By Joseph Lichterman, Daily News Editor
Published September 7, 2011
As the University community grieved in the wake of the Sept. 11 attacks, then-University President Lee Bollinger was stuck in New York City trying to return to Ann Arbor.
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Bollinger, now the president of Columbia University, and Ken Fischer, then and current president of the University of Michigan Musical Society, were in New York that Tuesday to meet with representatives from the Royal Shakespeare Company about the relationship between the company and the University of Michigan.
Because all flights were grounded, Bollinger had to drive back to Michigan, arriving in Ann Arbor on Sept. 13.
University spokeswoman Julie Peterson told The Michigan Daily at the time: "He got a car, and he was driving back last night. He’s fine, and he wasn’t in Manhattan, so he wasn’t right in the middle of things."
After returning to campus, Bollinger, along with his wife Jean and Ann Arbor Mayor John Hieftje, attended a Sept. 14 service at the Islamic Center of Ann Arbor. They went to show support for members of the local Muslim community since they might have been targets of retaliation because of their religious identification.
“It is frightening and disturbing to people who are subject to that kind of intolerance,” Bollinger told the Daily in 2001.
The Sunday after the attacks, the Bollingers also hosted an open house at their South University Avenue home to provide students with a “home away from home,” Jean Bollinger told the Daily at the open house. Various campus musical groups performed, and small groups of students spoke with the Bollingers about the impact of the attacks.
“There’s a sense of family on this campus,”Lee Bollinger told the Daily at the time. He added that he hoped the open house could start to help the University community move on.
“There was some sort of transition needed,” Bollinger said at the time. “However, I don’t think normal life is possible right now and won’t be possible for a long time.”
Bollinger, through a Columbia University spokesman, declined several recent requests from the Daily for an interview for this
