The suicide of Bradley Ginsburg, a member of Cornell University's class of 2013, prompted Ginsberg's father to sue Cornell, several university administrators and the city of Ithaca, N.Y., The Cornell Daily Sun reported Friday. Although the bridge where the suicide occurred is owned by the city, the student's father, Howard Ginsburg, said the university could have done more to prevent his son's death. Ginsburg's death and similar incidents could have been prevented if the university had made mental health a larger priority and raised more awareness of the three student suicides that occurred in 2009, Howard Ginsburg said in the lawsuit he filed on Nov. 21. Since Ginsburg's death, Cornell has installed fences and 24-hour guards at the site of the bridge. The university expects that the case will be dismissed, a Cornell spokesperson said in an interview with the Ithaca Journal.
Three American students returned home Saturday following their arrests during protests in Egypt's Tahrir Square, according to CBS News. The students Derrik Sweeney, Gregory Porter and Luke Gates were studying at the American University in Cairo. Government officials accused the students of throwing firebombs at police officers as they watched the protests from the roof of the university's building, CBS News reported. The students spent their first night in prison watched by armed guards, although conditions improved when the students were moved the following day, according to the Associated Press. The students were held for a week, until an Egyptian court ordered their release on Nov. 24. Porter and Gates returned to America on Saturday, and Sweeney was the last to return home after a week of imprisonment, CBS News reported.
The University of California, Davis has agreed to drop charges against Occupy Wall Street protestors and will cover medical expenses incurred by the students who were pepper sprayed by campus police officers following widespread outrage over the officers' actions, according to Inside Higher Ed. University Chancellor Linda Katehi announced the decisions at a town hall meeting attended by approximately 1,000 students on Nov. 22, according to the Associated Press. The pepper spray incident occurred after Katehi asked campus police to remove student encampments, which were part of the Occupy Wall Street movement and in violation of university laws. Katehi said she had asked officers to avoid using violence, but was met with criticism from students who said she did not adequately accept responsibility for the events that took place at the protests. The incident has spurred an independent investigation into the protest and subsequent police action by the former Los Angeles police chief, as well as the suspension of the head of campus police and other officers involved, according to the AP.
