Year in Review: Students cheer at bin Laden's death

Sarah Gitlin, CC ’12, sacrificed a few hours of studying and sleeping to join thousands of New Yorkers who gathered at the site of the World Trade Center the night of Sunday, May 1 after the news broke on campus that Osama bin Laden had been killed by American forces in Pakistan.

“It helps bring a little closure nearly a decade after 9/11,” she said. “Obviously, it doesn’t mean the end, but as witnessed by the crowd here tonight, a lot of Columbians and Americans are feeling relieved and encouraged.”

At Ground Zero, thousands gathered at Church and Vesey streets. A bagpiper played “God Bless America,” and many carried homemade signs reading “Obama 1, Osama 0.”

Sean Quirk, CC ’11, said that night, “There’s no better place in America to be on this day. To sit in my dorm would be completely unacceptable.”

“A lot of us expect we will be doing all-nighters this night,” Gitlin said, as she boarded a subway from Ground Zero on her way to join the festivities in Times Square, “but for very different reasons than usual.”

Sarah Wolk, GS, said she was working on homework in a computer lab when someone “busted in and started yelling ‘Osama’s dead! We killed him!’” She said she felt overjoyed at the news, because “this guarantees Obama’s reelection in 2012.”

Incoming Columbia University College Democrats president Janine Balekdjian, CC ’13, said that night was a time to put politics aside.
“This has nothing to do with Democrats or Republicans, it’s just amazing for America. It’s a clear victory in the war against terrorists—it’s amazing for everybody.”

The moment afforded many students the opportunity to reflect on all that has changed in the nearly 10 years since Sept. 11.

Sara Liben, JTS/GS ’13, and David Offit, JTS/GS ’13, said they were in the same fifth grade classroom in Boston when they first heard about the attacks. Liben, whose brother was attending Columbia at the time, said, “It’s interesting for us to be living the next step.”

Liben and Offit headed down to Ground Zero together after hearing the news. “For tonight, at least, everyone has a very positive outlook,” Offit said. “Even if it’s just for a little while, it feels like there’s a light at the end of the tunnel.”

Anum Javed Akram, CC ’11 and a senior adviser to Organization of Pakistani Students, said that even though it was a celebratory night, she and others were concerned about what lies ahead.

“This has come at the cost of a decade of war. ... We’re certainly worried that this might be the start of an even darker period in our history,” she said.

Akram said she fears Americans may come to resent Pakistan and that fundamentalists may seek retaliation in the coming years.
“When I heard he had been killed, my first thought was just, ‘I hope he wasn’t in Pakistan.’ But of course he was, and it feels like scary times are ahead.”

Michael Mirer, CC ’02 and Spectator editor in chief in 2001, said that 9/11 brought a similar sense of unity to campus.
“Everything was just so quiet that day. … As fractious as Columbia is, it wasn’t fractious during that period at all,” he said. “Everyone was very much in the mood to come together.”

He said many gathered at The West End—now Havana Central—to watch news of the attack together.

“We felt very close and very far away at the same time,” he said.

Lydia Roman, a Jackson Heights resident, said she came to Ground Zero on Monday morning to remember her friend Christopher Santora, who, at 23, was the youngest firefighter to die in the World Trade Center attacks.

“Is this closure? Yes, both for me and for many, many people.”

Leah Greenbaum and Arvin Ahmadi contributed reporting.
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