College is sup­posed to be a time to learn, grow, and gain new life expe­ri­ences, not end your life.

Sadly, there may be an increase in the num­ber of col­lege stu­dents who have ended their lives. The pres­sure to do well aca­d­e­m­i­cally, the dif­fi­cult econ­omy exac­er­bat­ing pre­ex­ist­ing finan­cial trou­bles and soci­etal influ­ences may be to blame.

Suicide is the sec­ond lead­ing cause of death among col­lege stu­dents. A sur­vey con­ducted by the University of Minnesota’s Boynton Health Service in 2008 had indi­cated that 1.1% of the 8,000 stu­dents they had sur­veyed attempted sui­cide within the past 12 months, a slightly higher num­ber than the pre­vi­ous year.

Many asso­ciate col­lege with the ideas of promise, ambi­tion and poten­tial and may won­der why a stu­dent would com­mit sui­cide when they have so much going for them. A pre­dis­po­si­tion to men­tal ill­ness such as depres­sion and bipo­lar dis­or­der can cer­tainly con­tribute to an increase in sui­ci­dal thoughts and attempts. According to the American College Health Association, one in ten col­lege stu­dents seri­ously con­sid­ers sui­cide and nearly half suf­fer from sig­nif­i­cant depres­sion at some point dur­ing their col­lege careers.

One could claim sui­cide as self­ish or cow­ardly. When a loved one ends their life with their own hands, it dev­as­tates their entire fam­ily, their entire school as well as stu­dents from other col­leges. The first words that come to mind are “they were so self­ish to do such a thing!”

According to the New York Times, a 20-year-old New York University stu­dent leaped to his death from the library Nov. 3. The arti­cle states that at least nine stu­dents at N.Y.U. have com­mit­ted sui­cide since 2002, includ­ing four in 2004 alone. The uni­ver­sity even went so far as to install Plexiglas in the win­dows at the Boston Library to dis­cour­age jumpers.

It is not clear at this time if the rate of col­lege sui­cide is increas­ing or if the media cov­er­age of such events is more promi­nent as of recent, but the appar­ent trend is def­i­nitely alarming.

Fortunately, it has also been reported that at col­leges around the nation, more stu­dents are seek­ing help. The num­ber of stu­dents who reported a diag­no­sis of depres­sion rose from 10.3 per­cent in 2000 to 14.9 per­cent in spring of 2008, accord­ing to the American College Health Association’s annual National College Health Assessment. College stu­dents are also half as likely to com­mit sui­cide than their same-age peers.

The after­math of sui­cide has affected me per­son­ally, just like numer­ous oth­ers. I have suf­fered the loss of a loved one who had taken their life. To learn of such news is, to put it sim­ply, painful.

Something I must stress is if you or some­one you know is con­sid­er­ing sui­cide, get help imme­di­ately. Talk to a par­ent, a friend, a coun­selor or any­one you trust. Call the National Suicide Hotline at 1−800−448−1833. The Birkam Health Center offers coun­sel­ing ser­vices here on cam­pus. An appoint­ment can be made by call­ing x5968 or by walk­ing in dur­ing open hours.

If some­one you know begs you to not tell they’re con­tem­plat­ing sui­cide or has attempted it, tell some­one any­way. Suicide has a real pres­ence on col­lege cam­puses and is a real prob­lem for the young adult age group. It is not just a head­line, it is a gen­uine cause for awareness.