Privacy, or peril: where, many are asking, is the line between the parents' right to know about their child's mental state and the student's right to privacy? - Liability

University Business, Jan, 2004 by Jean Marie Angelo

John Sexton is probably living through a university president's worst nightmare. As leader of New York University, he saw his institution draw focused press attention this fall--unfortunately, much of it centering on the tragic deaths of three students, all believed to be suicides. Two students, Jack Skolnik and Stephen Bohler, jumped from the balcony of the university's Bobst Library. Another NYUer, Michelle Gluckman, jumped from an off-campus apartment window. While it was recently reported that one of the deaths was not a suicide but an accidental fall related to drug use, Sexton still has been confronted by the sad events and speculation at almost every turn. But, just as reporters at the Higher Education/News Media Dinner held in New York City in November were prepared to question him about the incidents, Sexton anticipated their questions (as a competent president should). He not only admitted that the deaths were a tragedy, but quickly turned the discourse into an opportunity to tell the press and the public about how common suicide is on campus, and about the alarming number of students who are now thought to arrive on campus clinically depressed, annually. (Some experts pin that number at one-third of first-year undergrads). "Student depression and suicide are major, national problems for all colleges and universities," he told the press corps that night. He's right.

Parents Out of the Loop

Suicide is the second leading cause of death among college students, according to The Jed Foundation (www.jedfoundation.org), a non-profit founded by Phillip and Donna Satow, parents who lost their son Jed--a sophomore at the University of Arizona--in 1998. Their foundation works with colleges and universities to reach depressed and troubled students. According to their information, more than 1,000 suicides are expected on campuses this year. The Satows note that suicide kills more young adults than AIDS, cancer, heart disease, pneumonia, birth defects, stroke, influenza, and chronic lung disease combined. What's more, four out of five young adults who attempt suicide give clear warning signs that they will do so.

If indeed this is the case, it's no surprise that parents are now why they are not informed that their college-student children may be in trouble. IHE administrators, in the meantime, are left wondering what they have the power to do about the situation. Where, many are asking, is the line between the parents' right to know and the student's right to privacy? And the dilemma is not just a moral one: Though the conundrum is not ostensibly a business issue, any school president who has suffered through the repercussions of such tragic events understands the impact such occurrences--and their inevitable press coverage--can have on applications and retention. At NYU, students admitted to the press that they were in shock, and parents lamented the fact that they might have been able to take some kind of action, had they only known more about their children's states of mind.

And at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Ferrum College (VA), administrators have been dealing with lawsuits related to student suicides. This summer, Ferrum College settled with the parents of Michael Frentzel, a student who committed suicide in 2000. Frentzel's parents claimed that school officials failed to detect the warning signs that preceded their son's death. Details of the settlement have not been disclosed, but the school reportedly admitted "shared responsibility" for the student's death. Meantime, the parents of Elizabeth Shin, an MIT sophomore who set herself on fire in her dorm room in 2000, have a filed a wrongful death lawsuit and are seeking $27 million in damages. The case is still pending, but Shin's parents clearly are holding MIT's mental health care staff, campus life support staff, and campus police accountable for their daughter's death. Specifically, they claim that a misdiagnosis resulted in insufficient treatment.

Such cases are chilling. Parents and friends are understandably angry and bereaved. Still, the tension between the parents' right to know and a student's right to privacy has always existed, explains Kevin Druger, associate executive director of the National Association of Student Personnel Administrators (www.naspa.org). "But the baby-boomer parents," he says, "have ratcheted it up."

In fact, this is a generation of parents involved in every aspect of their children's lives, say boomer-watching experts. "Primarily being a college generation themselves, they are much more likely to pick up a phone and ask questions," says Druger. "They know about campus life and the dangers there. Talk to administrations on campus now and they will tell you about the 'activist parents' who need and demand information." What's more, point out higher education analysts, they also are painfully aware of the increasing cost of college and the fact that they are paying the bills. As consumers, they feel entitled to know about campus life and how their children are faring.