Even with 41,000 students on this campus, the death of seven students since May affects a great number of people.

Considering the number of friends, family members, roommates and classmates that those seven students came in contact with, it is not an exaggeration to say that hundreds of students were directly affected by these deaths.

As for the other students on this campus, they are not immune to a fellow classmate passing away.

Because of this, the university should step up and acknowledge the need for a collective and formal memorial service for the seven students who have died.

So far, student leaders, specifically members of Black Caucus and Undergraduate Student Government, have attempted to create a memorial to acknowledge the students.

After these student leaders met with friends and families of those who died, they came up with the idea to plant a tree in the Peace Garden with a plaque honoring the deceased students.

Why didn't university officials meet with these friends and families themselves?

Why aren't they proposing to so something to honor their lives?

Also, USG president Justin Zartman met with administrators last week to discuss a memorial service.

There is no reason why the university should need a student leader to have to request a service.

The university should have offered it outright.

Student leaders are reaching out to students in need, something the university is clearly failing to do.

The only exception is Eisenhower Chapel, which is running a series of workshops to teach students how to deal with these types of losses.

We applaud these student groups as well as Eisenhower Chapel for addressing these losses.

Not holding a memorial service for these people is simply bad public relations on the university's part.

They should not be afraid, embarassed nor too busy to publicly acknowledge or provide a service for the affected students on campus.

Penn State harps on the theme that Penn State is a big school with a small-school feel. How are students to believe this when, after a student dies, no university officials provide any memorial services or even formally acknowledge or mention the tragedy?

If students are to feel that they are worth more than a social security number here, the university should be willing to provide services for students who have died.

They are more than just statistics, they are people.