PAGE EIGHT Student u. Jr. By Mel Ziegler Contributing Editor Late in the afternoon of Octo ber 4th a seventh term mathematics student walked into the kitchen of his Barnard Street apartment and with a .22 calibre rifle shot himself in the head. At 10 p.m. that evening he was pronounced dead by doctors at the Centre County Hospital. He had made The Irreversible Decision, a decision which a Uni versity psychiatrist once said comes only “when the fear of living be comes greater than the fear of dying ” \ He was not the first student to take his own life on this campus. There were several before him. In fact, since 1962 alone four other students found suicide the only way out of life’s maze: • Fifteen minutes after cur few on a Saturday night in late September, 1962 a fourth-term coed plunged to her death from the sun deck of an East Halls dormitory. • Two months later a junior in secondary education broke his way through a transom on the eighth floor of his Pollock dormi tory and made the fatal 75-foot jump to the ground. • The following spring, a local science student, who was not enrolled for the new term at the University, shot himself in the head. • And, in late May of the same year a 12th term aerospace engi neering senior was found at 8 a.m. after hanging all night from a clothes closet bar in his dormitory room. Despite the shocking effect of such incidents, the suicide rate at the University is considerably low er than on other campuses across the country. A recent study at the University of California at Berk eley, for instance, revealed that one in every 5,000 of its students com mits suicide. A Look Magazine correspon dent, doing research at the Univer sity for a future article, told a local authority that Penn State, had the second lowest suicide rate of the nearly 20 colleges she had visited. Dr. Hugh B. Urban, therapy coordinator for The Division of Counseling at the University, esti mates that if Penn State students were to match' the Harvard suicide rate, there would have been 24 self inflicted deaths at the University since 1960. There have been five. A study in the October issue of Moderator, a magazine for leading students, predicted that 1,000 col lege students will kill themselves this year. Since college enrollment across the nation currently stands at six and one half million, this means that one in every 6,500 stu dents will commit suicide. But even at this rate, Penn State is far below the national norm. Why. Few Suicides? Why the low number of sui cides here? University Psychiatrist Dr. Albert M. Ingram Jr. believes the isolation and rural nature of the University create an environment more favorable to, emotional sta bility. Dr. Ingram suggests “we don’t get the same kind of sophisti cation here that they do at Colum bia or New York University.” He is referring to the larger number of rural students who attend the Uni versity (the Admissions Office has a 10 per cent quota for out-of-slate students) compared to the. type of student attracted by the city cam pus. Dr. Urban calls this “the selec tive factor,” the phenomena by DR. ALBERT M. INGRAM: "Students are reacting beautifully to academic .pres sures, with more stability than one could ever predict." • ' i which different kinds of students select different kinds of univer sities. Most important, however, are the services available to assist emo tionally unstable students. Investi gations of all known campus sui cides, in the last two decades have disclosed that no student who had sought professional help had sub sequently destroyed himself- To be sure, several have tried. The Moderator article speculates that for every successful suicide nine will threaten- to kill them selves, and one in 10 of these will actually attempt to do so. Dr. Richard M. Lundy, director of the University Psychological Clinic, es timates that, between five and 10 students attempt suicide annually. Many of these students, of course, have no real intention of killing themselves, but as Dr. Lundy said, they “just attempt suicide to get others to do things for them.” Still, he maintains, “attempted suicides are a very serious problem, because they show that the patient’is inter ested in this way to solve his prob lems.” Students who try to take their own lives are almost routinely committed to the Health Center. The more severe cases are removed from the University altogether and placed in a hospital. “Usually we are able to talk to them so that they’ll re-evaluate, their suicide at tempt,” Dr, Lundy said. Nonetheless, students at many universities have virtually nobody to talk to. As of 1963 only 76‘col leges had professional clinical facil ities for emotionally unbalanced students. And as recently as 1955; the psychiatric staff at Harvard, renowned as an enlightened univer sity, consisted of one man. The Moderator study uncovered the fact that professional services to emo tionally disturbed students are downright inadequate at most uni versities. This is unfortunate, thinks Dr. Urban, who says he be lieves there is a “higher proportion of suicides on those campuses where there are no services avail able.” University Services But the story at Penn State is quite different. Owing largely to a young psychologist named Robert G. Bernreuter who came to the Uni versity in the 1930’5, Penn Slate en gineered a complex web of profes sional services that many other universities today are duplicating. Currently, Penn State staffs one professional counselor lor approxi mately every 1,000 students at a cost of about $17.50 per student per year (which also includes medical care). Not bad, when, according to. Dr Urban, “some students are get ting more than $3,000 worth of free services” from professionals who would otherwise demand inflated fees. j . At the apex of the University’s pyramid of services is the Mental Hygiene Clinic, consisting of .two staff psychiatrists.. Next come the Division of Counseling and the Psy chological Clinic, which together employ over 20 PhD. psychologists. And thebase of the pyramid is well THE DAILY COLLEGIAN, UNIVERSITY PARK, PENNSYLVANIA Suicides: covered by an all-encompassing net of religious affairs advisers, resi dence hall counselors, the Speech and Hearing Clinic, registered doc tors in the Health,Center, academic advisers and staff merpbers of the Dean of Men’s and Dean of Wo men's offices. Although reports indicate the University is seeking funds to add another psychiatrist, the fact re mains that the present variety of services is superb. “If there is any problem at all,” Dr. Lundy claims, '“it is in communicating to students that these facilities are available.” He contends that most students are not aware of the extensive campus mental health' services. Dr. Jefferson D. Ashby, acting director of DOC, noted the inter- iiiimiiiiiiiiiiimiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiimiiimiiiiiiiiiiiiiiimmiimmiiimimiiiiiiiiiiiiiimiimfimi . . . academic stress has been the perpetual stand-by excuse for all that goes wrong in a campus atmosphere . . . iiimiiiiiiiiiiiiimmiiimiimmiiiiiiiiiiiiiiimiiiiimiiiimimiiitmiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiMiiiiiimiiii relationship of, all agencies design-: ed to help students with emotional problems and made a point of how well they all work together. As an example, he said if a psychologist determined that mon ey problems were the source of a student’s emotional stress, the Of fice of Student Aid could cooperate fully in offering its resources to the student. Highly Confidential The usual procedure for a stu dent seeking professional assistance is to contact psychologists in either the Division of Counseling or the Psychological Clinic. Then, if his problem is extreme, he is referred to one of the University psychia trists for more intensive psycho therapy. All records of such inter views are regarded as highly confi DR. JEFFERSON ASHBY: "We have a vigorous group of individuals up here. I disagree with those who say we are mentally unhealthy." dential and are not accessible to other agencies of the University— the Administration and all other sources—unless the student ap proves their release. No mention of them will appear on the student’s personal' record with the Univer sity. Often, however, students are apprehensive about seeking out such professional help for fear that it will stain their record. This is not possible. Psychiatric records are locked safely in 208 Health Center and not even the doctors on the Ritenour staff may consult them. Furthermore, all records are com pletely destroyed a few years after the student graduates, and they are only held that long for the student’s own convenience and welfare. The University also makes an elaborate effort to detect emotion ally vulnerable students’ even be fore they register. A series of tests and personal interviews conducted by DOC give the University psy chologists an early hint of a stu dent’s emotional problems. Dr. Ash by indicated that DOC, upon re viewing such data, will often “fol low up” with these initial contacts as soon as the student arrives on campus. “If we think a student needs help,” Ashby said, “we get in touch with him and invite him into con ference.” A recent suicide victim had been invited to such a confer ence, but turned down DOC’s ges ture. Ashby said that residence hall counselors in the various dormi tories are also alerted to be aware of students who might show need for professional assistance. DR. RICHARD M. lUNDY: "If there is any problem at all, it is communicating to students that these facilities are available." ‘ j . —Collegian Photomontage by John Lott and Mike Urban Still, a good many students who do need help, and are not detected, never seek it out. Moderator esti mates that between 10 and 15 per cent of the nation’s students have emptional problems serious enough to Warrant professional help. Al though University psychologists generally disclaim these figures, they still feel, as Dr. Urban indi cated, that a “respectable number of students do need help* but are not getting it.” .Nonetheless, Dr. Ashby pro claims, “we have a vigorous group of individuals up here. I disagree with those (like Moderator) who say we are mentally unhealthy.” He specified that the excellent re sources of a college population puts it well above the average sample in mental health. Nevertheless, psy chiatrists report that college sui cides are 50 per cent higher than suicides of non-students of the same age and all Americans in general. The study at Berkeley even found suicide the number two killer cf college students, second only to accidents. Of coure, as Dr, Lundy pointed out, “there’s nothing else to kill them.” Then again, 'Lundy con tinues, “everyone really can benefit from talking about their problems —no one is in perfect psychological health” Apparent Problem However, contentions that ser ious mental illness is a. wide spread campus problem disturb nearly all of the major University authorities. Dr. Ingram, for example, said “the problem (at Penn State) is apparent rather than real . . . and there’s been no increase in emotional prob lems.” Statistics would seem to re fute him, with nearly 1,200 students annually receiving professional help at various campus agencies. The Psychological Clinic handles approximately 100 student cases a year, the Mental Hygiene Clinic around '4OO, and DOC (excluding academic and\ vocational guidance) an estimated 700 students annually. Yet these figures only add up to 5 per cent of the registered student body. Furthermore, although the number of students who consulted DOC psychologists for their emo tional problems climbed from 25 when this part of the- clinic was first opened in 1961 to the current figure of 700, psychologists are quick to point out that this does not reflect an increase in emo tional stress. The fact is there are many more students on campus and the DOC facilities are much more widely' known. Still, a good sized segment of ~the student body has serious emo tional difficulties. But what (dis tinguishes their problems from the average student? ... Actually, .the problems of a potential suicide are not .essentially different from the , problems of an average student. Dr. Ingrain observes that “we all'be come discourage, despondent and • depressed but most of us are resilient enough to bounce back.” In most cases, the problems are just common and everydayish. The difference is that the mental oa- tient and potential suicide victim" becomes overwhelmed with these problems. And it’s when a student Penn State Below National Average WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER,26, 1966 doesn’t bounce back that he com mits suicide. One coed always car ried an instrument with her to kill herself. She wanted the security of knowing that if she ever became overwhelmed by her problems, she could take her own life. Dr. In grams says the final step is usually taken "because of guilt, anger, self pity or the desire to hurt another person.” Dr. Ashby points out that many of the student’s problems are highly normal and legitimate, considering that the student is in his late ado lesence. “Most students are able to make the necessary adjustments,, with a reasonable amount of effi ciency,” he said, while others can not. Two students, for example, may react quite differently to being jilted by a girl. While one may suffer a complete breakdown and contemplate suicide, the other will adjust and go out once again to play the field. “In different individ uals,” he said, “there are different levels of response.” Academic Pressures The problems that plague stu dents cover the whole range of human difficulties. From simple homesickness to severe depression, from interpersonal conflicts to heterosexual difficulties, from chronic anxieties to sexual adjust ment, these are the problems which lead students to take their own lives, according to authorities at the University. Conspicuously absent: academic pressure.. According to the Moderator study, however, the "pressure cook er” atmosphere on* the modern campus is a leading contributor to student suicides. Academic stress has been the perpetual stand-by excuse for all that goes wrong in a campus atmosphere. But Dr. Urban, speaking of his experiences with University suicides, disagrees: “In no instance has there been any rela tionship between academic' pres sures and campus suicides. People don’t ordinarily get suicidal over the fact that they’re not doing well academically.” Dr. Ingram con tends, in fact, that “students are reacting beautifully to academic pressures, with more stability than one could even predict." Anxiety, as Dr. Ingram views it, is the main contributing factor to emotional stress on campus. This anxiety usually concerns the op posite sex, parents, money, studies and career problems. Often it can immobilize a person so that he can not function effectively in his daily life. In one instance, a student could not keep from looking at women’s legs. Wherever he went, whatever he was doing, he had an obsessive .compulsion to stare at women’s legs. His own self-consciousness brought him a feeling of guilt and he came to think of himself as a pervert, eventually nearly immo bilizing himself. Dr. Lundy feels that the chief reason for a college suicide is that a student finds himself “unworthy and inadequate,” but he too em phasized that students “are not sui ciding for anything relating to the college atmosphere.” In some cases, he said, people suicide because they feel “other people don’t seem to realize what pain and anguish they are in.” Dr. Urban, said suicide takes place when a person reaches the conclusion that there is nobody he can turn to for help, and if there are people, they can’t help. No matter why, the facts re main: Penn State has a low inci dence of suicide relative to the na tional average, owing greatly to an excellent network of professional services, and for the suicides we do have, the old stand-by of academic pressure doesn’t measure up as a valid factor, according to our Uni versity psychologists. .instance any relationship be pressures and campus has there been tween academic suicides."
Significant historical Pennsylvania newspapers