STRUGGLING
in SILENCE:
Suicide on CMU's Campus
The Big Picture: Suicide nationwide, in Michigan and on our campus
by Jermaine Fields, Tessa Harvey, Fenn McCrimmon-Hatfield, and Mikayla Carter
Upon entering his first year at Central Michigan University (CMU), Jeremiah Morin was no stranger to depression. In just the sixth grade, his depression was evident. By his freshman year of college, he could recall several times he had contemplated suicide.
"When I was thinking of suicide it felt like I could picture people maybe actually feeling bad about how they had treated me, because I felt like they weren't going to feeling anything. Unless that happened. Really all I wanted was for people to look at me as a human being..."
Morin, now a junior at CMU, has continued to struggle with his mental health. He says it’s a combination of several factors. Morin has Asperger’s, a form of high-functioning autism which he says often has made it harder for him to pick up on social cues. This led to taunting and bullying in school, thrusting him into a severe depression by the age of 8. The intersection of his disability and mental health made him unwilling to reach out for help in his college years.
Jeremiah Morin, CMU junior.
The Towers
nine recorded attempts
Since 2013, 82 suicide attempts have been reported on campus.
In Morin’s age group, ages 18-24, suicide is the second leading cause of death nationwide, following only unintentional injury. A significant percentage of this age group, 36.6 percent, was attending college in the year 2015, yet public universities like CMU often spend less on mental health education, prevention, and discussion than on, say, school athletics. CMU allocated $22,600,346 toward the athletic fund for the 2017-18 budget. On the other hand, just $827,192 was allocated toward counseling services.
A semester-long investigation by the Journalism 445 class found that while survivors depict their experience as a fight, Central Michigan University struggles to keep up with the demand and services under 10 percent the student body. Students continue to struggle in silence while mental health trends upwards.
In Michigan alone, suicide is still the second leading cause of death for ages for 15-34 based on the Center for Disease Control data from 2015. In all age groups, this trend of suicide is on the rise.
Steve Windom, Michigan area director of the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention (AFSP), says this is due to several factors.
“Without proper coping mechanisms in times of transition, mental illness can very well set in 75 percent of the time before the age of 24. It’s very likely to hit for the first time in college, a reality we all know is hard,” Windom said.
But these rising rates aren’t met with rising concern. Instead, media coverage and discussion come after the damage has been done — after the survivors have been left behind. Windom said this might be because of the frame that suicide is discussed within.
“Nine of out of ten people who die by suicide have a mental illness at the time of their death,” he said. “We should be reporting on mental illness as a health issue. When you report on breast cancer, it’s often done very well. It’s not a criminal issue.”
At Central Michigan University, death by suicide is rare, but CMU police don't track off-campus locations. A count of incident reports between 2018 and early January 2018 sowed 82 on-campus suicide attempts were reported. These do not include off-campus attempts or those in which police were not called in.
Michigan State and Western Michigan universities did not respond to FOIA requests for suicide attempts in time for this story.
At CMU, the school counseling center, led by Interim Director Melissa Hutchinson, is comprised of seven full-time counselors and two part-time counselors. Each counselor can see 22 students a week for a capacity of 198 students. Last year, the center provided services to 1, 214 students — serving 5.2 percent of the fall 2017 enrolled on-campus student body.
According to the National Alliance on Mental Health, by age 18, when many students enter college, 20 percent have or will have a mental illness. Preferably, CMU counseling center would then need to accommodate nearly 15 percent more of the student body.
Tony Voisin, vice president of Student Affairs at CMU, says the counseling center is intended to be a starting point for students seeking counseling.
“The Counseling Center’s Scope of Practice is pretty common with collegiate counseling centers, and that being that collegiate counseling centers are short-term, time-limited, not intended to be long-term and if you really need real extensive work and treatment and so on and so forth, we don’t have those resources; we’re not intended to provide that."
Based on this model, the counseling center, in its current function, is not intended to be a long-term solution for students, but rather, a first phase that continues with the student seeing professionals outside of the campus.
66 percent of students visiting the center for services in the last six years averaged between one and six appointments, Voisin said.
Morin, who never sought counseling at CMU, says it’s because of his independence. He says he didn’t want to reach out to anyone for help — that while his isolation often caused his depression and suicidal feelings, it also shut him off for want of human contact.
Similarly, what he says drew him out of his lowest moments was, indeed, the presence of others.
JEREMIAH MORIN talks about his struggle with mental health.
“I know when I became suicidal again at certain points in the past few years, my family and more than ever now, my girlfriend, have been things that kinda kept me going. [I was] thinking 'I don’t wanna do this to them, I don’t wanna drag them down.'"
In CMU dorm living, the approach touches on Jeremiah’s experience.
“A big thing is not leaving the student alone, so once they confide in you about this issue, you make sure you aren't leaving them alone in case they do decide to do something." Jessica Kontour said, a Residential Assistant in the Towers Community.
At a residential level, CMU residence hall assembly has several processes in place for dealing with attempted suicides, but not with preventing events and break-downs leading up to the attempt.
Residential Life Staff and paraprofessional staff take part in an intense training, 3 weeks prior to the start of the school year. In this training, staff members are educated on different ways and strategies for dealing with crisis situations such as suicide.
Windom says AFSP recognizes that pushing for additional funding in college counseling centers may not be a possibility. Instead, they offer the solution of student-led grassroots efforts, not unsimilar from what Morin himself is seeking to do.
“We push help-seeking behaviors,” Windom says. “Seeking help is OK.” He says the organization has funds set aside to assist students in raising suicide awareness in their communities.
“Whatever’s going on, mental health can always be added. We know the power of students but the university has got to see it. Have an open mic night, have a suicide prevention 101 night. Pass out lifesavers, ask students about mental health.”
Just this year, Morin has presented twice on the effects of mental health and disability on students. The first presentation, which he gave at this year’s Residence Hall Assembly DREAM conference, was eye-opening for him.
“There have been on and off moments where I have not been an advocate. I have been really passive because I felt ashamed of it. I didn't want to talk about it but then there was a point in my life where I decided that if I wanted to see any difference in things that frustrated me, that I had to be willing to put myself out there.”
He says he's focused on breaking the silence, on reaching out to people who need help.
“They’re still people. I think the best way to start a conversation is to treat them as someone who is rational, who is intelligent, who is not defined by this... put the fact that they are a human being first,” he said.
Jessica Kontour, resident assistant.
Darrell Armentrout, residential hall director.
Jeremy Ballard, Towers community police officer.