Exactly one year after terrorist attacks tore America apart, students and citizens alike will unite at the University to help bring the community together.
On Sept. 11, Student Council along with administrators and Charlottesville-area groups will sponsor a "Remembering September Eleventh" event at 11:30 a.m. at University Hall, and an interfaith candlelight vigil at 7:30 p.m. on the Lawn.
A teach-in, which will draw University professors from a range of departments, will precede the memorials.
"The University thought it would be a good idea to have a University-wide event that would encompass the community," Interim Community Relations Director Ida Lee Wootten said.
The ceremony at U-Hall is co-sponsored by Council, the Office of the President, the Charlottesville-Albemarle Clergy Association and the nationwide You've Got a Friend Foundation of law enforcement officers.
The service will honor those who died in the attacks as well as the surviving rescue workers, and will feature speeches by President John T. Casteen III and Council President Micah Schwartz.
Music, spiritual readings and the presentation of a flag that flew over the Pentagon during the attacks and now bears the names of those who died Sept. 11, also will be included in the events.
"I'm really pleased with how this turned out," said Council Chief of Staff Sarah Jobe. "We wanted something large enough to meet the needs of everyone in the community who wanted to be involved."
Council will distribute "Ribbons of Remembrance" at the event for attendees to inscribe with personal thoughts and remembrances. The ribbons will be collected and displayed on a memorial erected on Grounds by Council. University administrators and Council have yet to agree on a location for the memorial.
The evening interfaith vigil is a joint effort by Council and the Charlottesville-Albemarle Clergy Association. Organizers hope the assorted spiritual readings and prayer will be a somber and meaningful way for the community to pay homage.
"We want to be able to remember in a spiritual way," Jobe said. "We want to move people from grief and remembrance, and through healing."
Daniel Haspel, Council academic affairs committee chair, is organizing the teach-in, which will be held in the Amphitheater at 6 p.m. on Sept. 10. The teach-in will feature six speakers who will deliver short speeches and then man a panel that will take audience questions.
"With professors who have knowledge of the Middle East, we want to try to look back now that there is distance between us and September 11," Haspel said. "We want to look at the conditions that caused the attacks and the U.S. reaction, and to challenge students to examine viewpoints not discussed in the media."
Haspel said he hopes that the teach-in will foster increased awareness among students.
"We want to bring together students who might not know much about this and those who do," he said. "We want students to feel like there are things we can do."
Various other events around Grounds will allow students and staff to offer condolences. The University Art Museum will feature an exhibit of Sept. 11 photography and accompanying poems. The Chaplaincy Department of the Health System also will host memorials in the Hospital Chapel at 6 a.m., noon and 7 p.m.
The Law School will hold a similar memorial at the Caplin Pavilion at 8:30 a.m., and at Darden a flag ceremony will be held at 7:30 a.m., with a poetry reading at 9:45 a.m.
A memorial lecture at the Medical Center, "Marking 11 September -- Memory and Meaning," will be held at 12:30 p.m. in the Jordan Conference center.
David Newsom, former acting Secretary of State during the Carter administration, and Marshall Brement, a foreign services officer, will hold a forum, "September 11: Has it Changed U.S. Diplomacy in Asia and Europe?" at the Miller Center of Public Affairs at 11 a.m.
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