Remembrance Scholars honor the legacies Pan Am Flight 103 victims by ‘Sitting in Solidarity’

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Silence overtook the typically bustling Shaw Quadrangle on Wednesday morning as Syracuse University Remembrance Scholars sat to honor the people killed in the 1988 bombing of Pan Am Flight 103 over Lockerbie, Scotland.

The annual Sitting in Solidarity event began with the ringing of Crouse College’s bells at 9:15 a.m. and ended exactly 35 minutes later. With the chairs organized to match the setup of the plane, 33 of the scholars sat where the people they now represent did. The remaining two, who both represent groups of people, sat in front.

“This event helped me to set aside that time, that 35 minutes, to really just sit and think about all of the victims who died, including Miriam Luby Wolfe, who I’m representing,” said Jovanni Mosca, a computer science major.

For the first time — on the 35th anniversary of the attack — the Remembrance Program changed its representation selection process to be completely randomized and had two scholars separately represent the flight crew and passengers not connected to SU. Eric and Jason Coker, two students who died in the attack, are no longer included due to the discovery of a swastika and antisemitic language in their archival material last year.

Jack Henry | Contributing Photographer

Emily Weaver, who is representing Christopher Jones, said last year’s Sitting in Solidarity event was the reason that she decided to apply to be a Remembrance Scholar for the 2023-24 cohort.

“This exact demonstration last year was just so moving to me to watch, to see each of the Remembrance Scholars who are there remembering the victims of Pan Am Flight 103 sitting to honor and represent them so that they can live on in the Syracuse community.” said Weaver, who’s studying earth and environmental sciences, forensic science and anthropology.

Ka’ai I, a policy studies and international relations major, believes the collective remembrance of the victims throughout Remembrance Week emphasizes the close-knit nature of the campus community.

“To feel the emotion of all these people coming together in remembering these victims, I think is really indicative of the campus in the sense that SU prides ourselves on being a family and honoring the legacy of the people who come through our campus,” I said.

Judy O’Rourke, who serves as the liaison between SU and the Pan Am victims’ families, said she was reminded about the importance of the week’s events on Tuesday. After giving a presentation about the Remembrance Quilt, two people who had lost family members in the bombing came up to her and said their greatest fear was that their loved ones would be forgotten.

“What the Remembrance and Lockerbie Scholars do, in addition to remembering, is working together, working separately, to do good and to make the world better,” O’Rourke said.

Tristan Wooley, one of the two 2023-24 Lockerbie Scholars, said it was very impactful for onlookers to not only see 35 students, but to see the students sitting in the exact formation that the victims sat in on the plane.

Mosca expressed a similar sentiment, saying the event’s visibility helps to create campus awareness of the terrorist attack. He believes that while SU students often hear about Remembrance Week in passing, the Sitting in Solidarity event brings attention to the magnitude of Pan Am Flight 103.

I said being a Remembrance Scholar has helped him connect with Gretchen Dater, the passenger he represents. He said that his connection to her grew out of their shared love of movies, which he reflected on during the 35 minutes of silence.

“I didn’t even realize something as simple as a shared favorite movie could really emphasize how connected some of us can be,” I said.

I emphasized the deep emotional significance of Remembrance Week at SU, highlighting the campus-wide effort to honor the lives and legacy of the victims.

“It’s almost an emotional core for the university,” I said, “It’s this reminder that, as a student, your life is valued and if something like this were to happen, we have an entire campus who is dedicated to honoring this legacy, these lives and their stories.”