On the same morning, Ryan Alyesword ’05 listened as his professor relayed the news to his freshman writing seminar class.  

The following editorial ran in The Sun on Sept 12, 2001. The Sun published 5 columns on Sept. 12 relating to the day’s tragic events.

There is not much we at The Sun can say. No event has ever occurred in this country to prepare us for the time that is now upon us. With yesterday’s tragic events striking down not just physical buildings, but striking fear and sorrow within American citizens’ hearts, The Sun can only wish all heal as quickly as possible while our nation, state, city and campus recover.

On Sept. 11, 2001, a series of coordinated terrorist attacks by militant Islamic supporters of Al Qaida and Osama Bin Laden were carried out. 19 people hijacked four commercial airplanes and crashed them into the two tallest towers of the World Trade Center in Manhattan and into the Pentagon, in Arlington County, Va. A passenger rebellion on the fourth plane caused it to crash in a field near Shanksville, Penn. instead of its intended destination. A combined 2,986 people died directly from these events.

Imagine reservists, soldiers in training, marching up the slope or from barracks in Cascadilla to go to classes just like everyone else. Imagine a Cornell for Victory Committee, and “liberty ships,” mass-produced to transport troops and war materials, being launched into the Pacific and Atlantic Oceans, two bearing the names: S.S. Andrew Dickson White and S.S. Ezra Cornell.

The years between 1965 and 1970 were some of the most politically contentious at Cornell and across the nation.

The Vietnam War was taking its toll, as reports of casualties were announced daily in the media.