UofL’s response still resonates 25 years after 9/11

Twenty-five years have passed since the world changed in a single morning. At the University of Louisville, the anniversary still carries weight.

In the days following Sept. 11, 2001, several UofL staff and faculty members traveled to ground zero to help emergency responders however they could. Back on campus, the university turned inward to heal. Vigils were held. Counseling services expanded. Professors spoke to media in their areas of knowledge. Many had personal connections to the tragedy while others simply tried to navigate a world that no longer felt familiar.

At a memorial held just a few days after the tragic event, UofL's director of counseling spoke words that have guided the university since: "Let those who will follow us in the years to come celebrate how we came together as a campus community … how we worked and studied and lived on this campus with renewed love and respect."

Those words became a 25-year commitment. Year after year, UofL has lived out that call through research, through remembrance, through service.

This year, members of the UofL community gathered at L&N Federal Credit Union Stadium for the 25th Anniversary of 9/11 Stair Climb. Participants, including members of UofL's ROTC program, honored first responders by climbing 2,071 steps, the equivalent of 110 flights of stairs that stood in the World Trade Center towers. Some Cardinals walked eight laps around the field to remember the fallen. 

President Gerry Bradley also hosted faculty and staff at the Student Activities Center Ballroom for a commemorative luncheon. In the evening, the Cardinals took on Villanova for the Salute to Service football game, honoring military members and veterans.

"As an institute of higher education, it is our responsibility to examine what led to that moment in history, how that moment shaped our society and what lessons we must learn to keep such a thing from ever happening again," Bradley said. 

From that first candlelight vigil to this year's gathering on the stadium steps, the throughline hasn't moved. UofL met tragedy with service and solidarity in 2001, and still does. Twenty-five years later, the campus community keeps doing what that solemn September asked of it: working, studying and living together with renewed love and respect.

See the complete photo album from the stair climb on Flickr. View the complete photo album from the luncheon on Flickr. 

Watch the 9/11 25th Anniversary Stair Climb on Youtube.