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Friday, September 14, 2001

Members of the New York Law School Community

Our world has been shattered. All of us have suffered incalculable losses-of family, friends, colleagues, and fellow citizens. The peace that we have come to expect as our birthright has been broken, perhaps forever. Nothing any of us can say or do can restore what was; we only can look forward and do what we can to come back stronger than ever. Our Mayor certainly has it right: Americans and New Yorkers are tough and compassionate people, dedicated to moving forward, rebuilding, and safeguarding our democratic values even in the face of the most difficult challenges.

The New York Law School family has many difficult days ahead, but we are fully dedicated to resuming our students' education as soon as possible, and to sharing our expertise with those who need our help. As distraught as our academic community is, we have come through these events in much better shape than others. It is our job to do what we can to help.

As most of you know by now, we have been without power, Internet access, and phone service since late afternoon on that horrific day of September 11. We have established a temporary Web site at http://nyls.collegis.com Until we can resume our normal means of communication this will be the best way to find out about the law school. Please check our site frequently. If you would like to speak to me personally, I can be reached at 212-706-8558 or by e-mail at smatasar@rcn.com. We must be here for each other in this time of great need!

Friends, I have been meeting daily off-campus with the senior administration of the law school and our trustees. Our Student Life office has been calling student leaders; we have visited our students at the dormitory; and we are in constant contact with our faculty. New York Law School will do everything it can to respond to this crisis. We will do what we do best: use our classrooms to address every legal and moral issue raised by this cowardly attack. We will become a forum for our neighborhood. We will offer our legal expertise to those directly affected by this tragedy who may have nowhere else to turn. Every member of our community will need a sense of security and our school will be a haven for all of us.

What separates our society from others is our extraordinary commitment to the rule of law. Over the next few months our most cherished beliefs will be challenged. We must resolve to double our efforts (and then double them again) to bring order out of chaos and use every legal means to find and then punish those responsible. More fundamentally, as members of a helping profession, we must do all we can to bring our community back as strong as ever. I often say that at New York Law School we "Learn Law and then Take Action." Now is our time to do both.