Citation

McCusker KM, Witherow LB. About Campus 2012; 17(1): 12-18.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2012, American College Personnel Association, Publisher John Wiley and Sons)

DOI

10.1002/abc.21068

PMID

unavailable

Abstract

On a Thursday night in December 2010, a Middle Tennessee State University (MTSU) first-year student stepped in front of a train and killed himself. Because it took some time for the news to reach campus and be confirmed, the student was "funeralized," as they say in the South, and buried before his professors or peers could be informed. That left students and faculty members without the common ritual (in this case, a funeral) necessary to grieve and heal from the devastating event. To add insult to injury, there were no rituals in place on campus, beyond some standard administrative ones, that might have supported the same kind of moving forward through grief for the faculty and students. In this article, the authors describe how their campus created a support system for faculty that, in turn, helped integrate students academically and socially into the university culture when they were at their most vulnerable. The system that was created provided a dedicated information source (a brochure) and a "coaching staff" for faculty who could then provide meaningful support to their students, without needing MTSU's overutilized student counselors and without needing to become experts in a field not their own.

Language: en