There have been seven student suicides at Columbia University between September 2016 and the end of January 2017. These students had to be dealing with far greater personal issues and problems than Donald Trump being elected President.
From Campus Reform:
Professors at Columbia University want space to discuss their “distress” over Donald Trump’s election, saying they don’t know anyone who isn’t “chronically and deeply” upset by the result.
In a letter to Columbia President Lee Bollinger, professors Robert Pollack and Letty Moss-Salentijn, the co-chairs of the Columbia Faculty Affairs Committee, say Trump’s election has cast a “malaise that sits like a fog over Columbia” that not even George Orwell’s classic 1984 can adequately address.
Specifically, they want Columbia to provide links on its website to “all sites that serve the purpose of protecting and sustaining our freedoms,” which apparently includes information on getting the government to help pay student loan debt in exchange for public service.
In addition, the letter demands that the school provide physical spaces for faculty members to engage in “difficult conversations” about their “fears,” suggesting “some of the most visible public spaces on campus” so that the conversations can take place “in the presence of the rest of the university community.”
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Pollack, speaking for both himself and Moss-Salentijn, now claims that the intent of the letter was never to insinuate the student suicides were a result of Trump being elected President.
"We agree with you that we cannot know the cause of the recent spate in suicides, but even if it has been wholly a coinicdence, it nevertheless has added to what we call the 'fog' that has effected so many of us at this complicated but caring community of faculty, students, and administrators," Pollack said.
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