A project designed to prevent suicides at Cornell University is facing an uncertain future because of a spat between members of the firm tapped to design barriers on campus bridges.
Cornell has struggled with perceptions about its suicide rates. Timothy Marchell, a clinical psychologist in the campus health service, speculates that this is because many suicides take place in dramatic spots among the gorges of Ithaca, N.Y., from bridges as high as 70 feet.
One student jumped in February and two more in March of this year on consecutive days. The total reached six over the 2009-10 academic year.
Examined over several years, Cornell’s rates are not higher than the national average. But those that did take place attracted an extraordinary amount of attention, with Cornell being referred to as a “suicide school.” The university has invested heavily in efforts to console and monitor the student body, in the hope that other despairing students can be caught in time.
But Cornell is also investing in more-straightforward interventions: It awarded a $600,000 contract to the architecture firm Office dA, owned by Nader Tehrani and his business partner, Monica Ponce de Leon, to design permanent barriers that would make throwing oneself off bridges difficult, if not impossible. But a dispute between the two, who were once romantic partners as well as business partners, has put the project on hold. Cornell Insider reports:
The conflict stems from Tehrani’s agreement in 2003 to make Ponce de Leon Office dA’s majority shareholder. As an effort to attract projects seeking female-owned firms, Tehrani handed over 51 percent of the company’s ownership share to his colleague of almost 20 years. As majority shareholder, Ponce de Leon has allegedly claimed the rights to appoint new partners, make deductions from the company’s bank account, and most recently, change the building locks to prevent Tehrani from entering.
The two, who have accused each other of unlawfully withdrawing money from the firm’s account, are entering arbitration over who owns the company.
Meanwhile, no one seems to know how long it will take to complete the campus-bridge barriers. The original schedule had the university and city council approving final designs in May 2011.
Temporary black fences that were erected after the last rash of suicides have proved controversial: Residents and students have complained that they ruin the views.
Flickr photo of temporary fences by almostsummersky.
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12 Responses to Suicide Barriers at Cornell Possibly Delayed Because of Designers’ Dispute
akprof - December 8, 2010 at 4:03 pm
Relative of people who successfully suicide should start naming these adolescent architects in wrongful death suits!! Stupid.
crowbill - December 8, 2010 at 4:16 pm
If the Cornell lawyers are any good at all the professional services contract for the design should have a clause allowing the university to pick another firm due to this delay. Saving young (or older)lives is far more important that accepting this situation.
22116123 - December 8, 2010 at 4:32 pm
On the other hand, Ms. Ponce de Leon has given up the search for the fountain of youth.
raymond_j_ritchie - December 8, 2010 at 6:41 pm
This is news?
I was a post-doc at Cornell in the 1980s. The phenomenon was decades old even then. I know the nickname for it. Rescuers are often hurt or even killed retrieving the bodies.
There is little one can do once a venue in an open society gets a reputation for this sort of thing. Well-meaning preventative on-site measures only seem to make the venue more attractive. The only way to stop the Cornell Gorge suicides would be to demolish the bridges and/or fill in the gorges. I know the suspension bridge pictured. I serves little purpose and could be demolished.
In Sydney there is a rather unremarkable coastal sandstone cliff called “The Gap”. In Australia suicides “Jump off The Gap”. Earnest efforts are made to stop people using “The Gap” for suicides but that very act perpetuates it in the culture.
11186108 - December 8, 2010 at 9:23 pm
I was at Cornell quite a long time ago – in addition to the bridges there are other paths to get to the gorge cliffs.
mbelvadi - December 9, 2010 at 6:59 am
Is there any evidence that blocking such spots actually prevents suicide, or just prevents people from using those particular spots? There are so many ways to commit suicide, I would think people can always find a way that appeals to them, so that all you accomplish with this fencing is to ruin a view. I think the article hints at such data, that Cornell’s suicide rate isn’t higher than average. So students at other places without access to gorges are not having any trouble finding appropriate arrangements. As usual, US society sees a demand problem and tries to treat it as a supply problem, in this case, trying futilely and to great aesthetic destruction to block the “supply” of suicide options, rather than trying to treat the “demand” by working on psychological services and otherwise trying to solve whatever is causing the suicidal drive in the first place.
janesdaughter - December 9, 2010 at 9:12 am
Ithaca is indeed gorges/gorgeous. I agree with mbelvadi that ruining the view is not the answer but “trying to solve whatever is causing the suicidal drive” is hardly an easy fix. Those psychological services will uncover a myriad of intensely and uniquely personal problems, many of which have nothing to do with the pressures of college life. But the notion that anyone else (such as the architect) is responsible for a suicide’s demise, as the first commenter suggests, boggles the mind.
mmcknight - December 9, 2010 at 10:55 am
mbelvadi, there has been research done on other bridges that does suggest that barriers would reduce suicides. Yes, if someone REALLY wants to do it, they’ll figure out a way to do it–they don’t need the bridge. But not all suicides are by folks with that high a level of commitment to killing themselves. Those are the ones who might be saved. (Though I also absolutely agree that more money and time and energy need to be focused on prevention, like all good health care efforts should be doing.)