College Campus Suicide Epidemic

Introduction

Going off to college is one of the most exciting and scary experiences a young adult can endure. Parents who have sent their child to a university have their concerns of partying, alcohol, and drugs, but they don’t ever think that the “college life” can end in suicide. Suicide amongst young adults aged between 18-25 years is the second leading cause of death. With these numbers rising every year, colleges and universities need to be producing effective programs to help prevent these suicide epidemics amongst their students, because no parent wants to receive that heartbreaking call.

History

The most common factors of suicide is depression, hopelessness, substance abuse, loneliness, and lack of a support system (Chesin and Jeglic 30). The rate of college students taking their own lives has tripled since the 1950’s (Lucier 1). “Childhood physical and sexual abuse significantly correlate with attempted suicide years later”  (Bridgeland 63). Once children leave the “nest” they begin to recall moments and events that happened in his childhood, during grade school, or in his past living situation, causing him to develop a mild case of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (Chesin and Jeglic 30). As young adults they most likely experienced, or still experience sexual abuse, bullying, losing someone close to them, and have lived with the constant feeling of not meeting expectations set by others. Most students want to go off to universities to get fresh starts. They think that being placed in a new environment will help them start over and forget about where they came from or what happened in their past.

The stress of college is another huge contributor to rate of suicide throughout college campuses. Eight out of ten students suffer from stress emotionally and physically (Applebury 1). The biggest concern of stress amongst these students is the risk of suicidal thoughts and attempts (1). Universities and colleges are high stress environments due to classes, studying, grades, finances, and social activities. Large amounts of stress has been proven to intensify pre-existing mental health issues, leading to “95 percent of student suicides to be caused by anxiety and depression due to stress” (1).  

Examples

Students who are considered “perfectionists” are the ones who are most risk for suicide when placed on a college campus (Caval 1). Recently graduated high school students who ended with a perfect or almost perfect GPA usually go to a university where other students were similarly successful. Students there was in the top of their class in high school making the campus extremely competitive. This can lead to extreme amounts of stress to stay on top. Madison Holleran experienced this amount of stress that led to her death on January 17, 2014 (1). Holleran was a freshman at Pennsylvania State University and ran for its track and field team (1). She was the perfect example of young adult who seemed to have it all together (1). She was beautiful, smart, athletic, and popular on campus (1). What everyone did not know was that she was strugglingimmensely with trying to keep up with her high school “reputation” (1). Her father saw  dramatic changes in his daughter a couple of weeks before her death and stated, “I believe stress is the cause of my daughter’s death” (1). Madison Holleran felt that she could not live up to her parents and her own expectations for herself. From personal experience this is a very common feeling for a college freshman and can lead to thoughts of not being good enough or that there is no way that you can ever come out successful.

Going into a new environment in hopes of having a fresh start does not always happen for a person. The hopes of being able to start over and get away from whatever happened to a student before he moved onto a college campus can either end in them getting their hopes up or it can be the best decision he could have ever made for himself. A second chance was the reason Alex Jacome went to Tarleton State University right out of high school. He had hoped to get away from his homelife of where he was so used to hearing, “you will never amount to anything” from his mother on a regular basis. He hoped that Tarleton would give him the opportunity to make something of himself and to get into the movie producing industry after graduation. My friend, Alex Jacome passed away in his dorm room March 2, 2017 from a sleeping pill overdose. We had no warning of what was about to happen. Days later the information that he was failing his classes came to the surface. He felt that he had failed himself and had proven that his mother was right about him all along. Alex also knew that he was going to have to move back into that house after the semester was over, because he was going to lose his scholarship. Hemade the decision that he would rather not be a part of this life than go back into that home and situation again. The fear of going right back where he had come from, and the feeling of hopelessness, is what killed Alex Jacome.

Solutions

            Over the last five to ten years, universities have been trying to develop suicide prevention programs to help with this epidemic, but are they effective? For many universities there is an on campus counselor or therapist that is included in the student’s tuition. Sounds good,  right? The downside of this prevention program is that the tuition only covers the cost of a certain number of sessions. Tarleton State University only allows five sessions by their on campus counselor with no extra charge. After the five sessions are over they refer you to an off campus therapist or counselor. The university then is not liable to follow up on the student to see if they are continuing treatment or not due to FERPA (Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act) (The JED Foundation 21). If a student is recommended to the counseling center by a third party such as a peer or a professor, the counseling center does not have the right to make an appointment for the student; it has to be done on his/her own time (21). FERPA is a way for students to be able to go to school and have a sense of privacy from faculty and from their families, but if a student is in danger of a mental illness the school should be allowed to contact their families to make sure the correct actions are taken. Alex Jacome is an example of what happens when schools only allow a limited number of counseling sessions and do not contact families with concerns. Alex took advantage of the five free sessions and then when they were used up he could not afford togo see an off campus professional. If he was allowed more than 5 sessions then maybe he would have been able to overcome his struggles.

When first year or transfer students are admitted into a university, the faculty and staff should hold suicide prevention training. The training should include recognizing signs from other students and in themselves, and they should be trained on where to go for help. There are a handfuls of schools, like Ohio State University, are doing these trainings during orientation for incoming freshman and transfer students. Before the school started these trainings, only 12.6% of students agreed that they were educated on suicide prevention in 2007 (Wallace 1). After the school made the training mandatory for all students the numbers rose to 51.8% in 2014 (1). "We're listening because there's so much student distress out there and we know from the research ... two-thirds of the students, when they're really struggling, they don't go to campus mental health professionals or faculty or even their parents. They go to each other” (1). Students being trained on this topic will help them be able to help each other, which is hopefully the outcome of these trainings. By looking at the numbers, all universities and colleges should have mandatory trainings nationwide to help decrease the number of on campus student suicides.

Absurdity

            Albert Camus is a famous and well known absurd fiction author. His stories mainly focus on one question, “Is life really worth living?” (Sineokov 1). It is probably the same question that struggling college students ask themselves. Camus believes that suicide is the one truly serious philosophical problem (1). He wants his readers to see the question of suicide as a natural response to the absurd world (1). College campuses are a world of their own; they give students the idea of the real world without officially entering the real world. Some would say that universities are full of absurdity. Camus believes that living day by day with a schedule and just getting by everyday is not living (1). Camus would agree that a college student’s life is not worth living, because it is not truly living.

Conclusion

Going to a university to further your education is great when it comes to achieving life goals. As a society we need to educate ourselves on preventing suicide especially with students. College is stressful and can be overwhelming, but it should not be overwhelming to the point that it is not worth it. With the right stress and time management, and increased on campus counseling, students could go to school to succeed and not worry about surviving this time in their lives. With suicide prevention training and students helping other students we could help control this increasing epidemic.