The Sept. 11 terrorist attacks turned life's most routine activities upside down, and Richard McCarty's weekly staff meeting was no exception.

As the dean of the Krieger School of Arts and Sciences met with his colleagues days after the attack, no one's mind was on business-as-usual. While coping with their own fears, McCarty says, the group members were feeling frustrated, wondering how to honor the thousands who died, including five Arts and Sciences alumni.

Born from the staff's grief was the idea to pay tribute to the alumni through the creation of two scholarship programs, not only honoring those who died but also providing a measure of security for the families of the alumni killed Sept. 11, McCarty says.

The Dean's Office will provide full tuition for any of the five children of the Krieger School alumni who are accepted for admission by the university and plan to major in arts and sciences, says Paula Ferris Einaudi, associate dean for resource planning and development at the Krieger School. "Dean McCarty wanted to offer solace to the widows in a significant way," Einaudi says. "We hope their children will know they are a part of the Hopkins family."

The second program is the September Eleven Alumni Memorial Scholarship, an endowed scholarship awarded each year to an Arts and Sciences undergraduate, Einaudi says. "The amount it will pay will depend on how much is raised," Einaudi says. "A $100,000 endowed scholarship fund, for example, pays out about $4,500 per year." The account was opened with a $20,000 contribution from the Dean's Office.

Creating a way for future generations to attend Johns Hopkins is a fitting reminder, McCarty says, of Thomas Cahill '87, Paul J. Friedman '78, Matt O'Mahony '84, David W. Nelson '73, Glenn Wall '84 and also John Sammartino, who in 1990 earned his master's degree from the Whiting School of Engineering.

"What these six alumni had in common--both with one another and with us as Krieger School faculty and staff members--was their Hopkins experience," McCarty wrote in a letter to his colleagues. "It seems appropriate therefore that a tribute to them would be to make that shared Hopkins experience accessible to other young people."

After the Dean's Office opened the account for the September Eleven Alumni Memorial Scholarship, McCarty made an unusual request for contributions from his faculty and staff.

"Normally, we go to the alumni to ask for help [for our needs]," McCarty says. "Now we are going to the faculty and staff to memorialize the alumni. So this is an absolutely novel idea. I've been hearing only good things about it."

McCarty credits Deborah Cebula, assistant dean, and Steven David, associate dean for academic affairs, with coming up with the idea to create the scholarships. As of press time, the Dean's Office had already received gifts totaling more than $3,000, Einaudi says.

Each dollar contributed to the September Eleven Alumni Memorial Scholarship fund will be matched by an equal contribution from the Dean's Office. Faculty and staff may contribute through payroll deductions or by writing a check payable to Johns Hopkins University, noting that it is to be directed to the September Eleven Scholarship. People wishing to make long-term pledges and those seeking more information should contact Sheila Love in the Office of Development and Alumni Relations, 410-516-8722 or love@jhu.edu.

"What I love about this scholarship fund is that it reverses the usual direction of philanthropy," Einaudi says. "This time it will be the faculty and the staff of the school reaching out to honor alumni."

In addition to the scholarships, a plaque honoring the alumni will be put in Gilman Hall, where other war memorials hang. "It's a fitting gesture, I think," McCarty says.