The Student Association also organized a project called Sheets of Expression that recognized the wide variety of individual voices within the University community. For several days, students and other members of Syracuse University penned messages of encouragement, disillusionment, patriotism, faith, retribution, and peace on large white sheets spread out on the Quad lawn. Drawings depicted such images as a dove shedding a tear, flames and smoke engulfing the World Trade Towers and the Pentagon, and American flags. Some people crafted poems and personal messages or added familiar song lyrics and quotations. “I just wrote from the heart,” says Jen Musat ’04. After completing her message, she spent several minutes lingering over the banners to read other people’s comments. “It’s kind of therapeutic,” she says.
      Meghan Rubado ’04, a resident advisor in Shaw residence hall, spent much of her time helping freshmen on her floor deal with their anxieties while they tried to locate family and friends. “Once they found out their families were safe, things calmed down some,” Rubado says. “When this kind of crisis is all around you, it makes you stop everything.” She says writing down a message on the sheets helped her sort through her emotions about the attack. The sheets, covered with thousands of messages and drawings, were displayed in the Schine Student Center. One of the sheets was later presented to New York State Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver, whose home district includes the World Trade Center.

      Thousands of people on campus wore white-ribbon pins as a unifying symbol of peace and to commemorate the victims of the attacks. “We felt that we needed to do something to express ourselves here on campus,” says Wendy Loughlin, director of communications at the College of Human Services and Health Professions. The college decided on a white-ribbon campaign because it was simple and conveyed a message of peace, Loughlin says. A handful of people in the office scrambled to purchase 40 rolls of ribbon and boxes of pins. “By Wednesday all of the ribbon was gone, so we had to go back to the stores for more,” Loughlin says. “People on campus were really positive about it. They were happy to wear something that showed their sentiment.”
      On September 20, hundreds of University members journeyed down the Hill to join nearly 10,000 Syracuse-area residents in Clinton Square for “We Stand Together: A Gathering of Hope and Healing.” The remembrance service opened with a parade of more than 500 firefighters from approximately 40 departments, who were greeted by the crowd with thunderous applause and cheers of appreciation. People of all ages waved flags as they sang along with the Syracuse Symphony Orchestra’s medley of American classics.