For the second year in a row, the TC community gathered together in sadness. Last year, after the attacks on the World Trade Center and Pentagon, the community gathered in shock to comfort each other and reflect on what had happened to us as individuals, as a community and as a country. This year, the gathering was a time to mourn those whose lives were lost.

At 8:30 a.m. on September 11th this year, the community came together in the Milbank Chapel for a ceremony to remember and grieve. President Arthur Levine reflected on all that had changed in the past year. "Thousands of children had parents and parents had children. We had relatives, and friends and acquaintances. Teachers College had alumni. Firehouses had not yet become shrines. Subway station walls were not covered with leaflets of the missing. And The New York Times had no need to run a daily page of pictures of people who died too soon. We did not fear Arabs, and Muslims were not harassed on our streets. We were not yet engaged in a war against a faceless enemy at home and abroad."

Academic Vice President and Dean Darlyne Bailey lit a memorial candle and noted that there would be a moment of silence at 8:46 a.m., the time that the first airplane hit the Twin Towers. Bailey said, "The gift of shared silence is the opportunity to draw sustenance from one another even as we nurture ourselves through our own thoughts and feelings."

After a moment of silence, 110 people each read 25 names of those who had died in the attacks. During that time, two more moments of silence were observed, one at 9:03 a.m., when the second tower was hit by a plane, and one at 10:29 a.m., the time that the second tower collapsed. At that moment, the silence was filled by the ringing of bells throughout the city.

In the Everett Lounge, two televisions were set up showing the ceremonies at Ground Zero, where thousands were gathered.

At TC, the reading of the names continued for two and one-half hours. Russell Daisey, an M.A. student in the Teaching of Music Education, sang "Towers of Light," a song he composed about those lost in the attacks. As he finished his performance, the memorial candle was extinguished by a tearful Bailey.

Published Monday, Feb. 24, 2003