TBy Robert Bruininks

oday the University community will come together to remember the Sept. 11 attacks and the heroic efforts that followed them. Individually, I know the events of last year will also be on all of our minds. The horrific images of Sept. 11, 2001, will be with us all for the rest of our lives. Our hearts will be heavy at this time every year as we recall the thousands who lost their lives lost in New York, Washington and Pennsylvania.

As I reiterated to University freshmen at their convocation last week, the University is committed to the safety and well-being of the students, faculty, staff and visitors on our campus. Since last Sept. 11, we’ve worked diligently to improve safety on campus. We’ve reviewed and rewritten our emergency planning processes, upgraded our security infrastructure, evaluated and corrected the potential for the misuse of materials used as part of our research mission, and consolidated our emergency-related services under one umbrella.

But the feelings we all have today will go far beyond security policies and administrative changes. They will go to the very heart of our lives and the direction of our society. Personally, I have found some solace in recommitting myself to the principles and the guiding optimism that have made the United States great. As the playwright Arthur Miller once wrote about the defense of liberty, “To say it is a never-ending struggle is not to despair but simply to affirm that in our time, as far as we are able, we will not let down the generations that preceded us nor the ones who will come after we are gone.”

Robert Bruininks is the interim president at the University. Send comments to [email protected].