College Plans 9/11 Memorial Ceremony

09/09/2016 

Members of the campus and Cortland-area community will reflect upon the tragic events of Sept. 11, 2001 during the College’s annual memorial ceremony at 7 p.m. Sunday on the steps of Corey Union.

Justin Margolies, chief of SUNY Cortland Emergency Medical Services (SCEMS), will discuss the lives lost during the terrorist attacks that day on New York City’s World Trade Center, the Pentagon and in Washington, D.C.

“I’m from Long Island and both my parents worked in New York City,” recalled Margolies, whose student-run emergency organization is coordinating the ceremony. “Thank God they got home safely.”

The SCEMS invited the region’s first responders to participate, Margolies said. A total of 414 first-responders were killed at the World Trade Center during the attacks, which took nearly 3,000 lives.

SUNY Cortland President Erik J. Bitterbaum will recall the events of that tragic day and honor its victims.

“Most of our students were young when this happened, but even as a remote tragedy the events of Sept. 11, 2001 radically changed the world they live in forever,” Bitterbaum said. “Reflecting on different perspectives about the attacks may help them process what has been lost and help them go forward to fully participate in their new world.”

Michael Braun, the Student Government Association president, is set to speak about these events. He, like many SUNY Cortland students, is from the New York metropolitan area.

Erin Boylan, associate director of alumni engagement, will represent the SUNY Cortland Alumni Association to honor the seven alumni who were lost in the catastrophe.

She will lead a candle-lighting ceremony featuring seven candles representing the SUNY Cortland graduates who died on Sept. 11, 2001. An eighth candle will be lit in memory of all the people who lost their lives that day.

Members of the College and Cortland-area community are welcome to attend. The ceremony will move inside the building to the Function Room in the event of rain. That evening, the section of Neubig Road immediately in front of Corey Union will be closed to traffic from shortly before the ceremony until it is finished.