Dear Orange Friends:
Syracuse has just completed Remembrance Week, when our community comes together with friends from Lockerbie, Scotland and with families to “act forward” in the memory of those who died on Pan Am Flight 103 in 1988.
There are many events, including this year a symposium on the effects of terrorism on small towns like Lockerbie and Shanksville, Pennsylvania. Many students, in all schools, participate and learn.
So much good has grown out of Remembrance Week. There is a deep and lasting friendship between Lockerbie and Syracuse, embodied in the two Lockerbie academy students who spend each year studying at Syracuse. There are many acts of kindness and community service. And there are the Remembrance Scholars, 35 current Syracuse students chosen every year to specifically carry forward the legacy of one of the 35 SU Abroad students who were aboard Pan Am Flight 103.
The week ended in a rose-laying ceremony at the Place of Remembrance in front of the Hall of Languages, in which each scholar paid tribute to a student on the plane. It was a beautiful and moving ceremony on a perfect fall day.
It made me happy to realize that each student on that plane gives birth, each year, to one more amazing, engaged, inspiring, and dedicated Syracuse student. As each year passes, each student on the plane has a growing alumni association of scholars. The scholars become a group of people of outstanding achievement who will act forward in the memory of the potential and goodness of the student they honor.
Memory is often short on university campuses. Students graduate; faculty and staff retire; there is always some new wonder or urgent challenge to cause our attention to move on. Remembrance Week assures that our memory of our students is long. I thank all the great faculty, students, staff, families, and friends who make that happen.
Chancellor Kent Syverud