Spartan Echo

Section: Student Life

A Cornell University student crosses the Thurston Avenue Bridge and looks out onto the Fall Creek gorge along the college's north campus in Ithaca, NY, Tuesday, March 16, 2010. Three Cornell students have fallen to their deaths into the Fall Creek Gorge in the past month. (AP Photo/Heather Ainsworth)

ITHACA, N.Y. (AP) - Cornell University, an Ivy League school known for its spectacular gorges and haunted by a reputation for suicides, took the extraordinary step of posting lookouts on bridges and going door-to-door to check on students after three undergrads plunged to their deaths in the past month.

The move by university officials comes after what one Cornell administrator called an "especially painful week" in which two of the deaths occurred. It's not clear if all three were suicides; university spokeswoman Claudia Wheatley said Tuesday, March 16, that while school officials could not discuss the individual cases, one case was ruled a suicide and the other two were under investigation.

At least three other students killed themselves this academic year, bringing the total to six confirmed or suspected suicides.

Cornell officials insist the school's suicide rate is in line with the national average, noting that before the recent spate there were no student suicides since 2005. Timothy Marchell, director of mental health initiatives, blamed the gorges for the bad reputation.

"When a death occurs at Cornell in one of our gorges, it's a very public experience," he said.

Staff members were dispatched to the six bridges on campus, while others were told to knock on the door of every student living on campus. The outreach effort includes counseling and a coordinated series of assuring messages from the university president on down to professors, who were encouraged tell the students to keep academics in perspective.

"It's a kind of a bewilderment and a determination to make sure we've done everything we can to keep it from happening again," Wheatley said.

The steep, rocky gorges bounding Cornell add to the beauty of this school of 20,000 students in upstate New York's Finger Lakes region. Students must cross over at least one of them to enter the main campus town. The bridge over that gorge is a busy crossing, as students who live on campus use it frequently to visit shops and cafes.

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