On Sept. 11, 2001, I was a senior broadcast journalism major at Texas Christian University (TCU) getting ready for my 9:30 a.m. reporting course. As I got ready, it was becoming clearer and clearer what was unfolding: an unthinkable terrorist attack.

My 9:30 reporting class turned into an all-hands news meeting to prepare the next day’s student newspaper, “The TCU Daily Skiff.”

We divvied up assignments. Mine was to talk to university administrators about their crisis plan. I started with a phone call to the university spokeswoman, Tracy Syler-Doctson, but the compact newsroom was so loud I could barely hear what she was saying. Soon, I was in Sadler Hall, the administration building, talking to her in person.

The rest of the day is a blur.

Rereading my story headlined, “University prepared for crisis, officials say,” I see I also interviewed the university’s vice chancellor for marketing and communication, the assistant police chief, a nursing professor and the university’s top leader, Chancellor Michael Ferrari.

I don’t recall those other interviews, including with the chancellor.

What I do remember is how proud we were as students to produce one of the finest issues in the newspaper’s now nearly 125-year history. We knew the world had just changed and our work mattered.

Chancellor Ferrari put it best, as quoted in the story, “It was one of those moments that none of us will forget.”

Aaron Chimbel is dean of the Jandoli School of Communication at St. Bonaventure University.

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Categories: 9/11, Jandoli Institute, Media