MIT battling high student suicide rate

Over the last decade, students at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology have been more likely to commit suicide than those at other institutions of similar caliber, according to a recent study. A Boston Globe study, which compared suicides per 100,000 students since 1990 at 12 major universities, found the suicide rate at MIT to be three times greater than at the other schools. MIT's rate of 20.6 undergraduate deaths per 100,000 students is 38 percent greater than the next highest school, Harvard University, the study found. "One suicide is too many, and we are trying to do all we can to help prevent them," said Kenneth Campbell, an MIT spokesman. Campbell said, however, that the study's statistics are "skewed in several different ways." He said that on average, MIT enrolls more men than women and that young men commit suicide at a rate five to six times higher than women. Taking these facts into account, Campbell said, the expected rate of suicides would have predicted 19 to 20 suicides during the years of the study's scope, a number that MIT was below. In the last 11 years, 11 students or recent graduates of MIT have committed suicide, the latest of which happened last November. Eight of these students killed themselves by jumping out of buildings, a trend that health experts find especially disturbing. In response to the alarming rate of student suicides, the task force -- which began meeting in November -- is outlining how the school's mental health services may be improved to provide more help for troubled students. "Basically we're creating a set of recommendations for mental health services and for mental health at MIT," said David Mellis, co-chairman of the task force. "I certainly think improving counseling service is a good thing and improving things will make the students happier and the campus a better place to live." Although student suicides have been most pronounced at MIT, Penn also had to confront the issue last spring when College junior Justin Finalle killed himself at his home in DuBois, Pa. In 1998, a Wharton senior also shot herself in her Center City apartment. Ilene Rosenstein, director of Penn's Counseling and Psychological Services, feels that student suicides occur for a variety of reasons. She said that in this age group, psychological problems arise but students may not have adequate support systems and may consequently feel isolated. "It sets a weird dynamic where a person may feel very isolated and different," Rosenstein said. "Not everyone would think of suicide as an option, but a certain percent of the population does, that's why it's important that the counseling services reach out to these people." Rosenstein feels that faculty and staff at Penn serve an important role in preventing student suicides by identifying and referring troubled students to counseling services. "Penn does an excellent job of really having people out there who come to us and tell us we're concerned about someone. The prevention is tremendous," she said, citing the 1,400 referrals CAPS had last year. "I think people choose suicide when they see no way out," Rosenstein said. It's important that we reach out and listen to them."

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