Content warning: This article contains mention of suicide.
BU Parents United, a Facebook group for parents of Boston University students, is spearheading an effort to grant an honorary degree to Georgia Dray, a BU student lost to suicide in 2022.
The effort began after Dray’s passing on March 27 and was initially dismissed under the leadership of former BU President Robert Brown. Last week’s inauguration of BU President Melissa Gilliam, who is known for her research on the health and well-being of young people, has revitalized the movement.
“It would have spoken volumes – that Georgia meant as much to her university as it meant to her,” wrote Georgia Dray’s mother, Sherry Dray in a Facebook comment.
BU had instituted an official process of issuing students posthumous degrees in fall 2020. The policy states students “must have been in good academic standing and within one semester of completing their coursework” to receive a degree.
Dray was a rising senior and member of the Psy Chi International Honor Society, according to a petition started by BU Parents United to give Dray an honorary degree. When BU denied the degree request, a community rallied around her family.
“Many Terriers reached out to us and wanted to do something special to remember her and the school didn’t want it,” said Alessandra Kellermann, founder of BU Parents United and a friend of Sherry Dray. “[BU Spokesperson Colin Riley was] telling everybody that the family didn’t want anybody talking about it … and that’s not true.”
Riley declined to comment.
After feeling dismissed by former President Brown, Kellermann said she and BU Parents United hope President Gilliam will now consider an honorary degree for Dray. Kellermann emailed her a letter on behalf of BU Parents United on Tuesday advocating for the petition.
BU Parents United also aims to work with Gilliam to improve mental health support on campus, which was previously dismissed under Brown’s leadership, Kellermann said.
Julia Lloyd, a member of BU Parents United, said she believes that the honorary degree “would be helpful to her parents to know that she’s not forgotten … that we still think of them often.”
Kellermann said BU Parents United believes that if the University had been more transparent about Dray’s passing, then other students would feel more comfortable addressing their mental health.
“There’s this whole idea of kids feeling like they don’t have the ability to reach out to somebody,” said Tracy Lynn McElhenie, a member of BU Parents United who shared that her own son has also faced mental health issues.
Lloyd said several times parents in the Facebook group have shared that they have flown to Boston to be with their children to help them through mental health problems.
Kara Cattani, director of Behavioral Medicine for Student Health Services, wrote in an email to The Daily Free Press that BU offers short-term individual counseling, crisis services and referral services through its Behavioral Medicine, Sexual Assault Response Prevention and Health Promotion & Prevention departments.
Kellermann, who works as a mental health advocate, has been advocating for BU to teach students about 988, the suicide and crisis lifeline. She said that under Brown’s leadership, the proposal to promote the lifeline on posters across campus was denied.
“There’s still that old fear that if you talk about suicide, it’s going to trigger more, and that’s not correct,” Kellermann said.
The petition for Dray’s degree is still active and currently has more than one thousand signatures. BU Parents United raised funds for a memorial garden in Dray’s name, which was built in her parents backyard.
“I think that by the way the university handled it, it was as if Georgia never existed,” Kellermann said. “That was very painful.”
