Get the latest Syracuse news delivered right to your inbox.
Subscribe to our newsletter here.

For Erin McLaughlin, a 2003-04 Lockerbie Scholar, studying at Syracuse University through the program “changed the trajectory” of her life.

Her experience at SU was an opportunity to broaden her education beyond her small hometown of Lockerbie, Scotland, McLaughlin said. She said the scholarship allowed her to be part of a larger community that was still closely intertwined with the history of her home.

On Thursday, Sept. 26, the Lockerbie and Syracuse Trust announced in a public letter that SU would not select two Lockerbie Scholars for the 2025-26 academic year. It will be the first time in the program’s 35-year history that the university has not selected two students to study at SU for a year.

SU has proposed changing the program to a one-week immersion trip with a group of 11 to 12 students, according to the letter. The proposed change reflects students’ changing interests, according to a SU spokesperson’s statement.

Many former scholars, including McLaughlin, have expressed frustration with SU’s decision to alter the year-long program and said they wished the administration had consulted them for feedback on the change. McLaughlin said the Lockerbie Scholarship has created close bonds between the two distinct communities since it first began.

“I don’t understand the reasons behind it, and I’m not yet seeing how the change will benefit and strengthen the partnership and the relationship that the two communities have,” McLaughlin said. “I’m still confused, still surprised and disappointed as well.”

In response to the announcement, Lockerbie Scholars and community members signed an open letter to Chancellor Kent Syverud and the SU Board of Trustees. The letter, drafted by 2011-12 Remembrance Scholar Christopher Jennison, outlines the community’s disappointment with the decision. As of Wednesday evening, the letter had over 100 signatures.

“The proposed changes … significantly diminish the impact and meaning of a program that has, for 35 years, been a powerful symbol of remembrance, healing, and international friendship between Syracuse University and Lockerbie,” the letter reads.

SU first created the Lockerbie and Remembrance Scholarships in 1989 to carry on the memory of the 270 people, including 35 SU students, who were killed in the 1988 terrorist bombing of Pan Am Flight 103. The plane crashed into Lockerbie, killing 11 residents on the ground, who the Lockerbie Scholars represent.

Lucio Maffei, a 2022-23 Remembrance Scholar, said he’s disappointed to see the Lockerbie program change.

“I really enjoyed my time as a Remembrance Scholar and I think one of the most important parts of that program was the connection that we had to this small community of Lockerbie … because it’s a really big part of carrying on the memory,” Maffei said.

Through both the Remembrance and Lockerbie programs, SU encourages students to look back on the bombing and educate the campus community about terrorism in hopes of memorializing the students who died and preventing future acts of terrorism.

Past scholars have concerns that the program change will decrease general knowledge and conversations about the bombing among the SU and Lockerbie communities.

Alicia Pagan, a 2021-22 Lockerbie Scholar, said it will be difficult for students to learn about the significance of the bombing over a week-long period.

“People got to know me. They saw me day-to-day. They had questions. I answered them. They were interested in the topic because they had built a relationship with me. So I don’t think a week is long enough at all,” Pagan said.

From her experience, Pagan said many SU students are generally unaware of the bombing and its significance. She said if the scholarship is reduced to a school trip, then it will limit the extent of influence Lockerbie students can have on the SU community through sharing their perspectives.

Multiple Lockerbie Scholars said that while the program has had a profound impact on SU students, it was even more personally rewarding for the scholars themselves.

McLaughlin said she appreciated her time as a Lockerbie Scholar so much that she stayed at SU for her remaining three years of college. That decision led to her application and acceptance as a 2006-07 Remembrance Scholar, which she said “bookmarked” her university experience.

Pagan expressed similar sentiments about her time at SU, specifically because she had never moved away from Lockerbie before coming to campus.

“Moving away made me grow as a person. It made me more empathetic towards others. It gave me a bigger outlook on life, there’s so many benefits to going away to Syracuse for a year,” Pagan said. “I’ve now made lifelong friends that will attend my wedding and see my kids in the future.”

Brendon Fleming, a 2003-04 Remembrance Scholar, said he met his lifelong best friend Stephen Armstrong through the Lockerbie Scholar program. Fleming and Armstrong, who was a Lockerbie Scholar, met in a Spanish class freshman year and have kept in touch ever since, he said.

Fleming said friendships between Remembrance and Lockerbie Scholars represent a “living memorial” that connects the two communities.

“The Remembrance Scholars together with the Lockerbie Scholars really helped to shine a bright light on the memory and the lessons and the love and happy relationships that have come out of a terrible tragedy,” Fleming said. “It’s more than just something to read about in the archives. It’s real human connection.”

Fleming said he was also disappointed in SU’s decision about the Lockerbie program and that he instead would have liked to see it expand to host 11 Lockerbie scholars for the full year.

Ellen Boomer, a 2015-16 Lockerbie Scholar, said the program was a positive thing that came out of a massive tragedy, and that to discontinue it would have a widespread negative effect.

Boomer said she had hoped her two nieces would apply and participate in the program. Her dad still wears SU hats and sweatshirts to show his support for the university, she said.

“Some things do have to come to an end, but the way that they’ve done it at SU is not the right way,” Boomer said. “The people of Lockerbie have already been through enough trauma, and to see such a big thing like this just snatched away from us and from the families is just not how we would have expected it to have gone about.”

Private institutions like SU have a financial entry barrier that makes it difficult for many students to afford tuition without scholarships, Maffei said. Students from rural Scotland have an even smaller pool of scholarships and opportunities to attend universities overseas, he said, which emphasizes the need for the year-long Lockerbie program.

The announcement came as an interruption for students who have already invested in SU’s program and begun preparing their applications, Boomer said.

“The students that are at Lockerbie Academy literally wait six years to apply for the scholarship, and some of them wait longer,” Boomer said. “I knew when I was in primary school that this is something I wanted to do … I (wanted) to be that person that gets chosen to go and represent the town.”

Professor Emeritus Lawrence Mason Jr., SU’s Remembrance and Lockerbie ambassador, has been directly involved with the Lockerbie program since its inception and taught nine of the students who died in the Pan Am flight bombing. He said he was shocked upon learning about the changes.

“The university has to find ways to keep the memories of Pan Am, 103 alive and the memories of Lockerbie alive, and that’s going to be the challenge going forward,” Mason said. “I am relieved to hear that there’s a desire to keep Lockerbie students coming in some form.”

Fleming, McLaughlin and others said that if funding was the reason for the change, they believe the scholar’s alumni network would have been willing to donate to a scholarship fund to maintain the program. The scholar’s open letter also includes this sentiment.

SU’s upcoming Remembrance Week, an annual series of events to raise campus awareness about the attack, will be held from Oct. 20-26. The week’s events are planned each year by the Remembrance and Lockerbie Scholars.

Former Scholars said they predict the proposed week-long immersion trip for Lockerbie students may coincide with Remembrance Week in the future, though SU has not yet published scheduling details for its proposed change.

McLaughlin said that, while the immersion trip proposal has value, she wishes it could have been implemented in addition to the year-long scholarship, not as its replacement.

“This is a community that is committed to remembering those lives lost,” McLaughlin said. “The Lockerbie Scholarship is really one of a kind in America and higher education. And why would you end something that has been such a strong, beautiful connection between the two communities?”

Published on October 3, 2024 at 1:14 am

Contact Kate: kjacks19@syr.edu