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The vigil Monday evening on Low Plaza featured speeches from University President Lee Bollinger, Dean of Graduate School of Arts and Sciences Henry Pinkham, and statistics department chair David Madigan, among others—but the moments in which no words were spoken seemed to resonate the loudest.
“All words, all words seem inadequate, incomplete, at a time like this. This tragedy is catastrophic,” University Chaplain Jewelnel Davis said. “Deep in our hearts, from the depths of our souls, we search for words, and for adequate prayers.”
After the candles were lit, Yu’s girlfriend, Chao Sun, cried on a friend’s shoulder as her magenta-colored glasses fogged with tears. Beside her, three of Yu’s close friends huddled together, their foreheads touching and their eyes closed. A tissue in one of their hands became ratty as he tried to fight back tears.
“There is a feeling of vulnerability that we all have when someone loses their life in this way. It’s such a shock to every single one of us,” Bollinger said.
Though he expressed his own sadness over the tragedy, Bollinger emphasized his sympathy for Yu’s parents in China. Minghui was their only child.
Bollinger spoke with Yu’s father on Saturday, but said, “There is nothing you could say to the parents of a young person, or any child, to begin to make up for the sense of loss.”
The University is currently working with Senator Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) to bring the Yus to the United States as soon as possible by expediting the process of obtaining visas. Though the time frame for that procedure can be highly variable—sometimes taking as long as several months, according to Josh Vlasto, a spokesman for Schumer—Bollinger said he hopes to hold a memorial service with the parents next week.
“We just want to push as hard and fast as we can,” Vlasto said of Schumer’s dialogue with the Beijing embassy.
According to a statement from University spokesman Robert Hornsby, “Columbia faculty reached out to the family in China immediately on Friday night. On Saturday, President Bollinger personally spoke to the parents of Minghui Yu to both offer condolences and assure them that the University would help facilitate and support all aspects of their travel and accommodations in New York. We have been directly involved in facilitating visa and passport arrangements with the U.S. and Chinese governments. We will also assist the parents with their son’s personal affairs.”
The vigil offered not only time for mourning, but also opportunity for introspection. Graduate School Advisory Council Chair Sean Parr read the Emily Dickinson poem “The Mystery of Pain,” and said: “We as graduate students in New York at Columbia University tend to lead focused, detached, and somewhat solitary lives, consumed by dissertation concerns. We do not always acknowledge pain, death, or even the presence of others. The recent tragedy in our community can jar us from our resistance to pain, and it is with great sadness that we mourn the loss of our graduate student, Minghui Yu.”
At the end of his speech, Parr added, “Perhaps we can be encouraged to draw closer to others in our community to support them at this time.”
Columbia University Chinese Student and Scholars Vice President Yiping Du, GSAS ’10, first met Yu when they took the same plane from China to New York last year. After the speeches were over, Du taped photographs of his friend to the Low steps as a plane flew overhead.
Yang Li, Business School Ph.D. candidate, said of Yu, “His parents saw him off at the airport. And that was the last time they saw him.”
“His parents are over 50 or 60, and he’s the future of the family,” Li said. “And now, no.”
betsy.morais@columbiaspectator.com