Written by Zachary Biemer
Ibipo Johnston-Anumonwo, a Geography Professor at SUNY Cortland since 1988, learned about the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, by chatting with one of her coworkers, Larry Ashley, while getting paperwork printed before class.
Anumonwo didn’t know what was happening at first and just continued going about her day, teaching morning classes in cultural and social geography.
Anumonwo explained that at first, everyone believed the first tower hit by a plane was just a major aviation accident, and at the time, no one understood what was happening. It wasn’t until the second tower of the World Trade Center got attacked that people started to realize that aterrorist attack was happening.
Anumonwo remembers that the students in the class she was teaching on that day were also not aware of what was occurring at the time because no one had cell phones back then and people were just going on about theirday like it was a normal Tuesday.
Anumonwo explains that many of the students, her coworkers and herself knew people who were in NYC at the time of the attacks.
“It was distant because we are upstate, but we all knew someone in Manhattan,” said Anumonwo. “My first cousin, their uncle, that’s where my anxiety went.”
Anumonwo remembers that seven of the people who passed away in the attacks that day graduated from SUNY Cortland years earlier.
Anumonwo had a student years earlier who was working on Wall Street during the attacks, who she was worried about because she knew he was there when the attacks happened, however he turned out to be okay.
Anumonwo also recalled believing that her friend, Susan Hansen, a well-known geographer, was among the passengers of the plane that crashed on the ground in PA.
“It seemed as if the famous geographer Susan Hansenwas on one of the planes. Oh my goodness. She’s my advisor. She’s my advisor from class,” said Anumonwo. “I think of her as like my mother. [But] it wasn’t her. It was just a coincidence; it was a different Susan Hansen who had died on the plane.”