Preventing Suicides

This article in the Silicon Valley Mercury-News doesn't just mention Cornell, but it says some interesting things about the process of choosing a location to commit suicide:

Suicidal people get fixated, say experts — and when access to an iconic spot is blocked, they may retreat rather than moving elsewhere.

By this logic, if Cornell erected a 20-foot fence around every on-campus gorge to prevent people from being able to jump into them, most people wouldn't bother to drive to a different, off-campus gorge to commit suicide.

The article praises Cornell for taking steps to address the problem of suicide. Over the past couple of weeks, one group (Gannett maybe?) has been recruiting students to deliver information booklets to every professor. The students are also supposed to discuss when professors should approach counselors, or even the police, when they are concerned about a student.