3RD SUICIDE hits Cornell in less than a month?...

<p>quoting statistics helps everyone except for your futile (and frankly cowardly) argument, Cad.</p>

<p>Thank you, Bruno!</p>

<p>JustBreathe:</p>

<p>Your response was very thoughtful. I read about the Caltech incidents in an article online which mentions that mental illness is rising on campuses as a result of the pressures of college life. Obviously students already with the illness are on campuses as well. If depression and mental illness are becoming so prevalent and suicide is on the rise, then shouldn’t these intense schools ease up on the kids?</p>

<p>“If depression and mental illness are becoming so prevalent and suicide is on the rise, then shouldn’t these intense schools ease up on the kids?”</p>

<p>No. They should go to easier schools where they can get more coddling.</p>

<p>Or, alternatively, colleges can make sure they have a robust mental health unit with a distinct “doors open” policy. Cornell could really use a service like CAPS or mental health professionals or EARS or something.</p>

<p>“.Ok, admittedly, some students do have ‘mental issues’ but how many student can have this issue?”</p>

<p>How about 3 students?
Is that a small enough number for you?</p>

<p>Fact is, about 10% of the population 18 and older has depression.
For a school with 20,000 students that means as many as 2,000 students at this campus alone could be battling with depression.</p>

<p>Therefore 3 suicides out of a theoretical maximum of 2,000 people is an absolutely small percentage.
It would not at all be out of the ordinary for all of these students to statistically have this illness.</p>

<p>And that is exactly what this is about. As has been stated many times, someone with a healthy mind does not commit suicide.</p>

<p>Since we cannot screen every single student every single day to send home all the students with depression, the best we can do is provide mental health services for those individuals who choose to use them.
Easing up on the academics for everyone does not ultimately help this intensely small percentage of on-the-verge-of-suicide depressed students. What does is getting at the root of their problems, which is THEIR MENTAL ILLNESS.</p>

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<p>Cornell, like virtually every college in the country, DOES have a counselling office staffed with mental health professionals. They also have EARS. </p>

<p>Unfortunately, though, there’s still a stigma attached to seeking counselling. Too many students fear the reaction of people who think that mental illness/emotional problems are a sign of weakness, or can be solved by “coddling.”</p>

<p>Suicide is not caused by intense academics, suicide is caused by depression. Tough academics dont cause depression, a lack of a social net and or proper exercise among other things cause depression. Will academic stress cause a depressed person to commit suicide, yes. Will stress cause a normal person to commit suicide, no. Therefore, Cornell should treat depression, not ease up on academic stress because easing up on academic stress will not help treat depression. Even if Cornell did ease up on grading, people who have depression would still commit suicide on a somewhat regular basis because their depression would focus on things like a lack of social connectedness or a lack of meaning to life etc. Its depression that we need to (and have been a la the aforementioned resources) treating. Saying that removing academic stress will reduce the suicide rate is like saying that taking the favorite liquor out of an alcoholics house will cure his alcoholism, when in reality he has plenty of other booze to drink.</p>

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<p>It has already been said many times in this thread. Depression is caused by a hormonal imbalance in your brain, not bad grades. </p>

<p>And, as I have said about 3 times already, Cornellians do not have bad grades. The average Cornellian has a 3.4 GPA.</p>

<p>These are very reasonable median grades:</p>

<p><a href=“http://registrar.sas.cornell.edu/Grades/MedianGradeSP09.pdf[/url]”>http://registrar.sas.cornell.edu/Grades/MedianGradeSP09.pdf&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

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<p>…more so than the people who actually GO/WENT TO cornell? right. okay. bc i thought you’re still a high school student?</p>

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i don’t think you can get any more honest than cold, hard statistics, and i think that that is what most people are doing to rebut your ridiculous statements.</p>

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i think you just contradicted yourself there, buddy; and all within one sentence!</p>

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except no one’s saying that there ISN’T a problem. people are just saying you can’t automatically jump to the conclusion that it’s only CORNELL’S fault. because it’s NOT.</p>

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you have posted many things in this thread alone that are insulting to me as a cornell student, whether bc you’ve just made incorrect summaries of situations or other reasons. but this just crossed the line. this statement insults me beyond the shallow level of school pride - as someone who has been struggling with depression for eight years, that statement, the fact that you just belittled an issue that i, and many other people in the world, struggle to overcome everyday with to something that’s as inconsequential as a f**kng GRADE… honestly? just shut up and go away PLEASE. </p>

<p>p.s. LasMa - i’m pretty sure gomestar was being facetious/sarcastic. CAPS and EARS are very much Cornell terms here on campus - and gomestar was a student, so… yeah.</p>

<p>Im wondering why if Cornell is a “so-called” suicide school. Why hasn’t there been a single suicide since 2005 until now?</p>

<p>Why do they suddenly need to do something different according to all these posters calling for drastic changes and bars on bridges and, and, and…</p>

<p>I am so sick of hearing the bashing of Cornell. If you are so upset at the rigor or the pressure, why the heck did you go there or send your kid there. Gosh, if you think Cornell is intense, you should take a look at the curriculum at the military academies. 22 credits a semester there is just average.</p>

<p>When I was at Cornell at xmas to pick up my D my son wanted to photograph one of the gorges. We went somewhere off Stewart street. Only thing protecting the edge of the gorge at the falls was a 3’ high stone wall. If they covered the bridges, it would be very easy to jump from there right into the huge Ithaca Falls.</p>

<p>So please, stop bashing Cornell. Look at the facts. yes, something needs to be done to help the students who need it, but just like they did back before 2005 they are doing everything they can.</p>

<p>But to suggest things like covering bridges or putting up bars or changing curriculum. That is just horsecrap</p>

<p>OK, so Cornell’s suicide rate is average. If that’s the case, why all the calls for covered bridges? </p>

<p>But somehow, pervasively, it has become part of the “culture” of Cornell. It is part of the conversation about college suicides. Certainly the geography of the campus and dramatic and public nature of the suicides has been part of the conversation in that part of New York for decades. </p>

<p>Sure, there are other schools with similar suicide rates, but they have neither the gorges, nor the “dominance” within the region. Cornell is the largest employer in Tompkins County. Add the student body size, and a suicide becomes a very newsworthy event for public discussion in this somewhat rural region.</p>

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<p>I know. They have a load of resources, it was just sarcasm on my part (they have CAPS, EARS, etc)</p>

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<p>most people seem to be against it. A few on here support, but I wouldn’t call it “all the calls for…”</p>

<p>Gosh I would hate to see the bridges covered, fenced, whatever.</p>

<p>are you kidding? how can you say bad grades don’t contribute to depression? i know i faced some really tough times in high school when I struggled to get good grades and I felt like my life was going nowhere. </p>

<p>and the median grades for engineers are definitely on the low side but thanks for your opinion, arts & crafts</p>

<p>Quote:
OK, so Cornell’s suicide rate is average. If that’s the case, why all the calls for covered bridges? </p>

<p>most people seem to be against it. A few on here support, but I wouldn’t call it “all the calls for…” </p>

<p>I was the one who broached the notion of doing something on the bridges, on post #28.
someone else followed that covered bridges can be attractive, but this was silly because there are six zillion other places to jump from. As far as I can tell, nobody here is in favor of this idea, I don’t even like it, I just thought it might happen. Probably because I was attending there when they put the bars on the suspension bridge, so I’ve witnessed such things happening before.</p>

<p>My reasoning primarly was that, though historically there has not been a huge problem, right now there is quite apparently a serious cluster going on, and from a PR perspective if nothing else the university has to be perceived as doing something significant in response.</p>

<p>I really don’t know if such measures would actually be effective in curbing suicides. There’s lots of ways to do it besides jumping, and as others have pointed out there’s lots of other places to jump from.</p>

<p>What I think is, such measures would not stop the committed jumper, but they may stop the impulse jumper, who just gets the notion while he is walking home, over the bridges.</p>

<p>I’ve read recently that they’ve done studies of people who were stopped from jumping off the Golden Gate Bridge, most of them did not subsquently kill themselves. The bars on the suspension bridge have been there for a good while now, someone must be able to review the data and see if this has had effect on the # people who’ve jumped from there. Maybe it is actually down since then, and these bars did help. It’s possible, I think.</p>

<p>If such measures can actually save some lives they should be considered, whether the suicide rate is statistically high or not. But as I’ve stated this is not a measure anyone there would relish.</p>

<p>They might also be considered if such measures could help keep Cornell off the front page of the NY Times for this issue, even if suicides continue, at not outlandish numbers, by less dramatic measures which do not attract the same level of media attention. My concern is that, given the recent happenings, now every time someone gorges out it will receive wide media attention, though the rate undoubtedly resumes normality. Which will then make many more people get the notion there is some huge ongoing problem there. When, with the exception of this recent cluster, this has not been the case.</p>

<p>gomestar: I seem to have gotten caught in that sarcasm-is-one-of-the-hardest-things-to-convey-on-the-internet thing. I’m sincerely sorry.</p>

<p>It’s ok. Nearly everything I post is riddled with sarcasm. Even that.</p>

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<p>very valid point. The media can twist things in such a way to make it seem like an epidemic of sorts, and this is such a shame for the thousands of people who have the time of their lives at Cornell or, even worse, those who would thrive in this environment but shy away for one reason or the other. I’d be curious as to some of the causes behind the recent cluster. It’s odd since there were no suicides at all from 2006-2008 (I was a student then). </p>

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<p>iseewhatyoudidthere</p>

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<p>words make a big difference</p>