All valid points. Years ago, I attended a northern university which had a history of student suicides, so I realize that Tulane is not alone with this problem.
That said, the suicide numbers are disturbing, although probably not statistically significant in the technical sense. The more concerning aspect was the Google Doc (which was linked in the Yahoo story), which contained several dozen individual stories from current students who had very bad experiences with mental health treatment at Tulane. ( I was particularly impressed that so many of these students felt strongly enough about the issue that they would sign their names to their posts.) The stories tell a fairly consistent story of an institutional response which should be embarrassing to any university.
The story suggests that the university is taking steps to address the situation. Clearly, no university can solve the overall problem of mental health, but it strikes me as a sort of litmus test for the school’s values. Did the school treat the situation as solely a PR problem or did it at least try to expend some resources to expand the options available for troubled students in need of help?
At this point, all I am after is some facts about what is being done.