Security guards standing on bridges could possibly contribute in some degree to combating student suicides. Much more effective, however, are fellow students reaching out and showing that the life of another has value. That its absence will have a tremendous affect on the people around it, and that there are steps that can be taken towards its preservation.
Cornell students have begun to pick up on this. Up until 12 AM this morning, at least three students were camping out on the Thurston Avenue bridge above the Fall Creek gorge. ‘Thurston Ave Love’ is their message, and have inscribed it in chalk along the bridge’s walkway. Beside the messages are white roses that were laid down earlier, apparently by a sorority. Security guards and fences won’t keep people above water. People like these will.
ALSO: In a departure form his usual biweekly scolding, Munier Salem has an excellent, albeit occasionally crass, piece on how to keep your spirit up at Cornell. I’ll surely be doing at least a few of the things on his list. Every Cornellian should read this – ideas like his and Thurston Ave Love are what will raise hearts and hopes to where they were before this month.
There are a million ways to be successful coming out of this place. Very few of them require a 4.0.
Next time you head into Mann library, Barton Hall or the ILR building, take a look at the inscription above the entryway. It says Excelsior: ever upward. For most of the world, Ithaca is where the Odyssey ends. But for us youth, who bear our books ‘mid snow and ice, this is only the beginning.
It just seems to me, now that I am out of college some years, too many professors in “research universities” believe their job is to weed and not seed. Back when I was at college (Rutgers, studying Physics), some professors actually loathed teaching and it showed in their attitudes towards students, sad.