Remembering 9/11

As the nation prepared for the 15th anniversary of 9/11, NYIT held its own memorials at both the Manhattan and Old Westbury campuses. At NYIT-Old Westbury, students and faculty and staff members gathered for an annual event around NYIT’s 9/11 memorial near the Student Activities Center to honor the events and lives lost on 9/11. Student Government Association (SGA) president Mellisa Mahadeo began with opening remarks and a poem. She was followed by Vaseeharen Sukumaran, SGA vice president of public affairs and communications, who said, “This day will be remembered by people all over the world. Our children’s children will remember this day.”

As everyone lit a candle and held a moment of silence in honor of the lives lost, some shared memories of the day and how it affected them. “I appreciate moments like this. That we keep remembering,” said Joan O’Connor, a counselor in the Counseling and Wellness Center.

Dean of Campus Life for Old Westbury Gabrielle St. Léger remarked how she was a hall coordinator at West Virginia University at the time and felt an immediate need to be in New York.

While many of NYIT’s current undergraduate students were, at the time, only children, they still have vivid memories of the day. “I was just five years old,” said Mahadeo. “But I can vividly remember what happened. As a five-year-old, it was moving. It opens your eyes to appreciate all that we have.”

Afterwards, the group gathered to listen to Andrew Costello, a first responder and former lieutenant with the New York Police Department and current assistant professor at NYIT College of Arts and Sciences, who spoke about his experience, as well as the importance of remembering 9/11. “It’s good to acknowledge the loss and the realization that there are groups of people that don’t like us and want to see our destruction,” he said. “If we don’t maintain that awareness, it will be easier for them to destroy us.”

The tragic event also took the lives of five NYIT alumni. We honor their memory.

Robert DeAngelis, Jr. (B.F.A. ’74)
William Fallon, Jr. (M.S. ’91)
Patrick Lyons (B.S. ’91)
Glen Pettit (B.F.A. ’95)
Richard Prunty (B.S. ’79)