College That Serves New York's Finest Faces Deaths in a 'Wartime' Atmosphere

By ELIZABETH F. FARRELL

John Jay College of Criminal Justice educates so many police officers that commencement ceremonies typically include a posthumous degree

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or two, for students killed in the line of duty.

But nothing could prepare the college for what it may face this year.

Last week, the New York Post released a list of more than 400 dead or missing police officers and firefighters. Richard Saulnier, dean for admissions and registration, knew what he had to do. He matched the list against the college's database of students and graduates.

He found 101 matches. And he knows the list in the Post will grow.

For a college of about 11,500 to lose 101 current and former students in a day seems shocking. But at John Jay, a quarter of the undergraduates and half of the graduate students work in either the police or fire departments, corrections, or the military reserves.

"I have a bad habit of remembering names and faces," says Roger Witherspoon, vice president for student development. "So I haven't let myself look at the list yet."

Some of the victims of the attack on the World Trade Center came from wealthy business schools. The John Jay crowd was educated in a nondescript, two-building campus -- one a former high school and one a converted shoe factory.

John Jay is one of the younger institutions in the City University of New York. It was created in 1964, starting off with a student body that was almost entirely from the police force. The idea was to bring more professionalism to law enforcement.

The college now offers a full range of liberal-arts programs, but public service is the primary focus of most of the education here.

While many students here aspire to work for the Federal Bureau of Investigation or to pursue law degrees, police officers and firefighters are still likely to take the same classes as other undergraduates and graduate students, and Fridays are reserved for the Police Study and Certificate Program, which allows full-time officers to take free classes in leadership and multicultural issues.

After the initial shock, faculty members and administrators here didn't have much time to contemplate their feelings. They focused on a flood of student requests for counseling and for schedule changes because of long shifts at Ground Zero.

In the administrative offices, the calls come in. The mother of a Muslim student calls and wants her daughter to be exempt from any evening classes because she is afraid of commuting during the evening. A student in the Marine Reserve who has just been called up for rifle practice is concerned that one of her professors -- a stickler for class attendance -- might be less than sympathetic about the classes she will have to miss.

"We tell them to do what they have to do, and we'll take care of the rest," says Mr. Saulnier. "These academic concerns should be the least of their worries at this time."

Robert DeLucia, the director of the counseling department, who has spent the day at Ground Zero offering grief counseling, pops his head in the office. At a memorial service for police officers the night before, Mr. Witherspoon and Gerald W. Lynch, the president of John Jay, had volunteered the college's counselors to help the police department.

Mr. Witherspoon reports that a woman who called to follow up on the offer asked if it would be pro bono. "I told her my president would be livid if we charged anything."

Mr. DeLucia is ready to go back to counseling rescue workers, but he also has some student calls to attend to. A student just called him, scared because she had been hit by pellets from a BB gun while walking home after volunteering at the trade-center site.

He's not worried about balancing his counseling of students and people involved in the rescue effort. "We just have to do it," Mr. DeLucia says. "We'll continue as long as we can."

Monique Smith, a graduate student pursuing a dual degree in public administration and economics, says, "This will be a test of a lot of things. It will test our dedication to public service and how well we can put into practice the theories we learn."

Those theories are awfully close to September 11's tragedies. Fire-science classes here analyze the safety of well-known high rises. Police-studies classes deal with such topics as how to effectively evacuate a crowd.

In the immediate aftermath of the attacks, few students were here to learn anything. While some stayed home, many were working with the police, fire, and rescue squads, beginning what is anticipated to be at least a month of extended shifts, according to estimates the administration has received.

"The dedication to service some students have at this school really hit me that day," says Ms. Smith. "The profundity of that didn't occur to me until I was looking around my classroom and realized how many were not there because they were helping out at Ground Zero."

Administrators are scrambling to deal with this reality as well. Will these students be able to resume classes after missing a month of lectures and readings? Will they have to wait until the spring, or should special provisions be made?

"We're treating it like they have been drafted in a wartime situation," Mr. Saulnier explains. "We're giving them exemptions and trying to be as accommodating as possible."

As of late last week, some things were starting to get back to normal. But the Friday sessions for police officers were postponed at least another week, and many students were seeking counseling. "We've had a fair share coming in to talk," says Suzanne Iasenza, associate professor of counseling. She added, "I think it will be OK. We're taking it one day at a time."

Students here strive to remain upbeat.

"You have to be more stoic for the people who have lost someone in this tragedy," says Deliwe Kekana, a senior majoring in forensic psychology. "If possible, it's important to remain upbeat for the sake of others."

The students here mix their admiration for the heroism of their fellow students with cynicism about how long public support will last.

"All this respect for cops right now is hyped up and will die down, and it will be the same way it was before," says William Curcio, a junior majoring in criminal justice. "People will forget about it in a few months and the same tensions will arise."

This month's tragedies haven't changed his ambition to join the ranks of New York's finest. He will start cadet training in October and will be out in the field observing a police officer on the job as part of his training.

Mr. Curcio can't help but think about what he would have done if he had been with one of the officers called to the World Trade Center. "In the same situation, although I can't say how I would have reacted, I'm pretty sure I would have gone into that building," he says. "There's always trepidation involved, but I like to help people, and I'll do whatever I can to improve the lives of others."

Students here also are quick to say that although their situation is unique compared to those at other colleges, they don't feel they are entitled to any more sadness and grief.

"I feel a loss, but not because I'm a student at John Jay, or a New Yorker, or an American," Ms. Kekana said. "There were people up there visiting from other countries, and all they wanted to do was take in the skyline. I feel a loss as a person."

Ms. Kekana and other students spent the good portion of one day last week using poster board and paper American flags to construct a makeshift bulletin board for students to write their thoughts and feelings about the tragedy.

This being an institution of New York natives, proud of voicing their views, some students didn't wait for an official forum to get their message across. On one chalkboard in a vacant, windowless classroom, someone scrawled, "New York will never cease!"

Brian Edwards, a security-management major who graduated in May and took a position with the Department of Crime Prevention in the New York Police Department, is doing his part.

Mr. Edwards has been working 12-hour shifts at the morgue at Ground Zero every day since the tragedy occurred.

He agrees to meet up after the end of his day, with a smile and some carefully selected words on a piece of paper, even though he has spent the day identifying the remains of victims.

On the paper, he has written: "Inform the rest of the country and the world that we are feverishly working under strenuous conditions to put our city and nation back in order -- and we will!"

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