Last night Amadou Cisse, a PhD student at the U of C (in Chemistry) was shot and killed while walking to his home at 61st and Ellis Ave.This is an unbelievable tragedy. Just last week Cisse had successfully defended his dissertation and was slated to receive his PhD in just a couple of weeks.Also scary, is that there was another incident involving gun fire last night. A staff member at the U of C was chased by a gunman and fired on. Now, there was also a mugging last night, but that is sort of common place in Hyde Park. Murders and gunfire are definately not.The whole U of C community received three emails today alerting us of the tragedy and reassuring us that U of C Police will be stepping up their efforts. But still, it has always been my impression that Hyde Park is a relatively safe place. Sure, if you walk alone down a dark street late at night you might get robbed. Also, if you live on the first floor of your apartment building you have a decent chance of having your stuff stolen over the winter break. But, never have I walked around Hyde Park fearing for my life.I don’t really know what the mood of the University is now. I heard a couple of people talking about the killing in the library, but it isn’t clear to me that people are afraid. Of course, that probably varies with where people live. One of the bigger dorms at the U of C is just a block from the murder. I’m sure the atmosphere is quite different there then elsewhere on campus.It will be interesting to see how the University ultimately handles this all, but I think I’ll leave commentary on that for separate posts.