Saturday, August 29, 2009

Architect's Leap

CMU student plunges to death: "Less than 24 hours after his death, university officials removed a poem that had been scribbled anonymously with dark humor on the underside of the concrete stairs, visible to anyone walking down the steps.

The poem, written in black, read: 'If you're feeling like a jerk 'cause your project just won't work, go ahead and take the leap, then you'll finally get some sleep.'

CMU spokesman Ken Walters said the university was not aware the poem was there, and officials had it removed following Mr. Vakharia's death. Mr. Walters said he was not aware of any previous injuries or deaths occurring in the stairwell."
This is really very sad. I only post it because when I was a student in the 80's that poem was spread across several floors and the chalk outline was at the bottom. Interesting that they didn't know it was there. Must have been removed, and then replaced - probably over and over again.

My thoughts now are with the family and friends working their way through this tragedy.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

To my knowledge, it's not been erased and redrawn; until a few days ago its description matched that of the original. It ended with "Burma Shave," which is hardly a modern reference.

I would posit that university officials have long, uh, "overlooked" the jingle, but certainly there were those who were aware.