At a vigil on Tuesday, Cornell University President Hunter R. Rawlings III said, “In spite of these tragedies today, we will continue to keep the university open and we will pursue our work as an academic community. We will not give in to terrorist actions or threats.”

Halting a university’s operation in the aftermath of a terrorist attack would not, however, indicate a sign of weakness. There will be plenty of time for strength and resilience. Wednesday should have been a tribute, a moment of silence.

Tuesday saw little silence on the Harvard campus. One law school professor began the day’s lecture by revealing to his uninformed students that America was under attack. He then proceeded to explain how both the World Trade Center and the Pentagon had been hit in acts of terrorism. A woman in the fourth row began to cry loudly, and other devastated and concerned students left the room with cell phones in hand as they frantically tried to contact their loved ones.

Once order had been restored, the professor began teaching his course as if nothing had happened, leaving his students with an appalling choice: disrespecting their professor and missing course material if they left class, or grieving and contacting loved ones. He made a choice of his own: he taught down to the final second of the scheduled 95 minutes.

Furthermore, the professor continued to enforce his policy of refusing to allow students to pass on questions on Tuesday, despite the fact that his students’ minds were no doubt distant from the statute code.