A&T Shouldn't Be Linked to Terrorism

Doing a story about a former student at North Carolina A&T being arrested and accused of acts of terrorism was difficult enough. Breaking down walls to get a story together and fighting other obstacles to have it published were even more challenging.

But it was something that had to be done because I am a journalist, and this is what I’ll likely be doing for a living. Yet I hope no one who reads the national news media comes away associating North Carolina A&T with terrorism. North Carolina Agricultural and Technical State University, located in Greensboro, N.C. is one of the nation’s elite historically black colleges and universities, according to Black Enterprise magazine.

Khalid Shaikh Mohammed, a 1986 A&T graduate said to be the mastermind behind the terrorism of Sept. 11, 2001, was just one of tens of thousands of A&T students who went through the prestigious engineering department, earning a degree in mechanical engineering.

An engineering degree from A&T is one of the nation’s finest degrees and will take you a lot of places. Unfortunately, Mohammed’s degree took him places far beyond our wildest imagination.

Let’s be honest here. Though Mohammed did graduate from A&T, the professors at the school did not teach him how to commit acts of terror. They helped him get an undergraduate education, and he was taught the same things that every other engineering student was taught -- engineering. A&T can’t control someone’s mind or actions, especially since Mohammed likely had hatred in his heart for Americans even prior to attending A&T. He didn’t show any signs of it, though, according to a classmate of his from the mid -80s. Additionally, it was the government, not A&T, who let this man into the country. A&T admitted him only to the university, the way it extends a hand to many foreign students who want an education. And what a great place to go to earn an engineering degree, especially if you’re a minority.

So to think “from A&T to al-Qaida” would anger me and the entire A&T family of 9,000 proud students, many faculty, staff and alumni and a proud chancellor who together make this university one of the elite.

N.C. A&T should not be linked to terrorism, nor does it stand for terror. It stands for North Carolina Agricultural and Technical State University.

A&T will continue to move on from this situation. As our motto says, we “Expect Success.”

Chris Wallace is a student at North Carolina A&T State University who is co-editor of The A&T Register.