Fear lingers for students; University offers support

The attacks on New York City and Washington have been difficult for everyone to deal with, and IU is doing its part to help students through the tough times. \nThe University organized a public forum Wednesday for students to hear from professors about Tuesday's events. Students were also able to ask questions and speak their mind. \nAnd while many emotions came to the surface, the most distinct, heard in the voice of almost everyone that spoke, was fear.\nIU President Myles Brand took the podium at noon Wednesday in Alumni Hall, flanked by several different professors that made up a panel to hear student concerns and feelings. Brand gave a small speech at the beginning before stepping down in the audience to listen to what was said by the board.\nBrand assured students that IU was increasing security across campus. He also wanted to discourage students from lashing out at others because of skin color.\n"This was a defining moment in our nation's history, and the innocence of our nation was lost," Brand said. "Our strength will lie in our community, and we must stress that." \nBloomington Faculty Council President Robert Eno then moderated the discussion, which was led by political science professor Jeff Issac, criminal justice professor William Head, law professor Jost Delbrueck and a professor specializing in death, grief and trauma, Kathleen Gilbert, visiting from Purdue University.\nThe underlying message spoken by all of the members of the panel was that it is important to maintain calm in this time of tragedy and not jump to conclusions. \nIssac talked of being "as shaken as he ever has been in his 44 years." He also mentioned that this was the "Pearl Harbor for our generation, not in generating war, but in the powerful loss of innocence."\n Head commented on how the developments mark a scary evolution in terrorism. \n "The number of targets yesterday are frightening in their redundancy... terrorists are starting to have 'fail safes' which is frightening in what they mean for future terrorism," he said.\n During the question-and-answer session, many students stood up to voice their thoughts. They questioned how our intelligence could not be aware of such an attack, how we can possibly all unite now when we spend so much time divided, and how we can let the people in Washington know what we think about what steps to take next. \nInternational students brought their own perspective to the forum. Junior Bilen Mulugeta from Ethiopia urged others not to respond to the events with hatred. \n"I hope we will not cope through revenge or retaliation or with actions we will later regret," he said.\nAmer Ahmed, the public relations officer of the Muslim Student Union got up to give a message to his fellow students. \n"People need to be calm and not overreact about things," Ahmed said. "Especially toward students who relate to being Muslim because most Muslims don't endorse what happened."\nDean of Students Richard McKaig attended the events and said he was pleased with how everything has been going on campus the past two days. \n"Campus and students I have been working with are very involved and have been doing a wonderful job of putting together venues for students to express their concerns and reach out to other students and provide support," McKaig said.