Campus News

Remembrance Week: Syracuse community honors students lost in terrorist attack

Remembrance Week: Syracuse community honors students lost in terrorist attack

Campus concludes 36th anniversary of attack with rose laying ceremony to remember those who were lost.

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Surya Vaidy
Remembrance Scholars and Lockerbie Scholars line up with white roses at the beginning of the rose-laying ceremony, preparing to give short speeches about who they represent. They each wear a pin denoting a student or group lost in the Pan Am 103 bombing.

Grief and joy — polar opposite emotions that are perhaps the best descriptions of the atmosphere around the annual rose-laying ceremony this past Friday afternoon.

The ceremony commemorates the 270 people who died in the terrorist attack over Lockerbie, Scotland in 1988, including 11 Lockerbie residents and 35 SU students. Remembrance Scholars, families of the Pan Am 103 victims, and many from the SU community gathered in front of Hall of Languages on the beautiful fall afternoon to honor those who were killed and celebrate their lives.

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Surya Vaidy
Many members of the SU community joined with the Scholars and friends and family of the Pan Am 103 victims to remember who they were and reflect on how to carry their memories forward.

The ceremony was a part of Remembrance Week on SU’s campus, where public events coordinated by the Scholars and the Remembrance program aim to bring knowledge of the attack’s impact on communities close to home and aboard to current University students in an effort to preserve the memory of those lost.

35 Remembrance Scholars and two Lockerbie Scholars stepped out of Hall of Languages at 2:03 pm, the time of the bombing, and walked down towards the Wall of Remembrance holding white roses.

Standing on either side of the Wall, Scholars all gave short speeches about the students they represented, talking about their personalities and passions, and how they planned to act forward in their memories. Each Scholar ended their descriptions by laying a rose down on the Wall of Remembrance.

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Surya Vaidy
Remembrance Scholar Alba Aljiboury begins the rose-laying. She represents Steven Berrell.

Buddhist Chaplain JoAnn Cooke closed the ceremony. She called for those in attendance to let go of sadness and hatred, so that love and remembrance may grow without any hindrance.

There were tears in many people’s eyes, and the somber mood was tempered by happiness at remembering the victims at their best.

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Surya Vaidy
White roses laid down by the Remembrance Scholars are interlaced with carnations that community members laid in respect of those lost.

The rose-laying ceremony was followed by the Remembrance Scholar Convocation at Hendricks Chapel, rounding off the 2024 Remembrance Week and the 36th anniversary of the attack.