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In 1988, Pan Am Flight 103 exploded after a bomb in the cargo hold went off, causing wreckage to rain down onto the residents of Lockerbie, Scotland. Of the 270 victims, 35 of which were Syracuse University students returning from a semester abroad in London and Florence.

Eight years after the attack, in 1996, Lockerbie Scholars organized the first Remembrance Week to help friends and families of the victims mourn and celebrate them.

As a current freshman at SU, I was completely unaware of Pan Am Flight 103, and, by extension, Remembrance Week itself. It was only brought to my attention days before it began, prompting me to question the role non-scholars play in Remembrance Week.

Remembrance Scholars are tasked with “Act Forward” projects meant to “deepen the Scholars’ and the campus communities’ understanding of the Pan Am 103 tragedy through research, outreach, discourse, education, and creative engagement.”

Remembrance Scholars are inherently more engaged with Remembrance Week than other students, which is rightfully due to their accomplishments. However, I felt a bit of a divide as a non-scholar.

But as a freshman and someone who isn’t a scholar, I’ve been seeking ways to involve myself in the celebration more intimately.

Remembrance Week is a great way to mourn the victims of Pan AM 103 while simultaneously raising awareness for the attack itself. But we shouldn’t just restrict remembrance to one week out of the year. SU should make a push to celebrate the victims year-round while continuing to support their families and friends with Remembrance Week events.

Many of the emails related to Remembrance Week and its significance were sent out only a few days in advance to the week’s beginning, with SU’s going out on Thursday and Student Government Association’s on Sunday. Students that may have wanted to participate in the events may be unable to do so.

Bringing awareness to this tragedy should be the point of Remembrance Week, and more year-round reminders could be the window to this. It’s obvious SU cares about keeping the tradition of Remembrance Week, so it should provide more long-term, easily accessible but tangible resources.

Since the beginning of my time at SU, the school has effectively communicated almost all of the important happenings around campus. Whether via email, social media or just signs around the Shaw Quadrangle, I’ve always had a good idea of what was going on. Using these resources earlier on in the fall semester for Remembrance Week will make them more effective than the current promotion material.

New students and non-scholars would be given more time to properly acknowledge the memory. Less direction as students begin their time at SU leaves them in the dark, inhibiting their ability to participate in events and learn about the attack most effectively.

SU should give the student body, especially those who have only recently arrived at SU, a larger role in Remembrance Week. Something as simple as encouraging students to attend just one Remembrance Week event can make them feel involved in celebrating the lives of the victims. This could prompt students to take more agency in what I believe is vital research of the tragedy and find out for themselves how important this week is.

Every student should take the opportunity to mourn and recognize the lives lost on Pan Am Flight 103. Spreading awareness keeps the tradition alive and fosters an educated community that can tell the stories of these victims to the next generation of students, whether they have the honor of being a scholar or not.

James Reed is a freshman studying political science. He can be reached at jcreed@syr.edu.

Published on October 20, 2025 at 9:21 pm