 |
 |
|
|
|
|||
|
|||
 |
|||
Campus unity goal in September 11 ceremonies
By Hope Green
On Wednesday morning, exactly a year after September 11, 2001, the chiming
of a bell on Marsh Plaza will signal the start of campus activities to
commemorate the anniversary of the terrorist attacks.
|
|
|
|
||
|
At a morning ceremony, volunteers will distribute peace buttons. University
chaplains will hold prayer services during the day, and there will be
an evening candlelight vigil at Marsh Plaza. Members of the BU community
can also sign a new section of BU's We Remember message board and meditate
on visions of peace at a Buddhist sand mandala ritual.
"The chaplains wanted these vents to say, 'We've made it through
the year, so there's some hope we can keep moving forward,'" says
Hope Luckie, acting dean of Marsh Chapel. "So it will be less about
reflecting on our grief, and more about how we can continue."
Also in conjunction with the September 11 anniversary, the Office of the
University Chaplain, the School of Theology, and Marsh Chapel have organized
a weeklong series of educational and spiritual events focusing on Tibetan
Buddhism.
The mandala, a tradition that began in India about 1,400 years ago, is
a work of art with brightly hued sands layered onto a flat surface in
intricate patterns. Two Tibetan Buddhist monks will construct a mandala
under a tent onMarsh Plaza and lead prayer rituals there twice daily for
eight days.
On September 19, the monks will preside over a ritual emptying of the
mandala into the Charles River, a ceremony that signifies impermanence.
Related events during the week include a lecture on mandalas by David
Eckel, a CAS associate professor of religion and winner of a 1998 Metcalf
Award for Excellence in Teaching, and a lecture and open dialogue with
Geshe Gendun Gyatso, a Buddhist monk and former affiliate chaplain at
BU, entitled Healing and Peace. There will also be a screening of Kundun,
Martin Scorsese's film about the exile of the Dalai Lama from Tibet.
Mandalas represent various deities, and the mandala to be built here will
depict the sangye menlha, or medicine Buddha, a personification of Buddhist
healing power.
The prayers and ceremonies follow a year in which students, faculty, and
staff led their own post-September 11 initiatives. The student government
and the Dean of Students Office, for instance, issued the BUnited buttons,
seen pinned to backpacks through the spring semester, and arranged holiday
bus service for students nervous about air travel.
Many observed a heightened solidarity on campus. "What I noticed
after September 11 is a very strong sense of community," says Carolyn
Norris, director of student activities. "It just seemed people were
more aware of saying good morning to each other and greeting people as
they walked by."
The atmosphere of unity crossed cultural barriers, with the majority of
students from Islamic and Arab-speaking countries attending BU safe from
harassment. But with tightened government security causing delays in visa
clearance, several of these students cannot return for the fall semester,
and some admitted freshmen will not matriculate as soon as they had planned.
It is not yet clear how many of the approximately 4,450 foreign students
enrolled at BU are in this predicament, although at least 10 such students
have contacted administrators to inquire about deferring their enrollment.
These students are not only from the Middle East but also the Indian subcontinent,
Malaysia, and China.
"It has been a relatively small number," says Greg Leonard,
director of the Office of International Students and Scholars, "but
it's not something that normally happens this time of year."
On the other hand, BU has seen no decline in applications from any country.
The same is true at other schools Leonard has contacted. "I think
the vast majority of parents understand that it's just as safe to send
their kids to the United States today as it was a year ago," he says.
Thirty-six international students, primarily from the Middle East, went
home after the terrorist attacks, citing September 11 as the reason. By
January, all but four of these students had returned to the University.
6 September 2002
Boston University
Office of University Relations