Regents to consider resolution in solemn remembrance of Sept. 11

The University of Colorado Board of Regents on Friday is expected to approve a resolution in solemn remembrance of 9/11. Friday marks 25 years since the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks that killed nearly 3,000 people in New York, Virginia and Pennsylvania.

Among those lost, the resolution notes, were 10 CU Boulder alumni and former students: Nina Patrice Bell, Chris Ciafardini, Scott Thomas Coleman, Brian Thomas Cummins, Leslie Whittington Falkenberg, Christopher Faughnan, Allison Horstmann Jones, Chandler “Chad” Keller, Joshua “Rosie” Rosenblum and Adam Shelby White, “whose lives of professional achievement, academic distinction, and personal promise were cut short in the World Trade Center and at the Pentagon.”

“The University of Colorado has sustained their memory through lasting tributes, including the Chandler R. Keller Scholarship in aerospace engineering sciences, the Leslie Whittington Memorial Fellowships in economics, the service of faculty who assisted with victim identification in New York, academic research into the human and organizational dimensions of the disaster, and ongoing remembrances by alumni and the broader CU community,” the resolution states.

“The passage of a quarter century has not diminished the duty of Americans to remember the victims, honor the heroes, support the survivors and first responders still suffering from related illnesses, and reaffirm the values of freedom, resilience, and national unity that the attacks sought to destroy.”

The resolution concludes with the nine-member board stating:

• “We pause to remember and honor the nearly three-thousand men, women, and children murdered on September 11, 2001, and all those who have since died from injuries and illnesses related to the attacks.”
• “We express our deepest gratitude to the first responders, military service members, and ordinary citizens whose courage and sacrifice defined that day and the years that followed.”
• “On this twenty-fifth anniversary we renew our commitment to support the families of the fallen, the survivors, and the responders still living with the physical and emotional consequences of that day.”
• “We reaffirm the enduring strength of the American people and our resolve that the memory of September 11, 2001, shall never fade, and that the United States of America continues to be a shining city on a hill serving as a beacon of hope and optimism.”

The board’s formal vote on the resolution is tentatively scheduled for 8:50 a.m. Friday during the second day of the regents’ two-day meeting at CU Anschutz.

Read the full resolution here.