Monica Zeigler was in New Jersey buying a microwave oven as the planes hit the World Trade Centers on Sept. 11, 2001.

Zeigler, assistant director for the Academic Advising Center, will always remember buying that microwave oven and seeing New York before and after the Sept. 11 events.

Her story about Sept. 11 was just one of four represented Monday night at the ‘9/11 Remembered: Experience, Thoughts and Perspectives” panel discussion.

Others on the panel included sociology professor William Lovekamp, international graduate student Krishna Ignaliga and Major Larry Collentz.

Dean of the graduation school Robert Augustine was the moderator for the event that 16 people attended.

Audience members were given the chance to ask questions to the panelists and some were about personal reactions to the events.

Zeigler was in New York teaching at the time and walking past the towers was an everyday path for her.

Because her class was at night she was not near the towers when they were hit, which she describes as luck.

“You think about your luck,” she said. “In terms for me, it is something you never forget.”

Now, walking past the place where the towers once where in a city she calls home, it is not the same.

“It (the World Trade Centers) was our landmark,” she said. “Now that it’s gone, you absolutely miss it.”

Zeigler said that when discussion began about building the first tower, which was built in Dec. 1970, people were upset that it would block the landscape view.

Even when the south tower was built in Jan. 1972 people still did not want a building that would obstruct the view, she said.

Zeigler said that now those same people who opposed the towers are sad to see it gone.

Nicole Mulroolney, freshman secondary education major, enjoyed hearing Zeigler’s story because she was close to the events.

She provided good insight on the event, Mulroolney said.

Mulroolney, who attended for a foundations class, was not expecting the discussion to be a question and answer session with a moderator but rather a chance for the panel to give a speech on their thoughts and experiences.

Although it was not what she expected, she thought it was interesting event to go to.

The panel gave good information about the events and their experiences and thoughts still showed through with their answers, she said.

Lovekamp talked mostly about how society was affected and how it affected him as a sociology professor.

The Sept. 11 attacks affected Lovekamp’s research on disasters and faced a moral dilemma.

He felt a moral dilemma because it was a part of his research, but he never wanted anything like this to happen.

Even after the initial day of the attacks, Lovekamp felt the pressure and even considered changing the concentration of his research.

“It was really overwhelming a couple of weeks later,” he said.

Lovekamp said that people reacted predictably after the events in the sense of being altruistic.

“Everyone was very altruistic,” he said. “They help others in these times.”

One thing Lovekamp did say about the reactions, was that the communication was not as well as it could have been, and he compared it to that of hurricane Katrina.

Effective communication is important in times like these but that was not always the case, he said.

Collentz, who also is a professor for military science, was in Germany on Sept. 11, 2001 and saw how people in another country reacted.

“They were really supportive,” he said of the government in Germany. “I thought I was back in the States.”

While in Germany, Collentz said that there was some American intolerance in the country but it was not prominently displayed.

“I never picked (out) any anti-Americanism,” he said.

Collentz also talked about how the military reacted, especially with volunteers.

“People just felt the urge to volunteer,” he said.

Although the military was not recruiting, their numbers increased.

Ignaliga, on the other hand, gave the perspective to the audience about what it was like to be an international student at the time.

She was a freshman in class on the day of Sept. 11 and her professor told her to go home and watch the news, where she then saw that the towers were hit by planes.

Her family knew that Charleston was not near the attacks but feared that Ignaliga would be attacked because she is from the Middle East.

“I was so glad Charleston is an open-minded community,” she said.

Ignaliga, now a history graduate student, was shocked by the events and even today is still amazed by the magnitude of Sept. 11.

“I had no inclination that anything of this magnitude could occur,” she said. “I was incredibly appalled.”