September 11, 2001
UCSC community reaches out in the wake of attacks
By Jennifer McNulty
As the campus regroups in the wake of today's news, reports are coming in about the
whereabouts and wellbeing of the greater UC Santa Cruz community.
Ann Lauten, former graduate assistant in anthropology, reassured her friends and
former colleagues that her fiancee, who works in the World Trade Center, was also
safe.
"He walked down 48 floors, but he got out," reported Anthropology Department
manager Debbie Neal.
In New York City, the son of politics professor Bruce Larkin, Jared Williams, who works a few blocks away from the World Trade Center, was able to contact his parents in Santa Cruz with the reassuring news that he was fine.
"He called and woke us up to say he was okay," said Williams's mother, Helen Larkin. "I had to ask him what was going on that I should be relieved he was okay."
Williams heard the first plane crash into the World Trade Center, looked out his window and saw a "ball of flame," said Helen Larkin. "He was going to get out of there. His wife works near there, too, and she is fine. We told him to call us or send email when he gets home, so we're waiting to hear from him again."
Sociologist Marcia Millman, whose Manhattan apartment is less than a mile from
the World Trade Center, was uptown when the attacks took place. "It took me
nearly three hours to get the four miles home because the streets are just thronged
with people and all transportation was shut down," Millman wrote on e-mail.
"The streets were blocked and just filled with emergency vehicles, even national
guard with rifles on the streets."
Millman was watching the fires at the World Trade Center from her home, which faces
the scene. "It is really weird to look out the window and see only smoke where
the Twin Towers were," she wrote. "I'm just worrying about people I know
who work there."
In University Relations, Susan Canora was unable to reach her father and stepmother,
both of whom work in lower Manhattan. "I've been calling for three hours, but
the lines are busy," she said. "I can't get anything."
If you have news of a UCSC community member, please e-mail Jennifer McNulty in the Public Information Office at jmcnulty@cats.ucsc.edu.
