Schenectady -- Campuses tell students that they're not alone

By ALAN WECHSLER, Staff writer
First published: Sunday, May 19, 2002

Jeremy April's application essay for Union College was unique. One of the nation's best freestyle skiers, he wrote about his passion:

"Shooting into the air, executing a floating spin, landing cleanly, I retain my rhythm,'' he wrote. "My heart races and adrenaline rushes through my body. My senses are heightened. That is why I compete.''

  Skiing was April's life. And on April 19, the Union freshman got the phone call that every athlete dreams about: He was among 39 skiers nominated to the U.S. Freestyle Ski Team.

  April, a popular, handsome 18-year-old from Bergen County, N.J., called his parents immediately. Friends say he talked about the news for hours. Skiers said April, a math whiz who had started applying his physics knowledge to the sport, was about to turn the world of aerial skiing on its head. Many thought he'd win a gold medal someday.

  But 10 days later, April was dead.

  Sitting in his dorm room in the early morning of April 29, he wrote a five-page letter as his roommate slept nearby. Then he took some medication -- toxicologists don't know what it was -- and lay down on his bed to die.

  April's parents, brother, roommate and girlfriend had no idea that, on the eve of one of his greatest triumphs, his abilities were being undercut by a crushing, undiagnosed mental illness.

  A week later, as friends at Union College were trying to get past their grief, April's father spoke at a memorial service.

"Jeremy, who is the ultimate team player, made a mistake,'' said Ernest April, a Columbia University professor. "He didn't realize getting through life was a team effort. Jeremy didn't realize you can't do it alone.''

Colleges react to problem

  No national organization tracks college suicide data. But the National Survey of Counseling Centers determined that about 30 percent of 274 schools surveyed last year reported at least one suicide -- 80 colleges and universities had a total of 125 student deaths. Dr. Morton Silverman, a University at Chicago researcher, said about 1,000 suicides occur on campuses nationwide each year. Suicide is the second-most common cause of student deaths on campus, after vehicular accidents, and a 10,000-student college often averages one suicide a year.

  By those measurements, the Capital Region is lucky. Jeremy's death appears to be the first suicide on campus in more than five years, according to information provided by local schools.

  In some ways, students have access to a support structure they will rarely see after they graduate. In the past few years, colleges nationwide have provided more resources to detect and treat depressed students. Teachers, staff and students are being recruited to watch out for warning signs. Nearly all colleges have health centers with psychologists trained to deal with depression.

  Studies show the rate of college student deaths, at 7.5 per 100,000 people, is lower than the national average, at 12 per 100,000. College students are half as likely to kill themselves as their peers who do not attend college.

  But many college students are away from their parents for the first time, facing stresses they've never faced.

  And when dealing with suicidal people, nothing is a sure thing -- even knowing when it's time to get help. About 60 percent of suicides are believed to be caused by depression, but depression isn't always set off by a difficult event.

"Sometimes things just happen and they can't be predicted,'' said Dr. Jay Hamer, director of counseling and psychological services at the College of Saint Rose. "You do what you can do and you keep your fingers crossed.''

A promising athlete

  At age 10, April found his calling.

  It was at a trampoline camp in New Hampshire, a place to learn the fundamentals of ski acrobatics. April learned how to flip so well that, by the end of the summer, he won the camp's highest award: Most likely to be an Olympian.

  April already was a member of the Mount Snow Ski Club training team. He would travel to Vermont to train and compete in freestyle races down steep mogul runs. He started winning and never really stopped.

"He was a fine athlete, a natural athlete, and had a real bent toward aerials,'' said Nick Preston of Campton, N.H., April's longtime coach. "Right off the bat, you could see that Jeremy had talent.''

  Two years after trampoline camp, April headed to Lake Placid to try aerial skiing at the summer testing center. He skied the steep, plastic slope and flipped into a deep bubble pool. At 18, he was a rising star who could do all the tricks: misty flips, rodeos, D-spins.

  In aerial jumping, competitors shoot up a concave jump that launches them into air. The aerial skier flips once, twice or three times. His body is board-stiff, twisting like a propeller. And then there are the off-axis twists, when the jumper spins side to side as he flips front to back.

"There's a certain amount of innate talent,'' Preston said. "He had something rather intangible, that we might call 'air sense.' You just kind of seem to know how your body is oriented in space.''

  Some thought April was going to use his physics background to push the boundaries of aerial skiing -- to flip and twist where few competitors had flipped and twisted before. He told his coach he hoped to one day perform a triple twist -- three twists on each flip, a feat few competitors dare to attempt.

  Not long after Jeremy enrolled at Union College, he was ranked the nation's seventh-best aerial skier. It was that talent that led the U.S. freestyle team to offer him a position.

  What no one knew was the turmoil going on in April's head. Depression can be brought on by a sudden shock, like losing a job or the loss of a loved one. Or it can come on for no reason at all. And for some people, it can be overwhelming.

Policy of prevention

  One thing most college health providers agree on: They are getting busier.

  According to the National Survey of Counseling Center Directors, 56 percent of directors surveyed in 1988 said they had noticed an increase in severe psychological problems among students.

  In 2001, 85 percent of directors noticed an increase.

"Schools are seeing more students with more serious problems,'' said Robert Gallagher, a former University of Pittsburgh vice chancellor who runs the survey. "But I think they've been doing a very good job of handling those cases.''

  Schools are reaching out to people who might not come in for counseling. Most Capital Region schools, for example, run a yearly screening for depressed students.

  At the University at Albany Health Center, pamphlets are available on "Understanding and Treating Depression'' and "Suicide Prevention.'' While the university won't get involved if a depressed student refuses to seek help, health workers have the authority to call police if someone is found to be talking about suicide, said Dolores Cimini, director of the Middle Earth peer assistance program at UAlbany.

  Schools instruct their dormitory resident assistants to watch out for signs of depression and suicide. Catherine Cella, a senior at Skidmore College, said she had several interventions last year where suicide was threatened.

"A few years ago, people ignored problems,'' she said. "Now people are worried about a friend, and they will seek help.''

  At Union, April's death left health officials with a difficult decision -- how strongly to react to it. Spend too much time or resources talking about suicide and, psychologists say, you may see what they call a Werther effect: copycat suicides.

  The theory is named for Goethe's gothic tale "The Sorrows of Young Werther,'' which may have been responsible for legions of suicides after the book was published in Europe in 1774, said Don Spring, director of counseling center.

"You've got to run a balancing act between helping people process things without wallowing in it,'' he said.

  Because of a few high-profile suicides on campus, the problem has gathered more attention recently. Perhaps most notorious was the death of Elizabeth Shin, a sophomore at Massachusetts Institute of Technology who set herself on fire in her dormitory room in spring 2000. Shin had attempted suicide before and told friends about her wishes to die. But she never told her parents.

  Shin's family has filed a wrongful-death suit against MIT, saying it should have told them about their daughter's problem. MIT said because Shin was an adult, that information was confidential.

  MIT's rash of suicides has touched the Capital Region. In November 2000, Colonie Central High School graduate Lucy Crespo Da Silva jumped to her death from the 14th floor of her MIT dormitory. She was 22.

  Since then, MIT has announced an $838,000 mental health plan that guarantees an instant phone call with counselors as well as evening appointments. Six new clinicians will be hired, the school announced last month.

  Most people who are suicidal exhibit signs. And many people who attempt suicide are not eager to succeed, making the act more a cry for help.

  But not everyone shows symptoms. Even April's best friends and family say all they noticed was a little bit of moodiness, a vague lack of interest in his final days.

  When April made his terrible decision, he approached his death the same way he approached competition. He planned to get it right the first time.

Remembering April

  On the last day of his life, April spent the weekend at his parents' house. He visited his mother, who was recovering from a minor surgery in the hospital, and went out to brunch with his father and brother. On his drive back to Union, he stopped in Poughkeepsie and picked up his roommate, Eric Jacobs. They joked during their two-hour drive.

But before midnight, after Jacobs went to sleep, April wrote his final letter. He apologized and said goodbye to his parents, friends and girlfriend, but gave little explanation for his act. "Being depressed for as long as I've been,'' he wrote, "it just gets to a point where even the most precious thing can't save you.''

  A week later, hundreds came to the funeral in New Jersey. His funeral card included an excerpt from his Union College admission essay and a photo of him upside-down, flipping through the air.

"I wish Jeremy could have seen all the people who cared for him,'' said Nori Lupfer, a Union sophomore.

  A memorial page set up on the Mount Snow Web site had eight pages of e-mails from friends and fellow skiers. On May 6, 100 Union students and faculty gathered in the Memorial Chapel to pay their respects.

  There, female dorm neighbors remembered how glad they were to see that someone so good-looking was living next to them. They talked about his hair, always hard from too much gel, his unquenchable thirst to play video games and the way he couldn't resist doing a "punch bug'' whenever he saw a Volkswagen Beetle go by.

  At the service, Ernest April told the crowd how he wanted people to learn from his son's death.

"Damn it, let's not let any more Jeremy's happen,'' he said.

Copyright © 2002 Times Union

May 3, 2002

Jeremy April recalled for talent in math, ski aerials; 
Campus memorial service planned for Monday

Students struggling to make sense of the death of Jeremy April this week remembered the gifted student and world-level ski aerialist for his quiet and self-effacing nature, his dry wit, his talent for mathematics and his promise at what many regard as the most spectacular and dangerous of winter sports.

The body of April, 18, a first-year student from Northvale, N.J., was discovered in his room on Monday morning. Officials have ruled his death a suicide.

"I always pictured Jeremy going to the Olympics and doing really well and then going on to something like medicine … to give something back," said Kelly Herrington, associate dean of admissions, who first met April as a prospective student and stayed in touch via email while the skier traveled the competitive aerials circuit last winter.

April learned on April 19 that he had been named to the U.S. Aerial Ski Team for the 2002-03 season. On July 4, when he was to turn 19, he would have been eligible to perform triple maneuvers.

"He was an amazing skier," said a woman who spoke at a campus-wide vigil on Monday. "He was like a cat. He always landed on his feet. He did these jumps that would kill most people."

April, a Union Scholar, was a promising student with a strong interest in mathematics, according to his faculty advisor. As other competitive skiers at Union have done, he planned to take winter terms to pursue international competition.

Many students stayed after the vigil to console one another and to fill out pages for a memory book to be presented to April's family.

Dean of Students Fred Alford read a sample of April's admissions essay in which he describes the thrill of skiing the "run of my life" at a moguls competition only to find that a timing malfunction would prevent him from winning. His essay went on to describe the protest he eventually won by digging through trash bags to find the hand-timed results that proved his case. Finally, he compares the experience of convincing the ski judges with that of making his case with the College's admissions office:

"Now I find myself going through another sort of dustbin, picking out occurrences to exemplify my character, determination and academic abilities. And with these credentials, I am ready to meet another critical jury."

Survivors include his parents, Ernie and Nancy.

Calling hours are Friday, 3 to 5 p.m. and 7 to 9 p.m. at Moritz Funeral Home, 354 Closter Dock Rd., Closter, N.J.

The funeral is set for Saturday at 9 a.m. at Palisades Presbyterian Church, Washington Spring Road, Palisades, N.Y. After interment, there will be a reception at noon at the April home, 34 Rockleigh Rd., Northvale, N.J. 07647.

A campus memorial service is set for Monday, May 6, at 12:30 p.m. in Memorial Chapel. A reception will follow.

Friends of April are sharing tributes at www.mountsnow.org.

Press Releases for the Week of April 27, 2002

College mourns loss of Jeremy April '05

Members of the College community this week are mourning the loss of Jeremy April, a first-year student from Northvale, N.J. April, 18, was discovered passed away in his room on Monday morning, April 29. Officials said there was no sign of foul play. College officials met with residents of April's dorm on Monday afternoon to notify them of the tragedy and to urge that they support each other and, if necessary, meet with counselors from various College departments.

April, a Union scholar, was a promising student with a strong interest in mathematics, according to his faculty advisor. He was also a world-level aerial freestyle skier, having been named recently to the U.S. Ski Team. Students, faculty and staff attended a College-wide vigil on Monday evening. As of Tuesday, arrangements were not complete.

-- Best in the World! --