Nine years after the Sept. 11
attacks, a non-scientific survey
conducted on the Bucks campus
showed that only 35 percent
of students remembered
who attacked America.
One-hundred students were
asked to complete a survey that
consisted of three questions
regarding the attacks. Students
were asked who attacked
America, which country did
America invade shortly after
the attack, and why was that
country invaded?
Only 35 people out of 100
knew that Al-Qaida terrorists
were the ones who attacked the
United States.
“It doesn’t surprise me,” said
Dirk Dunlap, a history professor
here at Bucks. “Our kids
are smart but they don’t read
and they watch too much television
and use the computers
in the wrong way.”
Out of the students who were
interviewed, only 48 knew that
America invaded Afghanistan
shortly after the attack, and out
of those 48 only 10 people
knew America took matters to
that level because Afghanistan
was harboring Al-Qaeda training
camps.
When asked his views on
the survey results, Matt Kerry,
a business administration student
at Bucks, said “The fact
that most people who go to
Bucks County Community
College do not know the correct
facts about the attack isn’t
surprising. However, a majority
of students at the campus
fall well below the level of
intelligence that one would
expect out of university students.”
After the surveys were
reviewed, it became clear that
many students who did not
know the correct answers
turned to racial slurs instead of
a simple, “I don’t know,”
response.
The survey was given to students
at random, as they passed
through the halls on their way
to class, while eating their
lunch, or sitting outside on the
patios. No single group of students
were targeted for the survey;
however a few students
who did not answer the questions
together had similar
answers.
While two students thought
that Pearl Harbor was the
country we invaded after the
attack, others claimed that our
invasion was only done out of
spite and retaliation.
Rafaella Avagimyan, a business
administration major at
Bucks, was asked her views on
the Sept. 11 attack and how it
affected her life. She said, “I
feel the attack was done by
hostile and cruel beings that
chose to create panic in the
United States and unfortunately
it worked.”
She added: “I don’t think the
attack had any strong impact
on my life in particular other
than an extra hour going
through airplane security. I was
only in the fourth-grade when
it happened so it didn’t really
affect me.”