This has been a very hard year at Tulane, and a bizarre one. As far as I know, there has been nothing like it in the history of the school, and certainly nothing like it in decades. So I think it would be wrong to put too much weight on this year, but right to ask how Tulane has reacted. They have expanded the hours and the number of allowed visits (more than doubled I believe), improved follow-up procedures and contacts, and perhaps most importantly have hired several new mental health professionals, including an MD psychiatrist.
I agree it does seem incompatible with a school that continually is cited as being among those with the happiest students. Perhaps a professional psychologist would have an interesting take on that. But I can only say again that as of now this is a statistical blip, inconsistent with the past. As MaineLonghorn says, it could have happened anyplace and has. I read that Cornell had several suicides per year several years in a row some decades ago, and even though they are now and have been within the national norm for some years, they cannot shake their reputation as the “suicide school”. I also read in that same article that one suicide can trigger that same behavior in others that are at-risk, especially among fellow students. I don’t know, of course, if this played any role in Tulane’s occurrences this year, but it seems possible given how anomalous it is.
My D was there for 4 years and I don’t think anyone committed suicide, at least as far as she knew. And at a smaller campus like Tulane, it would be hard to keep quiet. I’ll ask her again when I talk to her this weekend and if I am wrong about that, I will correct myself. But it certainly wasn’t a major issue like this year. But Tulane has reacted, and reacted strongly I think.