DPS News

Article written by DPS Communication Assistant Ruth Brisson, Newhouse ’29

“It’s humbling to just sit back and remember, and having an event like this to honor those who died serving our country is something that stays with you.”— Jeremy Welling

Twenty-five years ago, the Twin Towers fell as a result of an act of terrorism against the United States. The attack killed an estimated 2,977 people, and a little over 400 of them were first responders. Since that day, hundreds more have died due to lingering effects from their work at Ground Zero. September 11th is a day to remember those lost and honor them through action.

On Friday, September 11, 2026, Syracuse University Ambulance held the 9/11 Memorial Stair Climb & Walk event at the JMA Wireless Dome. The event began at exactly 8:46 a.m., the time at which the first plane hit the North Tower of the World Trade Center.

Joe Hernon, Associate Vice President for Emergency and Environmental Risk Services and veteran of the United States Air Force, did the walk in full uniform.

“In walking in the shoes of the firefighters and the first responders, police officers, Port Authority, everyone who went running in when people were running out and trying to represent their service and sacrifice… we’re doing it to symbolize what they did,” said Hernon.

Participants in the climb went all around the upper edge of the Dome, doing the steps in the bleachers.

Every participant received a badge with a first responder that passed away due to the 9/11 attack. Randy Jensen from National Fallen Firefighters Foundation spoke to participants before the event and asked of them, “While you’re walking or climbing, take a second and look at your badge. That’s who you’re walking for.” He continued: “When you get home tonight, research your person for me. They led meaningful lives, and we will remember them.”

During the event, the climb stopped for a minute of silence at 9:03 a.m., to mark the time Flight 175 crashed into the South Tower. While stopped, many participants put their heads down and placed their hand over their heart for the whole minute.

Many different kinds of people attended the climb: the LeMoyne lacrosse team, community members, first responders, and students, all of whom came together to commemorate those who died that day. When asked about the impact of the event, Syracuse University Department of Public Safety Commander Jeremy Welling said, “We’re looking at it right now—we have a bunch of students, a bunch of younger people who weren’t even around or born during [the attack]. This is a way to have a part of the history of what happened.” Hernon reflected on the day and encapsulated the event as a whole.

“We say ‘never forget,’ but to truly honor that and to live that, I think these days are about finding a way to show their sacrifice, to show that we never forget.”

Michael Bunker, associate vice president and chief of campus safety and emergency management services for Syracuse University’s Department of Public Safety (SU DPS), has been named a director-at-large for the International Association of Campus Law Enforcement Administrators (IACLEA) Board of Directors.

Read the full article on Syracuse University Today.

Lieutenant Alvarez remembers exactly what he was doing the morning everything changed: standing at a book fair table in his fifth-grade classroom, counting out enough money for the second Harry Potter book. He remembers his teacher and how proud he felt walking back to his desk with the book in hand. He remembers, too, the moment a few minutes later when another teacher rushed in, pulled his teacher into a hushed conversation in the hallway, and left her visibly shaken when she came back.

She tried to keep teaching. She asked the class about the book fair, who had bought what, anything to fill the space. Then a classmate near the windows called out that New York City was on fire. From their classroom in New Jersey, the students could see it themselves: a column of smoke rising over the Hudson from the direction of the Twin Towers. The blinds were closed. A television was wheeled in, then wheeled back out when the second plane hit. The blinds stayed shut for the rest of the day, and the teachers stopped pretending everything was fine.

One by one, classmates were called out of the room as parents arrived. Lt. Alvarez’s mother was still at work, so he stayed until the very end, alone in an empty classroom with his new book, before finally walking home. When he got there, his mother had no idea where his father was. His father worked as a building superintendent about fifteen blocks from the towers, and with no way to reach him, the family could only wait. He didn’t make it home until three o’clock the next morning, having caught the last ferry out of Manhattan before walking seven miles from the New Jersey side to reach his family, all while covered in dust.

The impact didn’t stop there. Lt. Alvarez’s oldest brother, fifteen years his senior, enlisted in the Army not long after, caught up in the wave of patriotism that swept the country that fall. Watching his brother return from his first tour changed, more disciplined, more sure of himself, left an impression on a boy who was still years away from deciding what he wanted to do with his own life. “I think the Army was really good for him,” Lt. Alvarez said. “You could see how he stood tall, the way he spoke was different. He’d matured. I thought that was cool.”

That admiration eventually pointed Lt. Alvarez toward the military himself. He enrolled in ROTC for his freshman and sophomore years of college, only to learn he couldn’t contract because of childhood asthma, a policy the Army had tightened after seeing complications among asthmatic soldiers deployed to the desert conditions overseas. “I understand it. I don’t regret it for what happened,” he said. But the door closing on military service opened another one. “I couldn’t join the military because of my health, but I could join a law enforcement agency. It was kind of the next best lateral in my mind.”

The path there wasn’t direct. Lt. Alvarez spent four years after college working with youth at a nonprofit, using a degree in therapeutic recreation to introduce kids who had experienced early childhood trauma to structured, age-appropriate play. He loved the work itself and the opportunity to make a difference, while the experience also helped shape what he was looking for in the next chapter of his career. When a fraternity brother mentioned an opening at Syracuse University in their Public Safety Department, it struck him as a perfect fit: the structure and discipline he’d wanted from ROTC, paired with the kind of community-focused work he’d already come to value.

Most students on campus today weren’t alive on September 11, and Lt. Alvarez hopes they understand it as more than a New York story. Two other planes went down that day too, at the Pentagon and in a Pennsylvania field, and the grief reached far past anyone who was actually there. “It wasn’t just the people that died that day,” he said. “It was their spouses, their kids. Somebody in California may have known somebody who passed away. So now they’re affected too.” He remembers, briefly, a version of the country he hasn’t quite felt since: one where, for a little while, none of the things that usually divide people seemed to matter at all. More than two decades later, he says the memory hasn’t dulled with time. “Every time it comes around, it feels like yesterday.”

Welcome to a new academic year. Please take a moment to review the safety strategies and communication processes that guide how the Department of Public Safety (DPS) keeps our community informed and safe.

Safety Strategies

Every member of our campus community plays a role in keeping Syracuse University safe:

• Download the Orange Safe app to receive alerts, connect with DPS and access resources.
• Follow Syracuse DPS on social media for important updates.
• Use sidewalks, crosswalks and walk signs when traveling across campus.
• Always lock your doors, windows and vehicles. Keep valuables out of sight.
• Use a U-shaped lock for bikes and scooters and register them with DPS.
• Travel in groups after dark or request the Safety Escort Shuttle via Orange Safe (8 p.m.–6 a.m.).
• Stay alert to phishing and scam attempts. Never share personal information with suspicious contacts.

Additional safety strategies are available on our website and in the Orange Safe app.

How DPS Communicates

DPS issues broad emergency communications when there is an active or imminent threat to campus, an active crime scene requiring the community to avoid an area or when a suspect is at large and we need the community’s help. Broad communications may not be issued when there is no continuing threat, when another agency has jurisdiction and directs otherwise, or when doing so would jeopardize an active investigation.

Public Safety Messages (Timely Warnings)

Public Safety Messages are distributed via email, the DPS website and DPS social media. There are three types:

• Public Safety Notice—a timely warning related to an ongoing concern for violence.
• Public Safety Information—a warning related to a property crime pattern or general safety information.
• Public Safety Update—an update to a previously issued notice or a threat that has passed.

Emergency Notification (Orange Alert)

The Orange Alert system provides rapid notification to the Syracuse University and SUNY College of Environmental Science and Forestry communities in the event of a verified emergency or immediate threat. Alerts are sent via email, text, phone, social media and the Orange Safe app. Sirens on the Shaw Quadrangle, Whitman School of Management, Falk College complex and South Campus housing will also sound. After an Orange Alert message is broadcast, more detailed follow-up information will be provided through various means, including but not limited to the University’s website, University social media resources, email, phone and campus radio and television resources.

Update Your Contact Information

To receive Orange Alert and Public Safety communications, all students, faculty and staff are strongly encouraged to go to MySlice, log in using your NetID and password, select Student Home or Employee Home depending on your primary affiliation with Syracuse University, select the Personal Profile tile, select “Orange Alert Contacts” from the navigation menu and then review your information.

If you need to add, update or delete contact information, select “Contact Details” from the navigation menu. Utilize the “Orange Alert Private Phone” feature to add a secondary/emergency contact (i.e., parent, spouse, sibling, etc.) to receive alerts.

DPS is available 24/7 at 315.443.2224 or via the Orange Safe app. Wishing you a safe semester.