The family of a Massachusetts Institute of Technology student who a medical examiner said killed herself has settled a lawsuit that accused MIT staff members of negligently failing to take steps to avoid the tragedy, The Boston Globe reported.

According to a news release posted on MIT’s Web site, the university has made an unspecified payment to the family of Elizabeth H. Shin, and the family has withdrawn its lawsuit. Ms. Shin’s father is quoted in the news release as saying that the family had “come to understand that our daughter’s death was likely a tragic accident.”

In the incident, Ms. Shin died after apparently setting herself on fire six years ago this month (The Chronicle, May 24, 2002). The family subsequently sued, accusing MIT of knowing she was suicidal but doing nothing to protect her from herself.

When a Massachusetts judge dismissed MIT from the lawsuit last year but ruled that the case could proceed against the MIT staffers, colleges across the country expressed worry about being held responsible for the unpredictable and unpreventable suicidal behavior of their students (The Chronicle, August 12, 2005). The case and others like it spurred a wave of litigation against colleges (The Chronicle, June 25, 2004)

And in response, some colleges have begun to force out students who have seemed suicidal, or have been merely depressed, to avoid dealing with the kind of legal liability that, until this week, MIT faced (The Chronicle, March 13).