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by Betsey Norgard September 11, 2001. It's clear that the world changed profoundly ... and probably in ways not yet imagined. Though not affected in the same degree as colleges on the East Coast, the Augsburg community deeply felt the impact, both on campus and in its neighborhood, with a large population of Somali immigrants. How could and would Augsburg—a learning community of faculty, staff, and students—cope with this unprecedented tragedy, seek understanding of its complex issues, and respond to its own and the community's needs?
Assessing the impact Only one Augsburg
alumnus/a is known to have died in the terrorist attacks. Lt. Col. Dean E. Mattson
’66 was a career military officer, scheduled for retirement in December,
who was sitting at his desk in the Augsburg regent Dean Kopperud was in his office at Oppenheimer Funds, Inc., on the 33rd floor of the World Trade Center south tower when the north tower was hit. He and Oppenheimer's nearly 600 employees quickly and judiciously evacuated and were on the street when their tower was hit. Memories of fire, explosion, and dying people stick in his mind. Kopperud reported to the Star Tribune that the only question he continually asks himself is "Did I do everything I could for everyone I saw in trouble along the way?" In Washington, Les Heen ’83, communications and public affairs director for the Minnesota Farmers Union, was standing across the street from the Capitol, preparing for Congressional meetings, when panicked people began evacuating the building. A few minutes later they saw a large, white plane banking low toward the Capitol, which they soon learned passed them by and crashed into the Pentagon. "I remember seeing the smoke, feeling sick, and then hearing sirens from all around us," Heen said. ... "It's hard to describe how vulnerable you feel when your only defense is to run from a target before a jumbo jet hits it." Messages from Auggies abroad were also quick in coming. From London, Adam Olson ’92 wrote to Norm Okerstrom ’85 in the development office: "I found a pub with the news on and sat with my mouth on the floor for about two and a half hours ... It was packed with people in stunned silence." Reactions on campus to the stunning and horrifying news began even as the events were unfolding. The morning chapel service became a time for people to gather, some still anxiously awaiting news of family and friends who might have been in the targeted areas. An afternoon prayer service continued the vigil. Classes continued as scheduled, with some faculty turning over class discussion to implications of the tragedy. Several Augsburg
colleagues and friends from around the world took time to share their grief
and concern. From Catholic University in Lublin, Poland, faculty exchange colleagues
of Augsburg's business administration department wrote, "We hope none of
our friends in Minneapolis and St. Paul, none of the employees or students from
Augsburg College has suffered directly due to those unprecedented acts of terrorism." Dealing with the emotional impact As elsewhere in the country, initial responses to the attacks brought people together in unusual community and unity. Augsburg Echo writer and sophomore Deanne McDonald wrote in the Sept. 28 issue, "Is there anything that could have brought the students together as quickly as the events of September 11th's 'Attack on America' did? It already feels as if we have been here for months." Concerned faculty and staff sought ways to assess the impact on students, especially freshmen, many of whom were away from home for the first time. Ann Klamer, director of residence life, compiled a list of reports on various topics that helped student life personnel deal with aspects of the tragedy. The student life office posted a message board to gauge student reactions to the events. Political science professor Joseph Underhill-Cady said, "They have no context for what's happening. The classroom provides a safe environment where they can air views, discuss, and share comments." It's also a supportive environment. Journaling has been another means that Underhill-Cady has used to help his students find expression for their uncertainties and fears. He describes the unstructured thinking as being therapeutic, helpful, and positive. Augsburg's call to mission On Sept. 28, President William Frame set the direction for campus discussion. In a letter to students. Frame asserted that the College's appropriate response lies squarely in its 132-year-old mission: "The greatest favor we can render to this world is today what it has always been—to search through the disciplines of learning for an understanding of both the world and ourselves that will guide us to the work for which we are best fit and to which we are called," Frame wrote. Underhill-Cady took a lead in proposing campus conversation. In an op-ed piece for the Echo on Oct. 5, he suggested that the first response to the violence should be dialogue. "Part of our job as students and instructors is to try to make the public discussion of these events as constructive and well-informed as possible. "We need to look for sources of empowerment in the face of this awful sense of powerlessness," Underhill-Cady continued, "and certainly one of the best sources for that is in the polis, the public forum." Students also sought discussion among themselves. The Coalition for Student Activism, that had formed earlier as a small group of a dozen or so, began to meet weekly and swelled its ranks. Discussion issues became focused on the terrorist events. This group has arranged to join other student groups in discussion at the 2002 Peace Prize Forum at Augustana College in March. Students also
began a letter-writing campaign to elected officials, urging patience in declaring
and supporting a war. Listening to others A first glimpse at understanding came as if by fate. The 2001 Christensen Symposium speaker on Sept. 24, scheduled months earlier, was Prof. Lamin Sanneh, an African Muslim who is a professor of missions and world Christianity at Yale University. With his personal and scholarly experience in Islam, he provided some insight as to why he thought Muslim fundamentalism had targeted America—because of the U.S. policy of adamant separation of church and state. "Muslims are feeling a need to respond with religious fundamentalism," he said. "Muslims are helping us understand that our secularism has gone too far." His message was to urge all Muslim nations to deal with their own fundamentalists, so as not to relegate the avenging of Sept. 11 to the U.S. Another speaker invited to campus in the following weeks was Arvonne Fraser, director of the International Women's Rights Action Watch Project and senior fellow emerita at the Hubert H. Humphrey Institute of Public Affairs. She shared her expertise on women's rights in Muslim countries, especially in Afghanistan under the Taliban. "The solution is not with bombs, but with the changing of minds," was her message to students, faculty, and staff. "And this takes time." Helping the community understand Business administration professor Amin Kader emerged as a community spokesman about Islam, appearing on local television and radio programs and at area events. He urged listeners to educate themselves about Islam, to learn about its common roots to Christianity and its similar tenets deploring violence and killing. Lamenting many deaths among Muslims who worked at the World Trade Center and Pentagon, Kader said, "This attack is an attack against all Americans of all kinds. If those terrorists are successful in turning us against each other, this will, indeed, lead to the destruction of our nation. ... We have to learn to understand each other and to accept each other." Underhill-Cady has also been interviewed by the media and spoken to local community groups, especially about the historical context and alternatives to war. His recently- and timely-published book, Death and the Statesman: The Culture and Psychology of U.S. Leaders During War, contrasts the ways that terrorist extremists embrace death and that U.S. political and military leaders fear it. Supporting Somali students and neighbors Augsburg students have participated in several vigils in the Cedar-Riverside neighborhood, organized to support the Somali community. The governmen's shutdown of businesses that wire money to Somalia directly impacted students at Augsburg. Several Somali students reported to the Echo that they fear for their families, who depend on the money sent to them. The money-wiring businesses serve as banks, which are not common in Somalia. Moving on President Frame's call to the Augsburg community to search for understanding of both the world and themselves is reinforced by the work of Augsburg's Center for Global Education (CGE). Anticipating a drop in study abroad by students afraid to travel, the directors of CGE's centers in Mexico, Nicaragua, and Namibia wrote to prospective program participants assuring them of stability in those countries. "Now more than ever it is essential to develop an understanding of the causes of violence and injustice and to develop intercultural awareness that can help us build the culture of peace, which we so desperately need at this time," the directors told students. In concluding her Echo article, sophomore Deanne McDonald went straight to the heart of the matter: "It is difficult to remember to see ourselves, members of the Augsburg community, as members of the world community; but if nothing else, this disastrous attack ... serves as an abrupt wake-up call to all individuals—reminding us that nothing is permanent and that we all make up one fragile part of the whole."
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Pentagon when the hijacked plane destroyed his area of the building.
