Dangerous People?

By Ari Rabkin
Apr 26 2007

<i>Between the Lines</i>

One of the striking facts about the Virginia Tech shootings was how predictable the murderer&#39;s identity was. The authorities knew long before his rampage that Cho Seung-Hui was not merely "troubled," but dangerous. A court had ruled two years previously that he posed an "imminent danger to himself as a result of mental illness." As a result, he was civilly committed to an outpatient mental-health clinic. He checked out the next day, however, without being effectively treated.

In the wake of the shootings, many commentators have decried the gradual decline in involuntary commitment to mental health facilities. The courts, so the thinking goes, should have been more aggressive, and should have committed Cho to an inpatient facility, and not released him until he was judged to be no longer dangerous. But this sort of confinement poses awkward questions. The mentally ill are confined — locked up — not because they have done anything wrong, but because they might be dangerous in the future.

Sun Podcast: A podcast is available for this column. Click here to listen to or to download it.Sun Podcast: A podcast is available for this column. Click here to listen to or to download it.To lock people up, not because they are criminals, but because they are dangerous, subverts many of our normal notions of due process. To go free, a criminal defendant needs to rebut a factual allegation; he needs to show that he didn&#39;t commit a particular act. A prisoner confined for being dangerous, however, is in a much more precarious position. "Danger" cannot be proven beyond a reasonable doubt to a jury of laymen, but can only be assessed by expert judgment.

To avoid making such judgments, American civil law does not have a general category of "dangerous persons" other than the mentally ill. Sane individuals can normally be imprisoned only after a criminal conviction, for a crime they have already committed. Civil confinement, as it is called, is restricted to those judged to be "mentally abnormal."

This category, in addition to violent psychotics and the like, includes repeat sex offenders, a group that society has become increasingly eager to keep off the streets. Many states now allow the government to confine serious sex offenders even after they have served their criminal sentence. Proponents of such "civil confinement" laws argue that these individuals have so strong a compulsion to sexually abuse others that it would be dangerous to release them, and that so long as they are a menace, they should be confined.

Enemy prisoners in wartime are yet another class of prisoners, held not as criminals, but as menaces. Unlike the mentally ill, they are held outside of the ordinary legal system entirely. The United States is currently holding hundreds of prisoners at Guantanamo Bay, and many others at detention sites in Afghanistan, Iraq and elsewhere. These detainees are not criminals, and often can be charged with no crimes, since American civilian courts do not have jurisdiction over acts committed by foreign nationals outside the United States. Altering the law to cover such cases is an unattractive option. Scooping up foreigners, and trying them before American civilian courts, for acts that were legal when and where they were committed, is a precedent that the government is rightly loathe to set.

Non-judicial detention is absolutely necessary. School shootings and suicide bombings have this in common: the perpetrators do not expect to survive, are prepared to go to great lengths to kill others and cannot be deterred. The normal criminal justice system is not designed or equipped to stop such acts. Stopping such acts requires preemptive confinement.

But on what terms should so extraordinary a confinement be imposed? There is a striking parallelism between the military&#39;s procedures for detaining enemy combatants, and our civil responses to mental illness. These parallels may help us understand each case by reference to the other.

In many states, the mentally ill can be confined after an administrative hearing, with no jury. The standard of proof is generally "clear and convincing evidence," not the proof beyond a reasonable doubt required for criminal conviction. Likewise, terror detainees are evaluated by military review boards, not civil juries. The standard of proof required to hold prisoners at Guantanamo is not precisely defined, but prisoners are routinely released as "no longer dangerous." Locking people away and forgetting them is, of course, abhorrent, and both the mentally ill and terror detainees, are reevaluated on a yearly or bi-yearly basis.

Preemptive confinement, while necessary, must not be overused, and the courts have created a number of limitations on its use domestically. Only the "mentally abnormal" may be confined, and only if they pose a substantial risk. Similarly, detention in wartime is constrained by the scope of the war. The prisoners held at Guantanamo are in our custody either because a government with jurisdiction over them turned them over, or because they were seized in an area of active combat operations. The U.S. does not have a general legal right to take prisoners from the soil of the United States or friendly powers.

The procedures appropriate for the mentally abnormal are obviously different from those suitable for handling enemy combatants in wartime. The threats posed by the two groups and our legal obligations to each are very different. In both cases, though, the normal mechanisms of reactive justice are insufficient, and society has a compelling interest in confining them, not as punishment, but as prevention. Likewise in both cases, we must balance the risk posed by a dangerous individual versus the rights of that individual, and the risk of confining the innocent.

There is no guarantee that a court would have found Cho to be "abnormal," or that harmless individuals will not be confined. Consequently, we owe ourselves, and our prisoners, a clear account as to when this sort of confinement is appropriate, and what standards of proof apply. We owe it to society to do our utmost to protect the innocent from those who, either from illness or malice, would do them harm.

<i>Ari Rabkin is a graduate student in Computer Science. He can be contacted at asr32­@­c­o­r­n­ell.edu. Between the Lines appears Thursdays.</i>

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Original Source: <a href=http://cornellsun.com/node/23174>Cornell Daily Sun - April 26, 2007</a>

Ari Rabkin

2007-07-10

Sara Hood

Jonny Lieberman <jdl46@cornell.edu>, <lieberman.jonny@gmail.com>

eng

NBC, MySpace and V.T.

By Behzad Varamini
Apr 25 2007

<i>Gain Through Loss</i>

Hours after students cowered behind desks and played dead in hopes that Virginia Tech killer Cho Seung-Hui would spare their lives, minutes after the body count was made public and started to climb, it took only seconds for the gluttonous demons in dark corners of men&#39;s souls to perk up and devise a plan on how to best capitalize on a tragic story that even satisfied the devil himself.

Atheists and evangelicals, gun-toters and arms opposers, and other talking heads with punches to throw delayed healing by using the backdrop of the tragic killings to guilefully push their own agendas. Amidst these vultures, perhaps the most flagrant exploiter of the catastrophe was NBC News, who decided to air self-taken photographs and a homemade video of Cho multiple times over national airwaves, just two days after the events took place and literally hours after the videos were received. In between the first and second set of murders last Monday, April 16, the killer put the finishing touches on the video and overnighted it, along with a series of photographs, to NBC News headquarters.

Soon after the tapes of wrath aired, NBC President Steve Capus made a statement assuring Americans that the network struggled with the decision to release the videos. In the end, however, NBC pinned their collective conscious into submission and granted the psychotic killer a public posthumous forum, completing the final phase of Cho&#39;s demonic plan.

Just a quick look at the pictures and videos makes Capus&#39; motives clear. Stamped into the top-left corner of the video and every still of Cho is the NBC news logo — peacock and all. NBC News anchor Brian Williams admitted in a later interview that airing even part of the video would promise the killer the martyrdom he hoped to achieve. In the name of profit, NBC served as an instrumental accomplice, helping make Cho&#39;s plan come to complete fruition and allowing the friends and families of the victims the opportunity to look into the eyes of the gun-wielding killer, the same eyes their loved ones saw before losing their lives.

Releasing the video helped further what Cho started, burying the lives of the innocent underneath layers of dirt and self-serving agendas.

Feeling disgust after being repeatedly showered with sponsored images and videos of the killer, I began to wonder how much information was publicly known about the innocent victim&#39;s lives.

Online newspapers such as the New York Times provided brief bios and one or two photos of each victim. Hometowns, majors and quotes from friends provided abbreviated and filtered second-hand accounts of the victim&#39;s lives; accounts which didn&#39;t seem to satisfy my suddenly aching need to find out who these kids really were, what they did for fun and what they hoped and dreamed of. As unthinkable as it may seem, links to MySpace profiles provided what is probably the most personal and endearing insights available about the victim&#39;s lives in their own words.

The first MySpace profile I came across was that of freshman Lauren McCain. Lauren was a 20-year old international studies major from Oklahoma. Her brother Joel was listed as her hero. She hoped to have children one day and wanted to meet Andre the Giant because he was "sooooo cool!"

Of all the details on her page, none proved more horrifying than time-stamped comments from friends which evolve from hellos and jokes to urgent pleas asking Lauren to call her parents to grieving memoirs describing her as a great role model and friend.

Further agonizing are Lauren&#39;s pictures. Several display her presumable love of nature and outdoors and she stands in front of a botanical garden in one shot and in another overlooks the horizon on a sunny day in San Diego. Littered with goofy comments and exclamation points, Lauren&#39;s profile began to reflect a young and lively girl.

As much as I ache to help, situations like these leave me feeling completely unqualified as a voice and helpless as a human being. I know Virginia Tech has established a Hokie Spirit Memorial Fund to assist victims and their families. Though I am hesitant in suggesting a financial contribution at the expense of the valid criticism that money won&#39;t make things better, I trust the fund was established because families and the school legitimately need help and I ask everyone to consider donating.

Though I never knew Lauren and only know about her what she decided to reveal on her MySpace page, I am convinced that the world is a lesser place without her and the other 31 people lost in this immeasurable catastrophe. I pray healing and comfort will come swiftly to all those affected so that one day soon, we can begin to live life the way it was originally intended, before wretched souls began turning innocent loss into their own gain.

<i>Behzad Varamini is a graduate student in Nutritional Sciences. He can be contacted at bv29@cornell.edu. Gain Through Loss appears alternate Wednesdays.</i>

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Original Source: <a href=http://cornellsun.com/node/23140>Cornell Daily Sun - April 25, 2007</a>

Behzad Varamini

2007-07-10

Sara Hood

Jonny Lieberman <jdl46@cornell.edu>, <lieberman.jonny@gmail.com>

eng

CUPD Assesses Campus Safety

By Sarah Singer
Sun City Editor
Apr 18 2007

<i>Cornell responds to recent tragedy at Virginia Tech</i>

Yesterday, several university officials hosted a media call-in where they discussed safety and security on the Cornell campus in the aftermath of Monday&#39;s shooting at Virginia Polytechnical Institute. The participants were Curt Ostrander, chief of Cornell University Police, Greg Eells, director of counseling and psychological services for Gannett, Tim Marchall, director of mental health initiatives for Gannett and Tommy Bruce, vice president of University communications.

Although the tragedy in Virginia did not pose an immediate threat to Cornell&#39;s safety, Eells said he had "some concerns" about the safety of all college campuses during this frightening time. "Traumas like this can make students&#39; own problems more clear to them," he said.

"We have heightened the police presence around residential areas," said Ostrander, "and we are being especially attentive to all of campus as well."

Although the University is in a heightened state of security, according to Ostrander, anticipating the exact measures it would take if faced with a crisis situation similar to Virginia Tech&#39;s is difficult, but confidently stated, "we have the plans and procedures in place to deal with situations like this," he said.

"We would dispatch a multiple officer response," he continued.

Ostrander said that the CUPD "assesses the campus every six months" to ensure its high level of safety for students. He also said that there are "training programs in place for resident hall directors on what to do in dangerous situations. We can track who enters and leaves the dorms, and can implement a lockdown if necessary," he said.

This effort to maintain a high level of security on campus extends beyond police efforts. Eells emphasized a number of educational initiatives that involve "working with residence halls directors to identify students and reach out to students if they are struggling," he said.

He could not outline the specific steps that a counselor would undertake when helping a student as he said such would have to be determined "on a case-by-case basis." However, Ostrander emphasized that if students encounter a physical threat at any time, "they can receive information from the dispatch at any time."

Bruce stressed, "student to student programs are extremely important on campus at times like this." Although he is confident in the University&#39;s ability to handle emergency situations, Ostrander said that Cornell&#39;s large size does pose complications when faced with a situation that warrants a school-wide lockdown that would affect 250 major buildings and approximately 30,000 residents.

The last shooting that occurred at Cornell was on Sunday, Dec. 17, 1983 when 26-year-old Su Yong Kim of Queens, New York shot and killed two freshmen girls, Young H. Suh &#39;87 and Erin C. Nieswand &#39;87, roommates living in Low Rise 7. Kim was Suh&#39;s ex-boyfriend. He arrived at Suh&#39;s dorm at 11:30 on Saturday night, and Kim unwillingly agreed to see him.

After threatening Suh and other dorm residents in her room, Kim agreed to let everyone besides Suh and Nieswan leave the room. The residents immediately called the police, who said the shots were fired at about 11:50 p.m. He used a rifle with a silencer attached.

After murdering both women, Kim killed himself, according to an article in The Sun.

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Original Source: <a href= http://cornellsun.com/node/22971>Cornell Daily Sun - April 18, 2007</a>

Sarah Singer

2007-07-10

Sara Hood

Jonny Lieberman <jdl46@cornell.edu>, <lieberman.jonny@gmail.com>

eng

Idealism v. Cho

By Jeremy Siegman
Apr 27 2007
Cosmology on the Rocks

It always feels weird swallowing real-world events like the Virginia Tech massacre in the hazy cosmopolitanism of Uris Library. Cornell and its libraries, after all, are fleeing from the bustling Manhattans, from the culture of CNN and even the busy humming of our own town. It feels like fleeing from all that is extremist, religious or vulgar. And the Promised Land is the Hill, which, legend has it, is populated by a super-strong Atlas who can not only pick up the planet, but also stop it from warming too, and just foster utopia in general, all at the reasonable rate of only $40,000 a year (tax-free if you use Big Red Bucks!).

This detached cosmopolitan Cornell is proud, richly endowed, but can be shaken. When an English major murders 32 people at a university, our university shakes. Finally, something has hit home; but utopianism hits back. Our president responds in the eloquent universalism we know best: "We are one; one community, one people, one planet." This is me responding, stuck in Uris Library because it&#39;s raining outside; I&#39;m stuck, too, in this Skortonian universalism, as I consider the murderer, his condition and ours too.

"Three Pro-Gun Bills Pending in Nevada Legislature!" exclaims a headline from NRA.org. You should press your senators to pass them, urges this National Rifle Association writer, so people can have the freedom to not register their handguns! Gun activists argue that Cho Seung-Hui should have been lawfully prevented from buying his .22-caliber and 9mm guns because of his mental illness. They also argue that gun-control laws should be toned down! This is utterly strange, this exaltation of the Second Amendment at a time like this.

Considered in a vacuum, there&#39;s really nothing wrong with the right to bear arms. But when the bald eagle of America is made to hold rifles in its talons (the NRA logo) — a powerful symbol is crafted. It speaks loudly for a lot of Americans. The symbolic exaltation is poor form, with poor results: the nation that made Terminator I-III, Rambo, Quentin Tarantino and Cho too. Tarantino is not Cho — a talented artist, not a murderer. He doesn&#39;t shoot, he makes aesthetics. But what is his aesthetic? It is images of Cho and for Cho. Aesthetics broadcast culture, and culture affects people.

What Cho most needed was probably medication. But what he needed second most was a culture that says, "don&#39;t shoot." This he did not quite have; rather, he had Kill Bill. And he had a precedent of almost 20 school shootings in America in the past 10 years. Add this to the list of things in which we lead the world; Germany is a not-so-close second, with only three.

We have a cult of violence in this country. We also have a cult of hyper-individualism: the kind that cherishes individual rights like not having to register your gun. Violence could exist without this cult and so could mental illness; but I merely suggest some cultural change wouldn&#39;t be a bad thing.

Diversity within Cornell works because the lack of religious and ethnic unity is compensated for: the minute you get here you are hit over the head with Freshman Orientation. You are explicitly told, that despite the diverse backgrounds and different colors — we are all friends. You are showered with programs and people your age, with your interests, your intelligence ... But diversity in the real America is ugly at times — the same diversity is extant, but there&#39;s no Freshman Orientation. There&#39;s no one really saying we are all friends. (In fact, we compete with out neighbors for almost everything.) We lack, then, a common language with which to tell the school shooters, "don&#39;t shoot."

The American suicide murderer has no cause — unlike those who blew up themselves and 191 Iraqis in Baghdad just days after Virginia Tech. But perhaps what an American rebel with no cause needs is ... a cause. And a peaceful one to boot.

In America, everyone has a different moral code — from the Bible to Gandhi to Oprah. The only normative force we share is our secular law: don&#39;t shoot because you&#39;ll go to jail. But Americans feel oppositional towards the law anyway: the under-21 collegiate "elite" could proudly drink most baby boomers under the table. The law is not enough.

If there&#39;s anything that could work it might be Christianity; but America is no longer Christian. So why not just let each denomination speak its piece? A chorus of don&#39;t shoots in different languages and moralities? We already have this multiplicity, and Cho falls through the cracks.

To add to our diversity, we a need language more common, so widely held that it can be strong enough to speak to the next Cho.

If Americans are so different, it&#39;s only knowledge of each other that will bring that commonality. It&#39;s a university, or at least a good high school, that will bring that knowledge. It&#39;s getting everyone, even the poor, into those schools ...

Consider, then, our Cornellian cosmopolitanism — "We are one; one community, one people, one planet" — turning around with the Hokies and the citizenry and facing reality, facing Cho, facing his Columbine counterparts Dylan and Eric. Consider gathering the psychological knowledge of their sickness, the practical knowledge of how to make society safe and the moral knowledge that murder is wrong. Consider gathering all this and broadcasting it mercilessly on TV, alongside images of eagles with no rifles in their talons. This might take a really long time — culture does — and there will always be psychological violence. But if the relative peace of this campus on a Hill is any paradigm, then let&#39;s take the reigns of the real world.

Let&#39;s be powerful the way we know how. Let&#39;s create some ideology, disseminate it and brainwash everyone. If we&#39;re good enough at it, we&#39;ll even reach the next Cho: mental illness could resist even a culture of peace, but it&#39;d be quite a bit harder. Yes, we&#39;ll pick up where the sixties left off: we&#39;ll brainwash them into thinking we are all one. Maybe, in fact, we are.

<i>Jeremy Siegman is a sophomore in the College of Arts and Sciences. He can be contacted at jas367@cornell.edu. Cosmology on the Rocks appears alternate Fridays.</i>

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Original Source:<a href=http://cornellsun.com/node/23214>Cornell Daily Sun - April 27, 2007</a>

Jeremy Siegman

Cornell Daily Sun

2007-07-10

Sara Hood

Jonny Lieberman <jdl46@cornell.edu>, <lieberman.jonny@gmail.com>

eng

Big Red Flag

By Claire Readhead
Apr 30 2007

The paradox of mental health services, generally, hovers around the issue of consent. Most mental health services require voluntary participation from the patient, except in extreme cases. Thus, the question becomes, how can someone suffering from mental illness possess the wherewithal to seek help? Even those who are not clinically ill, but just unstable, may feel that the stigma attached to mental health services is a huge repellent. In light of the Virginia Tech Massacre, all educational institutions should begin to reconsider old notions surrounding mental health and seek to make services more accessible to students.

Issues of mental health are sorely misunderstood in this country, and not all medications and treatments are covered under insurance — emphasizing the cultural and political neglect of these matters. The fact that Cho Seung-Hui could fall through the cracks of a well-structured institution, such as a university, should be a Big Red Flag to all academic administrators to seriously address issues surrounding counseling services. The reality is that most students suffering from mental health related problems will not turn into Cho; however, they may fall through the cracks without such a "bang," if you will.

Counseling services at universities should not be reserved for the deeply troubled, but should be open and generally administered like the flu shot. Clearly, just as with the flu shot, counseling must be voluntary on the part of the students. Students should feel free to visit a counselor without fear of censure from peers. Hmmm ... this isn&#39;t so easy.

In terms of Gannett specifically, the first item of business should be that of privacy. For instance, I went in for a routine physical, and as I was walking away from the counter, the lady yelled out, "Oh by the way do you want to be tested for HIV today?!?!?!?" Wow, now that everyone in the lobby is staring at me, I really feel comfortable answering that question. I meekly replied, "Not today, thanks."

I did go back to get tested by the way, because I am vigilant about taking care of my health, and the HIV form was bright orange with "HIV testing" written in huge black letters. Cool, then for a normal exam there is a paper with a giant diagram of a vagina ... excellent. So clearly I just had to run into some guy I was vaguely interested in, clutching my vagina diagram and bright orange HIV testing form to my chest. Yeah, as if that&#39;s not obvious. Then to get the results, you have to go back to Gannett and have a long chat about sex with a nurse, or better yet, a peer-advisor — who you can run into at the bars (not a bright idea, Gannett). Dude, testing is the reality of any sexually active adult, and in my opinion, the less fuss made of it, the better.

In addition, Gannett ought to work on ensuring the privacy of its patients and should recognize that this issue is exceedingly important given that universities function socially like small towns, i.e. everyone is in everyone&#39;s business. Perhaps, for instance, you shouldn&#39;t have to give your name at the counter, but rather just the time of the appointment and the doctor&#39;s name. That&#39;s an itty-bitty step I know, but it would help. Also, don&#39;t play obnoxious rock music in the lobby — the students are either sick or feeling emotionally shitty. They need something soothing (damn it, I need something soothing). Okay, I&#39;m getting distracted by details ... soon I&#39;ll be asking for lattes to be served with my therapy session. Hey, not a bad idea.

Okay, and then we have Counseling and Psychological Services ... ohhhh CAPS — this is located in the basement of Gannett. The actual counselors and doctors are generally good. I just find that the process is bad. Even at CAPS — and yes, I see a shrink and I&#39;m proud of it! — there is absolutely NO privacy in the waiting area. The receptionist asks for your name really loudly over horribly peppy music. But to assuage feelings of inadequacy and depression, they have lots of lollypops, hot chocolate and inspirational posters!

Plus, CAPS is omnipresent. For instance, when I had pneumonia last winter, someone at CAPS found out, which led to an anonymous member of the clinic repeatedly calling me and asking, in a chirpy voice, "Do you plan on killing yourself today?" Yeah, that wasn&#39;t helping — an anonymous person calling to check to see if I had offed myself was not particularly comforting ... but enough about me.

Really, university administrators (or whoever is in charge of this sort of thing) have got to do something to minimize the stigma associated with counseling in order to encourage students to seek help ... even if it is just to talk about the pressures of beer pong. Seriously, seeing a shrink is chic. I can talk about seeing a shrink openly because I&#39;m from L.A. and it is considered weird not to go to therapy. My mom had a brilliant idea — a personal trainer/shrink.

But I shouldn&#39;t trivialize this matter, because the lack of empathy and support surrounding mental health is an extremely serious problem. Unfortunately, mental health issues are not well understood, even by professionals, and treatment is still in the embryonic stages. But seeing as universities may not be able to a) stop the NRA b) install metal detectors in every classroom or c) change mental health care globally, they may as well start by reanalyzing their own facilities. Also, professors should be informed as to how to spot unhealthy behaviors and how to successfully refer students to counseling services, as students often look to faculty for help before consulting a trained therapist. Granted, the Virginia Tech Massacre is an anomaly, but there are plenty of students who suffer from mental illness. They will not go to the extremes that Cho did, but may end up harming themselves in some way. Universities should step up and address issues surrounding mental health and lead the way for acceptance, understanding and treatment.

<i>Claire Readhead is a junior in the College of Arts and Sciences. She can be reached at clr39@cornell.edu. Silk Blue Stockings appears alternate Mondays.</i>

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Original Source: <a href=http://cornellsun.com/node/23257> Cornell Daily Sun - April 30, 2007</a>

Claire Readhead

Cornell Daily Sun

2007-07-10

Sara Hood

Jonny Lieberman <jdl46@cornell.edu>, <lieberman.jonny@gmail.com>

eng

Mention of shooter&#39;s ethnicity unnecessary

Apr 30 2007
Re: "CUPD Assesses Campus Safety," News, April 18

To the Editor:

Thank you for the article "CUPD Assesses Campus Safety." In some ways, it made me feel a little bit safer knowing about the heightened security. However, it made me feel uneasy and unsafe at the same time after reading about the last shooting that occurred at Cornell. As a Korean-American, I have felt shame, sadness, pity, anger and fear about sharing the same ethnicity as the shooter at Virginia Tech. In a society where racial inequalities and stereotypes still very much exist, I feared for what this one young Korean-American student may have done for our future race relations here in the U.S. My fear was shared by many others, where Korean parents took their children home from VTech for fear of racial backlash.

Thus, I strongly believe that your reference to the last shooting at Cornell was inappropriate and uncalled for. Although you did not specifically say that Kim, the shooter at Cornell, was Korean, it can easily be implied just by his name. I believe that your mention of this one horrific incidence in which the shooter just happened to be Korean only further aggravates the very sensitive issue of race. I believe that you should have referenced the incidence at Cornell without giving names of those involved, to prevent any kind of potentially dangerous stereotypes and consequences that it may have on other Korean-Americans around campus.

Rachel Baek &#39;07

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Original Source: <a href=http://cornellsun.com/node/23257> Cornell Daily Sun - April 30, 2007</a>

Rachel Baek

2007-07-10

Sara Hood

Jonny Lieberman <jdl46@cornell.edu>, <lieberman.jonny@gmail.com>

eng

Student Mental Health Problems Rise at C.U.

By Gallagher Hannan
Sun Staff Writer
May 3 2007

The tragedy at Virginia Tech has put the entire college community on edge. Although it is clear that this incident was isolated, it has raised important questions about the prevalence of high stress and depression on college campuses.

In an interview with Cornell&#39;s President David Skorton last week on mental health, he addressed the importance of these issues.

"I am very, very concerned about depression, pressure on campus, suicide, homicide, violence; it&#39;s an enormous issue," he said.Ample Advice: Pamphlets line the walls of Gannett Health Clinic offering advice to students on a number of topics.Ample Advice: Pamphlets line the walls of Gannett Health Clinic offering advice to students on a number of topics.

According to a recent study completed by Kansas State University, mental health issues like those described by Skorton are becoming increasingly prevalent on college campuses. The study indicated that since 1994, there has been a dramatic increase in the number of students seeking help for depression and suicidal thoughts. Greg Eells, director of Cornell Counseling and Psychological services, said that these trends are apparent Cornell as well.

"We&#39;ve seen a doubling of people coming in for counseling over the last ten years," he said, "but we&#39;ve doubled our staff size as well, so we&#39;ve tried to keep up."

The question then, is whether mental health issues are actually increasing, or if students are just more willing to seek psychological help.

"It&#39;s hard to know whether the increase in demand is about increased stress, or is about increased knowledge in campus [about mental health services] and [their] de-stigmatization," said Matt Boone, interim assistant director of CAPS.

"While there have been claims that mental health problems among college students are on the rise, the data is not consistent," said Tim Marchell, director of Mental Health Initiatives and the Council for Mental Health and Welfare, "[But] we do know from surveys that there are many students who experience significant levels of stress for which they don&#39;t receive help."

So what can universities like Cornell do to help combat these problems? Aside from increasing the staff size of CAPS, Cornell has been trying to implement other ways in which students can have access to counseling and support if they need it.

"I think Gannett is at the forefront of these issues," said Boone. "[We have] eight staff members devoted to outreach and nine &#39;Let&#39;s Talk&#39; sites where you can walk in without paying a fee. Those staff members conduct those walk-in hours as a way to engage people who wouldn&#39;t usually come into counseling," he said.

Gannett has also been working to make faculty members and students more aware of what the warning signs of mental health problems may be.

"We are educating faculty and staff and students how to recognize issues...[and] helping them understand what are the indicators that might suggest that a student is having a problem. We [also] provide online mental health self-assessments on our website," Marchell said.

There are also lots of places that Cornell students can find support on campus outside of CAPS, if they need it. Empathy and Referral Services, a peer-counseling group, is another resource for students if they want to talk but feel that they do not require a therapist.

"Not all issues are therapy issues," said Alice Green, director of the EARS program. "If you have a breakup with a significant other, it&#39;s a normal life passage, it may not require therapy but it may require some support and reflection...I really hope that people who come to EARS will see that some issues that don&#39;t require therapy can really benefit from just talking with someone."

There&#39;s a lot of talk about Cornell being an especially stressful university. While it is clear that workloads can get heavy, there may be other reasons why Cornell students feel so much pressure.

"If you look at national college health assessment surveys, Cornell tracks right a long with other schools. However, I think if you look at people&#39;s perceptions, there is a cultural component of Cornell that [says] you&#39;re supposed to be stressed here...There are things about Cornell&#39;s structure, it&#39;s size, being a teaching institution that add to that perception of stress," said Eells.

"There&#39;s a long standing tradition of talking about how stressful it is here," said Marchell. "[In some cases] talking about how stressful it is may even add to the stress."

It is because of these problems, many mental health professionals agree, that it is important to relax at places like Cornell.

"[It&#39;s important] to just notice that we have a this culture of pressure and be brave enough to say &#39;I&#39;m going to try to relax and I&#39;m going to try to bring that to whoever I encounter&#39;," said Green, "You can be clear and intelligent and successful and not carry that atmosphere of driven-ness."

Nevertheless, the University is trying to ensure that there are always counseling alternatives if necessary.

"For those who are experiencing stress that is interfering with their ability to function it can be important to seek help from professionals or peers," said Marchell. "And similarly I would say for those of us who may be aware of someone else who&#39;s undergoing significant stress its important that we reach out to those individuals...All of us need to play a role in making Cornell an even more caring community."Student Mental Health Problems Rise at C.U.

<b>Comments</b>


The Most Likely Reason for Seung-hui Cho&#39;s Problems

Lies with the age of his father at his conception, between 38 and 39. I would guess that the resilence of today&#39;s college students to stress and depression is diminished in some of the population whose father&#39;s, following the trend during the last 20 years, were older at their conception, over the age of 32. There is a great ignorance in this country of the science of the past 50 years concerning the effects of the male biological clock called the paternal age effect. The increase in today&#39;s children of the incidence of non-familial autism and schizophrenia is a demonstration of that effect. The Male Biological Clock: Advancing Paternal Age = Genetic Disorders.

The most obvious major cause of the increase in depression, lack of resilence to stress, and at the extreme end, autism and schizophrenia, in young people are mutations to the genes that control myelin development.

A note, from a expert in the field to myelin research, Dr. George Bartzokis to me contained this explanation:

"The issue is that the older man will have sperm that has undergone more divisions and therefore had more chances to have mutations.
The COMPLEXITY of the myelination process makes it more vulnerable to mutations. I am not talking of one specific mutation. Many things could MANIFEST in the myelination or myelin breakdown process because it is so vulnerable - something going slightly wrong will impact it while it will not impact bone growth or the heart. A good example is ApoE4 - whatever else it may affect, it manifests in the reduced capacity of myelin repair and earlier onset of AD."

Knowledge of, and acceptance of, the science of the male biological clock must be forthcoming.

At all levels of education, students and teachers must study and integrate the paternal age effect findings and the knowledge of what ages it is advisable to father children learned. There is also the option of cryobanking sperm in ones mid 20s to 30 for fathering babies past the age of 32. If men are older than 32, and do not have a client depositor sperm bank account, there might be the possiblilty of adoption or use of healthy sperm from a donor aged 25-30.

For more information about the paternal age effect please spend a great deal of time reading and absorbing the scientific abstracts that I have collected:

http://ageofthefatherandhealthoffuture.blogspot.com/

http://how-old-is-too-old.blogspot.com/

http://fathersageandsinglegenedisorders.blogspot.com/

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Original Source: <a href=http://cornellsun.com/node/23362>Cornell Daily Sun - May 3, 2007</a>

Gallagher Hannan

2007-07-10

Sara Hood

Jonny Lieberman <jdl46@cornell.edu>, <lieberman.jonny@gmail.com>

eng

Alums Recall 1983 C.U. Murders

By Felicia Daniels
Sun Staff Writer
Apr 19 2007

Brenda Scinto &#39;87 was in her bedroom studying in 1983, when two freshman women, Young Hee Suh &#39;87 and Erin Nieswand &#39;87, were fatally shot in the room above her by 26-year-old Su Yong Kim. Scinto said she does not remember much about that year academically, but 26 years later, she remembers everything about that particular Saturday night. Monday&#39;s shootings at Virginia Polytechnical Institute brought back a flood of memories for her.

"It was incredibly violent, an event that no one in that dorm that night or in dorms around us will ever forget," Scinto said.

Kim, who was not a Cornell student, invaded the North Campus dorm Low Rise 7 on Saturday, Dec. 17, 1983 armed with a rifle. According to Scinto and police reports, Kim arrived at the dorm and confronted Suh and Nieswand in their room after Suh refused to see him. Scinto called Kim an "obsessed admirer and stalker of Suh."

"We all heard him come in through the back fire escape stairs. Those doors were supposed to have been locked but everyone kept them propped open, and that&#39;s how he got in. He came in through the fire escape stairway and entered the suite above me," she said.

Less than 30 minutes later, Scinto heard gunshots as Kim murdered Suh and Nieswand. She then heard footsteps as he fled back down the staircase.

Though only two people lost their lives, the incident had potential to be even more traumatic. Kim held five additional students hostage in Suh&#39;s room before releasing all but the two roommates.

Joel Melby &#39;84 lived on the floor below and remembers how much uglier the situation could have turned. "It was only because the man&#39;s primary target, a quiet, shy, freshman girl, persuaded him to let most of the others go. Her bravery saved the lives of all but herself and her roommate. What if she hadn&#39;t found the courage to do so?" he asked in a comment on The Sun&#39;s website.

"What if" is a question many students are asking as they worry that shootings like the ones at Virginia Tech could happen at Cornell, and whether or not the University could handle such desperate conditions.

Evan Kalman &#39;08 does not feel any college is "equipped to handle a major situation." "You can criticize [a school&#39;s] lack of security, but not their lack of action. If there is a murder on campus you could say, &#39;stay in your rooms,&#39; but I guess that can&#39;t really prevent anything either," he said.

Isha Tohill &#39;08 believes the events at Cornell in 1983 and the Virginia Tech murders emphasize holes in security at all college campuses. She said it was a mistake for Virginia Tech not to take any immediate precautions after the first shooting other than sending an e-mail two hours later stating that a shooting had occurred.

"I know it&#39;s a big school, but they should have had people patrolling the whole campus, especially since they didn&#39;t know where the shooter was," Tohill said.

Scinto found it frustrating watching the coverage at Virginia on Monday. She also criticized the delay in reporting the first shootings since technology is now better than it was in 1983. There was no e-mail sent in 1983; information was spread through word of mouth and over landline phones, Scinto said.

"When the hostages were released in Low Rise, the resident advisors were immediately told what was going on and within minutes the police were there, buildings all over campus were locked down and police caught him within two miles of the dorm," Scinto said. "I don&#39;t know what the time frame is when administration was notified about the first shootings, but it had to be before two hours."

Still, some students believe it is impossible to stop acts of violence and that something could happen at Cornell again or at any other college. Tohill said it is hard to prevent violent situations on campus, "unless every single building has card access that changes every semester according to who has classes in those buildings, and even then it&#39;s not fool proof."

According to Kalman, a false sense of security will leave colleges vulnerable to attacks."You&#39;re not quite home in Ithaca, but you&#39;re very much not in the real world," he said.

While the Virginia Tech community mourns 32 students and teachers, Cornell continues to offer condolences and support. Some are shocked from a distance, others personally affected by the rampage, but all share grief as many members of the Cornell community have friends and relatives attending and working at Virginia Tech.

Though Cornell students were certainly affected by such a recent horrific event, many Cornell students are likely unaware of the University&#39;s tragedy decades ago.

In a post on The Sun&#39;s website, Melby urged students not to become so far removed from the Virginia Tech tragedy that they forget the event "beyond the prayers and the tears."

He stated, "Please don&#39;t believe that it couldn&#39;t have happened on our campus, because it already has."

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Original Source: <a href=http://cornellsun.com/node/23016> Cornell Daily Sun - April 19, 2007</a>

Felicia Daniels

Cornell Daily Sun

2007-07-10

Sara Hood

Jonny Lieberman <jdl46@cornell.edu>, <lieberman.jonny@gmail.com>

eng

Looking Forward

By David J. Skorton
May 2 2007


I had intended this final column of the academic year to be one mainly of gratitude to my colleagues at The Cornell Daily Sun and to readers of the newspaper for permitting me this space and for the tremendously helpful feedback I received as a result of these "From David" columns. I look forward to another year of useful interchange through this column and in many other fora in 2007-08.

I believe we have made progress as a campus this year in confronting important issues, ranging from violence, to mental health, to what it means to be part of an inclusive campus community. Although we have not resolved some issues of importance to this campus, I believe we have learned a great deal together about how to have the sorts of conversations we need to have in order to create change. I am especially heartened by the progress we have made on diversity issues, and I look forward to continuing our progress with the support, leadership and encouragement of the University Diversity Council and through the self-governance processes underway to foster greater community involvement.

As Cornellians, all of us can take pride in the achievements of our colleagues and friends this year. Some have won major national and international awards and many more have demonstrated a great willingness to share their skills and talents with the campus and the world — in the classroom, laboratory and studio; on the playing field; through public service; and through music, dance, theater and art. Eli Northrup &#39;07 and Joshua Raff &#39;07 have even come up with a rap to update the Alma Mater, which I heard performed last week by Pants Velour. Whether you are moving on to the next stage of your life or continuing on at Cornell, you have helped make this a vibrant and engaged community, and I congratulate you and thank you for your efforts.

Unfortunately, the end of the academic year has brought with it the incomprehensible, horrific tragedy at Virginia Tech University. In the best Cornell tradition, we have shared the sadness of the moment, extended our sympathy to our colleagues at Virginia Tech, their friends and families and also taken action to improve our systems for dealing with emergency situations that may arise on our own campus.

At least two areas require our continuing attention:

• the mental health and wellbeing of students, faculty and staff.

• the state of campus security and communications and the regulation of firearms and other weapons in the context of our campus communities.

In earlier columns I have touched on the issues of stress and mental health, as well as on violence on campus. In the sphere of mental health services, a balance must be achieved between the rights of privacy of the individual and the more general public interest. As mentioned in my earlier column, at Cornell we are experimenting with a range of approaches for reaching students, including serious efforts to locate counseling and mental health services where students live and gather and to establish effective "early warning systems" that permit us to identify colleagues in distress and to intervene as appropriate. Last week&#39;s op-ed in the Cornell Chronicle by Gregory T. Eels, associate director of Gannett Health Services and director of counseling and psychological services, described what Cornell is doing in this area and also what counseling can and cannot do.

Campus security also requires a delicate balance — one that enhances the safety of our campuses without destroying the openness of either our built environment or the intellectual environment, both of which make the university experience what it is. While we cannot shrink from doing what we can to enhance the safety of our campuses, we also cannot and should not turn the learning environment into a high-security, gated community, where fear trumps openness and threatens the grand experiments that universities offer in what historian Carl Becker called "freedom with responsibility."

For the past several years, long before the Virginia Tech tragedy, those responsible for safety and security at Cornell have been working to optimize emergency procedures and communications through an institution-wide approach. We already have in place a variety of methods for mass notification in the event of an emergency, ranging from telephone trees to message-blaster e-mails, and we are examining additional ways of reaching large numbers of people during the middle of the day through text-messaging, enunciation panels in individual buildings and expanded alarms. In the weeks to come, we will share with the campus the results of accelerated deliberations on these safety and communications issues.

The subject of firearm regulation is, of course, extraordinarily controversial throughout our country. New York State law prohibits anyone from possessing a rifle, shotgun or firearm (or pellet guns, spring guns and certain other weapons) on a school, college or university campus, without written authorization from the institution. The Cornell Police takes that law very seriously and is committed to its enforcement.

Nonetheless, the more general issue of the easy availability of lethal force is one that must be faced squarely in order to reduce the likelihood of other gun-related tragedies, whether on a college campus or in another venue where people feel relatively safe, such as a shopping mall or sporting event. And the interaction between the regulations regarding mental health record privacy and the background check process for weapon purchase requires constant attention.

Whether this marks the conclusion of your time at Cornell or a brief hiatus, I leave you with three messages. First, let&#39;s remember this year for its achievements, but also with new empathy for those who are struggling with the challenges of alienation and loss. Second, please make your own views on gun regulation known to our elected leaders in order to encourage the discussion we, as a nation, need to have in the wake of the most difficult circumstances in Blacksburg, Virginia. Please report acts of violence to those in a position to help, and also express your thoughts about mental health and campus security to me and to others on campus who help shape our policies and procedures. Third, thank you for making my first year at Cornell so enormously rewarding and productive.

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Original Source: <a href=http://cornellsun.com/node/23320> Cornell Daily Sun - May 2, 2007</a>

David J. Skorton

2007-07-10

Sara Hood

Jonny Lieberman <jdl46@cornell.edu>, <lieberman.jonny@gmail.com>

eng

A Dark Day in April

Apr 17 2007
Editorial

Yesterday marked one of the darkest days in United States history, as the campus of Virginia Tech collapsed to the tune of gunshots, cries and panic. The morning&#39;s horrific aftermath was broadcast on every major news network: students sprinting across campus; SWAT teams taking cover next to their vehicles; an exasperated and exhausted police chief and university president, trying to explain how a bastion for safety and growth — a college campus — could suddenly become the setting for a nightmare of unimaginable proportions.

The event bares a shocking resemblance to the 1999 Columbine massacre and comes eight years to the week of what was once our country&#39;s worst school shooting.

Facts came in bursts; the banners of CNN.com changed right before our eyes; and the death toll seemed to double without any explanation. No one was able to affirmatively answer basic questions such as, "Who was involved?"

"What were the motives behind the shootings?" And if there was one killer, "Why was he able to roam free a second time and inflict even more harm?"

The tragedy hits home not only for Cornell students trying to reach their friends at Virginia Tech but also because of its chilling reminder that no university is immune to violence of this magnitude. At Cornell, we picture ourselves as existing in solitude and safety, removed from the harsh realities of aggression and evil that blot the world. Nearly every person that sets foot on the University has grown up in environments where such inhumane acts have never been commonplace.

But what if a lone gunman had opened fire at Kennedy Hall at 9:45 a.m. instead of Virginia Tech&#39;s Norris Hall? What if two students were dead by breakfast time at a North Campus dorm instead of at West Ambler Johnston Hall? Can the Cornell administration rationally and smoothly handle this seemingly unfathomable situation?

Evidence pouring in from Virginia Tech points to some degree of miscommunication and flawed procedure. Why were students huddled in dorm rooms and classrooms forced to scour the Internet for information about their own precarious situations? Why didn&#39;t the Virginia Tech administration lock the entire campus down until the violence was under control? What led the administration to believe beyond a reasonable doubt that the killer had not only left campus, but also the state?

In the past, Cornell has had to grapple with acts of violence that seemed to spawn out of nowhere. In 1983, a 26-year old New York City man shot and killed two students and tried to take his own life in Low Rise 7. And last year&#39;s stabbing of Union student Charles Holiday is still fresh in the minds of many at C.U.

As the case of Virginia Tech has shown, a more appropriate administrative response may have prevented a cataclysmic loss of life. Cornell has proven incapable of preparing for a simple snow day — even with ample warning and preparation. We hope that Virginia Tech can self-examine its reaction to yesterday&#39;s crisis and determine if it could have improved its response. Hopefully, other universities will, in return, re-evaluate their own emergency response systems.

Our deepest thoughts, condolences and prayers go out to those affected by yesterday&#39;s events.


<b>Comments</b>

There But For The Grace...

This editorial asks the right questions. Most, however, are not aware of how close we came in 1983 to a tragedy nearly of yesterday&#39;s proportions. Before killing his two victims, the 1983 murderer held nearly a dozen students captive in that Low Rise 7 suite (I lived on the floor below). It was only because the man&#39;s primary target, a quiet, shy freshman girl, persuaded him to let most of the others go. Her bravery saved the lives of all but herself and her room-mate. What if she hadn&#39;t found the courage to do so? How would the University have responded? And as you&#39;ve asked, what would be the response today? Beyond the prayers and the tears, we have an obligation to those who died yesterday to make sure that this kind of horror doesn&#39;t happen again.

<i>By Joel Melby (&#39;84 at April 17, 2007 - 9:36am </i>


1983 killings

Thank you, Joel, for remembering the bravery on Yong Hee Suh &#39;87. She and her roommate, Erin Neiswand &#39;87, were the only victims that night. Many more could have died. It has been rough to watch the news today and think back to that Saturday night in 1983.

Fred Barber &#39;87
Historian and Webmaster, Class of 1987

<i>By Fred Barber &#39;87 at April 17, 2007 - 9:07pm </i>

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Original Source: <a href=http://cornellsun.com/node/22937> Cornell Daily Sun - April 17, 2007</a>

Editorial Staff

2007-07-10

Sara Hood

Jonny Lieberman <jdl46@cornell.edu>, <lieberman.jonny@gmail.com>

eng