Memories of Sept. 11 remain vivid in minds of students, faculty
With the one-year anniversary of the attacks, people campus-wide reflect on their feelings about Sept. 11.
BY Joi Harris
Staff Reporter

Kelli Stevens remembers where she was when she learned of the terrorist attacks.

The images of Sept. 11 are still etched in her mind.

“I see everything’s covered in soot,” said Stevens, a criminal justice professor. “Everything is gray.”

Linda Hughes, an English professor, said she was on a runway in Dallas leaving for New York, when the pilot announced what had happened.

Head women’s basketball coach Jeff Mittie’s plane was landing in Dallas. Larry Tidwell, a women’s basketball assistant coach, had just left D/FW Airport and his plane was in the air as the attacks occurred. Some students were in class and others were still asleep.

But regardless of where everyone was at 7:45 a.m., Sept. 11, 2001, the entire campus became united as the worst terrorist attack on U.S. soil began to unfold.

A year later, students and administrators say they are still taking time to heal their hearts and minds.

Becky Roach, assistant vice chancellor for academic affairs, said she donated money and blood in the weeks following the attacks. Ernesia Harts, a senior political science major, said “prayer is her tool.”

Hughes said she took a trip to New York two weeks after the attacks.

“I was determined that I would not let the terrorists make me scared to move so I successfully made myself go back to New York,” she said.

Susan Sterling, a senior early childhood education major, said part of her feelings have faded away. She said the thoughts still sit in the back of her mind, but they seem unreal.

Many say the feeling of disenchantment, fear, shock, anxiety, disbelief, sadness and devastation will be felt again. Others say it will be just another day. Many others said that they are unsure of what feelings they will have.

“It’s kind of bittersweet,” said Nikashia Franklin, a freshman biology major. “It brought us together though it shouldn’t have had to take something so extreme to do it.”

Hughes said that we were never really safe before the attacks either.

“On Sept. 10 the reality we had was an illusion,” she said.