The University of Maryland Does Not Keep Track of Student Deaths or Suicides
Content warning: This article contains mentions of death and suicide. Reader discretion advised.
On Oct. 24, the University of Maryland Police Department issued an alert across students' phones notifying them of an incident that occurred near the SECU Stadium. Students learned that evening a student had passed away, according to an email from Vice President of Student Affairs Patty Perillo.
Emails flooded into students’ inboxes with mental health resources and support services. After this tragic event, classes resumed as normal the following day. President Darryll J. Pines seemingly addressed the incident in the following weeks.
“We recognize that we have experienced a challenging fall, punctuated by loss around the world and in our own community,” Pines wrote in an email to the campus community on Nov. 13.
In that email he also announced an extension to the university’s scheduled Thanksgiving break to include an additional day off. He wrote that classes on Monday, Nov. 20 would be virtual and canceled the following day on Tuesday.
The Black Explosion attempted to contact the University Counseling Center to measure how often incidents, similar to that at SECU Stadium, have occurred on campus. According to the University Counseling Center, the university does not measure these incidents but UMPD keeps records listed as “death investigations.”
Although the counseling center was unavailable for an interview, Rebecca Aloisi, senior director in the Office of Marketing and Communications, wrote in an email to share a list of what the counseling center and other departments have provided to students following the days after the student’s death.
The Counseling Center recommended to contact Andrea Goodwin, Assistant Vice President and Dean of Students. The Black Explosion reached out to Goodwin for comment but were informed to contact Hafsa Siddiqi, Media Relations Manager in the University’s Office of Marketing and Communications.
The Black Explosion attempted to contact the University’s Office of Marketing and Communications for comment about why the university does not keep track of student suicides or “death investigations.” Siddiqi restated previous findings and to refer to the UMPD website for crime and incident reports that do not classify if a death investigation was a suicide.
The state’s Office of Public Information also does not maintain records of student suicides at the University of Maryland.
Public Information Officer Lt. Rosanne Hoaas of the UMPD said that a student’s death is labeled as a “death investigation” until they receive official word from the medical examiner, located in Baltimore, Maryland. She said it could take days or even months to receive confirmation from the examiner. The incident at SECU Stadium is still listed as a death investigation.
“It will be based on what we get back from that report. So whatever that report says, cause of death and everything, then that’s what it gets called,” Hoaas said.
Although UMPD publishes the reports, they don’t keep an active database of student deaths by suicide. This causes another obstacle to find out if there are any records of suicides on campus and if there is a record, how does the university classify it.
Mental health continues to be a topic of discussion on college campuses, including this university. According to Mental Health First Aid, four out of five college students show warning signs before they attempt to take their own life.
In 2018, CBS News published an article about the lack of record-keeping and tracking of suicides by public college and universities. The Associated Press asked 100 U.S. public universities about annual suicide statistics. Out of the hundred schools, the article stated that 46 actively tracked suicides - 27 of which had done so since 2007. The report added that 43 do not track suicides and nine could provide only limited data.
The University of Wisconsin and Arizona State University were the only names included as part of the universities that don’t keep track of suicides.
The report said that schools are discourged from tracking suicides because the examiner does not notify the schools of the cause of death, legal liability and reputation.
"No school wants to be known as a school with multiple suicides. It's not good for business," said Nance Roy, chief clinical officer for the Jed Foundation, in the article.
According to CBS, there have been attempts to put legislation in place to force universities and colleges to keep track of suicides to see if efforts are being made to address students’ mental health. The article does not address all the universities that keep track of suicides it does mention two univerities that recorded a student’s death.
“After Clemson University started gathering more data in 2015, campus officials noticed an increased suicide rate among transfer students,” the article read, “The schools is now redoubling efforts to connect those students with campus services.”
Clemson University includes suicide attempts in its daily crime statistics.
The day following the passing of the student, other students found it hard to come back and resume classes like normal.
“It was hard, it honestly felt wrong to come back and continue on to finals as if everything was fine,” said Mikayla Roberts, a graduate student at the Philip Merrill College of Journalism, “I kinda wish we had a dedicated day to address our mental health that the professors and other staff knew about so we didn’t have the weight of everything including classes on us all at once.”
The 988 Suicide and Crisis Lifeline is a hotline for individuals in crisis or for those looking to help someone else in distress. It is free and available 24/7. To speak with a trained crisis counselor, dial 988 or 800-273-8255.
The Help Center at UMD is a peer counseling and crisis intervention hotline operated by trained undergraduate students at University of Maryland. To speak with a trained listener, dial 301-314-4357. Services are free, anonymous and confidential.
The university Counseling Center’s crisis support line is 301-314-7651. If students are experiencing a crisis, they may go to the Counseling Center front desk on the main level of the Shoemaker Building and request to be seen for an urgent visit. Students can schedule non-urgent appointments by calling 301-314-7651.
University Chaplains are also available to provide spiritual support. Students can reach out via phone or email to contact a chaplain.