Students, faculty and community members woke yesterday to see a still-clouded New York City skyline on television and the need to begin the process of piecing together a broken sense of security. Shortly after yesterday's attacks in New York and Washington, University officials worked to help students, faculty and staff cope with Tuesday's tragedies.
University President John T. Casteen III addressed the University community yesterday through a statement released online. "We - faculty, students and staff - share the nation's (indeed, the world's) grief in this time of loss, of tragedy, even as we recognize our own bafflement, anger and enforced awareness of the fragility of human life and dignity," Casteen said in the statement.
To help ease the bafflement and anger Casteen spoke of, the University continues to provide counseling to those students who need it. The Center for Counseling and Psychological Services held counseling sessions yesterday and will maintain a 24-hour hotline through Friday.
Such efforts to help students cope with recent events have been successful, said Patricia Lampkin, interim vice president for student affairs.
University administrators are preparing to provide necessary services to individuals personally affected by the tragedy, Casteen said.
"We are beginning now to have information on the verified or anticipated losses in the families of some of our students, faculty and staff," he said in an e-mail response to the The Cavalier Daily.
In a similar statement, Fred Hilton, director of communications at James Madison University, said, "I would be amazed that there are not [any students who lost family members]. It's really a question of how many."
Many of those University students most directly affected by the attacks are enrolled in the Darden or Commerce schools because many graduates of those schools live and work in New York. Both schools canceled classes Tuesday immediately following the attacks. All other University schools remained open.
"We have close connections to the financial district" in New York, Interim Darden Dean C. Ray Smith said. Smith noted that relatives and co-workers of many business students were stationed in New York, and that "students were on the phone all day."
In other efforts to assist those affected by Tuesday's tragedy, Virginia Blood Services sponsored a blood drive at Fashion Square Mall yesterday. Officials in both New York and Washington reported extreme blood shortages.
"The blood drives are so successful, they are overloaded," Lampkin said. In fact, the drive had enough donations that many potential donors had to be asked to return on Friday.
Despite University Hospital's designation as a national disaster hospital, only one helicopter and one ground unit have been sent to assist in Washington, said University spokeswoman Louise Dudley.
No patients injured in the attacks have been admitted to the hospital, and as time goes on, the possibility of such patients entering the hospital's care becomes less likely, Dudley said.
While the University community tries to make sense of the incomprehensible, in his statement to the University community, Casteen reminded students, faculty and staff that the true effects of Sept. 11 are deeper than many may want to believe.
"In a larger sense, I am beginning to understand that we are registering that we are less secure and more vulnerable than we may have thought," he said. "How this develops over time is hard to say, but I think the effect is profound and that it has particular significance for the emerging generation to which our students belong"
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