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Saturday, April 02, 2005
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IMPULSE UD, some species of libertarian, is surprised to find herself in agreement with New York University's decision to close the balconies at student high-rise dorms. UD very much wants to agree with any screed against the nanny state, like the one that showed up in Washington Square News, in which editorialists called the decision an "eye-roll-inducing" one that "infantilizes" NYU's students. "We can lock every balcony, window and overlook on campus, but if a student is determined to take his or her own life, a closed balcony will not serve as much of a deterrent." Actually that's not true. Many suicides of young people are impulsive -- a number of the five NYU cases last year seem to have been markedly impulsive -- and it's probably reasonably responsible for NYU to close off the most attractive and immediate paths out. "What you have is a systems approach that makes it less easy for someone to take impulsive action," says one researcher on the subject. "It is no different from putting up fences to prevent suicide on the Golden Gate Bridge." "Phillip Satow, president of the Jed Foundation and father of a college student who committed suicide in 1998, said he advised that NYU take any step to make it more difficult for students to injure themselves impulsively." No one's denying that you can quietly do yourself in inside your dorm room, as a Brown University student did last week. But people are looking at things they can do here and there to make it less likely that a jilted lover, a kid in a fight with her parents, or an undergraduate high out of his mind, will see a high window beckoning. |