(Thumbnail image: Guardian)

Cornell University is under scrutiny for its reputation as a school of suicides. There have been three apparent suicides on the campus in the past month from students jumping into Cornell's famous gorges. Their deaths are sparking controversy over whether the gorges are too sinister a setting, and the state of Cornell’s mental health programs.

“The university is trying to lift spirits on campus, where tension is running high.
Student: Cornell really needs the support right now. I feel like a lot of us are a little bit down...An emotional challenge at a demanding Ivy League school, stunned by the apparent suicides of three young men in the last month in the gorges beneath bridges around campus, two of the deaths this last week.”

If ruled suicides, they would be the first at Cornell since 2005, but in the 90s the school faced similar problems. The Huffington Post’s Associate Blog Editor, Rob Fishman, a Cornell alum, says Cornell is living up to a longstanding reputation.

“For as long as anyone can remember, Cornell's gorges have furnished a wide open casket ... to borrow the local vernacular, "gorging out" — has become the stuff of myth.”

Cornell has placed guards on the bridges over the gorges, and had staff knock on the doors of every student on campus to connect with them. But in USA Today, Inside Higher Ed’s Jennifer Epstein says Cornell’s stance is still fuzzy.

“It's unclear whether the university considers the rash of suicides as working out to about average over the last few suicide-free years, or an indication that something is systemically wrong at Cornell.”

NPR reports that Cornell officials say the school’s suicide rate isn’t high. They say the suicides are just more high profile because of the gorges.

“They say their suicide rates are actually at or below the national average, in part because of their aggressive outreach programs.
Professor Morton Silverman: Cornell, Cornell has set the gold standard. It is light years ahead of many other campuses.
That’s Morton Silverman, psychiatry professor at the University of Chicago and an expert at suicide prevention.
Silverman: I do think Cornell has done as much as they possibly can do.”