University Business - September 2011 - (Page 48)

Looking Back celebrate our collective response to a calamitous attack. I am pleased that we Columbians can count ourselves in the cohort of those who joined together in confronting this tragedy. George Rupp now serves as president of the International Rescue Committee, an international relief and development organization. That September Morning Sharon P Smith . Dean of the Schools of Business at Fordham University from 2001 to 2006 T WAS A BRILLIANTLY CLEAR MoRNING, UNUSUally so for New York, the sky a radiant blue. Summer was over but fall had not yet begun. The first news was that a plane had hit the World Trade Center. Most New Yorkers probably thought a small private plane went off course. The routine questions followed and soon all became surreal: Should classes go on? of course, carry on as usual, that’s the New York way. But nothing was as usual nor would it ever be again. It is 10 years since that morning but the memories seem as clear as yesterday. I was dean of the Schools of Business at Fordham University, with campuses throughout the metro area. It was the beginning of a normal day that was supposed to have started with a meeting at the World Financial Center that was cancelled late the day before. While trying to fax a memo from my Bronx office to a board member/alumnus with an office in the World Trade Center (one of more than 2,600 who would die there that day), I was interrupted by phone calls from friends or relatives who had heard more news. We listened to the coverage on the radio—which, since it was only audio, had its own special unreality—but in 2001, radio and TV were the only ready sources for continuous news coverage. We later watched the playback on TV of the towers coming down, looking like a disaster movie that could not possibly be real. I can still hear the fighter planes that had been scrambled after the attack flying directly overhead. Roadblocks prevented key administrators from my midtown office from entering Manhattan, so we organized a blood bank for the next day with a local hospital. Donors waited hours in line, but we soon discovered that little or no blood was needed because there were so few survivors. Nothing seemed real that day or for those that followed. It was a horrible dream from which there was no waking. Public transportation was limited and driving routes were restricted. There were 48 | September 2011 I ordinary decisions to be made: Should Executive MBA program classes be cancelled until airports reopened? When could regular classes be resumed since only emergency personnel could travel in or out of Manhattan? How could we house students and colleagues who could not get home? What should be done with future travel plans that needed to be secured now? Choices had to be made but they seemed unimportant as the terrible questions came quickly. Where were students, alumni, faculty, staff, colleagues, relatives, and friends who had business downtown, or lived there, or were due to fly out of Newark or Boston that morning? Had my admissions director, who lived in lower Manhattan, survived? Would there be another attack, and if so, where and when would it happen? With phone service— both cell and landline—damaged by the destruction at the World Trade Center, answers were not readily available. Above all, I remember the silence. New Yorkers who pride themselves on their strength and resilience had been knocked down and went about in shock and silence. The New York skyline was clouded in dust and the smell of the destruction. And when the skyline appeared again, it was unrecognizable to those who lived with it every day. There were no towers and the nightmare was real: all those Nothing seemed real lives were cut short. that day or for those Friends and colleagues began to arrive with photos of the missthat followed. ing for whom they were searching, hoping those missing were disoriented, wandering. Those photos remained posted for months. When the victims began to be counted, how could we comfort the survivors and memorialize those who were gone? With Fordham’s close connections to the financial industry, where so many were lost, we organized a memorial in St. Paul’s near campus as soon as flights were restored. The church overflowed. At that service and at countless services to follow, we would remember each person with prayer and love. We would keep faith with those whose lives had ended simply doing their jobs, whether they were security traders, investment bankers, firefighters, police, waiters, or waitresses, they were in a place the terrorists identified as a symbol of this nation, of its values, ambition, resilience, and energy. We would keep faith with them by doing our jobs to the best of our abilities, for in paraphrasing the immortal words of Lt. Roland B. Gittelsohn, ChC, USNR at the dedication of the 5th Marine Division Cemetery, Iwo Jima–March 1945 and repeated at many memorials since then, “as long as we live, they too will live; for they are now a part of us, as we remember them.” Sharon P. Smith is currently president of the University of Pittsburgh at Greensburg. She is grateful for comments from S. Isola, L. Mounty, P. A. Smith, V. K. Smith, R. Stein, and M. Tierney. universitybusiness.com http://www.universitybusiness.com

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of University Business - September 2011

University Business - September 2011
Contents
Editor's Note
College Index
Ad Index
Behind the News
Viewpoint
Financial Aid
Money Matters
Internet Technology
Shared Governance
Acknowledging Achievement
Looking Back
Spotlight on Procurement
EduComm 2011
End Note

University Business - September 2011