Soundbites

Here is a sampling of quotations reported in the media relating to Sept. 11, 2001, from Cornell faculty and administrators:

"Institutions are having hugely different responses to the day, but that's because every institution needs to define what it thinks is the right thing for its community."

--Susan H. Murphy, vice president for student and academic services, commenting on Sept. 11 commemorative events on campuses, in The Boston Globe, Sept. 12.

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"When you do have this touchstone, it enables people to use this particular term to pile on all sorts of other things: It's not just 'Nine-Eleven,' it's all sorts of other things we're concerned with and worried about."

--Sally McConnell-Ginet, professor and acting chair of linguistics, talking about how the phrase has become a shorthand way of referring to the terrible events of Sept. 11, 2001, in the Toledo Blade, Sept. 11.

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"Wordless ceremonies or repeating things written in the past strike me as a statement that we're almost not up to commemorating an event of this magnitude properly."

--Mary Beth Norton, the Mary Donlon Alger Professor of American History, discussing the wide range of memorial activities planned for Sept. 11, in a wire story by the Associated Press, Sept. 10.

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"Marine creatures in this area sustained a double whammy from the events of 9/11: the fallout of thousands of tons of airborne debris, and subsequent digging up by dredging that deepened channels to allow barges in to carry out the rubble."

--Mark Bain, associate professor of natural resources, describing a study involving CU scientists of marine life in New York Harbor to try to measure effects of the terrorist attacks, in The Washington Post, Sept. 9.

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"The closer one is to an event, the more deep the emotional impact, the more likely it will be a turning point. I'm sure many young people in New York will remember it that way. Whether that's true for young people elsewhere will depend on whether 9/11 has a real impact on how they live their lives."

--Elaine Wethington, associate professor of human development and co-director of the Cornell Gerontology Research Institute, in a feature article that explores whether the terrorist attacks will be "a defining experience" for this college generation, in The Baltimore Sun, Sept. 6.