Marketing Cornell After the Suicides
Chances are that the prospective students and their parents perusing our campus during Cornell Days, which began last week and runs until next Monday, are well informed about the recent spate of suicides on campus. After all, last month’s front-page New York Times article and CNN’s much-played report titled “College Suicide Crisis?” made the news hard to miss.
Now, those in charge of hosting these prospective students (known at Cornell as “pre-frosh”) and their families are being given advice on how to talk about the very sensitive subject of year’s suicides and the prominent fencing that has been put on campus bridges as a response.
When asked about the fences, tour guides are told to emphasize that the fences are temporary and bring up the wonderful mental health resources provided by Gannett and the student-run counseling program, EARS. We also hear that tour guides got detailed information about each suicide before anything was communicated with the general Cornell community.
Deborah Feld, co-chair of the Red Carpet Society, sent an e-mail to all of the students who have volunteered to host pre-frosh that read “as we get ready for Cornell Days we want to make sure that you are prepared to handle any tough questions…you will find a number of talking points that have been put together to help you.”
Under the headings of “what happened”, “Cornell is a caring community”, and “Cornell’s response to the recent student deaths,” twenty bullet points frame the issue of the recent suicides on campus in language that would make Simeon Moss, the oft-quoted deputy university spokesperson, very proud. Here are some excerpts:
“What happened?”
- We have recently suffered the tragic deaths of three students in the Fall Creek gorge that were determined to be suicides.
- The last confirmed suicide of an enrolled Cornell student involving a fall into a gorge before this year was in 2001.
- We cannot speculate as to the cause of these most recent suicides, but their proximity to each other is especially concerning. We hope that as we learn more about the personal, social, and academic situations surrounding the students who died we will gain insights that will make it easier to identity at-risk students.
“Cornell is a caring community”
- No one is alone. Friends, family, teachers, and an array of counselors and advisors are ready to listen and help us through whatever we are facing.
- If we learn anything at Cornell, we should learn to ask for help. It is a sign of wisdom and strength.
“Cornell’s response to the recent student deaths”
- We are consulting with mental health experts at Weill Cornell Medical College, other universities that have had similar experiences, and national experts on suicide.
- We are asking all members of the community to “Notice and Respond” to others in distress.
- We are installing fences on the sides of campus bridges as a temporary measure while longer-term solutions are identified. This decision was reached only after much discussion and an evaluation of existing research. Studies have shown that erecting barriers on bridges is an effective method of reducing suicides.
