Cornell University has made the controversial decision that a human life is worth more than strict privacy rules. As a result, it has cut its suicide rate amongst students in half in the past 6 years (as compared to the previous 6 years when this policy wasn’t in place).
At the same time while undergraduate enrollment at Cornell has declined during most of the 2000’s, visits to the school’s counseling center have nearly doubled, from just over 11,000 in 2000 to nearly 20,000 in 2007. This may also help account for the reduction in the suicide rate.
Students are making more use of the counseling services available to them, and staff at Cornell are keeping a closer eye on students who seem to experiencing extreme emotional difficulties:
After years in which many colleges have said privacy rules prevent them from interceding with troubled students, Cornell is taking the opposite tack.
Its “alert team” of administrators, campus police and counselors meets weekly to compare notes on signs of student emotional problems. People across campus, from librarians to handymen, are trained to recognize potentially dangerous behavior. And starting this year, Cornell is taking advantage of a rarely used legal exception to student-privacy rights: It is assuming students are dependents of their parents, allowing the school to inform parents of concerns without students’ permission.
While I am somewhat conflicted about this policy, I applaud Cornell University and its counseling staff for erring on the side of safety rather than privacy. It’s hard to argue with solid data and results illustrating that as people become more educated about mental health and emotional warning signs, they can try and reach out to troubled students before it’s too late.
Young adulthood is a special time within our emotional and social development. We take the personalities we’ve been building in high school and in close-knit social circles and expand upon them in more serious friendships and relationships. It can be a very emotionally-trying time for many. And because as young adults, we may not yet have an arsenal of reliable, useful coping skills, a person may be taxed beyond their emotional means.
Cornell is taking the informed, networked, information-sharing-is-best approach that can best monitor students’ emotional health needs, without being truly intrusive. They ask more questions about a student’s mental health status even at regular health exams, and keep on the lookout for students that seem to be experiencing especially difficult times. It’s an approach that, while not perfect, I hope many other schools choose to follow as they reassess their mental health strategies in the wake of last year’s Virginia Tech massacre.
The Wall Street Journal has the full article, Bucking Privacy Concerns, Cornell Acts as Watchdog.
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Links to This Article
University Update - Virginia Tech - Cornell Cuts Suicide Rate in Half (1/1/2008)
mental health » Blog Archive » Cornell Cuts Suicide Rate in Half (1/1/2008)
Cornell Cuts Suicide Rate in Half--Is it Worth the Price? - College Discussion (1/2/2008)
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7 Comments to
“Cornell Cuts Suicide Rate in Half”
I would appreciate this decision of Cornell University and their services,thanks
Privacy is, unfortunately, a waning value in Western society. I find Cornell’s policy (specifically the parental notification) to be frightening.
I hope they are required to alert prospective students of their questionable (at best) policies.
I do have to say that I am very glad that Cornell is taking the approach that they are. A students life should be way more important than their privacy I mean I do believe that their is a reasonable amount of privacy that students should have but it seems that they understand that and they are by allowing their facility members the knowledge of the signs to look for and how to approach them.
I do think that parents should be notified of their students if they see a target of concern, to many times students go off to college and the parents are just left to believe what they are told by their students and then when tragedy strikes the parents are at a loss.
I was saved from almost my death because I have friends that cared enough to be noisy and look into my stuff and watch my behaviors and got me help from insightpros.com I hated them for awhile but then realized now that I have found the light at the end of the tunnel that its ok to be happy and ask for help and the work really isn’t that hard and well worth it. I love myself today and it is so hard for me to watch the news or hear of tragedy’s were someone takes their live or others over depression or similar disorders.
Having attended Cornell and therefore posessing some knowledge of what happened (or was reported to have occurred) during my time there, I note that the article fails to acknowledge the number of attempted suicides at Cornell. I would also note how the events are classified also has an impact on these numbers as well. Just as many 1960’s overdoses may have been mislabeled (both as and as not), during my time there were “accidents” which were considered by the student body to be suicides but not acknowledged (reported) by the administration as such. I submit proof of administration’s recognition of the severity of the problem resides in their feeling it necessary to “cage in” (with sharply pointed bars) the suspension bridge, effectively ruining the view for all but those over 6′4″ tall. I am not convinced the figures reported are accurate of what really happens on the campus.
Can any one tell how and where can I get the data of college student suicide rate?
i applaud cornell for letting the parents know that their child is having these feelings. the parent needs to know. they need to help their child. a child is still a child no matter how old they are, no matter how mature they feel.
Maybe if Cornell wasn’t under the thumb unions and constantly under construction, and would hire professors that cared about actually teaching rather than just their research, and would stop patronizing its students, particularly the minorities, then maybe its students would be distracted from its s#!thole location and would not want to kill themselves.
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