UNC Chapel Hill cancels classes due to suicies

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:
The median kid at Cornell or Penn (the depressing ivies) do not take 4 courses a semester not is grading a cake walk.

I see people mentioning how many classes kids at various schools take, and the underlying assumption seems to be that all classes are created equal across all institutions.

If a school's standard load is 4 classes, you can bet that the professors have created a workload that will keep smart students very busy.

Calculus is calculus
Organic chem is organic chem.

Nice try though trying to feel better about it.

Ivy schools have connections not harder/better/etc classes.

DP: In my experience, the quality differences in private schools come in the level and amount of readings, quality of writing expected, level of research to read and build on in papers, and in the STEM areas the level of independent research required. I've taught in both an R1 public and a top private school and went to an Ivy for my PhD. Some courses are fairly similar (calc), but top privates have higher reading, writing and research expectations (and the resources to give the kinds of feedback/individualized attention to support these). When I taught chem in an R1 public we use a textbook (and TF led labs), in the private it was textbook plus contemporary peer-reviewed research and students need to design and conduct their own experiment that I personally advise on. It's a more faculty-intensive course. And in the private, even STEM students read/wrote much better due to the more intensive liberal arts core requirements.

[Anonymous]

"Suicide clusters" at schools are a real issue. It's been known for a while that suicide can be considered a "contagion."

The suicide of a student has a rippling effect in the school environment as well as in the greater community, as a single adolescent death by suicide increases the risk of additional suicides. The process by which a completed suicide (or at times, suicidal behavior) increases the suicidal behavior of others is called contagion. When multiple suicides occur close in time and geographical area, at a rate greater than normally would be expected in a given community, it is considered a cluster (Centers for Disease Control [CDC], 1988).

https://www.nasponline.org/publications/periodicals/communique/issues/volume-47-issue-5/suicide-contagion-and-clusters%E2%80%94part-1-what-school-psychologists-should-know

Part of what made the most recent suicide at UNC especially horrifying is that several people witnessed the person jump from the upper floor of a dorm.

It's good that the school shut things down for a couple of days. They've found that addressing the issue head-on instead of trying to cover it up is the best way to stop the suicide contagion.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Suicides at colleges is not a new thing. My wife worked in a university counseling center at a large school in the 90s/early 2000s and she was dealing with suicides and suicide attempts all the time.

And you're point is? Obviously it's not new...I've known 2 families first hand that dealt with it. But if there is a cluster of 4 in a short time period at one university, it needs to be addressed now. Mom friend of a UNC student posted yesterday that she was furious at the lack of response from UNC before this.

The point was that the same person keeps trying to diminish the situation by saying suicide is always a thing. You and I agree with each other.

[Anonymous]

Dartmouth had 3 last year

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Only on DCUM could a thread about suicide turn into a pissing match over which schools are challenging enough to justify it.

I had the same thought.

People do not even get how distorted their status driven lens is.

No wonder kids can't cope.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:
The median kid at Cornell or Penn (the depressing ivies) do not take 4 courses a semester not is grading a cake walk.

I see people mentioning how many classes kids at various schools take, and the underlying assumption seems to be that all classes are created equal across all institutions.

If a school's standard load is 4 classes, you can bet that the professors have created a workload that will keep smart students very busy.

Calculus is calculus
Organic chem is organic chem.

Nice try though trying to feel better about it.

Ivy schools have connections not harder/better/etc classes.

DP: In my experience, the quality differences in private schools come in the level and amount of readings, quality of writing expected, level of research to read and build on in papers, and in the STEM areas the level of independent research required. I've taught in both an R1 public and a top private school and went to an Ivy for my PhD. Some courses are fairly similar (calc), but top privates have higher reading, writing and research expectations (and the resources to give the kinds of feedback/individualized attention to support these). When I taught chem in an R1 public we use a textbook (and TF led labs), in the private it was textbook plus contemporary peer-reviewed research and students need to design and conduct their own experiment that I personally advise on. It's a more faculty-intensive course. And in the private, even STEM students read/wrote much better due to the more intensive liberal arts core requirements.

You pretty much lose credibility with your ridiculous STEM statements. Listen, many people have children in both, smart kids go to honors programs and their friends/family go Ivy. They talk. T# schools coddle students, top flagships don’t . It’s harder, more classes, more work, no grade inflation… Ivy the hardest part is getting in.

My H/FIL/MIL taught both too.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Really surprising.

Isn’t unc a pretty chill, work life balance, fun, pretty student body school?

It isn’t Cornell. [/quote




The Ivy League students only take 4 classes a semester and have grade inflation.

Flagship State schools are harder.

Most IVY's do not have grades. Check out Harvard... no grades .

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Really surprising.

Isn’t unc a pretty chill, work life balance, fun, pretty student body school?

It isn’t Cornell.

+ 1 the prestige comes from its grad programs and the small percentage of OOS students so this is surprising.

you are disgusting.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Kids are pushed so hard these days in K-12 that they get to college and break. Just break. The pandemic cannot be helping matters.

Omg stop. For one, the tiger mom rat race is less than 1% of all teens. Two, high school and college isn't hard, it's incredibly fun and interesting and you're surrounded by peers in the prime of their life. And it's generally all paid for via parents or loans, so it feels or literally is free. This idea that every kid is working themselves to the bones in class and has two part-time jobs to make ends meet at college is not based on any reality.

What I think stokes the suicides is SOCIAL MEDIA. It is evil. It makes it basically impossible to reinvent yourself anymore at college. And you no longer leave high school friends behind, everyone brings those cliques to college. College is no longer than "new beginning" blank slate it used to be.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Really surprising.

Isn’t unc a pretty chill, work life balance, fun, pretty student body school?

It isn’t Cornell.

+ 1 the prestige comes from its grad programs and the small percentage of OOS students so this is surprising.

you are disgusting.

NP. You seem to have issues, PP. I and from Burlington and agree that it’s a fairly chill campus and wouldn’t be expected there.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:"Suicide clusters" at schools are a real issue. It's been known for a while that suicide can be considered a "contagion."

The suicide of a student has a rippling effect in the school environment as well as in the greater community, as a single adolescent death by suicide increases the risk of additional suicides. The process by which a completed suicide (or at times, suicidal behavior) increases the suicidal behavior of others is called contagion. When multiple suicides occur close in time and geographical area, at a rate greater than normally would be expected in a given community, it is considered a cluster (Centers for Disease Control [CDC], 1988).

https://www.nasponline.org/publications/periodicals/communique/issues/volume-47-issue-5/suicide-contagion-and-clusters%E2%80%94part-1-what-school-psychologists-should-know

Part of what made the most recent suicide at UNC especially horrifying is that several people witnessed the person jump from the upper floor of a dorm.

It's good that the school shut things down for a couple of days. They've found that addressing the issue head-on instead of trying to cover it up is the best way to stop the suicide contagion.

This is the answer. Suicide is “catching.” I’ve seen it at several high schools. Remember W.T. Woodson?

https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/crime/after-woodson-high-suicides-a-search-for-solace-and-answers/2014/04/11/8dd2a3b4-7f1d-11e5-b575-d8dcfedb4ea1_story.html

I had a conversation with my teen about this very thing last night.

[Anonymous]

Suicide is one of the top causes of death among kids not in college, too. It’s horrible. Two boys in my rural hometown in South Dakota suicided this year who were not in college or isolated from covid.

What can we do about it? How can we change the staggering statistic?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Only on DCUM could a thread about suicide turn into a pissing match over which schools are challenging enough to justify it.

This. Disgusting.

In other news, the Chapel Hill moms group I belong to is heartbroken over this. Local moms are organizing to show up on campus with treats, cards, and hugs for students. Last winter they gave out meals and put together care packages for students who stuck around in town.

If your child is at UNC, there are parents here who genuinely care about them.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Only on DCUM could a thread about suicide turn into a pissing match over which schools are challenging enough to justify it.

This. Disgusting.

In other news, the Chapel Hill moms group I belong to is heartbroken over this. Local moms are organizing to show up on campus with treats, cards, and hugs for students. Last winter they gave out meals and put together care packages for students who stuck around in town.

If your child is at UNC, there are parents here who genuinely care about them.

You all are restoring my faith in humanity.

[Anonymous]

How does cancelling class for ONE day help the situation? Maybe UNC should increase their crisis counselors ?

-Parent of a W&M graduate and would receive an email regarding suicides every year.