Cornell Installs Suicide Barriers On Bridges (PHOTOS)

In the wake of six student suicides this school year -- three in the last month -- Cornell has erected temporary fencing on campus bridges.

The Cornell Daily Sun reports:

The fences constructed this week are "temporary in nature, and they'll only be in place until a longer-term solution is ready to be implemented," [Deputy University Spokesman Simeon] Moss said. "We need to do some research as to what those longer-term solutions might be."

There will be some consultation with the Cornell community to determine what long-term solutions would work best, he said.

The school has also posted security guards at the bridges, who will be on call until "at least" after spring break, according to Moss.

MORE PHOTOS:

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Comments

[avocats]

09:22 PM on 03/31/2010

Baby-proof the campus? What happens when they get into the real world?

[Tekd]

08:33 PM on 04/01/2010

They can't really stop people from killing themselves anyway, there's just too many gorges over there. Which is why Cornell will continue to be the suicide capital of the ivies.

[Rooster Coburn]

09:43 PM on 03/28/2010

Jeez! Can college be all that bad these days! And I thought dropping out was the problem.

[Rooster Coburn]

09:51 PM on 03/28/2010

Here's an idea for a headline:

LIBERAL COLLEGE PROFS DRIVING MORE AND MORE STUDENTS TO COMMIT SUICIDE!

"College faculties, long assumed to be a liberal bastion, lean further to the left than even the most conspiratorial conservatives might have imagined, a new study says."

"By their own description, 72 percent of those teaching at American universities and colleges are liberal and 15 percent are conservative, says the study being published this week. The imbalance is almost as striking in partisan terms, with 50 percent of the faculty members surveyed identifying themselves as Democrats and 11 percent as Republicans."
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A8427-2005Mar28.html

[Rooster Coburn]

10:20 PM on 03/28/2010

It appears here: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/social/Rooster_Coburn?action=comments that I made a double post, although it does not appear that way here at this time. If I did it was accidental. Maybe some kind of computer/software glitch either on my end or with this site,

[avocats]

09:23 PM on 03/31/2010

No, college is no worse than when you or I attended.

[guitargeorge1964]

11:11 PM on 03/25/2010

There were 3 suicides in my High School in about a years time. I knew 2 of the kids, including a neighbor, who was a close friend. We got a lot of headlines because we became the "Suicide Capital of Texas", for a short period of time. We got a lot of grief counseling and the other feel good type of treatments. But I still have dreams where I see my neighbor, and I still go to his grave every now and then. He'd be 44 this year.

These kids don't need fences, they need to be convinced that whatever their problems are RIGHT NOW, things will change and maybe for the better or worse in the short run or even long run, but you have to be alive to enjoy the big and little things that WILL come your way. Whether it's the birth of your child or the first time you're able to finance a car on your own, things will change. There are too many ways to kill yourself that make fences on bridges seem ridiculous.

[brahdog]

09:47 PM on 03/25/2010

now, everyone will be constantly thinking about suicide every time they cross the gorges. smart thinking, cornell.

[gravey72]

08:58 PM on 03/25/2010

Something in the water, there in Ithaca?

[brahdog]

09:45 PM on 03/25/2010

no, just easy access to quick impulsive suicides

[gravey72]

10:27 PM on 03/25/2010

Riiiigght!!!!!!! Well, if it's like that, I say" So be it!

[General Public]

05:31 PM on 03/25/2010

Cornell should have done this years ago! It would have made me feel safer going over those awful bridges every day, with such a long way down, and a railing that comes up around my waist level. Plenty of people have died over the years by falling or jumping off those bridges. I am glad Cornell is finally doing something like this to protect its students, faculty, and employees. Those of you criticizing this obviously have not walked over those bridges yourselves... it is very scary. And given the high workload of Cornell students and how stressed out everyone there gets, it is no wonder people jump off them. And with all the fraternities and sororities and places people get drunk (most of them getting drunk under age 21, too), it's not surprising drunken people walking back to their dorms after getting trashed at frat houses or bars would fall off the bridges, since the bridges never had railings anywhere near high enough. This is exactly the kind of common-sense improvement to things we need more of.

[C.J. Randall]

08:18 PM on 03/29/2010

I walk across the bridges every day and they are not scary. Actually, I should say they *weren't* scary. Ten-foot chain-link fences have really done it. It looks like prison -- yes, I've seen those close-up, too -- and now we'll all be thinking of suicides every time we cross the bridges. Say what you will about preventing suicides; the rest of us have to live with the aftermath of the mistakes of a few.

[cloudminder]

01:11 PM on 03/25/2010

why do we have to ruin beautiful bridges ? when someone wants to do this sort of thing they will do it anywhere and everywhere

perhaps they are drawn to the beauty (e.g the Golden Gate Bridge)

why destroy the beauty because of their act?

[jackstpaul]

12:03 AM on 03/25/2010

As a former Cornell student, to fill in those not familiar with the geography in that part of the states, there are numerous gorges. Numerous points from which to jump in a gorge. Most of them are NOT on the Cornell campus. If people are overwhelmed by the urge to jump into a gorge, there are plenty of places to do that that aren't subject to what Cornell University does or doesn't do, or can or cannot do

And it's a myth that Cornell has had a higher suicide rate than other schools.

This whole story is overblown, however sad it is. You can't eliminate all potential suicide methods anywhere in the world--even in prisons with closely watched prisoners suicide occurs. These few in this past month don't make a statistical pattern of a statistically significant problem happening. This isn't a trend (yet); this is an historical aberration. Suicide is significant, but how many have killed themselves elsewhere in the US in this past month? Yet all the talk is about Cornell.

[MomfromTexas]

12:24 AM on 03/25/2010

This article supports what you are saying:

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/03/17/education/17cornell.html

I'm wondering how we are certain these deaths are suicides? It doesn't sound to me like the students are leaving notes. Does anyone know if the students are leaving notes? If not, that's odd.

[jackstpaul]

04:05 AM on 03/25/2010

Deaths from the specific gorges at issue here--on campus--aren't the kind of place where one would accidentally fall. One would need to be dancing around on top of the bridge brick wall that's already there, and then slip. Maybe if someone was drunk and doing that it could be an accident, but otherwise, you have to take definitive action to fall, i.e. jump. Won't happen by accident other than noted.

Of the many other high places and gorges around the area there are some spots where one could be climbing around in the outdoors and slip and fall given that there are places where you aren't protected along a formal pathway with a wall or fence in place. But on campus, you're talking about a significant pathway/walkway/road that you're on, area that has formal bridges, walls, etc. in place; integretated into the campus.

Look at Google images under "Cornell Gorge" to see photos. Most that show up first are off-campus—breathtaking.

[MomfromTexas]

12:00 AM on 03/25/2010

In the first picture, the one beside the article, not the first one below it, doesn't it look like someone is trying to climb the fence???

[Jtt]

11:53 PM on 03/24/2010

Thats really ugly. Why don't they start just being nicer to people.

[joncushman]

11:45 PM on 03/24/2010

Most will just book a ticket to San Fran and let the Golden Gate determine their fate.

[cloudminder]

01:12 PM on 03/25/2010

or use a cliff or a natural land structure that is beautiful

should we just bulldoze them?! no!

[Demarcus Tave]

11:34 PM on 03/24/2010

as if college already doesn't seem like jail!

[publanski]

11:25 PM on 03/24/2010

It looks like a beautiful campus. Those fences are ugly and useless. Tear them down.

[guitargeorge1964]

11:05 PM on 03/24/2010

I think this is a case where "We have to look like we're doing something!". I wonder if the hotel where David Carradine died nailed shut all the closet doors after he passed?

[retroredux]

10:59 PM on 03/24/2010

no fences-just lots of counseling.

To me that fence just draws attention to the suicides and is even more upsetting to those who may be contemplating suicide.