My son is a freshman and lives in the Villas on 24th (original Abel's site for old timers). He stopped by the house yesterday and casually mentioned that a female student had jumped from the Union high rise across the street the previous evening. Several groups in his building witnessed the entire process, he saw the aftermath, it is beyond horrifying. She landed on the railing just outside the building on Rio Grande. He is trying to be tough but is understandably a little shook up.

I haven't found any news stories discussing it, but did see a post on Reddit from a witness.

This is two West Campus high rise suicides in the last 2.5 months. If you have kids away at college, give them a call today and tell them that you love them. Tell them the world might be a shit show but they can be part of putting it back together. Lots of pressure on kids these days, reach out, let them know you are there and lift them up.

Prayers to this young ladies family. But for the grace of god go i........

I would encourage him to visit with university health services

https://healthyhorns.utexas.edu/cmhc/index.html

It's been all over our Longhorns Parents group. I thought I read that it was a young man, but that hardly matters. A lot of kids were in the area and it was very traumatizing.

College is stressful for youngs. Add to that a severed family support chain and here we are.

Ohio State had a series of these a few years back. Seemed like one suicide led to the next which led to the next.

FWIW, the mental health thread on the Help board has resources for family and friends of college students affected.

1 hour ago, jimmyjazz said:

It's been all over our Longhorns Parents group. I thought I read that it was a young man, but that hardly matters. A lot of kids were in the area and it was very traumatizing.

You may be right, I was just going by the story my son told us. Either way it is tough stuff.

3 minutes ago, Parliament said:

College is stressful for youngs. Add to that a severed family support chain and here we are.

Ohio State had a series of these a few years back. Seemed like one suicide led to the next which led to the next.

FWIW, the mental health thread on the Help board has resources for family and friends of college students affected.

During my daughter’s first semester of her freshman year in college, a girl in her high-rise dorm jumped out of her dorm window. Fortunately, my daughter didn’t see it happen, but she and a group of her new friends came back to the dorm shortly afterwards and saw the crowd. Then, a few months later, one of her high school friends hung himself in the backyard at his parents’ house.

All I’ll say is neither incident helped my kid with the sudden adjustment to living 1,600 miles away from home in Upstate NY. She ended up taking a leave of absence, which was then followed by Covid and having to take courses online from Texas for a year. It was a low-down, dirty, no-good, awful, rotten way to start off college.

Hopefully parents, peers and student services can get a handle on this. I've seen this in high schools too. Suicide as an awful means to an end becomes a pyscho-social contagion. Tragic for all.