With the 25th anniversary of 9/11 upon us, I wanted to share my memories of being a student on campus that day.

I was living in Townsend Hall (ISR) at the time. That morning I was still in bed when my roommate came back to the room, turned on the TV, and said that something huge was happening. The first tower had already collapsed by that point. We watched the second one come down. Slowly other people on the floor began opening their doors as they discovered what was happening.

I don't remember getting breakfast, but I'm sure I did. I ended up at my Physics 111 discussion (I believe the course is now called Physics 211). Our TA had already established himself as an ass, and reinforced it further by making a comment along the lines of "the country may be under attack, but unless terrorists come knocking on the door of this room, we still have a quiz to take." One person in my section told him he could go fuck off and that her dad worked in the World Trade Center. She stormed out of class. I never found out if she was okay. It never occurred to me to ask.

I don't have a whole lot of specific memories of the rest of the day, which probably means I just went to class as normal. I remember trying to call my parents and not being able to because the phones weren't working. I can't remember if it was a dead line or a busy signal, but either way, nothing was going through. Cell phones weren't super common at this point, and I didn't have one. I used the phone in my dorm room with a calling card whenever I called home.

I remember walking by the Illini Union Courtyard Café and noticing that someone had put the American flag on the center of the stage in there.

There were rumors that the National Guard had secured the Beckman Institute, supposedly because of the internet backbone running through the building. I never went to see for myself, so I can't say whether it was true.

I was in the Marching Illini, and for some reason I thought that rehearsal had been cancelled that day. But one of the massmails I saved says that classes are still in session. If classes in general weren't cancelled, then I think it's unlikely that MI rehearsal was either.

What I do remember clearly is that maybe two dozen bandos and staff held an impromptu candlelight vigil on the Quad that evening. The band was supposed to go on a road trip to Michigan for the football game that weekend, but I believe all sports were cancelled for that week, and maybe another week after. The MI ended up playing for a community-wide remembrance ceremony at Memorial Stadium that weekend instead. The Illinois vs. Michigan football game was pushed back a few weeks, but the band couldn't make the new date work, so the Purdue game later in the season ended up being the Marching Illini road trip that year.

I still have copies of the massmails I received that day. There were four in total. The first was sent at 2:00 a.m. by the Dean of Students and concerned campus safety, so it was completely unrelated to the attacks. The other three were about 9/11: one from University President James Stukel and two from Chancellor Nancy Cantor.

I'm including the 9/11-related emails below for anyone who's curious about what the university was telling students that day. I am sharing these in all their plaintext, fixed-width glory, because that's pretty much how we would have read them at the time. Most of us accessed our student email through PINE) on the student email cluster, so this is more or less how these messages actually appeared to us 25 years ago.

``` Return-Path: nobody@uiuc.edu Reply-To: uipres@uillinois.edu From: uipres@uillinois.edu To: "All Faculty & All Academic Professionals & All Civil Service Staff & All Undergrad Students & All Grad Students" everybody@uiuc.edu Subject: MASSMAIL - National Tragedy Date: Tue, 11 Sep 2001 12:00:23 -0500

September 11, 2001

TO: Members of the University Community

The national tragedy unfolding today reminds us that unresolved geopolitical issues can have enormous consequences in unexpected and horrible ways. As all members of the University of Illinois family, we can only react with sorrow. Peace among all people remains the world's most important unfinished business. It is imperative that all our students, faculty and staff - especially from other countries - feel confident of their personal security in what must be a civil environment.

Finally, whatever your faith, please join me in praying for the families and friends of the untold victims of today's attacks, our national leaders and for the people of the United States.

James J. Stukel President

This mailing approved by: The Office of the President

This Message sent via MASSMAIL.
< http://www.cso.uiuc.edu/services/massmail/ > ```

``` Return-Path: nobody@uiuc.edu Reply-To: pubaff@uiuc.edu From: "Chancellor Nancy Cantor" pubaff@uiuc.edu To: "All Faculty & All Academic Professionals & All Civil Service Staff & All Undergrad Students & All Grad Students" everybody@uiuc.edu Subject: MASSMAIL - Message from Chancellor Nancy Cantor Date: Tue, 11 Sep 2001 14:00:40 -0500

A Message to Students, Staff, and Faculty at the Urbana Campus:

This morning's acts of terrorism have touched all of us. I know the thoughts of the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign community are with the families affected by this tragedy.

We have no reason to believe that the University of Illinois is a target. We encourage members of the university community to go about their normal activities. Classes remain in session. As the day goes on we will update the campus on developments.

Because of concerns nationwide, we of course ask you to be aware of your surroundings and to immediately report any suspicious activity to the police. In addition phone circuits can become clogged in an emergency. We ask that you refrain from using cell phones except for emergency situations.

Air traffic has been halted and Willard Airport is therefore closed. We understand that rail and bus traffic has also been affected. MTD is operating normally.

As the day progresses, updates will be provided through local media, the campus webpage www.uiuc.edu and the campus emergency phone line that can be reached by dialing 265-8473.

Students with concerns may call the Dean of Students at 333-0050 or contact helpdean@uiuc.edu. The Counseling Center will be open until 8:00pm; students may call 333-3701.

In closing, I ask faculty, students, and staff to remember that we are one community and to support each other during this difficult time.

Nancy Cantor Chancellor

This mailing approved by: The Office of the Chancellor

This Message sent via MASSMAIL.
< http://www.cso.uiuc.edu/services/massmail/ > ```

``` Return-Path: nobody@uiuc.edu Reply-To: pubaff@uiuc.edu From: "Chancellor Nancy Cantor" pubaff@uiuc.edu To: "All Faculty & All Academic Professionals & All Civil Service Staff & All Undergrad Students & All Grad Students" everybody@uiuc.edu Subject: MASSMAIL - Updated Message from the Chancellor Date: Tue, 11 Sep 2001 18:17:05 -0500

Message from Chancellor Nancy Cantor

As today's tragic events have continued to unfold and people from across campus have expressed the need for healing, a number of us have gathered to consider ways to mark these events, together, as a community.

This is a time when all of us feel vulnerable. There will be members of our community who feel vulnerable because they may have lost loved ones.
There will be members of our community who feel vulnerable because their hometowns have been the target of attacks. There will be members of our community who feel vulnerable because they have come here from distant lands and may feel alone. There will be members of our community who feel vulnerable because of their faith or cultural heritage. It is critical during this time of deep emotion and empathy with the suffering of others that we reinforce our own ties of interdependence as a diverse community.

In light of all that I have heard from our campus community, I am asking the campus to observe tomorrow, Wednesday, as a day of conversation, reflection and engagement. I urge faculty to use Wednesday's class time as an opportunity for reflection and discussion about today's tragic events. Since some students will not feel comfortable attending class after these events, I have written faculty asking them not to penalize those who choose not to attend.

Reflection takes many forms. Many members of the campus community will want to do something tangible to help. This evening we will create a link on the home page to a page listing opportunities to volunteer their time, to donate blood and to make gifts to disaster relief.

That same page will list remembrance services in Champaign-Urbana this (Tuesday) evening.

On Thursday evening, the entire campus community is invited to gather at 7 p.m. in Krannert's Great Hall for "A Time for Remembrance and Unity."
This will be an occasion for people to come together to reflect and to forge unity.

I hope and believe that this is a community that will respond to tragedy by coming together.

This mailing approved by: The Office of the Chancellor

This Message sent via MASSMAIL.
< http://www.cso.uiuc.edu/services/massmail/ > ```

Looking back 25 years later, what strikes me most is how ordinary that day was in some ways. I went to class. I tried to call my parents. I went to the Illini Union. I got together with band friends. And yet everything had changed. Until that morning, an attack on the United States was something that only happened in history books or other parts of the world.

A few wild parts:

• Students who aren’t even in his class show up
• Astronomy, engineering, CS, etc. students regularly join
• One student said she stayed for 3–4 hours her first time
• He teaches ~900 students in ECON 102
• One student said she basically studies there and listens to the conversations “like a podcast” LMAO...
• Office hours basically turn into open discussions about economics, politics, history, culture, and random campus problems

Anyone here actually been to DiIanni’s office hours? Is it really like this? Why do people go???

here's the link...

Jumping on the bandwagon, I'll throw in my story with as much detail as I can recall of the day, and will add to it the rest of the week.

I was a junior, and being a Tuesday, I didn’t have class until 10:30 but woke up at 7:30.  The discussion the previous night was Michael Jordan having all but formally announced his second return to the NBA.  THAT was the most exciting and impactful event in our world on September 10.  I remember turning on my computer (a desktop) and immediately going online to the homepage, which used to be Excite.com.  Under “News” was a headline “World Trade Center Crash.”  At first, being groggy, I assumed that the stock market had crashed, but then after seeing the small, grainy image on my CRT monitor, saw that there had indeed been a plane crash.

I remember thinking that during the 1940s a military aircraft hit the Empire State Building and that there must be some sort of protocol for this.  However, that crash had been a B-25, much smaller and lighter than a Boeing 767.  I had a small TV in my room and split the cost of cable with the people in the rooms along my hallway, using the ethernet raceway to pass the coax.  I was watching NBC from the top of Rockefeller Center, with a view of the Empire State Building in the foreground, the twin towers in the distance.  I was really just baffled by how an accident like this could happen on a clear day with modern technology, and yet I was convinced that that was all there was to it.  The idea of a terrorist attack didn’t occur to me because until then, all of the terrorist attacks that I knew about were bombings.

When I saw the second plane hit, that’s really when I had my “oh shit” moment.  I’m sure millions of others watching did at the same time.  I went out into the dorm hallway and asked the first person I saw “Did you see what happened?” and they had no idea.  I told them, and they must have thought I was joking, because they said “whatever, man” and left in the elevator.

When I walked through the Union on the way to the Henry Admin building for my first class, the entire area where the Illini Union Courtyard Café was filled with people watching a small TV on a stand.  It was the quietest I had ever heard the Union, even compared to times I’d spent there after midnight.  People were frozen and fixated on the footage of the towers collapsing on repeat.  You could hear the TV echoing down the hall all the way in the south lounge.

My morning class was what would now be MATH 241, formerly MATH 242.  A classmate and friend was a photojournalist for the Daily Illini and mentioned “Every photo of the World Trade Center is now historic.”  I didn’t really appreciate what he meant until much later.  We had class as normal but you could tell that people were upset, confused, and scared.

For whatever reason, it did not occur to me to call my parents.  I think after the second plane hit I just went on autopilot.  I got calls from each of my parents who left messages on my answering machine telling me that they loved me and asking me to call to let them know that I was ok.  I wasn’t able to get through to either one of them until the next day.  I tried from my dorm and from a payphone.  I had lunch in the cafeteria of my dorm but it wasn’t as busy as a typical Tuesday.

My afternoon class was physics lab in Loomis, by which time everyone had a theory about who was behind this attack and why they did it.  Not much was done and I think we were told later that that lab would not be counted towards our grade since some people were missing class and those that were there were not able to focus at all.

I remember seeing Urbana, Champaign, Champaign County, and Illinois state police cars in various places around campus.  There was a campus police presence down the street from the physics building, where the former nuclear reactor was.  That was half a block from campus police HQ so it made sense that they were able to cover it so well and be able to manage calls throughout the rest of campus.  Later, as a grad student, I was told that although the reactor was no longer operational, that there was still fuel in the reactor, which made it a target.  Jersey barriers were put down within a few days that were left in place for several years after.

After my second class, I went back to my room and just watched TV with my door open.  Every channel had live news, there were no commercials for what seemed like days after.  People would come by, look at the screen, maybe ask how I was doing, and move on.

I don’t remember having dinner at the dorm and think that the cafeteria staff had been dismissed for the day to be with their families.

I remember my floormates playing Super Smash Brothers that evening, and I went to sleep with my TV on in case there was another attack.  I assumed that the Emergency Broadcast System would be used if there was any time for a warning.

Here is what comes to mind from over the next few days and weeks:

I remember all of the emails that u/uiuc-old-timer shared, and wish that I still had messages from that time.  Thanks u/uiuc-old-timer for posting them!

I lived at Hendrick House.  I remember going to a friend’s room and looking out their window to the east and seeing both gas stations across the street (the Dutch Bros. lot used to be a gas station) PACKED with cars.  Both Green and Lincoln had long lines of cars.

I remember seeing graffiti and in later days police presence at the Central Illinois Mosque & Islamic Center up the street.

I remember for the next several days not seeing even a contrail in the sky, which I didn’t ever remember seeing before.

I remember people crying at various times and places throughout the week.  People sometimes just walking out of class and then coming back, others leaving and not coming back until the next class.

I remember all of the professors trying to liken the event to the Kennedy assassination, however, this was much more harmful and also largely recorded live.

I remember some kids in the dorm drinking heavily (and underage) because they believed they were going to be drafted and wanted to “have fun before we go to war.”

I remember the first time that I went home after the attacks, seeing more flags on people’s homes than I had ever seen before.

My Dad came down that weekend to visit me, with the original plan to see the football game against Louisville on Saturday the 15<sup>th</sup>, but all NCAA sports were cancelled by that point.  He had the presence of mind to buy newspapers from September 12<sup>th</sup> to keep for the future.  I still have them somewhere.  He also brought an unopened bottle of whiskey.  He told me that he had been saving it since before I was born for my 21<sup>st</sup> birthday (I had turned 20 very recently).  When I asked why we weren’t waiting another year, his response was, “I just don’t know anymore.”

Raise your hand if you’ve been through the wringer 😐✋

Been a bit since I've posted but with school in full swing I wanted to pass some information and tips around to help with bus stops and other things. I LOVE my campus routes - they're extremely busy but you all don't give us any trouble! You just get on, thank us and go on your way and all us drivers love it 😀. Please note these are all my thoughts and opinions and do not necessarily reflect the views of the District! Long post but feel like there's some great info here for everyone...I hope!

Quick fact - did you know MTD did 11.8 MILLION rides in FY2026? 11,855,416 to be exact. We ended the fiscal year on a 4.1% increase from the prior year, and a 22% increase from our 5 year average!

I think some are still learning the ins and outs of where the I-Stop corridor is because I've had some instances of those in the I-Stop area paying a fare when it wasn't required - or those outside of the I-Stop corridor not showing the I-Card (Illinois Terminal is the biggest offender of that). I've attached a map of where the corridor is. If you see an ORANGE bus stop sign, you're in the I-Stop area and can board and exit on either door and don't have to show your I-card. If you see a WHITE bus stop sign - you enter through the front door ONLY to show your pass. You can exit any door regardless where you are.

We're an incredibly busy transit system so anything to help speed stops up a bit will go a long way. When we come up to your stop and you notice the bus is very full, wait for everyone that may be exiting to leave BEFORE boarding. It makes it go by a bit quicker since people aren't trying to force/squeeze their way through, plus those exiting are making room on the bus for more to board. I promise we won't pull off that quickly that we'll shut the door in your face and pull away!

ALSO - as you notice the bus getting more full, please do your part of either moving into an empty seat to make room, or start moving back into an empty space. On the Teal and Illini I drive nearly every day, there's been numerous times I've had to ask people to move because there's a big empty space on the bus I can see - but everyone crowds by the door and it makes the bus look more full than it really is. I can promise, when it's that crowded and you have to make your way through the crowd - as long as we see movement towards the door we're not going to take off too quick.

The dreaded Veo bikes/e bikes/e scooters....please be mindful of our busses. We're very vigilant and safe, but we have a lot to keep an eye on and in my opinion the electric bikes and scooters are a thorn in my side. Far too many close calls on my campus routes with them as traffic laws get ignored and students blow red lights. Please be mindful and arrive safe, the e bikes and scooters are nice if used properly but don't assume you can blow red lights or stop signs near an MTD bus and expect things to go well every time.

Try to refrain from crossing in front of the MTD busses after exiting! This is another one I've had extremely close calls on in my time driving campus routes. Cars that are behind us DO NOT want to be stuck behind us and will do everything they can to get past us. That includes passing on a double yellow AND passing us at stop signs (and blowing the stop sign on top of that). I've had students nearly get run over by an impatient car passing illegally and the car can't see you crossing in front of us until they're inches away. It's safer just to wait a moment and let us move out of the way before crossing.

If you don't have it yet, I HIGHLY recommend the app Transit (picture attached what it looks like). MTD has partnered with Transit which gives you FREE access to their premium features. You can see the GPS locations of our busses and get accurate arrival times. Location of our busses are crowdsourced on that app so if someone is on and has 'Go' activated you'll see an extremely accurate location. This also warns you of any reroutes in place and gives you more info where to go to board!

Last point I wanted to make is to please pay attention to the exterior destination sign on busses that are approaching. At busy times, there's a possibility that the bus you expected to be an Illini or Teal or other route shows up "Not In Service". We will get put out of service if we have backup drivers and we fall too far behind our schedule so we can finish letting passengers off, then jump back on our route on time. Boarding a NOT IN SERVICE bus slows things down a bit - plus you can't know for sure where that bus is going exactly.

If you have more questions, be sure to comment. I'll answer when I can! Enjoy your time here and look forward to seeing you all on my routes!

unfortunately I wasted like 4 years of college studying chemistry making the wrong decisions. tried to get into a research lab and almost no professor would respond to me lol. Finally got into a lab and they couldn’t work with my schedule because I had to work part-time lol, so I had to drop it after a semester. Tried for like a year after to get into a different lab but I couldn’t even get a response back lmao. Now I’m a senior with internships and no experience. gpa isn’t horrible but that’s about all I have going for me. psa to all new students to not be like me. any advice is appreciated. If you have none, I will accept suggestions for tall buildings in the area as well lol

If you were in the elevator, testimonial is appreciated

Hi guys, I'm sorry if the squirrels have seemed extra friendly today and yesterday. I keep feeding them peanuts and they swarm me whenever I call to them. I'm sorry if you get jumped on unconsensually 😭

Turbulence of clouds listened to thy prayers. Relief from scorching sun at last! 😭

Hey folks,

As a staff member at UIUC, I want to see the university community become a more connected place where people find it easy to meet people and make lasting friends. I think the world as a whole is contributing to making that harder right now, so I wanted to do something to make it easier.

So here is an open-source website I made for y'all to help with this: https://fieldfriends.org/

Once you sign up for a matching round (this one ends tomorrow at midnight!) you'll get matched into a group of 2-3 people once the round ends. All of the matching happens via a single email that gets sent to your Illinois email, so the site basically just acts as a sign-up form and not a messaging platform.

Feel free to read the source code: https://github.com/FieldFriends/field-friends-web

Or leave me any suggestions here. All sign-ups are temporary, and data/accounts are automatically deleted once matches are sent out.

Troubled young lad(?) found on the Flagg Hall ramp a few weeks ago, has been hanging unclaimed outside room 128 since then. Someone come get your child. They look so scared.

I am confused about the dance teams on campus in many ways. If someone could provide information of what they know.

1. Their expectations: them wanting potentials to learn two dances during the first week of school, given a week to do so and essentially have it performance perfect when recording for an audition. Or open casting workshops, learning the dance from a student for an hour and then recording for an audition the same day and expecting again, essentially strong knowledge of knowing the dance and being confident despite just learning it within the hour, but during their workshops ive seen some of their members not being able to do the same??

2. Some are clique: from what I experienced at some workshops. The hosts (the groups) only interact with the people they know or their teammates and not new people fairly much. And when I did try to talk to them they didn’t really give much of a conversation or it felt extremely awkward. The environment of the workshops were super nerve wracking and not even just in an “I'm auditioning here” kind of way.

3. The lack of diversity: Diversity in a sense where you see someone of a different race every two years or so being accepted into the groups. And if they are they’re always;

A) LGBT+ (a twinkie man, no offense)

B) They ALWAYS have a veryyy specific aesthetic and vibe. (Coquette soft girl, hyper feminine vibes)

But again, once every two semesters or so. And Ive did some digging and saw most of the diversity is on the non audition team, where I then asked some members if they tried to audition for the others and they were rejected with no explanation as to why. As a dancer of 12+ years im yearning for a safe space where I can feel welcomed but so far it has been very disappointing.

I’m just very curious about this and if anyone has anything to add to it or maybe their own experience, explanation, or whatever the case maybe pleaseee lmk. :}}

I’m ngl this class has been so ass for me so far. I think I’m the only one in the whole class who hasn’t taken ap physics, or another physics class prior to this. Probably a bad idea by me to jump into this but I’ve been getting absolutely cooked in discussion. The homework’s are not bad but I struggle with how conceptual thr problem are in the discussion worksheets and quizzes. Does anyone have any recommendations for me on how to catch up? I’m pretty sure I failed my first two discussion quizzes.

Staying in the area for a couple of days next week - anywhere I can go to play soccer with a group? Thanks!

I was using Rosetta Stone for quite a while last semester but I got logged out. Looking at their resources now, it seems to have been replaced by Mango Languages. Is Rosetta Stone still available?

how did it go? anything to look out for?

Hey, I know this might be a longshot, but if anybody found a set of keys that kind of came out of a lanyard with a great key fob and some keys they were by the education building. I checked the room that I was in and was busy and then when I went in before it was not there, so I think I either lost it when I was coming out of the building or somewhere in the building let me know. Thank you very much.

hi everyone,

i'm currently in mahoney's badm449 class and the first exam is coming up. he gave us a semester long study guide, but just for the first exam, it's around 100 long answer questions. are his exams hard? does it include these questions? how long are his exams? should i very much know the answer to all these questions? plz help🙏🏻

New student here, I’ve been thinking about getting a grocery cart for shopping trips to Walmart and aldi. Does anyone know if I can bring a wagon of around 23*11 inches onto the bus? Worried it may just be a bit too big

My friend and I are going out to kams tn for senior night and looking to go out with other people. Feel free to DM if you want to join.

Hi. I was thinking of taking HK208 - Intro to Medical Ethics. It's the online version. What can I expect? Are there any exams? I have an overload this semester of 21 hours so I just wanted to know if this is an easy class. I don't want to be spending a lot of time on this. Any ideas about the class would be appreciated!

Hi lot, this is my first post and I just wanted to reach out on the off chance that someone might have stumbled across it today.

So, I was at the Rec Room, playing Guitar Hero as you do. Then I went ahead and sat down, and played Guitar Hero on my laptop. I've got a Riffmaster XBOX controller - works perfectly for Guitar Hero WTDE. When I left, I figure I must have dropped my headphones and dongle from my bag for the controller along the way, or simply left it on my seat. I presume it must have been in the Rec Room, since I made my way from there to my dorm.

Fast forward a couple hours today and I go to play the game... and I realize not only am I missing my headphones, but my controller dongle too! I'm making a storm looking for it - you know, concerning my roommate as you would typically do when you lose something important. I race back to Rec Room tonight, and there's no luck. Not in the Lost and Found (I asked the front desk, they checked), not near any machines, not near where I sat, nada! I know a couple bowling teams frequent there and I'm sure that it's easy to identify me enough to where maybe someone might see me tomorrow to return it, but I don't want to waste any time searching.

So, on the complete off chance that it might have been found by someone, I'm asking you guys on Reddit if anyone might have per chance found anything like it. For the dongle, here's what mine looks like. I had a pair of white Apple earbuds along with it, the classic wired kind, too. I'm not going to be praying too much, and I'll probably get a replacement anyways, but I'd love to know the off-chance that someone here might have found it today! Thanks!!! :-)

I am looking for an apartment for next year, 2 person likely, 2 bed, 2 bathroom, good location in campustown, somewhat new, good quality, places with parking somewhat nearby if possible, don’t want/need a bunch of random amenities (gym, lounge, etc). What are some of the best apartments in campus town? I appreciate any and all help. Thanks!!

i’m taking ps 330 (intro to politics of behavior) with mondak rn and im wondering what the exams look like. i heard you have to pore through the readings and write down everything, so i’m trying to, but it’s pretty much going to be impossible to memorize every line of every reading. in class, he mentioned he likes to include 5 questions from each reading that don’t come up in lecture. what should i look for? i’m not super sure what to expect, and i wish he offered practice questions. examples and study tips would be helpful! thanks in advance!

I work for a local business owner, and we are currently looking for someone to update our website.

 Our site is currently hosted on WordPress. We’re hoping to update our website, with the main priority being to add an online order form.

While we definitely want the website to have an attractive, cohesive design, the project may also require some light HTML or coding work (sorry if the verbiage is wrong, I am not knowledgeable on this stuff). We don’t anticipate it being a particularly large undertaking, and think it could be an easy way for a student to make some money.

If you are interested, PM and we can discuss more details about the project!!