Category: News || By Submitted Reports

Penn State's campus in McKeesport will mark the 10th anniversary of the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks on the United States with events designed to turn the date into an educational opportunity for students.

On Sept. 11, students will take a bus trip to the site of the crash of Flight 93 in Somerset County. Then, on Sept. 14, a professor of sociology from the University of Pittsburgh will lecture on the revolutions that erupted in several Middle Eastern dictatorships this year.

The trip to the Shanksville crash memorial will hold special significance, says Glenn Beech, director of student affairs at Penn State's Greater Allegheny Campus in the city, who notes that today's college students were very young when the attacks occurred.

Flight 93 was one of four planes hijacked on Sept. 11, 2001, by Muslim extremists linked to the worldwide terror organization Al Qaeda. The Boeing 757 jetliner was 20 minutes from Washington, D.C. --- where it was reportedly going to be used to crash into the U.S. Capitol or White House --- when passengers and crew members overpowered the terrorists.

Forty-four people --- including the four terrorists --- died in the resulting crash outside the small town of Shanksville, about two hours east of McKeesport.

"We think it is important to give our students an opportunity to visit this place and remember these heroes," Beech says.

The lecture by Mohammed Bamyeh, professor of sociology at Pitt, is entitled "Dynamics of Revolt in the Arab Spring." It will be held at 11 a.m. in the Ostermayer Room at the Student Community Center.

Bamyeh is the new editor of the International Sociology Review of Books and earned is doctorate in sociology at the University of Wisconsin at Madison in 1990. The author and editor of several books and articles, Bamyeh's areas of interest include Islamic studies, political and cultural globalization, civil society and social movements, and comparative social and political theory.

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Prospective Students Invited to Explore Penn State: Students interested in a Penn State education, and their parents, are invited to several events at the McKeesport campus in September.

At 6 p.m. Sept. 21, members of the Greater Allegheny Campus staff will host an information session "for parents only" in the Student Community Center. The session is designed for parents to learn how Penn State can help their son or daughter through their college years.

On Sept. 22, Oct. 4 and Nov. 10, prospective Penn State students can share in the campus experience as "Penn State Students for a Day." Events start at 9 a.m. each day in the Frable Building.

Students who need financial help going to college, or who are interested in studying aboard, the Penn State honors program and other topics can attend Scholarship Information Day on Sept. 29 in the Ostermayer Room of the Student Community Center.

Registration is required for some events. To register or get more information, visit the Greater Allegheny Campus' admissions website or call (412) 675-9010.

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