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MIT crafts suicide prevention plan

August 28, 2001 Posted: 5:02 PM EDT (2102 GMT)
CAMBRIDGE, Massachusetts (AP) -- Massachusetts
Institute of Technology, under pressure to
respond to six student suicides since early 1998,
outlined preliminary steps Tuesday to improve
mental health services.

MIT Chancellor Phillip L. Clay announced a number

of recommendations, including expanded
availability of appointments for mental health
and internal medicine, a pilot program to pair
doctors and other experts with living groups and
a Web site outlining services available to
students.

Clay also said MIT would offer an optional

insurance program that covers unlimited mental
health treatment outside of MIT, and would hire
four new resident life staff members.

Clay also announced that he had received a draft

report from a mental health task force at the
school. He said there would be a discussion
period on the draft until October 19, when the
task force may add to the recommendations.

"The dialogue will itself be an important way to

raise the profile of student health and our
collective commitment to improve it," Clay said.

The report found that 74 percent of MIT students

reported having had an emotional problem that
interfered with daily functioning, but only 28
percent had used MIT's mental health services. It
also found that the size of MIT's mental health
staff has remained constant since 1995 while
visits by MIT students increased 60 percent.

According to a Boston Globe study published in

February, MIT had a suicide rate of 10.2 per
100,000 graduate and undergraduate students. The
undergraduate rate was 20.6 per 100,000 students,
outpacing the national average for
17-to-22-year-olds, 13.5 per 100,000, since 1990.

At all colleges, experts estimate, about 7

undergraduates per 100,000 kill themselves.

The Globe study was published before the April

suicide of Julie Carpenter, a 20-year-old
sophomore who had complained of being stalked and
harassed by a fellow student.