The Georgetown community?indeed the entire country?suffered emotionally from last week’s terrorist attacks against the Pentagon and World Trade Center. Students lost friends and relatives, and the community lost a professor and alumni.
Administration officials responded quickly to events. And while words may have seemed to offer little consolation, the University should be commended for reaching out.
Upon hearing the tragic news, the University quickly cancelled the remainder of Tuesday’s classes. Administration correctly realized students needed time to attend to their emotional needs, to attend to the needs of fellow students or just simply to watch television and try to understand why a group of terrorists crashed airplanes into two of our country’s most prominent symbols of authority and power.
Sometimes, even the little things help the community sustain itself. Just hours after the attack, University Senior Support Services Manager Debbie Ginsburg emailed students and reminded them they could stop by the UIS Service Desk and use the phones if they needed to call family or relatives at home. Telephone lines across the Metropolitan area were jammed, and the University made a small support to help students contact loved ones.
The day after the attacks, the University sponsored a series of dialogues aimed at discussing the tragic event. The large turnout of students in Gaston Hall event that night most likely agreed with what the University was trying to accomplish: Just talking about the tragedy and its implications helps the healing process.
The Department of Public Safety helped attend to our security needs on campus. Officials prohibited all vehicles without University identification from driving through campus and they demanded identification from students trying to enter through Healy Gates at night.
University-wide e-mails from President John J. DeGoia and Vice President for Student Affairs Juan Gonzalez helped show support?not just the day of the attack but in the aftermath as well, when for some the shocking event finally became real.
But the University also understood that intellectual debate and discussion were not going to be enough to satisfy the emotional loss people felt after the attacks. The Georgetown University Medical Center’s Department of Psychiatry held counselling sessions Wednesday and Thursday for students and other community members. The University also organized an interfaith prayer service, where the community could grieve together.
Last week’s horrific terrorist attacks can’t be undone. But the community can choose the way it reacts to the events and University actions have given the community the chance to begin healing and moving forward.
