The recent suicides of three Dartmouth students have left administrators, faculty and students at the College shaken and perplexed.
Mark Reed, the medical director of Counseling and Human Development at Dick's House, said it is alarming that a school of Dartmouth's size has experienced so many suicides in such a short period of time.
"Three suicides in four months is big, very big," he said.
Since July, Philip Deloria '96, Sarah Devens '96 and Marcus Rice '94 have committed suicide. And two years ago, Dan Boyer '94 shot himself in the head at a gun store in Lebanon.
Prior to Boyer's death, no Dartmouth student had committed suicide in more than a decade.
According to Reed, the average number of suicides for a college is one suicide per 10,000 students per year. This translates into approximately one suicide every two-and-a-half years at a school the size of Dartmouth.
Reed is one of the panelists at the College-sponsored community forum addressing the suicides tonight at 7 p.m. in the Rockefeller Center for the Social Sciences. He said the forum will give people a chance to speak about dealing with grief, suicide prevention measures and depression on campus.
Struggling to find answers
In an October 18 letter to the Dartmouth community, Dean of the College Lee Pelton wrote that many people were struggling to comprehend the reasons for the deaths.
"Some of us are and will continue to be haunted with difficult and uneasy questions: Am I to blame? Is the College to blame?" he wrote.
Pelton wrote the answer to both of those questions is "no."
"One cannot blame oneself for something that was far beyond one's control," he wrote. "And yet it is only human to seek to comprehend the incomprehensible, to know what is ultimately unknowable."
Charlotte Sanborn, a psychiatry professor at the Dartmouth Medical School, said one factor that may explain the suicides is the tremendous pressure students place upon themselves.
"Society has changed and young people in particular feel expectations from society and their parents and they often put high expectations on themselves," she said.
Reed said, "A lot of people who commit suicide seem like the most successful students, but oftentimes they have very high standards for themselves and to themselves they are constant failures."
"You could probably categorize Philip, Sarah and Dan like that. They were leaders in their communities," he said.
Monica Oberkofler '96, who interns in College President James Freedman's office, said that there is a lot of pressure on Dartmouth students.
"I think it's really hard sometimes, as a Dartmouth student, to admit that something's wrong, that we're depressed or worried about the future or whatever," she said. "We feel pressure to be perfect -- academically, extracurricularly and socially."
But Oberkofler, who reads the daily newspapers of other Ivy League schools as part of her internship in the President's Office, said the situation at the College is not unique.
She said other Ivy schools, including Yale Univeristy and the University of Pennsylvania are also dealing with recent suicides.
"From everything I can tell, Dartmouth is definitely not alone in this," Oberkofler said.
Dean of Student Life Holly Sateia also said the College is not primarily responsible for the suicides.
"I do not think it really has to do with Dartmouth," she said. "Dartmouth has not changed. The people it attracts have not changed."
Sateia also cautioned against trying to find a common link between the four suicides.
"I suppose that people will try to draw a common thread," she said. "Each case is individual. These are individual tragedies. If you lump them together you tend to trivialize them."
She said no simple explanations exist for the suicides.
"I do not think we will ever know why this happened," she said. "You do not know really what they are feeling. They committed suicide for reasons we will never know."
Coping with the deaths
Both faculty and students said the suicides have had a considerable impact upon the College.
"Each suicide has had a tremendous effect on students," Reed said. "It has shaken everybody and scared people who are here even those who did not know the people."
John McWilliams '99 said, "I feel kind of sad."
"From personal experience, it is very had for anyone to realize the ramifications that their suicides have upon the College as a whole," he said.
Oberkofler said she found the suicides alarming.
"In the past few weeks of fall term, I've noticed many of my senior friends, not to mention myself, becoming increasingly stressed about life after Dartmouth -- career choices, relationships and senior year commitments," she said.
"Life here is overwhelming sometimes. And knowing about two '96 suicides makes everything that much more disconcerting."
Jana Pruski '97, an exchange student from Mount Holyoke, also said the suicides distressed her.
"I was surprised by the first suicide and I was even more surprised at the most recent suicide," she said. "For Mount Holyoke that would be very unusual."
College administrators are struggling with grief as well.
"This has been so hard for me personally and professionally," Dean of the Class of 1996 Sylvia Langford said. "These were young people who I hoped I would have seen do the types of things they had wanted to."
"It is hurtful and it is painful," she said. "I don't think I have had a good night sleep in a long time. I question if there was something I could have done."
Sateia said the College should concetrate its attention on coping with the grief of the Dartmouth community, rather than searching for explanations for the suicides.
"Attention should be more on the healing process than on trying to find an explanation," she said. "This is a painful time for so many students. That is where the attention should be placed."
Resources at the College
Despite the abundance of suicide prevention resources at the College, faculty and students said more measures are necessary.
Reed said the suicides have prompted the College to step up its efforts.
"We really have to take a look at what we do," Reed said. "We have to take this extremely serious and reexamine our services. We are redoubling our efforts of outreach and being accessible."
Reed said Dick's House, the Dean of the College's office and the Tucker Foundation provide counseling services for students and that counselors are happy to speak with individual campus organizations.
Director of Counseling and Human Development Jeffrey Hersh said the department recently met with Area Coordinators and is also looking for an outside evalautor to review Dartmouth's suicide prevention efforts.
Reed said the College is considering bringing in psychiatrists, psychologists or deans from other colleges "to get a second opinion from someone who does not work or live here."
Student Assembly President Jim Rich '96 said the Assembly's Student Life Committee is also making an effort to educate students about the College's suicide prevention resources.
"After talking to numerous students on campus who have been struggling with the recent suicides, it became clear to members of the Assembly that the majority of students didn't know that peer and professional counseling was readily available," he said.
Rich said responsibility for preventing suicide lies with students as well as the College.
"It is the responsibility of every member of the community to be there for those who are sad -- to take time out, to listen, to let them know that they are valued and that they do indeed make a difference," he said.
