Besides dealing with his own concerns about family and friends, Adams resident tutor Jamie Ciocco ’94 worked on behalf of his students. He compiled a list of Adams residents from the affected areas for distribution to other tutors and posted updated information about blood drives on the Adams website.

“Obviously it’s hard to tell who is going to be affected by this at this time, but we want to be armed with the only information we have available,” he said. “So many things were going through our minds, apart from people living in New York. We were concerned with how it affects Muslim students and the possibility of backlash against them, [and] for Jewish students and the backlash against them.”

Students across campus expressed similar concerns about ethnic backlash. Vahid H. Zadeh ’04, a British ethnic Iranian, said he has already heard some racially charged remarks.

“I hope I don’t get clumped into the whole Arab stereotype,” he said. “I was listening to Howard Stern this morning on the radio and he was ranting with venom in his voice that all Arabs should be nuked.”

Harvard Islamic Society president Saif I. Shah Mohammed ’02 sent an e-mail message to members warning them to be careful.

“After previous incidents of this nature,” he wrote, “there have been strong, sometimes violent backlashes against Arabs and Muslims.”

Community and respect were the main themes at the Memorial Church vigil last night, which featured Plummer Professor of Christian Morals Peter J. Gomes and University President Lawrence H. Summers as speakers.