School News

Raymond E. Crossman, Ph.D., President of the Adler School, shares this message today with students, faculty, staff, alumni, community partners and friends of the Adler School, as we approach this weekend’s observance of 10 years since the attacks of September 11, 2001:

We all remember the losses and sacrifices following the events of September 11, 2001—especially the lost lives and those individuals, families, and communities who have been affected. 

I also find myself reflecting on the many ways that our school community has been touched and shaped by those events. For many of our present students, much of their lives has been lived in the context of a world following September 11, 2001. 

The United States has been a nation at war since that September 11.  In many ways, a general climate of insecurity and fear – in the United States, Canada, and around the world—has led to amplified experiences of anxiety and other forms of mental and general health concerns.  Epidemiologists have not documented an increase, for example, in anxiety disorders, and it is certainly a problem that we’ve not studied the effects of war on population health and mental health more closely. 

But if you speak with any health practitioner who works with the public, they report narratives and symptoms related to war-time insecurity and fear.  I’ve heard many of our faculty, alumni, and students talk about grappling with these phenomena in their clinical and community work.

The more direct effects of war are unfortunately clear for many—including the families and communities of active and returning military personnel.  The new Military Clinical Psychology track is the Adler School’s effort to help with these direct effects of war.

In addition, there is great uncertainty regarding how to balance the need for safety and security against human individual and group rights and privacy.  We continue to see hate crimes and other forms of hostility toward groups mistakenly seen as “threats.”  And, in fact, this set of effects of September 11 led directly to the creation of the Institute on Public Safety and Social Justice in 2009—to promote public safety and national security through socially just policies and practices.

We all continue to attempt to make sense of the events following that September 11.  Through our Master’s in Police Psychology (MAP) program, we have learned as much or more about the challenges faced by our first responders as the Chicago police officers in the MAP program have learned about psychology.  It is clear that first responders require more support and tools to keep them, as well as all of our communities, safe.

There’s much that the realities after that September 11 require of the Adler School and its students, alumni, faculty, and staff.  I know that you join me in continuing to consider and act on our responsibilities in the world after September 11, 2001.

Sincerely,

Raymond E. Crossman, Ph.D.

President
The Adler School