Chair display commemorates the 35 Pan Am Flight 103 victims
Corey Henry | Senior Staff Photographer
The Remembrance Program has been using social media and other virtual platforms this year to involve SU students in events.
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Thirty-five chairs sat empty in front of Syracuse University’s Hall of Languages on Monday. Each seat had a number, marking where an SU student sat on Pan Am Flight 103.
The display, a fixture of SU’s annual Remembrance Week, represents the 35 SU students who were killed in the bombing of Pan Am Flight 103 on Dec. 21, 1988. The plane exploded over Lockerbie, Scotland, killing 270 people.
SU’s Remembrance Week commemorates the victims of the disaster. While Remembrance events traditionally take place in October, SU has opted to hold them throughout the year to accommodate coronavirus-related health guidelines.
Every year, the SU Remembrance Scholar Selection Committee chooses 35 SU seniors to represent the students who died in the bombing. The committee also selects two students from Lockerbie to attend SU tuition-free for a year to honor the 11 Lockerbie residents who died in the bombing, as well as Andrew McClune, a former Lockerbie Scholar who died during his time at SU.
The chairs will remain outside the Hall of Languages until Friday. While many Remembrance events will take place virtually this year, Remembrance Scholars will sit in the chairs between 1:25 p.m. and 2:03 p.m. on Oct. 6 and 7.
Though SU has displayed the chairs on the Quad for years, Remembrance Scholars sat in them for the first time last year to humanize the impact Pan Am Flight 103 had on the Syracuse community. This is the first year that the chairs will be in front of the Hall of Languages instead of in front of Hendricks Chapel.
The Remembrance Program has been using social media and other virtual platforms this year to involve SU students in events. Other Remembrance events this semester will likely include panels about Pan Am Flight 103 and modern-day terrorism.
MORE COVERAGE:
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- Seating display humanized Pan Am Flight 103 victims
- Remembrance Scholars honor victims of Pan Am Flight 103 in candlelight vigil
- Remembrance Scholars host “Terror in the Digital Age” panel
Published on October 5, 2020 at 11:18 pm
Contact Maggie: mehicks@syr.edu | @maggie_hickss
