Cornell Coronavirus Plea to Students: Stop Partying!
“Hosting or attending a large party is exactly the opposite of what you should be doing in this moment”
Many students are probably just dumbfounded by the suddenness of all the closures.
From the Cornell Daily Sun:
While Some Cornellians Self-Quarantine, Others Pack Parties in Response to Campus Shutdown
It’s a tale of two Cornells: There are parties, bars and profane bedsheets; but also panic, hasty departures and those self-quarantining after studying abroad. Amid the COVID-19 pandemic, some students are scrambling for plans to self-quarantine while others defy social distancing.
On Saturday, daytime yard parties — colloquially known as “darties” — dotted Collegetown, including one at the East Seneca Street annex of a Cornell organization. Hanging from the house’s balcony was a bedsheet-turned-banner, spray-painted to read “I’m not fucking leaving,” just a day after President Martha E. Pollack’s announcement to cancel classes starting Friday at 5 p.m.
Vice President for Student and Campus Life Ryan Lombardi condemned these parties in a Sunday afternoon email, writing, “Some students – particularly those living off campus in Collegetown – have chosen to use the suspension of classes to host or attend large parties,” he wrote.
“Hosting or attending a large party is exactly the opposite of what you should be doing in this moment,” he continued.
Social distancing, a popular defense to the COVID-19 contagion recommended by experts, is what prompted Gov. Andrew Cuomo (D-N.Y.) to cap bars and restaurants to 50 percent capacity.
In a GroupMe called “martha can’t make us leave,” with over 2,000 student members, the conflict these parties posed to social distancing was on full display –– revolving around the Catherine Street Block Party scheduled for Monday –– an event usually held post-finals week in May.
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Comments
The photographs of Collegetown on Friday evening after the closure had been announced were hysterical! Streets totally clogged. These students believe that they are among the smartest in the world!
Not so’s you’d notice!
Or maybe they are aware that their age group will at most get the sniffles and for them at large this will be no different than any other year where some students might get the flu, spread it around a bit, and then everything returns to normal.
There are still people out there who think that you can get AIDS from donating blood. Once dis-information makes its way into the public, it is as easy to remove as pee from a swimming pool.
Those ordering the closures willy-nilly with no actual thought about the consequences and effects of their actions (other than covering their own asses just in case) are more of a danger here than Kung Flu. We are living an episode of The Twilight Zone.
Or, maybe they think – like I do – that this is one of the biggest hoaxes ever perpetrated on the American people. They remember, when kids, the 2009 swine flu epidemic where there were more deaths and more illness, yet nothing was closing up, no one was panicking.
We are living an episode of The Twilight Zone.
LOL. You do know that Rod Serling was a professor at Ithaca College … just one hill over from Cornell.
OK Millennial
Francisco Garcia death: Spanish football coach dies from coronavirus aged 21
Turns out he had leukemia, diagnosed when he went to hospital with symptoms of flu-like condition. Not at all clear that CoVid-19 did him in, but sure did not help.
Collegetown partying in the midst of social disturbance? No!
When I attended Cornell as an undergrad 50 years ago, it was party time demonstrating against Vietnam, getting classes cancelled my Frosh and Soph Spring semesters. Mob battles with the town cops using pepper spray were times to gather and shout down “the man” and generally party hard. Drinking age was 18 then so …
Always remember that the so-called brightest students who attend Cornell and other Ivies are just kids with high SATs and dressed up resumes. They have a high opinion of themselves – and Cornell admin does its part to support that narcissism. But reality is they are not nearly as special as they think. I attended two other universities after CU, a state institution and a private catholic law school. A lot of hard working folks at those two schools who have gone on to successful and useful careers and lives. On the other hand, during my careers I have seen more than a handful of what I started referring to as “brilliant failures” – Ivy or similar grads who just did not make the grade in the world.