After Cornell suicides, University emphasizes counseling resources

The apparent suicides of three Cornell undergraduates within one month have prompted discussion among Princeton students and health officials about the University’s own measures to address student mental-health issues.

“The fact that these suicides happened at Cornell, whose students are in similar circumstances to students at Princeton, is very troubling to me,” Whi Min Ban ’12 said.

There have been six reported suicides at Cornell this academic year, with the two most recent deaths occurring on consecutive days in March, when two students were believed to have jumped off bridges into the campus’ trademark gorges.

In response to the wave of suicides, Cornell has erected temporary 8-foot chain-link fencing on some bridges. The university also increased its mental-health outreach efforts with additional contact with students and by training faculty to recognize suicide warning signs.

Ban explained that he was especially concerned because one of the students was a freshman.

“If it’s a freshman taking his life, who has only been at [Cornell] for six months, there’s got to be a problem, and I feel there is a need for a systematic response to reduce mental illness at both Cornell and Princeton,” Ban said.

Anita McLean, director of Counseling and Psychological Services at University Health Services, said in an e-mail that Princeton has been “expressing our sympathies and offering support to Cornell. We feel that it is important to give them space to heal as well as relief from all of the media attention in recent weeks.”

Julia Weigel ’11, president of Healthy Minds Peer Advisors, said in an e-mail that the group has not yet determined how it will respond to the recent events, though it will continue to work toward addressing mental-health issues on campus.

“The events at Cornell are an incredibly sad reminder of the reality of mental illness that exists on college campuses and of the responsibility that all have to see that individuals struggling with mental-health issues receive the sympathy and treatment that they need,” she said.

McLean said that UHS makes every effort to offer adequate support to students suffering from mental illness.

“Counseling and Psychological Services is a very well utilized service,” McLean said. “We see close to 20 percent of the campus each year, and that is excellent.”

McLean added that while CPS has largely been successful, health officials are not resistant to change.

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“We are continually reviewing and doing what we can to improve all of our own services. Continual process improvement is an important part of our ethos,” McLean explained.

Several students said there is room for UHS to better promote its services during the academic year.

“I don’t know how extensive [CPS] is ... I haven’t really heard anything from psychological services since the beginning of the year,” Michael Lachanski ’13 said.

Shim Reza ’11 noted that he would like to see the University pursue more active means of raising awareness of mental-health issues. Reza said he was particularly impressed by University-sponsored mental-health screenings at Rockefeller College during his freshman and sophomore years, which drew students with the promise of free T-shirts.

“I think more events of that kind would be a really good way for CPS to reach out to the community, especially for students who are reluctant to seek help,” Reza said.

McLean explained that CPS relies on “community education” to motivate students with mental illness to seek professional assistance, citing its collaboration with UHS peer advising groups such as Healthy Minds and with the Office of the Dean of Undergraduate Students.

But Ban said he does not believe that UHS has taken the necessary measures to seek out students in need of health professionals.

“Given that we are college students and trying to find out our place in the world, it should be the burden of professionals at the University to find those people who are in trouble and to make sure the emotional health of students is at least on par with certain expectations,” Ban said.