This weekend, as the sun was shining on the Hilltop, a grim episode in Ithaca, N.Y., was reaching a grim resolution. On Saturday, two recent deaths at Cornell were confirmed as the fifth and sixth suicides among students at the university during this academic year.

It’s jarring news at Georgetown, where suicide by students has been rare in recent memory. The most recent confirmed instance at Georgetown dates to October 2008, and statistics from the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention suggest that Georgetown’s rate of suicide is below the national average for colleges.

Regardless of why Georgetown students are less prone to suicide – perhaps because of the Catholic disapprobation of suicide, or because the academic competition among students is traditionally not all that intense – we can learn from the tragic recent events at Cornell.

Cornell officials’ response to the string of suicides has been aggressive and appropriate. According to The Cornell Daily Sun, campus security officers have been dispatched to patrol the local gorges that have been the sites of this semester’s three suicides. The university has created a new Web site to help students with mental health problems, expanded the availability of counseling resources, maintained a steady stream of direct communication with the student body and conferred with student leaders on ways to spread awareness of mental health concerns. Administrators have urged faculty to ask their students to keep schoolwork “in proper perspective,” tabled around Cornell’s campus and encouraged students to inform advisers of academic difficulty and stress.

This is the sort of expansive, hands-on response that a crisis of this severity warrants. It is also a good reminder to colleges and universities across the country of the importance of protecting the mental health of their students. University administrators must take action to help students before stress, overwork, substance abuse or mental illness lead to needless loss of life.

Georgetown offers a number of resources to students experiencing stress or mental health problems, many of which – group therapy, workshops, online mental health screening and counseling, for instance – are administered by the Counseling and Psychiatric Service. CAPS can be found in Darnall Hall and contacted at (202) 687-6158. For after-hour emergencies students can call (202) 444-PAGE.

Of course, there is always more we can do to help those undergoing times of personal turbulence. The university should expand its mental-health program, particularly to reach out to first-year students still learning to cope with the unique challenges of college life. Cornell’s student government is reportedly considering implementing a mandatory mental-health training session during freshman orientation – a program of that kind may be worthy of consideration at Georgetown.

ore importantly, members of the Georgetown community should take responsibility for the health of those around them. Professors, for example, should be urged to take active interest in the stability of their students. A former English professor of mine begins every semester by offering help and individual attention to any student feeling overwhelmed by academic pressures – all faculty members should embrace this sort of reassuring pre-emptive action.

Students, however, play the most important role in any effort to prevent suicide. There are limits to what administrators and faculty can do to keep a struggling student afloat; other students, who are “on the ground” – on campus and in residence halls – are the best watchdogs for suspicious or risky behaviors.

Stay alert for classmates and friends who seem withdrawn, lonely, unusually tired or irritable. Open yourself up to social engagement with students who seem disconnected from campus life. Treat your classmates with respect and compassion – don’t make the burdens of schoolwork, extracurricular demands and social expectations harder for others to bear.

And, most importantly, always look out for yourself. “Learn to ask for help,” said David Skorton, Cornell’s president, in an e-mail to students on Friday.

“It is a sign of wisdom and strength.”

Kevin Barber is a junior in the College and a former editor in chief of The Hoya.

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