Cornell Student Dies After Being Found Unresponsive In Fraternity House

A Cornell student was found unresponsive in a fraternity house on campus Friday, the Cornell Daily Sun reports.

The student, who later died at an area hospital, has been identified as George Desdunes, a member of the class of 2013. Desdunes was from Brooklyn.

Police do not believe Desdunes' death was a suicide, the Sun reports. The student's body was found in the Sigma Alpha Epsilon house on the school's campus. Desdunes was a member of the fraternity. Autopsy results are forthcoming.

Comments

[sassiestkat]

03:23 PM on 02/28/2011

What a horrible tragedy; I can only begin to imagine what his parents and family must be going through at this time. My best wishes to them all.

[Anteaus]

02:16 PM on 02/28/2011

So sad!

[Gina Gronborg]

11:41 AM on 02/28/2011

George is my cousin and this is not the place to be discussing cultural/political issues. He is Haitian, but that has nothing to do with his parent's expectations. He acheived what he did on his own terms and goals. He had a full scholarship to Cornell and thrived in everything he did.

[1differentdrummer]

06:07 AM on 02/28/2011

Very sad.

[jessicajuliette]

12:12 AM on 02/28/2011

Devastating for the family...

Amazing how comments about this deceased young man not BELONGING are still here, yet others are being deleted...

hmmmmm

[djohn78]

09:57 PM on 02/27/2011

I am at Cornell right now and Cornell is a very safe campus! This is not suicide related, as we have been told. Nobody really knows what happened.

[jusathot]

11:38 PM on 02/27/2011

Cornell might also be saying that because of the suicides that did happen.

[djohn78]

09:52 AM on 02/28/2011

No. this one doesnt sound like a suicide from what has been going around campus.

[CentralVA]

09:40 PM on 02/27/2011

The death of this promising young man is a terrible tragedy. My thoughts and prayers are with his family and friends.

[General Public]

09:36 PM on 02/27/2011

When I went to Cornell, Sigma Alpha Epsilon was the same fraternity my roommates from freshman year joined. I was never a fan of fraternities so I didn't even bother trying to join. But the people at them do a whole lot of drinking, smoking, and sometimes they do some other drugs, usually just marijuana. Still, that's not the kind of thing I am into doing. The thing I do miss that a fraternity might have offered is that guys in fraternities hook up with girls all the time and I didn't really get to do that in college. I mean I suppose I could have gone out to bars or something, but I really don't like drinking or smoking or such things, and also the bars in Collegetown mostly tend to enforce the drinking age of 21, meaning I'd have to go to a frathouse instead, and I don't really like fraternities. Frat parties are always so crowded and it takes forever to even get one cup of beer from the guy with the keg since he serves all the girls first, and when I get drunk I mostly just don't talk that much and get totally out of it. I mean, if people want to be part of the fraternities or sororities at Cornell, that's fine with me, they can go ahead and do that, but I decided not to drink and smoke anymore midway through freshman year at Cornell, and so I quit both drinking and smoking.

[Bebe36]

10:27 PM on 02/27/2011

Okay.

[Dham4201]

02:20 AM on 02/28/2011

cool

[divitius]

06:01 PM on 02/27/2011

Wow, good thing it's been made clear it wasn't another suicide. Cause THAT would be very embarrassing for the university indeed, which is of course the most important thing. Sheesh.

[jusathot]

11:39 PM on 02/27/2011

True dat.

[Tuigim]

04:52 PM on 02/27/2011

Cuídate,
mi amigo en Cornell ♥

[jusathot]

12:30 PM on 02/27/2011

I mentioned he may be Haitian, because of his name, and another poster, who is Haitian-mentioned it could be suicide, because of the tremendous pressure some Haitian parents put on their children. Both comments were scrubbed.

Is it because we can only discuss Haitians when they are in desperate need, or when they're practicing voudoun? We can't discuss Haitians at Cornell?

[DaBluAce]

02:49 PM on 02/27/2011

you are assuming something..about this child's death and about his parents!

[jusathot]

03:58 PM on 02/27/2011

We make assumptions all the time here--based on what we read. Do we absolutely know that Michele Bachman is a loon, or do we assume from what we read about the things she says?

I made the comment based on his name, and another poster who agrees, mentioned suicide as a possibility due to parental pressure. We are both concerned about this dirty little secret and understand that it is not discussed because that is not the general discussion about Haitians and their children, but we reserve the right to bring it up as a subject for discussion and as a possibility for this young man's death.

[abuja19]

01:21 PM on 02/27/2011

Agreed.

[flyafro]

01:54 PM on 02/27/2011

The student was class of '13, in other words a sophomore. Seems highly unlikely this was hazing related. Let's just wait for the autopsy before we start condemning a group of true gentlemen.

[jasev01]

02:44 PM on 02/27/2011

at brown pledging lasts into the sophomore year

[DaBluAce]

02:49 PM on 02/27/2011

how do you know they are true gentlemen?

[Spazzznyc]

11:07 AM on 02/27/2011

Cornell is not the safest campus. So much death, what's going on up there?

[jusathot]

12:25 PM on 02/27/2011

That is what I am asking too. Too many deaths for one school. A couple of eighteen year olds.

[MrUnlimited]

10:15 PM on 02/27/2011

I don't think that such a conclusion (too many deaths for one school) is justified by an analysis of death statistics that compare Cornell to other schools in recent years. It's easy to overreact to a headline, but much harder to do the legwork it takes to put things in perspective. I'm not saying the student's death isn't a tragedy, I'm just asking you to think about how much you know (or don't know) about other colleges death stats before drawing such a conclusion about Cornell.

[flyn2hi]

03:46 PM on 02/27/2011

And just who would the people who "don't belong" in the "ivy league" be????

[Iamandrew]

05:41 PM on 02/27/2011

"don't belong", Are you implying what it sounds like you might be implying?

[wwoody]

10:36 AM on 02/27/2011

Sad for the family.

[Jazz88105]

10:33 AM on 02/27/2011

This is so sad condolences to the family. Rest in Peace