This year’s surge in the suicide rate at Cornell University has some questioning the impact of stress on students’ well-being.
On Saturday, the Tompkins County, N.Y. chief medical examiner officially confirmed the two latest suspected suicide cases at Cornell, marking a total of six student suicides this academic year, three of which occurred in the last month.
Ling Shen, a freshman at Cornell, said although he did not know any of the victims personally, he saw one of the bodies in the gorge below the bridges leading to the school, where at least two took their lives.
“After the first [suicide] this year, not much was done, and after the second one, an email notification was sent to all students,” Shen said. “But the third [suicide] came two days after the previous one, and that’s when people realized something was wrong. After that one, guards were posted on the bridges 24/7.”
Shen said Cornell officials took swift action to raise the community’s morale by organizing a carnival called “Uplift Your Spirits” and encouraging students to talk to professors about any difficulty they may experience, whether academic or personal.
Although Shen said that a high level of stress on the Ivy League campus may have contributed to the students’ tragic decisions, he said he believes “personal problems and issues” played an important role.
“The most recent guy had broken up with his girlfriend about a month ago and had a friend who died from excessive alcohol,” he said. “There is stress here but one can’t pinpoint that as the sole reason for the suicides.”
Boston University’s Center for Psychiatric Rehabilitation Director of Services Dori Hutchinson said available data suggested suicide occurs at a rate between 6.5 and 7.5 per 100,000 among college students, or less than one percent.
“More common than actual suicides, though, are suicidal thoughts or what is called suicidal ideation,” Hutchinson said. “Fifteen percent of graduate and 18 percent of undergraduate students have seriously considered attempting suicide in their lifetimes.”
Hutchinson cited a 2006 study conducted by the National Research Consortium of Higher Education, in which 26,000 college students were surveyed across the United States. Sixty-five percent of suicidal ideations were found to be due to “emotional pain,” the leading cause of which is depression.
Other factors for suicidal ideation include problems in romantic relationships, school, friends and finances, the study reported.
Hutchinson added an important risk factor for suicidal thoughts on college campuses is the high rate of alcohol consumption.
“Students reported that suicidal behavior was a consequence of drinking,” she said.
To promote the prevention of suicide, Hutchinson said BU received a Campus Mental Health Promotion Grant last fall, which is funding the training of students on campus to “listen empathetically to their friends so they can identify signs of distress,” and then, if needed, refer them to one of the various resources on campus.
“We just started our first trainings with 24 BU students last week,” she said. “We hope to train hundreds of BU students over the next few years who can help us get the word out that our campus cares.”
Additionally, Active Minds, BU’s student health group on campus, has undertaken its most recent project, based off the “PostSecret” phenomenon, to show students that all people struggle with various issues and that it is “OK to ask for help,” Hutchinson said.
In contrast to Cornell, BU spokesman Colin Riley said he couldn’t remember the last time BU reported a suicide.
College of General Studies sophomores Marina Schachnik and Stephanie Soder said that they were most taken when they heard that news of the Cornell suicides didn’t seem to particularly affect some people.
“The most disturbing thing is that people aren’t really fazed,” Soder said.
Schachnik added, “Because it was Cornell, people aren’t as surprised. If it had been at some other school, I think people would have been more shocked.”
CGS sophomore Emily Cook said a friend of hers attends Cornell.
“She told me that the spot where people committed suicide hasn’t become a cliché, but now people see the bridge and think suicide,” she said.
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