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Running head: STUDENT DEATH PROTOCOL

When the Unthinkable Happens: Preparing for a Student Death on College Campuses

Kelsey Woodford

HESA 695: Capstone in Higher Education Student Affairs

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When the Unthinkable Happens: Preparing for a Student Death on College Campuses

Introduction

In an age of increased accountability due partly to social media, it is vital for institutions

to continually review their student death policy and protocol. By the end of November of the

2014 fall semester, 57 college students died nationwide (Kingkade, 2015). It was found that

many administrators, faculty, and students do not foresee encountering a student death on their

campus (Cintron, Weathers, & Garlough, 2007). Any campus is vulnerable to facing one or

multiple student deaths in an academic year, regardless if it is a community college or a four-year

institution (Kingkade, 2014). When student deaths do inevitably occur, universities are often

inadequately prepared to respond.

Unfortunately, it is when a university is prompted by a string of student deaths does it act.

Universities can develop a false sense of security when they go years without having a student

death. For example, Cornell University went five years without a student suicide, only to have

six occur in the 2010-2011 academic year (Jake, 2015). This paper is a call to action for

universities to re-evaluate their current policies and protocols for student death. In this paper, I

provide a review of student death and best practices for both student death protocols and crisis
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response teams. There is a need for universities to act proactively to better support and serve

their campus community during times of grief.

A Review of Student Death

In a survey conducted with 157 four-year institutions, researchers found that the leading

causes of death among college students are the following: accidental injuries (including alcohol-

related vehicular deaths and alcohol-related non-traffic injuries), suicide, cancer, and homicide

(Turner, Leno, & Keller,2013). In 2009, suicide became the number two cause of death among

college students (Drum, Brownson, Denmark, & Smith, 2009). Universities often face suicide

clusters. These are triggered by one person committing suicide, leading other students in distress

to view that as an option (Wood, 2015). In the last three years, Tulane University, Appalachian

State, and Georgia Tech have all faced the after-effects of suicide clusters (New, 2015; Walker,

2016). Often, it is only after these tragedies take place that universities revisit their student death

policies (Walker, 2016).

Student Death Protocol

When reviewing student death policies, universities need to confirm that there is a

detailed student protocol in place. Before 2014, there was no national standard for how a campus

should appropriately respond to a student death or suicide (Kingkade, 2014). The Higher

Education Mental Health Alliance (HEMHA) developed guidelines for responding to a student

suicide titled, The Postvention: A Guide for Response to Suicide on College Campuses

(HEMHA, 2014). The goal was to ease the disturbance, pain, and grief caused by a sudden

suicide within a campus community (HEMHA, 2014). This framework provides guidance on

building a response committee, performing practice exercises, and most importantly, assisting a

grieving student body. While the guidelines are specific to student suicide, campuses can refer to
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this framework when evaluating or building a broader student death protocol. When re-

evaluating student death protocols, it is important to remember that each institution must

individualize its protocol to fit the unique needs of its campus culture (Callahan & Fox, 2008).

A death on a college campus affects a population that may have little or no experience

with death or thoughts on mortality (Fitch & Marshall, 2011). Universities need to keep this in

mind when planning their responses. Student death protocols need to align with any existing

bereavement policies for students. (Actively Moving Forward, n.d.). When students are dealing

with profound grief, their academic performance also suffers (Servaty-Seib & Hamilton, 2006).

These students need extra support, such as a leave of absence or extra time to complete

assignments, and they need to feel supported by the institutional personnel. Providing counseling

services to the student body, hosting grief workshops, and developing a memorial on campus are

potential methods of showing support to the affected students (Actively Moving Forward, n.d.).

Campuses can also consider providing additional aid to faculty and staff who may not feel

prepared to support students in their time of grief (Fitch & Marshall, 2011). Several universities,

including the University of Oregon, provided a guide entitled Helping Students Cope to help

their professionals support students after a tragedy (University of Oregon, n.d.).

Crisis Response Team

It is important that the larger campus community be aware of the student death protocol

because an understanding of the regulations will assist for a more rapid and synchronized

campus response. Campuses should appoint a centralized office to organize all campus activities

and communication regarding student death (Callahan & Fox, 2008). The appointed office(s) are

typically within the dean of students office, student health and counseling services, campus
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security, the registrar, central administration, or the public affairs office (Turner, Leno, & Keller,

2013).

The office coordinating the response to a student death should establish a crisis response

team. Members can represent departments across campus, including student leaders and student

organizations, with each department represented on some level. If each department is

represented, they can educate their division on the correct protocol, as well as promote cross-

campus collaboration and relations (Duncan, & Miser, 2000; HEMHA, 2014; Walker, 2016).

Offices recommended for inclusion are counseling and psychological services, the student health

center, the financial aid office, campus security/police, residential living, legal affairs,

chaplaincy, student affairs leadership office, international programs office, information

technology department, the student government association, and the student newspaper

(HEMHA, 2014; Walker, 2016).

The role of the head of crisis response team is to organize all lines of communication and

establish roles within the campus. Their first role is contacting and activating the team in the

event of a student death. They should also appoint a member of the crisis response team to

contact the family and serve as the point of contact for the media. Another appointed member

should define critical responders (i.e. campus police chief, dean of students) and collect their

contact information (Duncan, & Miser, 2000). A sub-committee of the crisis team will be formed

and tasked with preparing a checklist of tasks to be completed in relation to the deceased. This

includes gathering the deceased students information (such as the students address, enrollment

status, program, and relatives contact information), identifying friends and student organizations

to which the deceased belonged, accessing all student records and accounts, removing the
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student's information from university systems, and noting how the college was notified of the

students death (Duncan, & Miser, 2000).

For a universitys reaction to be effective, the response team needs to both plan and

practice multiple scenarios (Walker, 2016). It is imperative that the team participate in practice

exercises that assist in developing responses that are informative and supportive to the deceased

students family, friends, and campus community (Walker, 2016). A few examples of practice

scenarios would be if a roommate posts on social media about a students death before the crisis

team is able to respond, or if local media coverage gives false information about the student

death. It is important to consider these scenarios and many others when preparing for a potential

student death (HEMHA, 2014). These procedures will be put into effect abruptly; therefore, the

crisis team needs to be prepared to act quickly and efficiently at any time. Universities that have

planned and coordinated cross-campus responses are able to most efficiently send a message to

the friends and family about the importance of the loss of the student (Fitch & Marshall, 2011).

Conclusion

Student deaths cannot all be prevented, and no campus is immune to tragedy (Kingkade,

2014). Universities cannot wait until they are faced with the crisis of a student death to revisit

their policies and procedures for responding to one. Instead, they need to establish a central

office to coordinate all response efforts and develop a cross-campus crisis response team before

any student death occurs. The crisis team should consist of faculty, staff, and students that are

equipped to react to various scenarios. Each department on campus should be represented in

order to promote campus relations, as well as to provide information to their respected

department on the updated policies. The campus should also be prepared to provide multiple

campus grieving methods of support. The benefit of updating and training on policies related to
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student death will prevent universities from being vulnerable to the crippling after-effects of a

grieving campus.
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References

Actively Moving Forward (n.d.). Action Steps for University faculty & staff to assist college

grief. Retrieved from http://activelymovingforward.org/grief-support/action-steps-for-

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Callahan, C., & Erin, F. K. (2008). Student death protocols: A practitioner's perspective. New

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Cintron, R., Weathers, E., & Garlough, K. (2007). College student death: Guidance for a caring

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