The events of September 11, 2001 and their aftermath had a great impact on the Wagner College community. From the tangible loss of alumni, family and friends to the symbolic loss of the buildings that were such a large part of the spectacular skyline view from campus, Wagner College suffered along with the rest of the nation.
On Thursday, Aug. 25, 2011, the Class of 2015 moved in to high-rise Harbor View Hall, their new home on Wagner College's Grymes Hill campus, offering panoramic views from the open Atlantic to the Verrazano Bridge to the Manhattan skyline. Assisting the new freshmen and their parents were a corps of RAs, Peer Leaders, Student Government Association leaders, and members of Wagner Greek organizations and campus clubs.
STATEN ISLAND, N.Y., Aug. 29 — Saturday night, Wagner College turned an emergency evacuation into one of the world’s biggest slumber parties, with the president, provost and other members of the college administration spending the night in the Wagner gym with much of the freshman class while Hurricane Irene passed over New York City.
Text of final status update on Hurricane Irene, sent Sunday evening, 7 p.m.: Here are a few points we want to clarify as the remnants of Irene are cleaned up, the remaining resident students move in, and we prepare for the beginning of classes on Tuesday:
Resident check-in tomorrow. Check-in of returning resident students will resume on Monday, which will give our Residential Education staff just a little longer to get things in order before the arrival of more students.
Text of email update, sent Sunday, 1 p.m.: We are very pleased to report that Wagner College students have returned to their residence halls and that the Hurricane Irene evacuation is over.
To ensure the safety of our resident students, we are going to ask all of them to leave their rooms beginning at 7 p.m. Saturday and go to the Spiro Sports Center gymnasium for the evening. Residential Education staff will guide this move.
Please prepare a bag with any necessities for an overnight stay in the Spiro gymnasium. This would include:
Wagner College's Office of Public Safety has prepared some shelter-in-place tips for your home:
When evacuation to shelters is either inappropriate or impossible, you may be asked to stay where you are. This could be as simple as remaining at home while officials clear hazards from a nearby area, or it could require more active measures during emergencies involving contaminated air.
Identify a room with few doors or windows to shelter in place. Ideally the room should allow at least 10 square feet per person.
Congratulations to the Wagner College Theatre program, which has been tapped for the Emerging Young Artist Award by the Council on the Arts and Humanities for Staten Island. The award honors "a Staten Island individual or group of individuals under 30 years of age who have a strong record of achievement in any discipline or for a particularly significant single achievement."
375 students safely evacuated to gym. Wagner College has evacuated all four on-campus residence halls, and the 375 students remaining on campus have moved into the Spiro Sports Center gym for the duration of Hurricane Irene.
Albany, N.Y. – Thursday, August 25, 2011
AID TO COLLEGE STUDENTS BENEFITS ALL OF US
By RICHARD GUARASCI