SYRACUSE, N.Y. (NCC News) — Syracuse University’s annual Remembrance Week of the Lockerbie terrorist attack is taking a different form this year due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The events honor 35 Syracuse University students who were killed on their flight home from a semester abroad in 1988. This year, the events will be almost completely virtual.
Remembrance Scholars are 35 seniors chosen to represent each life lost from the tragedy. One of the victims was Turhan Ergin. Gaby Phillips is the Remembrance Scholar who represents Ergin. Phillips has been learning a great amount about Ergin through archives and has been in contact with his mother.
“I just feel like every new thing I learn about Turhan, I feel like we would have been great friends,” Phillips said.
This year, instead of one week of in-person events, the Remembrance Scholars are organizing many virtual events throughout the semester. They are planning panel discussions with guest speakers and utilizing their social media pages to reach a broader audience. Vanessa St. Oegger-Menn, advisor to the Remembrance and Lockerbie Scholars, said this year the cohort has to be creative.
“We’re of course missing that experience of all being in the same room experiencing something collectively together,” St. Oegger-Menn said. “But I think the scholars are doing a fantastic job thinking of ways that these virtual events can still be meaningful.”
Phillips also wishes the events could be held in person, but she is trying to have a positive outlook on virtual events.
“It’s hard because you can’t actually be there like feeling how powerful these certain events are,” Phillips said. “But then again, I think virtual events allow us to expand our reach far beyond our campus.”
The Rose-Laying Ceremony and Remembrance Convocation, two of the main events of Remembrance Week, have been postponed until the spring in hopes that they can still happen in person.
For Phillips, being a Remembrance Scholar is about doing something bigger than herself.
“There is really nothing better than to be doing my last year of college for someone else, as well as for myself,” Phillips said.
According to St. Oegger-Menn, events will be announced on a rolling basis throughout the semester. For more information, visit SU Remembrance’s website.
