As news of death spreads, campus seeks comfort, answers, counsel

Rumors immediately began to circulate among students when an ambulance and police cars pulled up to 1939 Hall in Wilson College early Sunday afternoon.

As the day unfolded, students learned that a sophomore had died. Then, at a meeting later in the evening, Wilson College sophomores found out it was Melissa Huang '07.

From there, older classmates comforted younger ones, college masters organized counseling services and students felt for a classmate.

It became a story of how a college community comes together and seeks answers and support when a student dies, a story that was echoed across the country with student deaths at several colleges this past week.

After the other residential college masters and residential advisers learned of Huang's death on Sunday, Wilson College notified its students by email and soon afterward a brief announcement appeared on the University homepage.

As news spread Sunday, students were shocked and distraught, expressing disbelief that a peer had died so soon after students started moving in.

The loss touched even those who didn't know Huang.

"I didn't know Melissa, but I know people who did. The whole thing made me feel very uneasy, and a little numb," Marya Grupsmith '07 said.

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Along the Street, several parties were cancelled in light of the death.

Three days later, students continued to speculate about the cause of death, which has not yet been determined.

Some have expressed concerns about their safety, even after the Princeton Borough police announced that Huang's death was not violent.

For newly trained residential advisers, Huang's death posed an unexpected challenge.

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Within days of meeting their advisees, RAs had to comfort and counsel their freshmen, who faced a jarring start to their Princeton career, as well as sophomores, many of whom knew Huang or her friends.

"Obviously, there is no training that can prepare you as an adviser for something like this, so it's mostly a matter of telling your [advisees] the truth, trying to reassure them that events like this are extremely rare on campus, and dealing with the anxiety that some of them feel," RA Vidal Sadaka '06 said.

Though the residential colleges dealt with the death separately, each college discussed the situation with their RAs and encouraged them to address the questions and concerns of their advisees.

"We have asked the RAs and MAAs to inform their freshmen and sophomore zees that the University counseling services and the Mathey College staff were available to discuss and comfort," Mathey College Master Antoine Kahn said.

RAs had to answer freshmen's questions about how often death strikes campus.

"It's been weird because all your zee's come up to you and ask, 'Does this happen here a lot?'" RA Devan Darby '06 said.

"Basically, my role was a calming one. I just had to explain that this is a very rare and unfortunate occurrence, and I let them know that there were people to talk to in Wilson if they felt really upset."

The University also had to mobilize the counseling center in the wake of Huang's death. The University has offered various services to students, including individual sessions and group meetings with counselors, and large discussions with all freshmen and sophomores from Wilson, said chief medical officer Daniel Silverman.

University Health Services also offered counseling services for those with urgent needs.

"We strongly believe talking is therapeutic and healing but understand that everyone has his or her own way of dealing with loss and tragedy," Silverman said in an email.

"In other words, when to talk, whether to speak with a group of one's friends, family members or peers, or in private with a mental health professional, is best decided by the individual student and there is no right or wrong way to do it."

In an email sent to Wilson freshmen and sophomores Tuesday morning, Master Maggie Browning wrote that Wilson College will work with the University to organize a memorial service for Huang.

In addition, Wilson officials are organizing materials for a memory book, which will ultimately be given to Huang's parents.

Huang's death is one of several student deaths across the country in the last few days.

A graduate student at New York University died Sept. 5 after jumping from the main building of the Tisch School of the Arts.

At Colorado State University, a student was found dead inside a fraternity house, also on Sept. 5.

A sophomore at the University of Michigan was found dead in her room on Sept. 6, and a 19-year-old student at McGill University in Montreal was found dead in her dorm room on Sept. 4.