Two NYU Deaths Before Fall Term Starts

School only starts today at NYU, but sadness has gripped the campus: Two students have died over the past week, most recently yesterday with a 23 year-old film student committing suicide from the roof of the Tisch School of Arts. Yesterday morning, Joann Leavy reportedly ran from her family's apartment on Waverly and Mercer, telling a doorman not to tell her father, to the Tisch building on Broadway, where she took off her clothes and jumped; Leavy's father, sobbing and upset, was later admitted to the street where his daughter's body lay. Leavy's death is being called "an apparent suicide." [The Post also has a photo of workers handling the body bag with Leavy's body.]

The earlier death was that of 18 year-old Spenser Kimbrough, a sophmore drama student, who was taken from his dorm at 80 Lafayette Street to the hospital, where he died. His mother and minister are demanding an investigations due to "inconsistent statements" around the circumstances of his death. The autopsy was inconclusive and the toxicology tests won't be ready for a couple more week.

NYU's spokesperson, John Beckman told the NY Times:

Each [death] involved very different circumstances, but for the N.Y.U. community, and the Tisch School in particular, these two deaths, coming so close together, compound the sense of sorrow we feel and strengthens our resolve to do all we can to insure the well-being of all our students...There's an understandable desire to deduce a single cause or conclude that there is a single phenomenon at work but we are not in a position to say that. Each of these deaths has its own history and motivation and circumstances.

Of course, one can only wonder why there have been so many deaths at NYU: Last year saw six deaths on the NYU campus - most suicide related, one (possibly more) drug-related. Gothamist can only hope that the NYU students there do take advantage of the school's counseling services if they ever feel low; many schools as well as companies have counseling services (check your insurance!) for free with counselors more than happy to listen to you.

Gothamist on the NYU suicides.

Contact the author of this article or email tips@gothamist.com with further questions, comments or tips.

By Jen Chung in News on September 7, 2004 9:04 AM

Comments [rss]

Neal

Dazzel2112: Your such a moron. NYU has made Greenvich Village so much better by gentrifying it. Before NYU took over, the place was known for crackheads and thives and now it has some of the most brilliant students on planet..all thanks to NYU; the University should be commended for transforming Greenvich Village from a dump to an oasis. The Bottom Line was a useless place that no current NYU student cared for, the smart thing to do is evict them and put a new NYU building there to help the school better carry out its functions.

Paul

Dazzel2112: You are so full of crap. NYU's degrees are far better than those other schools: #1 film, #4 law, #20-something medical, #35 college arts/science. Also, it's a shame that the palladium and bottom line closed, but they closed because nobody cared about them anymore. The bottom line couldn't even afford the reduced rent price that NYU offered them. Why should NYU, a non-profit entity, subsidize a business? Also, how do you think Union Square got its name? I'm not at all surprised that the rallies took place there instead of Washington Square. NYU owns a good deal of property around Union Square too.

S.D.

J, Out of curiosity: What difference does it make??

I'm not bashing, I'm trying to figure your point.

Could it simply be that the Cops and witnesses Omited this fact to different Reporters? IMO, if the Rag known as The Post (Can you tell I **Really** don't like the NY Post??) had an "oportunity" to take pictures of the Naked body, they would have splashed it on the Front Page. Probably they got there too late...

J

It is interesting that neither the (unCNNed) AP wire version,

nor the longer version (from which the AP version seems to

have been directly taken) in today's New York _Times_, includes

the detail in the New York _Daily News_ that she "stripped naked"

before jumping, much less the detail in the New York _Post_

that "she stripped off her panties and leaped". Students

of comparative journalism take note.

Dazzle2112

I grew up in NYC. And know tons of people who went to NYU. But that was before the whole NYU expansion/cooption of the Village. Let's face it. The heart of Greenwich Village is no longer a cool place with NYU as a resident in the area. NYU is the area!

And think this is where the problem comes from. The one thing great about real college towns is there are easy ways to escape the campus. In NYU? The campus is the city! It sucks! I personally am sickened that NYU is slowly sucking the soul out of the village. Musically, they screwed the Bottom Line and the Palladium--an incredible icon to rock history--is a stupid dorm.

That's a slight personal tangent, but I think that NYU is a high-pressure and bizarre school. It costs alot to get accomodations equal to Hunter or Baruch. And the degree quality is questionable.

And I completely agree with others who mention the arrogance of the modern breed of NYU student. They seem to have no clue they exist in a city where NYU is not the only thing on earth.

My personal feeling is the best way for NYU to get back on track is to pull back. Stop expanding the school as crazy as it has been. Even sell off property to others so there can be a healthy mix of things. Because my whole life, the Village was this great place to visit. Nowadays thanks to NYU I can only think of avoiding that mess.

Heck, you know Washington Square Park was THE social hangout for counter culture. It says a lot that between 9-11 and the RNC protestors and general counter culture, Union Square park has been coopted as the modern "town square". Washington Square park is an annoyance at best nowadays. And the personal "campus" of NYU when it should be a place for the people.

Thank goodness thee are still chess hustlers there! They are the last reason I even bring visiting friends to that park.

Bates

I live on the Lower East Side (Houston). I avoid the whole NYU area from 3rd Avenue to 6th Avenue, especially when school is in session. It just feels toxic to walk in that neighborhood.

Jim

I ride the M14 (goes all across 14th Street) and during the semester a lot of NYU students get on. compared to my college days, I find many of these NYU students generally arrogant, self-centered, and cold. They talk very loud, stand in the middle of the bus aisle without getting out of the way, step in front of other people while getting off, etc. My impression is that it is one hellish place to be a student. I am not saying every NYU student is like that, but my impression is that is the culture and it is the norm. I imagine that for a truly sensitive individual, this is a difficult place to be.

cc

Moving to this city at the age of 27, i found it so impersonal and cutthroat that I often wondered out loud how an 18 year old college student, just cut from his mama's apron strings, could survive. I'm surprised and impressed that so many do. If NYU's staff reflects the rest of the city's standards on customer service, these kids don't stand a chance.

wakewoman

As a senior at NYU, my only comment on the suicides is that something has to be done about them beyond what has already been done. Last year during the spate of suicides, the RA's all came around with cookies and asked us how we felt about it and to remind us that we could always talk to counselors if we felt down. I thought that was pretty silly because clearly, people that are jumping to their deaths are past the point of thinking "hey, i should talk to someone." furthermore, it's nearly impossible to make an appointment with a counselor. i tried my sophomore year (way before the suicides happened) and it became difficult to make appointments because there are so many kids and too few counselors.

problems that NYU needs to deal with, in order of importance:

1) more counselors, better counselors

2) deal with the drug use, not by cracking down on it but by teaching kids how to take care of their friends if they freak out. also spreading the word about how drugs can be laced, i.e. be careful what you put in your body.

3) be less impersonal. stop treating students like they're just another number. a lot of kids like NYU for that anonymity, but no one likes the coldness & rudeness of advisors/residential staffers/ professors/etc. when you're just trying to do what you have to do

i feel sad about the suicides & i do think that they are more copycats than a product of something happening at NYU in and of itself. however, i think the university needs to deal with the counseling situation, the drugs & the fact that their staff is so impersonal.

i mean, really, SEVEN???

hijiki

brilliant jay... i can only imagine a society that has "naturally selected" itself to the point where people like you are all that is left. i only hope the majority of humans are more advanced than that. your world sounds inhumane, bleak, and heartless.

btw. natural selection is a long-term natural evolutionary process. this rash of nyu suicides is unnatural and immediate. it's a product of many factors, but mother nature and the progress of the human race is not high on that list.

AlexisT

I remember a few years ago, all the copycat suicides at MIT. Now the spotlight for this kind of tragedy is at NYU. So sad, these families are in my prayers.

Jay

Seems like natural selection to me. Some people are better able to deal with life's travails than others.

S.D.

Wow, the NY Post is Raising it's Standards: I'm surprised that Rag didn't get a picture of the Body Prior to the Body bag...

Back on Topic:

I've no idea what's going on, but NYU better get a handle on it. How did this poor girl get to the roof?

MoeGolden

Not sure how to word this, but:

Has anyone official speculated whether these suicides are related to the troubles in social mobility that come with a place such as NYU?

My friend is a police officer in a wealthy NJ suburb, he says he's seeing suicides of young people whose families go into deep debt just to keep up with the Joneses.

I know I always felt guilty about my parents helping pay for my college when money was hard for them to come by.