On Monday, a person was found dead outside a North Carolina state residence as the campus returns from a year that saw 14 student deaths.
Students returning to NC State on Monday saw police tape around Sullivan Residence Hall on the Raleigh campus as officers investigated the death of a male student.
Last year there were 14 deaths in NC State, including seven by suicide. Two deaths were overdoses, one from a car accident, and four were “natural causes.”
Students on campus fear this year will be no different, with another death just two weeks after returning to campus.
“It gave me a dark feeling,” said Sullivan House resident Matthew Davis ABC-11.
‘That could be someone I know. It could be anyone.’
The student’s body was found outside the university’s Sullivan House residence, which is home to many engineering students
Students returning to college after Labor Day weekend found police tape outside their dorm
Student Matthew Davis told the newspaper that the latest death could be one of his friends
For this academic year, NC State has increased the number of mental health physicians from 35 to 50, despite the outraged response from students as the number of deaths spiked last year.
A mental health task force was set up and concluded that ‘there is not only room for, but also need for, additional efforts’.
But Vice Chancellor and Dean Doneka Scott stressed that “100 or 1,000 counselors” would not solve the crisis.
“Institutions across the country are struggling with this,” she told ABC in May.
“This isn’t just an NC state issue, it’s a higher education issue by and large.”
The university averaged eight student deaths per year, including three by suicide, among its 36,000 students before last year’s peak.
Seven of last year’s deaths, including three of the suicides, occurred at NC’s School of Engineering.
Many of the students housed in Sullivan Residence Hall are engineering students.
“I’m just a freshman, so it makes me put everything in perspective, think about everything differently, and just see everything differently,” Davis said.
NC State Police Chief Dan House said the student’s cause of death has not been confirmed, while University Chancellor Randy Woodson issued his final statement of condolence.
“The loss of any member of our pack is tragic, and I recognize that this loss is especially impactful to many of our residents and housing staff on campus,” Woodson wrote.
“There are no words I can share that can heal what many of you are feeling.
“Just, I grieve with you.”
Student April Anderson said ABC students kept an eye on each other after a death that hit them hard
Half of last year’s deaths were among people studying at the School of Engineering
College Chancellor Randy Woodson has issued the latest in a series of condolence messages following the latest death
Fellow resident April Anderson said, “I was just getting back into the groove of things and getting ready for school tomorrow.
‘But then I heard it. Then I heard it and I was very sad about it.
“It made everyone a lot more gloomy, but it also united us because we were all checking on each other like it was just really hard for all of us.”
Students told the task force that social media and the difficulties of isolation during the pandemic had made them more vulnerable, along with fears about the state of the planet and the difficulty of accessing aid.
“If I have to contact my professors and ask for these things because I just want a little sleep, or because I can’t physically force myself to work because I’m so burnt out,” said an anonymous student.
“It’s honestly a little humiliating, and it’s scary because they can just say no.”
Nearly one-third of all American high school students report poor mental health. It comes at a time when some of the country’s leaders say the country is going through a youth crisis. Women suffered the most, with 40 percent reporting poor mental health that year
The CDC found that one in 10 U.S. high school students will attempt suicide by 2021, up from 8.9 percent a year earlier. Women were the hardest hit: 13.3 percent attempted suicide that year
More than 6,600 people between the ages of 10 and 24 died by suicide in 2020, according to the National Center of Health Statistics, and suicide is the second leading cause of student death after accidents.
An April Centers for Disease Control and Prevention report found that 10.2 percent of U.S. high school students said they had committed suicide in 2021, up from about eight percent in 2019.
The survey also found that 30 percent of high school students also said they “mostly” had poor mental health. For girls, the figure was even higher: 40 percent.
NC says that of the 14 student fatalities last year, seven were suicides, two were fatal overdoses, four died of natural causes, and one student was killed in a car accident.
A number of college events were canceled after the latest death was discovered Monday, including a mental health workshop.