Penn held a flag-raising ceremony on Friday to honor those killed in the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.
The event, which took place on College Green, marked the 25th anniversary of 9/11. During a moment of silence, the Penn Police Department Honor Guard raised the American flag in front of College Hall before lowering it to half-staff.
“We’re an educational institution, and what better place than to talk about significant events that have impacted not just our country, but the world,” Senior Vice President of Facilities and Real Estate Services Anne Papageorge said in an interview after the ceremony.
Both Penn President Larry Jameson and Penn Provost John Jackson Jr. were in attendance, alongside over a dozen uniformed officers. In total, roughly 30 people attended the event organized by the Penn Division of Public Safety and FRES.
“There was a national, as well as a state order, to fly flags at half-mast today to remember those we lost, and so we thought we’d do a little more formal ceremony today in honor of those who passed,” Vice President of Public Safety Kathleen Shields Anderson said in an interview.
Shields Anderson explained that on a college campus like Penn, where many students “weren't even alive that day,” it's more important to “remember those who lost that day.”
“Penn was impacted that day, as everybody was,” she added.
Papageorge, who was in New York on 9/11, said the day was particularly “meaningful” to her because of her time at the New York City Department of Design and Construction, which assisted in cleaning up the site after the attacks. Later, she went on to work at the World Trade Center during the construction of the National September 11 Memorial and Museum.
“This day impacted our country in significant ways, and if you weren’t alive during that time, I think it’s important that you learn about the events and the history of what happened because history is important to know as you move forward,” Papageorge said.
After the ceremony, students from College Republicans carried out their annual tradition and planted small American flags across College Green.
College senior Emma McClure said in an interview that she attends “every year that I’ve been able to” because “our parents are never going to forget where they were during that attack, but it’s really easy for us to forget or for us to not feel the impact that it had.”
“It was the largest attack on American soil, and so many innocent Americans lost their lives, and it just completely shook the country,” McClure said. “It shaped our laws, it shaped our enforcement strategies, and I just think that it’s important to remember our country’s history.”
Senior reporter Amy Liao covers student life and can be reached at liao@thedp.com. At Penn, she studies philosophy, politics, and economics and cinema and media studies. Follow her on X @amyliiao.
