Tragedy at ASU

A most tragic and unfortunate wake-up call to anyone involved in university education, particularly graduate studies:

A male graduate student committed suicide in front of a professor at around 11:40 a.m. Monday [October 26] in the College of Design South building on the [Arizona State University] Tempe campus.

David Solnick, a 59-year-old student in the graphic design program, was talking with Associate Professor Mookesh Patel inside Patel’s office when the student pulled out a handgun and shot himself, ASU Police spokesman Cmdr. Jim Hardina said.

I don’t know anything else about the story other than what’s covered in the link above, but the whole situation is certainly something worth pondering. Graduate school is a real pressure cooker pretty much everywhere, and while suicide is obviously not a healthy response, I can’t honestly say it’s an entirely surprising one to me. Can anything be done about it? I don’t have the answers, but for a thought-provoking discussion about the balance between the kind of struggle that’s a genuine challenge to learn from and the kind of struggle that makes you feel hopeless, go check out this post by Isis the Scientist as well as the comments that follow.

Our thoughts and sympathies are with the family and friends of Mr. Solnick as well as Professor Patel.

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November 2, 2009 · Written by
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