Suicides at Cornell.....very sad. I think its the pressure....and who is to blame?

College Search & Selection
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<p>Nation
Possible Suicide Cluster Has Cornell on Edge</p>

<p>(March 15) -- Steep, picturesque gorges cut their way through the heart of Cornell University's campus in Ithaca, N.Y. Over the years, however, the rocky chasms have proven to be a beacon for students seeking to end their own lives. </p>

<p>On Friday, Matthew Zika, 21, became the third student in less than a month to be found at the bottom of Fall Creek Gorge. The body of 19-year-old William Sinclair was recovered in the gorge on Thursday, not far from where Bradley Ginsburg, 18, took his own life on Feb. 17. The deaths of Zika and Sinclair are still being investigated. </p>

<p>"The cumulative effect of this loss of life is palpable in our community," Vice President for Student and Academic Services Susan Murphy said in a video address to the Cornell community.</p>

<p>While school officials stress that Cornell's suicide rate is no higher than the national average at higher learning institutions, the gorges, due to their accessibility and mythology, present an all-too-palpable means. According to school spokeswoman Claudia Wheatley, making the gorges less attractive for suicide may not be so easy.</p>

<p>University Photography
Three Cornell University students have been found dead, in suspected suicides, at the bottom of the Fall Creek Gorge in less than a month. Officials at the Ithaca, N.Y., college, pictured here, assigned staff to monitor bridges over the rocky chasms in the weekend following the most recent death, but say efforts to make the gorges less attractive for suicide could be difficult.
"The gorges represent a huge wilderness area," Wheatley told AOL News. "We will be looking at every way possible to make the campus safer, but as a practical matter it is very difficult."</p>

<p>Of the four deaths this year likely to be classified as suicides, three have taken place at the gorges, Wheatley said. In the early 1990s, five students are believed to have committed suicide by jumping off bridges at Cornell, The New York Times reported. </p>

<p>The weekend following the most recent deaths, Cornell assigned round-the-clock staff to monitor the campus bridges. "The idea was to have a friendly face there, and make them seem less scary after what has happened," Wheatley said.</p>

<p>Wheatley also stressed that while the most recent deaths coincided with a potentially stressful exam period, making blanket statements about what might cause a student to take his or her own life is not necessarily wise. "We have prelim exams every semester, and we've gone several years of having no incidents on campus at the bridges."</p>

<p>Wheatley's point notwithstanding, suicide at the gorges has become a part of Cornell's history. As Rob Fishman detailed on The Huffington Post, novelist Kurt Vonnegut, himself a Cornell graduate, even wrote about the phenomenon in his novel "Cat's Cradle": "Or if the sun comes out , maybe I'll go for a walk through one of the gorges. Aren't the gorges beautiful? This year, two girls jumped into one holding hands. They didn't get into the sorority they wanted."</p>

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<p>That’s so sad and may hurt the attendence of class of 2014…</p>

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<p>Very sad indeed. When my daughter and I were touring the school last year we went across one of the bridges and instead of thinking of the beauty of the spot, we instantly thought of all those poor souls so needlessly lost. As a mother it is unimaginably heartbreaking.</p>

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<p>Suicides are sad but Cornell’s suicide rate is average for a university its size. I think the posters so far have an ulterior motive for posting…they want to hurt Cornell’s image. They want to use suicides as a criticism of Cornell and it is unspeakably callous to grind your axe on these sad events. You are jerks.</p>

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<p>I don’t get it. Are there many students at Cornell who are unhappy?</p>

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<p>They want to use suicides as a criticism of Cornell and it is unspeakably callous to grind your axe on these sad events. You are jerks. =collegehelp.</p>

<p>You aren’t much help to college students and applicants if you make callous representations like that on this website. I think you, quite frankly are the “jerk” in this circle.</p>

<p>I made a good faith posting because it is very sad, and it stated in the article that their suicide rate is about average for colleges. I have no ill will towards Cornell and have never posted anything negative about Cornell. I don’t do school bashing. I don’t put up with people bashing either.</p>

<p>Your comments needlessly tarnished this thread with personal ad hominem attacks that were fallacious.</p>

<p>My heart goes out to the families of the students who have died. I am a strong proponent of a pro active mental health process for college students, many suffering from too much stress (whether its Cornell, an Ivy or Montana State), often blow up over personal relationships, or over react to grade issues. True “help” for students would be met with a very strong program for supporting kids under stress, suffering from homesickness and isolation and/or other personal problems.</p>

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<p>Tell me why you ignored the hundreds of tragic suicides at other campuses. Why did you single out Cornell? Who do you think you are fooling?</p>

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<p>I think it’s pretty much summed up in the old, but amusing joke:</p>

<p>“How many Cornell students does it take to change a lightbulb?
Two–One to change the lightbulb and one to crack under the pressure.”</p>

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<p>The issue of suicide at Cornell has always been heavily publicized, especially since it’s so prestigious. This thread is about a string of suicides at one of the most respected schools in the nation. Of course stories about things like this will be more widely known than one or two suicides a year on Montana State’s or the University of Tulsa’s campuses.</p>

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Probably old man winter…</p>

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<p>Those who look to blame are b(ing)lame. That type of stinking thinking is irresponsible and sounds like such a victim. We make life - or death - happen. Think positive and powerful. Void the weaky-weaky stuff and start lovin’ on life!</p>

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<p>Cornell obviously had a horrible month, but as far as suicides go, there are many universities with a higher suicide rates. Overall, 20 Cornell students have committed suicide in 14 years (1.4 suicides annually). For a school with 14,000 undergrads (less than 1:10,000 ratio), its suicide rate is pretty standard. Cornell students are no more (or less) unhappy than students at other campuses.</p>

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<p>Frankly, I’m amazed the suicide rates aren’t higher.</p>

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<p>The only one to blame for a suicide is the person who committed suicide. As blunt as it sounds, anyone who is weak and selfish enough to take their own life without considering how it will impact family members, friends, etc. is the only person to blame. Being picked on or having too much work doesn’t mean you have reason to kill yourself.</p>

<p>On a more positive note, I do give out my condolences to the friends and family members of the suicide victims. It is very sad.</p>

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<p>^ At the same time, you can’t live your life for other people. We are the sole experiencers of our experiences (so-to-speak).</p>

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<p>“weak and selfish” is not an accurate description of the mental state of a person who makes this terrible choice. Confused, desperate, pained, cornered, anguished, hopeless, would be more apt descriptors.</p>

<p>as the poster above said, one cannot expect to understand the experiences of another. We can only help if given the opportunity.</p>

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<p>I went to Cornell during the one of the periods mentioned in the article as experiencing a “suicide cluster,” and yes, some of them involved “gorging out,” as Cornellians say.</p>

<p>I’ve also lived in San Francisco in a apartment with a view of the Golden Gate Bridge, which has also been the site of a much more significant number of suicides.</p>

<p>You know what? Walking over those bridges two or four times a day over those beautiful gorges, looking at the waterfalls, and seeing a 200-foot icicle form over the course of a cold winter are experiences I wouldn’t want to have missed; I likewise treasure the memory of the view from my apartment in San Francisco. </p>

<p>I’ve known people who died in automobiles accidents, too. But I still love to drive.</p>

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<p>One more thought - there is an aspect of the concept of the “memento mori” that one experiences in walking across the gorges every day; it’s an ancient spiritual practice in the contemplative Christian tradition, and has a counterpart in Buddhist practice. </p>

<p>The basic concept is that it’s useful to your spiritual development to contemplate the fact that life is fleeting. It’s a profound and sobering experience to contemplate that natural beauty, to think about how passing glaciers carved those deep furrows in the land as they, too, passed through existence. I don’t believe I ever did so without an awareness on some level that some poor souls had chosen to die there, and that each time I walked across that bridge I was in some small way affirming life while at the same time coming to terms a little more with its impermanence.</p>

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<p>To be blunt, that is a completely inappropriate statement ^ only reflecting the writer’s ignorance about depression and suicide. </p>

<p>Tell you a story. I know a woman who, when she was six, lost her mother to suicide. She spent a lifetime asking “why me, why didn’t she stay for me, wasn’t I lovable enough?” It was only during her own temporary walk on the dark side (a deep suicidal depression triggered by a miscarriage) that she finally understood what her mother had gone through. Only in the depths of her own depression could she comprehend the pain her mother had been in, the delusional and confused thinking not open to rational judgment, and the inability to think beyond ending her own life. She realized her mother’s suicide reflected mental illness, not weakness or selfishness or anything to do with her children.</p>

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<p>I never understood how other people simply assumed that suicidal people were weak and selfish. How in the world can you know what its like? How terrible must have that person felt, how depressed and disturbed that he/she would jump off a bridge? </p>

<p>Saying that suicidal people are weak and selfish is so ignorant.</p>