An uncharacteristic silence swept over Ho Plaza at 12:20 p.m. yesterday as approximately 15 students dressed in all black marched to a podium in front of Willard Straight Hall carrying a casket and a sign that said “RIP Safe Spaces at Cornell.” As a “coalition of concerned students,” these students marched through the Arts Quad to Ho Plaza in a mock funeral procession for Ujamaa, the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender Resource Center, the Asian and Asian American Center, Akwe:kon and the Latino Living Center. The procession stopped in Ho Plaza for students to read eulogies for the program houses and resource centers, where it was joined by more students, faculty, staff and onlookers, before processing to Day Hall.

Almost every student would agree that the week before Fall Semester Finals is a wretched time. So perhaps it isn’t the best time to consider how to improve the dialogue between Cornell administrators and students. After all, we are trying to cope with a tidal wave of long deferred assignments that have hit us like a tsunami. In a frantic race against time to prevent academic ruin, desperate undergrads huddle in overcrowded libraries. In this fevered atmosphere, student stress quickly gets translated into inchoate grumblings about Cornell’s failings.