CAMPUS RE-ACTIVISM TERRORIST ATTACKS BRING AWARENESS TO COLLEGES.

Byline: Mariel Garza Staff Writer

A newfound political activism has recharged San Fernando Valley colleges since the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks as students hold teach-ins and professors scramble to add political science classes to course catalogs.

At California State University, Northridge, hundreds of students and faculty members have packed seminars and staged teach-ins sparked by the terrorist strikes on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon.

At Pierce College in Woodland Hills, students are incorporating the events of Sept. 11 into classroom philosophy discussions. And at Mission College in Sylmar, students have formed the first political science club on campus.

``This is the first time I ever felt strongly enough about something to actually get out and do something,'' said Jimmie Flanagin, a CSUN graduate philosophy student and a founder of STOP - Students and Teachers Opposing Prejudice.

Flanagin and two other club members recently created the Wall of Reflection, an art project designed to help members of the campus community express their feelings about the national crisis.

As with the rest of the nation, the Sept. 11 terrorist strikes have engendered a sea change among Valley college students, sweeping away political apathy and leaving them with a newfound sense of purpose as they react to events unfolding thousands of miles away.

``This is more fundamental,'' said Charles Dirks, a political science professor at Mission College, which has added a second contemporary politics class to meet student demand. ``It has really shaken students up. They've kind of taken freedoms for granted.

``When terrorism happened in east Africa, to them it was just something that happened over there. Now, all of a sudden, they are in jeopardy.''

Pierce College professor Betty Odello noticed a marked change in her philosophy students just days after the attacks on the East Coast. Suddenly, they were brimming with curiosity about other cultures.

``The idea of multiculturalism has become alive and well,'' Odello said. ``People are interested more in other people.''

That's certainly true of Baltazar Martinez, a Mission College student who helped create the Political Science Club, which draws together students to discuss current affairs and politics.

``I love it,'' Martinez said of the club, where he learned about the Quran, the Muslim holy book. ``It's a whole new experience.''

Campuses, too, have changed, adding a soup-to-nuts array of courses to meet growing demand for information on the post-Sept. 11 world.

Next semester, CSUN's College of Extended Learning will offer a new nine-course series titled ``Understanding our Complex World.'' The University of California, Los Angeles, has added 50 courses ranging from ``Historical Perspectives on September 11'' to ``Stress and Coping in the Aftermath of a National Disaster.''

The change heartens Amir Hussain, a religion professor and director of the Islamic Center at CSUN, who was dismayed to discover a deep provincialism in American students when he first arrived in the United States from Canada.

``When I came here, I was frustrated because students weren't interested in the world outside of California,'' Hussain said. ``They were not interested in the rest of the U.S., let alone the rest of the world.''

Whether this newfound curiosity in the larger world endures is a question that remains unanswered - for now.

``I think that this event is on a scale so large and its importance so profound that in many, many ways it may be ... a culture-changing event,`` said Brian Copenhaver, provost of the College of Letters & Science.

``Whether this is a flash in the pan, I don't know,'' said Anthony O'Regan, a political science professor at Los Angeles Valley College in Valley Glen, who has scrambled to incorporate the crisis into his curriculum.

``Only time will tell,'' he said. ``But one of the things that brought it home is that what happens thousands of miles away really does have a direct impact on us.''

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(color) Mission College professor Charles Dirks, center, stands with students Nachiely Brabo, Baltazar Martinez and David Rodriguez, who founded the college's first political science club after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.

John Lazar/Staff Photographer