, what people I talked to.”
Several top OU administrators were not yet in Athens in 2001 but know exactly where they were when they learned of the attacks.
OU President Roderick McDavis was working at Virginia Commonwealth University when he heard the news in 2001.
“It was one of the most devastating days that I can remember in my life,” he said.
Executive Vice President and Provost Pam Benoit was working on a research project at the University of Missouri when she saw the news begin to break.
“I was shocked. It’s one of those kinds of events where you can’t stop watching the news, and I watched the news all day long,” Benoit said. “There are a couple of events where you always remember where you were. For me, it’s this event. It’s when the Challenger blew up. It’s when John F. Kennedy was assassinated. This is one of those kinds of events.”
Although Americans have placed more emphasis on security on the whole, McDavis said students are not letting fear rule their lives.
“I think our campuses are still very open,” he said. “I think we’re not afraid of anything occurring on our campuses, but I think all of us on a personal level are much more security-conscious, whether we’re on a campus or whether we’re traveling.”
Eric McFadden, technical services specialist in OU’s College of Osteopathic Medicine, was a member of the Ohio Air National Guard in September 2001.
“I felt shock, dismay,” McFadden said about hearing the news of 9/11. “It seemed unreal at the time. It still does, sort of.”
McFadden was working at the Rickenbacker Air National Guard Base at the time, and during the next few years, his unit was deployed in support roles for those taking action in Afghanistan and Iraq.
During the past 10 years, McFadden said, he has noted greatly increased security throughout the country.
“It would be nice if it never happened, but it did,” he said. “So I suppose we’re going to have to keep living in a world where terrorism is more of an issue for Americans in our own country than it had been.”
rm279109@ohiou.edu
