UW-River Falls vice chancellor on lingering impact of 4 student deaths last year

CATHY WURZER: It's been almost a year since a cluster of suicide deaths hit the UW-River Falls community. Four students died in the span of two months. It was a very difficult time for the campus community, which is now committed to making sure it never happens again. Later today, school officials will be outlining a suicide postvention plan.

Laura King is the Vice Chancellor for Student Affairs and Strategic Enrollment. She's overseeing this plan. It's a pleasure. Thanks for joining us.

LAURA KING: Thank you for having me today.

CATHY WURZER: Boy, it's been almost a year since all that unfolded on campus. Can you explain for folks what it was like at that time?

LAURA KING: Sure. So last fall was an incredibly difficult semester for our campus community. And so we were really working through how to best support each other through the grief that our campus was working through, as well as finding ways to heal together. So it was it was a really hard time, a really unprecedented time for our campus community.

CATHY WURZER: You still see some students and staff still embodying some of the grief?

LAURA KING: Absolutely, yes. Many of our campus community members, we went through a lot. And so I will say a lot of people are still feeling that through those experiences.

They are really feeling the difficulty, but we are trying to work through that together. And everyone is really at a different place, I would say.

CATHY WURZER: Yeah. Grief is like that too, obviously. As you, and staff, and students began to look at the aftermath, what did you realize had to change? What did you learn?

LAURA KING: Yeah, I think the one thing we learned-- so our campus, we had gone several years without having a student death occur on-campus. And so we learned a great deal. We learned how to communicate more effectively.

We learned how to really tap into some of the partnerships, both on-campus as well as off-campus. Our community in River Falls has been incredibly supportive throughout both the events of last fall. But, as we've worked through that healing phase and continue to do that, we really wanted to make sure that we weren't learning those things and letting those really just fade away. But we really wanted to make sure we were taking what we learned and putting a framework together to make sure that if a situation occurred in the future, we really could know exactly what to do, who to connect with, and be prepared-- and, of course, hoping we never have to do that and use that.

CATHY WURZER: Right. What about communication failed, perhaps, in this instance? What about that would you need to improve moving into the future?

LAURA KING: Sure. So I think communication was one that was somewhat difficult to navigate, because I think a lot of people wanted more communication, while others really wanted not as much communication. And so we were trying to really be mindful of making sure that our communication was clear enough for the campus community, but also coming from a place of communicating with safety in mind to make sure that we weren't doing anything that would potentially impact others who might be having suicidal ideation choose to attempt. So we were really trying to make sure that we were being clear, but also not over-communicating, and being really mindful of a really sensitive situation as well.

CATHY WURZER: So I'm a proud graduate of UW-River Falls. And back in the day, if you were or if you had a friend who was really struggling, there might have been a counselor you could talk to. And so I'm curious-- I'm sure there have been changes made to maybe some of the more traditional prevention resources on-campus. Have you done anything to bolster that?

LAURA KING: We have. We have. And I'm also a River Falls alum, and things have changed since I was here as well. We have a full student health and counseling team full of counselors that help support our students on-site.

We also have virtual options as well. So we have a tool called Mantra Health and Whole Campus Care. And what that does, it provides 24/7 hour access to licensed counselors for our students, as well as a peer-to-peer resource tool where students can really find that belonging and connection amongst each other and find that support as well virtually, when sometimes our on-site locations aren't necessarily open or available.

And so we've found that that has been something students here, in particular, have really been supportive of us continuing and expanding, because it does provide additional resources for the campus community and that support for so many of our students that right now are working through mental health issues, or concerns, or just trying to stay mentally healthy as they are working and studying here.

CATHY WURZER: Say, tell me about this postvention plan that you're unveiling today. What does "postvention" mean exactly?

LAURA KING: Sure. So postvention really describes any action around the process of, first, addressing if something was to occur, being proactive of knowing, what is it that the campus will do from a coordinated standpoint? And really focusing in on providing immediate grief support to the campus community and putting together supports and events to help and promote healing of the campus-- and really looking towards the future, making sure that everything we're doing is designed to really prevent the risk of future suicides from occurring related to any of the distress or trauma that students, staff, or faculty might experience after an event has occurred. So we keep saying that postvention is really about prevention as well. It's not just a response.

CATHY WURZER: Say, I'm wondering here, any plans? We're coming toward the one-year mark when these four students died. Any plans to commemorate their lives?

LAURA KING: So right now, our postvention committee is talking about that and wanting to make sure that we're being very careful, but also honoring their lives as well. So we're working towards continuing our ongoing programming, but that's something our committee will be discussing in the next month.

CATHY WURZER: All right. Laura King, I appreciate the time. Thank you so much.

LAURA KING: Yes, thank you for having me and talking about an important topic.

CATHY WURZER: Laura King is the Vice Chancellor for Student Affairs and Strategic Enrollment. We have a reporter, Nicole Ki, by the way, who's been following this story from the beginning. And she's going to be at today's meeting.

So you'll watch for her reporting later this week. If you or someone you know needs help, call or text 988.