Commencement should not have been on 9/11

To the Editor:

I am writing this letter in solidarity, sadness and frustration. As a member of the Class of 2020, I can scarcely express in words how difficult it was to end four years of momentous events, memories and accomplishments without a celebration in a place I hold dear to my heart.

It is difficult to realize that those who are first-generation students, who had to overcome adversity to even consider higher education, those who struggled every day to keep their dreams alive and many other students would not be able to proudly receive their diploma in person.

Yet today, I sit here in New York City—in my home. I will not be walking across the stage to receive my belated diploma.

Today is September 11. 9/11. The 20-year anniversary of a sobering event that stained the United States’ history with pain and trauma.

I must express my disappointment with our beloved institutions.

Today, many students have been forced to make the intense decision to ignore the trauma that comes with the date 9/11 and to receive a diploma that they worked four tireless years for. This is an unfair ask. Many of our students grieve today; many still face the repercussions of that fateful day in 2001.

The realities of pain, Islamophobia, loss and dolor leave an open lesion in this country, no matter where one may be geographically.

This is a day that matters; this is a day that has been marked to celebrate the lives of those lost to malicious intention. This day marks the anniversary of those who died to save others, of those who were buried under the rubble of hate and those who still remember that fateful day like it was only this morning. This is a day which has affected the CSB/SJU community, by the death of Johnnie alumni Thomas Burnett Jr. An economics major and a member of the Johnnie football team who died on Flight 93.

I am mortified that today is the date our institutions chose to celebrate our graduates. It disrespects the solidarity we are called to hold with our fellow countrypeople. It disrespects the decades of Islamophobia birthed from the 9/11 attack. And most importantly, it disregards the lives of those lost.

9/11. The date the CSB/SJU has set to celebrate the Class of 2020. I will not be remembering this as a day when I miss the CSB/SJU community. Rather, this will be a day I mourn the loss of almost 3,000 people. This will be the day I remember when hate shook this country, and the strength it took to rise literally from the ashes of fallen buildings and rubble. This is a day I will remember as a day that wounded the CSBSJU community.