3 suicides in 2 months jolt a college campus

The notification emails that are routinely sent when a student dies began arriving soon after the semester started.

“Our condolences,” they each begin, followed by the student’s name and a hauntingly vague explanation. “It is with great sadness that we share news of the sudden passing.”

At Rowan University, a state school in southwest New Jersey, there have been at least three suicides in just over two months, a sober statistic officials acknowledge is the most ever in a single semester.

The trauma on campus escalated Thursday after a male student was critically injured in a fall from a parking garage, less than a week after another student jumped to his death from another nearby garage. Authorities were investigating the circumstances of the fall.

The 15,500-student campus in Glassboro, about 25 miles south of Philadelphia, has erupted in a groundswell of anger and frustration at a crisis that is growing agonisingly common on college campuses across the US.

“Everything has been building up, but this incident was the final straw,” Alyssa Steinberg, 21, a junior studying elementary education, said in an interview, referring to Thursday’s incident that some students reported witnessing.

About two dozen students and faculty members gathered Thursday afternoon outside Rowan’s Wellness Center to discuss access to mental health services, as others organised a Friday night candlelight vigil “honoring those lost to suicide.” Many took to Twitter to criticise the school’s mental health offerings.

The head of the wellness center, Scott Woodside, held an impromptu forum Thursday night where he urged unity. “There’s been a lot of loss,” he said during the meeting that was livestreamed on Instagram by student government.

The owner of the two private parking garages is installing temporary fencing on the top levels of the garages and will operate 24-hour patrols until permanent barriers are erected, Joe Cardona, vice president of university relations, said Friday.

“It’s horrific,” Cardona said. “To have three in a semester, when there’s still three weeks left, that is extremely unusual.”

Based on laws protecting student privacy, Rowan is not allowed to divulge details about student deaths, he said. But the family of a student from Maine who died by suicide last Friday at one of the parking garages gave the school permission to discuss the student’s death openly.

“If this is going to help others, please tell others about what my son went through,” Cardona recalled the student’s father saying.

Compounding the grief on campus, Cardona said, are seven other deaths of members of the university community from causes unrelated to suicide.

“So many losses in such a short time have been shocking,” the school’s president, Ali A Houshmand, wrote in a letter emailed Friday to the community. “As a father, I am moved with compassion for each person who struggles. I implore those who need help to ask for it and for everyone to speak and act with kindness as we move through this difficult time and beyond.”

Across the country, suicide has been on the rise. In October, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported that suicide had become the second-leading cause of death for people ages 10 to 24.

Universities nationwide have been facing a growing epidemic of mental health crises as well. The number of college students seeking treatment for depression and anxiety has continued to rise over the past several years, according to the Center for Collegiate Mental Health at Penn State.

Experts have said that some of the increase may be driven by successful efforts to reduce the stigma surrounding mental-health issues and counseling. But they also pointed to a rise in stress levels on college campuses exacerbated by social media, increased academic rigor and a larger sense that a degree may not guarantee long-term economic stability.

In one study, researchers at Harvard Medical School found that 1 in 5 college students in the U.S. reported having thoughts of suicide in the course of one year.

“We used to think that if you got a college degree at a decent school, you could have a pretty reliable middle-class lifestyle," said Dr Victor Schwartz, medical director of the Jed Foundation, an advocacy group working to prevent suicides in teenagers and young adults.

The current generation of college students “don’t feel that sense of confidence,” Schwartz said.

While suicide statistics do not track the number of deaths by suicide that occur specifically among college students, data from the American College Health Association suggested that the rate of suicide attempts had increased in the last few years.

Adding to the concern at colleges was the risk of a suicide contagion. Research has shown that multiple suicides can occur close together, both in time and place, Schwartz said. The risks were slightly higher among young people living in close quarters, such as small towns or close-knit university communities.

Several schools have grappled with these so-called suicide clusters in recent years. At the University of Southern California, at least three students died in apparent suicides this semester. Tulane University and Appalachian State University both saw a number of student suicides in 2015.

Not far from Rowan University, the University of Pennsylvania has grappled with its own spate of recent suicides. Since 2013, 14 students there have died by suicide. In the fall, the school’s head of counseling and psychological services took his own life, rattling a campus that had made a concerted effort to improve access to mental health resources.

Cardona said that Rowan had taken various steps to alleviate what in past years were long student waiting lists to see a counselor. Three new therapists are joining the staff of 15 in the coming months, a ratio he said exceeds the recommended ratio of one therapist for every 1,000 students.

This fall, the university opened a full-time pet therapy center in the Wellness Center after a $3 million gift from a donor, Gerald B. Shreiber, of J & J Snack Foods, given specifically for that purpose. Many students have questioned why the funds could not instead be used to supplement the staff of therapists. Shreiber could not be immediately reached for comment.

Cardona said that as of this school year, there is no longer a delay for students to see a counselor. “If you call or you walk in, you’re seen,” he said. “If you know someone who’s stressed, tell us.”

Students can access group counseling sessions, or individual therapy, depending on the level of crisis. Some students may be encouraged to find private-practice therapists in the area using their family’s insurance, he said.

Justin Tobolsky, 19, said he visited the wellness center last year as a freshman, and was ultimately given a list of therapists and told to call around to find one that accepted his insurance.

“We want one-on-one therapy, and we also don’t want to be put on a wait-list,” said Tobolsky, a sophomore from Cherry Hill, New Jersey.

© 2019 New York Times News Service