Pomona Faculty and Administration React to News of Terrorist Attacks

The college administration reacted swiftly on Tuesday morning to news of attacks on American cities. President Stanley released a statement to students by e-mail and posted on the Pomona College website (http://www.pomona.edu) addressing the disaster. He announced that classes would continue as scheduled, but that "each faculty member should decide for herself or himself how to use this time with students. Many will want simply to talk; others will find that their course sheds light in some way on what has happened." He warned the college community against rushing to blame specific individuals and groups, stressing the scarcity of reliable information. He advised members of the college community to stay "on or near the campus," and that "any [students] who might normally travel to downtown Los Angeles or to public facilities such as airports should defer those plans." He followed up on Thursday with a statement to TSL, "We’ve tried to reach out to the whole Pomona family. The response has been extraordinary from people who want to be in touch with each other. [From New York], we’ve mostly been hearing stories of people whose lives have been turned upside down but who have survived. Internally, what we thought would be useful would be, not to have one big meeting where people would be talked at, but rather to disperse into smaller groups and allow students to talk to each other. I hope that faculty are doing what I encouraged in my statement, which is to discuss not only what people are feeling, but also how this tragedy relates to the subjects we’re studying. You can debate policy response, but the first thing we must do is go into ourselves and find our human responses and do something constructive with that. I think we are going to see the rolling effects of a disaster, really the likes of which this country has never seen."

Assoicate Dean of Students and Dean of the College Matt Taylor announced Thursday night that, "The colleges tried to talk to everyone from New York and from Washington, D.C., students that is, and there have been no immediate family members lost." The Alumni Office has been attempting to contact Pomona alumni working in the World Trade Center and the Pentagon at the time of the attacks, as well as companies for which they worked. All confirmed reports so far to the Alumni Office have been of survivors, although all alumni are not yet accounted for.

Dean Ann Quinley also spoke on Thursday as to the college’s continued reactions, "I think it is important to do something. Next week we’re going to start organizing shuttles that will take students to blood donation centers, so that they can contribute to the efforts of the Red Cross. Also, some students feel that there needs to be more discussion, so we are going to try and organize more faculty and student forums. As far as I can I can tell, nobody at Pomona has lost a parent or a spouse, and I feel a profound gratitude that we were spared. I’ve tried as best as I can to touch base with all the students who are from New York, and I hope we continue to be spared."

Faculty responded in varying degrees to the attacks, some turning over their entire class periods to student discussion, others providing a perspective on the disaster relating to their field of study. (See letters from Professor Michael Kuehlwein and Professor Martha Andresen on page 3)

Daren Mooko, director of the Asian American Resource Center, sent an e-mail to the student body expressing grief and shock over the attacks, and listing resources available to students during the disaster, including the AARC. He also wrote, " It is important for us to suspend our natural tendency to prematurely assign responsibility for this tragedy. History has demonstrated the need to not jump to such conclusions about the perpetrators of this horrific act. Furthermore, we need to ensure the safety and civil rights of each member of the Claremont College community. We know that over the past decade, innocent Americans have been targeted for hate crimes by other Americans in reaction to a national tragedy such as the ones in New York and Washington, D.C. We genuinely hope this does not happen in our community."