It has been 25 years since Sept. 11, 2001.<\/p>\n
A quarter-century since the deadliest terrorist attack on American soil, much of the world has transformed in the shadow of that day. Faculty members and policy experts say the effects of the attacks still reverberate through Penn\u2019s campus, reshaping everything from security practices to academic curricula.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Penn had started working on a crisis management plan prior to 9\/11, according to Vice President of Public Safety Kathleen Shields Anderson. Those plans, however, were made more urgent by the attacks.<\/p>\n
That summer, the University established<\/a> an \u201cEmergency Preparedness Plan\u201d that included tailored preparations for each school and center.<\/p>\n According to Chief of Fire and Emergency Services Eugene Janda, each location\u2019s plans are shared with fire and police departments so they can \u201cquickly get access to the information they need about that building in case of an emergency.\u201d<\/p>\n Get the DP delivered straight to your inbox.<\/p>\n Sign Up<\/a><\/p>\n For events that draw large crowds \u2014 such as graduation, Convocation, and The Penn Relay Carnival \u2014\u00a0the attacks fundamentally transformed the University\u2019s approach to security. Penn began working with the Philadelphia Police Department\u2019s Ordnance Disposal Unit and bomb unit, and collaborated with the City of Philadelphia, Amtrak, and SEPTA police to conduct sweeps of the area.<\/p>\n Currently, Janda said, the department assesses threats based on \u201csituational awareness.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n Prior to the attacks, the University also did not maintain an active K-9 unit, Chief of Police for the Penn Police Department Derrick Wood said in an interview. As of 2025, the Penn Vet Working Dog Center has graduated<\/a> nearly 200 detection dogs.<\/p>\n Frank Plantan, an international relations lecturer emeritus at Penn who also received a Ph.D. from the University, said that potential security risks at the University prompted the installation of surveillance cameras across a campus.<\/p>\n \u201cThere had been massive resistance by students and faculty to closed-circuit TV cameras,\u201d he said. \u201cPenn Security had been trying to put them on campus for years \u2014 then after 9\/11, the resistance to that broke down.\u201d<\/p>\n According to Anderson, the expansion of CCTV cameras began well before Sept. 11, 2001.<\/p>\n \u201cI understand how people would see a correlation,\u201d she acknowledged, but clarified that the purpose of the CCTV program is \u201cprimarily investigation\u201d and not surveillance.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cAfter 9\/11, the risk was thought to be high enough that people were willing to experience lots of disruptions to decrease the potential risk of another attack,\u201d Michael Horowitz, director of Perry World House and a Political Science professor, said in an interview. \u201cThe issue is that at some point you have diminishing marginal returns.\u201d<\/p>\n Given Penn\u2019s urban setting, Horowitz said it was difficult to \u201cbarricade campus off from the community.\u201d College campuses, he added, are supposed to be \u201caccessible places where lots of different people come and teach and work and take classes.\u201d<\/p>\n Within a few years, Horowitz noted that police departments across the country had SWAT teams and armored vehicles. The federal government funded local response in a way that \u201cdidn\u2019t exist before 9\/11,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n ***<\/p>\n Horowitz argued that the attacks \u201cshattered the post-Cold War illusion that American power would insulate the United States from consequential attacks.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cIt illustrated that there was a new kind of adversary that everybody knew existed but that was capable of hitting the United States in a way that very few people thought was really possible before,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n Six weeks after the attacks, then-President George W. Bush signed the USA PATRIOT Act into law, dramatically expanding the surveillance power of the federal government. The act broadened the legal definition of terrorism and made it easier for the government to wiretap suspects, collect records, and share intelligence.<\/p>\n The way 9\/11 reshaped the nation\u2019s understanding of free speech, civil rights, and police activity may be \u201cone of the most significant impacts of 9\/11,\u201d according to Professor Emeritus in Political Science Robert Vitalis.\u00a0<\/p>\n Beth Simmons, a Law and Political Science professor, wrote in a statement to The Daily Pennsylvanian that Americans have \u201cinternalized all of this border enforcement and surveillance with an \u2018oh well\u2019 shrug\u201d without realizing how \u201cdrastically different\u201d things are in comparison to before the attacks.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cDebates swirl around whether these changes have been overkill or wise investments in national security,\u201d she continued. \u201cBut, hey, there has never been another 9\/11-like attack.\u201d<\/p>\n ***<\/p>\n Plantan was working on campus at the time. Administrators were navigating how the attacks should be taught to students, and soon after, the question was passed down to faculty: \u201cWhat were we doing to respond to the crisis?\u201d<\/p>\n Before the attacks, terrorism was hardly a marquee subject at Penn. The Political Science department offered a course on terrorism, but Plantan said it struggled to draw major interest. After 9\/11, it \u201cbecame the most popular class on the campus,\u201d Plantan recalled, a trend that continued for nearly a decade.\u00a0<\/p>\n The University\u2019s curriculum soon reflected that shift. Professors developed a course titled \u201cPolitical Risk Analysis\u201d in direct response to the attacks, and in 2011, launched a course on counterterrorism.<\/p>\n According to Vitalis, there was a particular interest in Middle Eastern studies. Before the attacks, the department was struggling with funding. Soon after, Vitalis said it was \u201cable to fund 20 more fellowships than we needed to beforehand.\u201d<\/p>\n ***<\/p>\n Many current Penn students were born after the attack. They often learn about the events through retellings from family members or history classes.<\/p>\n This year, the Graduate School of Education launched a \u201cTeaching Beyond September 11th\u201d program that educates<\/a> teachers on how to \u201cexplore the longer-term consequences\u201d of the event.<\/p>\n \u201cStudents need a clear account of the attacks, the people who were killed, including first responders, the culpability of al-Qaeda under the leadership of Osama bin Laden, and the immediate national and international response,\u201d the program\u2019s webpage reads.<\/p>\n Each September on the anniversary, students hear about the attacks, Plantan said. They know about the monuments and the new World Trade Center erected at Ground Zero in New York, he continued, but they \u201cdidn\u2019t live it or have that experience, so it becomes history.\u201d<\/p>\n Plantan still teaches at Penn and described how it is jarring to see his students no longer share the same \u201ccultural-based reference point.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cSometimes you say something about 9\/11, people stare at you, and you realize they don’t know what I\u2019m talking about,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n Cinema and Media Studies lecturer Kathleen DeMarco Van Cleve said in an interview that \u201cit\u2019s super difficult to communicate the effect and the visceral feeling when you are alive for that kind of catastrophe.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cThings changed on college campuses in the immediate aftermath of 9\/11, but those events have now been overwhelmed by other things,\u201d Vitalis said. \u201cThe Middle East Center at Penn, it\u2019s going to be gone. It\u2019s hanging on by a thread.\u201d<\/p>\n In 2022, the federal government pulled its funding for the Middle East Center<\/a> due to insufficient institutional support from the University.<\/p>\n \u201cThat\u2019s one of the challenges with bureaucracies and big institutions: Who carries the historical memory?\u201d Plantan said.\u00a0<\/p>\n Senior reporter Arti Jain leads politics reporting and can be reached at jain@thedp.com<\/a>. At Penn, she studies economics and political science. Follow her on X @arti_jain_<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"It has been 25 years since Sept. 11, 2001. 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