Monday, October 29, 2001

College Board Conference Reflects a New Concern for Colleges and Students: Terrorism By ANDREW BROWNSTEIN Denver The question was hardly unusual for the annual conference of the College Board. What, asked a high-school guidance counselor, should we do to prepare students for the future? The striking elements in this case were the speaker -- Deron Jackson, an expert on terrorism from the U.S. Air Force Academy -- and his answer: "Think of Northern Ireland." A question that, just a few months ago, might have elicited responses about the SAT or admissions essays is now fused with an overwhelming sense of uncertainty and vulnerability in the wake of September 11. The panel, assembled hastily after the attacks, was called "Terra Nova," reflecting the uncharted territory students and educators now find themselves in. Suddenly, it is no longer difficult to imagine a United States where, like Northern Ireland until very recently, people went about their normal routines ever watchful for the next terrorist assault. Mr. Jackson suggested that the literature of Ireland's sectarian conflict or that of the London blitz during World War II might comfort students with the knowledge that "this situation is not unique to this time and place. You can be under attack and still go on." Along with other panelists assembled at the Hyatt Regency Hotel here for the "College Board Forum 2001: Measuring Our Success," he sounded the theme that educators should respond to the attacks by suffusing their normal activities with a new sense of preparation and urgency. "You know better than anyone else what doesn't belong," Mr. Jackson said, urging administrators to be on the lookout for people or events that seem strange or out of place. "Be aware of your situation, and be aware of habits. ... Habits are killers, because they breed complacency. ... That doesn't mean that everyone has to be a paranoid person, eternally vigilant, but it just might mean a heightened level of awareness." Linda Clement, the vice president for student affairs at the University of Maryland at College Park, said a recent week typifies the "new normalcy" on the campus: some anthrax threats, a few building evacuations, and at the end of the week, a football game. The September 11 attacks were bookended by two other tragic events that gave Ms. Clement a crash course in crisis management. Five days earlier, a student died suspiciously in what police later said was an overdose of bodybuilding drugs. A week after the attacks, a tornado struck the region for the first time in 75 years -- killing two Maryland students, destroying hundreds of cars, and felling close to 14,000 trees. "This was my first semester as VP of student affairs," she said, to laughter. Like many colleges, Maryland lost phone contact for many hours after the attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon. Ms. Clement suggested that colleges invest in alternate forms of communication, such as short-wave radios, and keep their Web sites current and thorough. Maryland's Web site, which receives 30,000 hits on an average day, got more than 110,000 daily after the attacks. She also urged administrators to press faculty members to lead teach-ins, pay special attention to the concerns of Muslim students, and recognize the desire for public grieving. The day after the attacks, Maryland -- which has 1,000 Muslim students and a large contingent of students from New York City -- held a ceremony in which students placed roses in a fountain to remember the dead of September 11. Later, they buried the flowers in a mound of earth that will soon become a campus "peace garden." "Each week, they buy something and add it to the garden," she said. "It's really important to the grieving process. ... This is, I think, the defining moment for this generation of college students." So far, no college campus or high school has been a direct target of terrorism since September 11. But if anyone could imagine what such a scenario might look like, it's Frank DeAngelos, principal of Columbine High School in nearby Littleton, Colo. Mr. DeAngelos was at the helm in February 1999 when two teenage gunmen killed 12 students and a teacher before turning their guns on themselves -- the deadliest school shooting in American history. The psychological toll was devastating. The principal is now the only administrator still serving who was there during the shootings. More than half of the 180-person teaching and support staff has left. "We had to return to a building where people were held for hours," he said. "We had to return to an office where people had received gunfire." To those who anxiously wonder how to proceed in "Terra Nova," Mr. DeAngelos offers the same advice he gave to parents after the massacre at Columbine: "We'll never be back to normal. We'll just learn how to cope." Issues in depth: Articles on the terrorist attacks at the Pentagon and World Trade Center, and their aftermath Easy-to-print version E-mail this article

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