It’s pretty overwhelming, to be honest. It feels like this is almost constant at this point,” a senior at the university said. “It feels very helpless.”
A North Carolina State University student has died in an apparent suicide, the school’s sixth suicide this academic year, according to university officials.
North Carolina State Police started searching for the student after they were notified that he had messaged someone indicating he intended to end his life, said university spokesperson Lauren Barker. The student’s body was found in the woods near Lake Raleigh late Wednesday night.
In total, 13 North Carolina State students have died by various causes since August 2022, Barker said.
The losses have created a sense of uneasiness on campus, where students are currently studying for final exams, said senior Lilly Wallace.
“It’s pretty overwhelming, to be honest. It feels like this is almost constant at this point,” Wallace, 20, said Thursday. “It feels very helpless.”
Last October, after the first several suicides, Wallace created a petition proposing that the university routinely offer mental health wellness days during the academic year so students could have a break from the pressures of schoolwork.
“The school says we have all these mental health resources for students to use, but if you don’t have actual time off to breathe and check in with yourself and say, ‘I might need help, I’m struggling a lot more than I realized I was,’ you might not ever use those resources,” Wallace said.
The petition, which has since received more than 4,600 signatures, also suggested that the university bar professors from giving assignments over school breaks.
“Some professors will still assign assignments over those breaks or we’ll have quizzes or tests after, so it’s not really a break at that point,” she said.
The university recently began scheduling student wellness days, according to a report from a student mental health task force that convened in the fall with the aim of preventing suicides.
But Wallace said students feel more still needs to be done.
The number of student suicides this academic year at North Carolina State is unusually high: The school, which has more than 36,000 undergraduate and graduate students, typically averages three student deaths by suicide per year, according to the task force.
In March, a few weeks after the fifth student suicide of the school year, vice chancellor and dean of academic and student affairs Doneka Scott said North Carolina State was in the process of implementing recommendations made by the task force, including working with The Jed Foundation, a nonprofit that partners with schools to strengthen their mental health support programs.
Scott also said that in recent years, the university has drastically increased staff at its counseling center and has added other mental health positions.
The uptick in suicides at North Carolina State comes as mental health challenges rise across the country. A national survey published last month found that college students are experiencing all-time high rates of depression, anxiety and suicidality.
Scott said she believes that the pandemic and social and political divisions in the U.S. have contributed to college students’ distress.
“This has been a difficult, difficult time,” Scott said in March. “As institutions of higher education, we have to continue to examine and invest in ways that effectively support our students in their growing mental health needs.”
If you or someone you know is in crisis, call 988 to reach the Suicide and Crisis Lifeline. You can also call the network, previously known as the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline, at 800-273-8255, text HOME to 741741 or visit SpeakingOfSuicide.com/resources for additional resources.