A3C Director/Asst Dean Has Arrived, Welcome Reception Next Week!

As a reminder, Patricia Nguyen has officially started working at Cornell as of today! Stop by and say hi; she would love to get to meet everyone. Her office is located in Willard Straight, Room 208 (where the Office of Student Support is housed). Her email is pcn29@cornell.edu.

Also, a welcome reception for Patricia will happen on Tuesday, April 28th at 4:30pm at the Asian American Resource Center, 4th floor Rockefeller. Make sure you put this in your calendars!

We also have a Facebook invite. Click to invite yourselves!

Funeral March & Articles about Them

Yesterday, April 2nd, some A3C Committee members joined with other people of color and LGBT people to observe a symbolic funeral for diversity on campus.

Here was the press release for it:

Funeral for Program Houses and safe spaces at Cornell. Students gather to mourn the loss of safe spaces for minorities at Cornell.

Procession to Ho Plaza will start at 12:15pm in front of Sibley Hall on

Thursday April 2, 2009.

Funeral begins at 12:30 on Ho Plaza.

Please dress in black.

Cornell University is regarded as a forward thinking institution committed to diversity and inclusiveness, with a program house system that is respected throughout the country.

However, the university’s purposeful marginalization of these spaces has created the conditions for them to be degraded and disregarded. Cornell’s current policies and attitudes, if continued, will ensure the disappearance of these spaces in the near future.

We are gathering as concerned members of the community to raise awareness of Cornell’s present-day policies and attitudes so that we can prevent this outcome. Specifically, we come to raise awareness for Ujamaa, Latino Living Center, Akwe:kon, Lesbian Gay Bisexual Transgender Support Services and the Asian/Asian American Center.

We are aware that these spaces are not currently defunct, however, if action is not taken, they will disappear in the future. The funeral is symbolic of the impending consequences of inaction.

Contact thecoalitioncu@gmail.com for questions.

The Cornell Sun also came out with a front page article reporting on it and an op-ed piece:

• Article: "C.U. Minorities Stage Mock Funeral, Ask for Greater Univ. Support" - The title is actually not accurate, but it is beyond the control of the reporter--news editors are the only ones making these titles. First, it implies that only "minorities" should care about diversity. Second, participants of the march are not only asking for greater support, but support that used to be there but were cut or subtly being phased out.
• Op-Ed: "A New Vision for Program Houses" - A great article written by three community leaders. It sheds light on how the administration has been dealing with diversity problematically and how it can make changes that actually work as they are supposed to.
• Op-Ed: "Running the Risk of Whitewashing History" - A somewhat related article about the WSH Takeover from 1969.