On any given day, hundreds of Penn alumni would have passed through the World Trade Center buildings.
The task of locating the ones who happened to be there last Tuesday has become a daunting task for the University's various alumni offices.
Wharton Associate Dean Steven Oliveira has confirmed that the business school lost two, possibly three of their alumni -- one of whom was aboard a hijacked American Airlines flight.
According to the University Alumni Society, 14,000 Penn alumni claim an address in the five boroughs of New York, and about 280 list the World Trade Center as either their primary or secondary mailing address.
In the days after the incident, concerned phone calls began pouring into alumni offices as former students searched for information regarding classmates.
The Penn Alumni site has been reworked to act as a starting point for anyone looking for a classmate that may be in New York.
The first of many notices on a crisis message board linked to the site revealed painful news.
Garth Feeney, a 1995 Engineering and Wharton alumnus, has been missing since the day of the attack. He was last heard from on the 106 floor of the North Tower at 9:30 a.m. after the first plane hit.
Others posted their personal experiences to the site and spoke of colleagues they had lost that morning.
Though his home and office were in New Jersey, Mark L. Charette, a 1985 Wharton alumnus, was in a meeting on the 100th floor of the first tower at 8:30 a.m. He was still in the building during the attacks.
Others, however, sent out messages to those friends and former classmates they hadn't heard from since the attacks.
Soon after news of the terrorist attack reached the Wharton community, the external affairs office created a Web site in support of their alumni.
The site contains links to New York informational sites as well as a friends and family database created by Wharton alumna Rian Schmidt, where people can update their status.
By the end of the week, the number of responses from the most recent MBA graduating classes of 1998, 1999, 2000 and 2001 was high with nearly 300 responses per class from various class members checking in to say they were accounted for.
Among the reassuring replies there was some disconcerting news, as the word "missing" appeared between the "OK"s.
"Responses were slow to come in at first," Oliviera said. "Then people began to post some rather heartwrenching stories, and now we have been getting a lot in."
Schmidt created the "Friends and Family Status Database" as a way for people to get in contact with one another in the hours following the attacks.
The database has since been closed, as it was overwhelmed with responses.
In a letter announcing the close of the site, Schmidt remarked that it had been a successful endeavor that had run its course.
The Wharton External Affairs office has been working closely with the Wharton Club of New York, as well as with alumni clubs around the world trying to track down the location of alumni.
"Wharton has a very widespread and international alumni network, and it has really shown that it is a strong community over the past week," Oliveira said.
The office is still waiting for information about other students from obituaries or calls from family members.
