BY HANK REICHMAN

On February 27, the Cedar Rapids, Iowa, Gazette, published an article, “Iowa universities face rising mental health needs.”  In that article, which reports a significant increase in the number of students seeking mental health assistance at the University of Iowa, Iowa State University and the University of Northern Iowa, we read the following:

Suicide-related indicators jumped on the UI campus, according to the most-recent 2018 National College Health Assessment report. The percentage of students reporting self-harm in the past 12 months rose from 5.7 percent in 2017 to 9 percent; the percentage who reported seriously considering suicide spike from 8.4 percent to 13.4 percent; and the rate of those who actually attempted suicide more than doubled from 1.4 percent to 4 percent.

Holy cow!  As the Iowa blogger and tweeter “Ditchwalk” noted, there are 33,000 students at the University of Iowa. 4% of 33,000 equals 1,320 self-reported suicide attempts over 12 months. 1,320 suicide attempts in 12 months equals 3.6 suicide attempts per day!

Now, it is surely possible that the figure is exaggerated, perhaps by employment of a loose definition of attempted suicide.  Still, shouldn’t that figure prompt not only further study but emergency measures?  Or, as Ditchwalk asked, is the Iowa administration “waiting for a body count?”

I seriously doubt this is a problem somehow peculiar to Iowa.