Campuses return to `normal'
By JASON McFARLEY
News Editor
By the time she passed the flag flying at half-staff on South Quad Wednesday on her way to class, Allison Child's mind already had turned to images of fiery plane crashes, collapsed skyscrapers and a deathtoll to match such harrowing destruction.
It was the stuff of big-budget action movies or even video games, the University junior thought of the devastating terrorist attacks the day before in New York City and Washington, D.C.
"You see what happened on TV over and over again," Childs said. "You see all the buildings and all the rubble, but it just doesn't seem real."
It was, in fact, real enough on Tuesday to prompt Notre Dame and Saint Mary's officials to cancel classes and all scheduled activities.
And 24 hours after strikes on New York's World Trade Center towers and the Pentagon in Washington, the aftermath was surreal enough to prevent the campuses from returning to normalcy — despite Wednesday's resumption of regular activity at both schools.
On campuses with many students, faculty and staff connected to victims in the attacked areas, Tuesday's events have seemingly changed a somber University and College community's opinion of what it meant to be back to normal Wednesday.
"Normal is certainly going to have quite a different meaning now," said Linda Timm, Saint Mary's vice president for student affairs.
Classes were in session at Notre Dame and Saint Mary's Wednesday, but both schools canceled several lectures, meetings and athletic events.
Following administrators' decision to shut down the campuses Tuesday morning, school officials organized two prayer services at Saint Mary's and a Mass on the University's South Quad that more than 6,000 people attended.
The University and College declared Tuesday a day of prayer.
Throughout the day, members of the camps community remained tuned in to television news broadcasts of the terrorist acts or were seen openly crying or embracing each other. Several students draped U.S. flags out their residence hall windows along with phrases of hope and strength.
Wednesday's return to class and work provided scant relief from somber reflections on the worst terrorist act on American soil, many said.
"Everybody's still thinking about it," Childs said. "I thought we shouldn't be at school today. I couldn't even concentrate in class."
Saint Mary's senior Michelle Nagle said the national crisis dominated class discussion Wednesday.
"Everyone is still talking about it. You see a lot of students hugging and embracing as you're going to class," said Nagle, the College's student body president. "I don't think it's something that you can leave your dorm room and not witness or understand that people are still feeling the effects of."
Resuming regular campus activity is important for dealing with the tragedy, Timm said.
She said being in class allows students to talk about the events and maybe understand how and why they happened.
Stuart Greene, a Notre Dame English professor, agreed.
"On the one hand, people feel the need to get focused and move things along in their classes. Many also feel the need to talk about this situation," said Greene, who planned on allowing his students to discuss the events Wednesday night.
"But not everyone knows how to talk about it. I'm still trying to believe that this has actually occurred. We've never seen anything of this magnitude in this country. It's amazing to see the city turned upside down like that," Greene said of his native New York.
Childs described the atmosphere on campus Wednesday as "a kind of morbid sadness."
"Even though I don't have any connections to people in those areas, I feel just as deeply," she said.
That's representative of attitudes on both campuses where students, faculty and staff have come together amid crisis, Nagle said.
"It's great and it's a tragedy that something like this can bring a community together," she said.
And bring the community to a collective realization.
"There's going to be a bit more of a heightened awareness from now on," Timm said. "Everyone is generally aware now of the fragility of complacency."
All News Stories for Thursday, September 13, 2001
