On Wednesday night, the Washington University College Republicans led students in planting 2,977 flags in honor of the victims of the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks, with each flag representing one life lost in the attacks on the World Trade Center.

The Office of the Chancellor will also be involved in this year’s remembrance, ringing the bells of Graham Chapel for five minutes at 9:28 a.m., the time that the north tower fell. In addition, the office will lower the flag on Brookings Hall in the morning and raise it back up at sunset. The smaller flags were planted in several rings around three sides of Mudd Field.

Mary Richardson | Student Life

Students place miniature flags to honor the memory of the 2,977 who died during the Sept. 11 attacks. The Washington University College Republicans teamed with the Office of the Chancellor to recognize Sept. 11 on campus by lowering the American flag over Brookings Hall and chiming the Graham Chapel bells for five minutes at 9:28 a.m., when the north tower of the World Trade Center fell.

The event comes after two years with no official recognition events hosted by the University, which organizers say they found troubling. They hope that the flag planting will spark discussion about the events of 9/11, even if many students may only dimly remember them.

Junior Kaity Cullen, president of the Wash. U. College Republicans, believes the remembrance this year will be much more prominent than it has been in the past several years.

“I know last year we were frustrated because the flag on Brookings wasn’t lowered; there was nothing visible on campus, and we just found that a little bit disturbing and a little bit inappropriate and wanted to do something this year,” Cullen said. The last time the University sponsored an event was 2011, the 10th anniversary of the attacks.

According to the College Republicans, the flag planting itself was planned relatively quickly. The Young America’s Foundation (YAF), a conservative activist group, reached out to the College Republicans, which was already already planning a commemoration. The club also consulted the American culture studies department for help planning the event.

The YAF paid for the flags and shipped them to campus. Cullen hopes to save and store the flags in order to establish a yearly tradition. Although the YAF program (titled “9/11: Never Forget Project”) has existed since 2003, this is the first year it is taking place at the University.

Cullen hopes that the tragic events of Sept. 11, 2001 will avoid becoming taboo.

“I’m hoping it will get students not just to remember 9/11 but also to talk about it,” Cullen said. “For so many of us, it was something we don’t remember well and that we didn’t understand at the time and have kind of had to put into context as we’ve gotten older.”

“We don’t discuss it and I think we need to…I hope it encourages people to start those discussions,” she added.

Mary Richardson | Student Life

However, Cullen stressed that the flag planting was open to all students, regardless of party affiliation.

“We’re proud to be able to play a role in it, but we don’t want it to be a promotional event for our club…we feel very strongly that this is a strictly non-partisan event—that it’s an American issue,” Cullen said. “A lot of it is that it was important to our group when we didn’t see anyone else take it up, and we figured we would take initiative to do that.”

Freshman Ken Kuchnir appreciated the positive vibe that occurred during the event.

“Everybody’s really enthusiastic, everybody’s having a good time, we’re all feeling really good and we are all looking forward to doing this,” Kuchnir said.

Another volunteer, freshman Keaton Schifer, believed the activity was important for Wash. U. students to better understand the events of 9/11.

“For me,” Schifer said, “it means taking time out of our busy college lives to sit down and remember what happened because most of us were really young on that day, so it puts into context the number of flags we are planting and the number of lives that were lost on that day.”

Schifer said he values the effect the remembrance will have on the minds of students.

“It will be a very sobering event. As people walk around campus and see the flags, it will make people stop and think for a second,” Schifer said.

Junior Harrison Kay was satisfied by the display as he walked past the planting.

“I think it shows that we’re cognizant of a major tragedy that happened in 2001. It’s been a while, but it’s great to see that we aren’t forgetting what happened,” Kay said.