For the 10th anniversary of the attacks on the World Trade Center, I was asked to write a blog post about my experience that day. I was living in London at the time and the BBC was airing a special detailing “America’s day of tragedy” minute-by-minute. You’d think 10 years would be enough time to reflect, but I realized that I before that moment, I hadn’t really paused to think about it. That’s because on Wednesday, September 12, 2001, Pipe Dream distributed a special edition across campus; I was managing editor at the time.
I’d never really considered that I spent that day, that day, hiding behind a reporter’s notebook. Monday had been a long production night for the Tuesday issue so many of us were already running on little sleep. After just a few hours of sleep and a quick change of clothes, I remember stopping to admire the cloudless sky before walking into the liberal arts building for my first class of the day. That’s when I noticed the students outside the registrar’s office window looking at a TV just beyond the glass. “What’s going on?” I asked someone. She only pointed at the TV screen. And we stood there together, all of us in complete silence.
Several of us ended up in the Pipe Dream office that afternoon. I don’t remember exactly how, or why, or whose idea it was, but we decided that the best thing to do — no, the right thing to do — would be to put together a special issue of the paper. I called the printer and got to work planning the issue, blocking articles and assigning reporters to cover angles of the story across campus, just like it was any other issue. But this wouldn’t be any other issue. This was the largest terrorist attack to take place on American soil, and was happening just 200 miles away.
I recognize now that we were all stuck in a parallel universe of sorts. Safe and sheltered from the events of the day on a closed college campus, painfully aware of what was unfolding thanks to the 24-hour news, but also frustratingly far away from family members and friends who were there and dealing with very real tragedy.
The University swiftly cancelled classes and asked students with family members directly affected to come forward for counseling and help. Some of our friends and sometimes contributors turned up at the Pipe Dream office looking for community and something to do. Some student groups quickly organized a candlelight vigil that evening. I turned up, not with a candle, but with a camera.
We had a very large Muslim community on campus and a large Jewish community and University administrators were instantly worried about any clashes. I sent a reporter to go talk to the Muslim Student Union. I phoned the President’s office to get an official comment about violence reported against Muslims on other University campuses. I selected a couple of pictures for the front page and pulled a wire article to go with it. Our headline would read, “Tuesday of Terror.” Our editor-in-chief sat down to write the editorial.
When we put the paper to bed that night, fears over violence toward Muslim students across college campuses were still emerging. In the days that followed, we had the Thursday paper to get out and we were focused on capturing the unfolding political sentiment right here on campus. There was an absolute flood of conflicting reports in the 24-hours that followed and questions; were there other targets, where were the missing planes, where was the President, who was behind this, were we safe?
Thursday’s issue would have no advertisements. Instead, we allowed student groups to publicize counseling sessions, student vigils and chartered buses for free. I had no idea if that was the right move. As journalism students, we wanted to handle the day like the professionals. We were just students, like many of you reading this. We made things up as we went, trying to do our best in an extremely challenging and dramatic situation.
They don’t teach you how to cover traumatic national events in features writing. One of our professors got in touch to ask if we were all OK and I remember saying into the phone, “Yes, we’re putting out a special issue tomorrow and are all over it.” In retrospect, I am not sure that is what she meant.
– Jacqueline Fleming is a member of the class of 2002