Memorial ceremonies large and small take place around the nation each year to mark and remember the terrorist attacks on U.S. soil that took place on September 11, 2001.
SUNY Old Westbury annually commemorates the tragic events of that day with a ceremony timed to begin at 8:46 a.m., the exact time the first plane with the North Tower at the World Trade Center in New York City.
On Septement 11, 2023, approximately 80 people gathered at the University's September 11 Memorial outside the Student Union Building to remember all those lost, including the five SUNY Old Westbury alumni who perished in the attack at the World Trade Center. The alumni remembered during the ceremony were James J. Carson ’93 of
Dennis Michael Edwards '88 of Huntington, New York; Wade Brian Green ’84 of
Organized by the campus' University Police Department, the commemoration also called on those in attendance to remember the first responders who perished that day and later due to illness and those in the military who served in the Middle East as part of the U.S. response in the aftermath of the 9/11 attacks.
"We have to remember each year the events of 9/11," said University Police Department Lieutentant Renee Robinson, who organized this year's event. "We are surrounded by a generation that did not live through this tragedy. We need to always remember and honor those that were lost and that responded -- the first responders, the firefighters, EMTS and the military personnel."
The SUNY Old Westbury Memorial is comprised of two ornamental bushes planted in 2002 on the one-year anniversary of 9/11 along with plaques at their base that asks that all lost that tragic day are remembered.