C.U. Minorities Stage Mock Funeral, Ask for Greater Univ. Support

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.

One Woman’s Plight Shows Minority Woes

Tai Minfei started a new life 11 years ago when she left Taiwan to marry her husband in the First Ithaca Chinese Christian Church. This Sunday, she may get a second chance at life at the very same church, which is hosting what could be a life-saving bone marrow drive for her.
Tai, who just celebrated her 40th birthday last weekend and is the mother of six-year-old twin girls, is in dire need of a bone marrow transplant. Last March, she was diagnosed with acute myeloid leukemia, a type of cancer in which healthy blood cells are replaced by abnormal cells grown from the bone marrow.