Written by Scott Wilson and Terrell Parks
Many people remember where they were on the morning of Sept. 11, 2001. Chris Valenti, who is currently the Assistant Director of Programming and Integrations at SUNY Cortland, was a student at SUNY Institute of Technology on that tragic morning. As a regular college student studying computer applications, the day had begun like any other. He attended his 8 a.m. class with no idea of the events that had taken place.
“I was in class that morning. I didn’t know anything was happening,” Valenti said.
After returning to his dorm, he took a nap and woke up to students in the hallway talking about classes being canceled. He went to see what was going on.
“I came out and asked, ‘Hey, are classes canceled?’ Someone said ‘Yeah.’ I asked, ‘Why?’ And they told me, ‘The towers were hit,” Valenti said.
Valenti walked into the common room and joined a room full of stunned students. When he sat down, both towers of the World Trade Center had collapsed. He was shocked to see the images on screen.
“The only thing I could compare it to would be how people must have felt during Pearl Harbor. Something completely unexpected and devastating,” Valenti said.
Like many college campuses, SUNY Institute of Technology shifted from a regular weekday to a somber one. Students crowded around televisions, searching for updates and trying to contact family members and loved ones. Many couldn’t reach their families because phone lines were overwhelmed.
“No one really knew what to say. Everyone was just stunned,” Valenti said.
That evening, President George W. Bush addressed the nation. Typically, students would spend time outside on campus in the quad areas. This time, it was different. The campus went silent as everyone gathered to watch the speech on television.
The impact of Sept. 11 changed the way people traveled. Valenti flew about a month after the attacks and experienced a new level of uncertainty and fear. Airport security increased, and travelers were required to remove shoes and have their bags inspected.
A similar fear returned in 2003 during the Northeast blackout. With no explanation for the outage at first, many wondered if another attack was happening.
“For hours, nobody knew what caused it. Everyone immediately thought it might be another attack,” Valenti said. “That fear never fully went away.”
Despite the shock and anxiety, Valenti also remembers a sense of unity that emerged following the attacks on 9/11. Neighborhoods displayed flags, and communities organized blood drives as people supported one another regardless of political beliefs.
“That was one of the few positive things to come out of it. The country really united,” said Valenti. “You couldn’t buy an American flag anywhere; they were sold out everywhere because everyone wanted to display one.”
Even far from New York City, Americans showed compassion. When Valenti traveled in October that year, people noticed his New York identification and approached him with kind words and encouragement.
“When I flew to Arizona that October, people saw ‘New York’ on my ID and would come up and say things like, ‘We’re with you. We’re thinking of you,’” Valenti said. “It didn’t matter that I wasn’t from the city, people just wanted to connect, to show support.”
More than 20 years later, the memory of watching the twin towers fall and thinking about the lives of first responders and civilians has stayed. “That’s something I’ll never forget,” said Valenti.