她曾休学一年，然后又再入学。还是觉得累，想再休学一年，无奈怕被人看不起，不被
学校待见，就去了金门大桥 . . .
更重要的是: 她一直有抑郁病，很多人都知道。
如果一个孩子认定：从藤校退学，就是“死”路一条的话，那么我们真应该问自己：是
否还该把孩子向这条路上推？
Hours before Yale College Dean Jonathan Holloway informed the campus
community of the death of Luchang Wang ’17, the student herself had posted
a suicide note on Facebook. In her message, she bid goodbye to her loved
ones and to Yale.
The end of Wang’s note — in which she discussed her fears about taking
time off from Yale and not being allowed to return — casts new light on a
campus debate about how the University handles cases of mental illness,
withdrawal and readmission. While some students have criticized the
University’s policies as cold and demanding, others have emphasized the
complex confluence of factors that led to Tuesday’s tragedy.
In a Wednesday phone interview, Officer Daniel Hill of the California
Highway Patrol confirmed that at approximately 10:29 a.m. on Tuesday, the
CHP received calls regarding a “despondent female” who had crossed over
the rail of the Golden Gate Bridge and jumped into the bay below. Hill said
the California Coast Guard was called in to check the area but that a body
has not been recovered.
“Our officers were able to locate a piece of property — a backpack —
which contained identification that was matching [Wang], but we cannot
confirm that the person that jumped was the same person because we don’t
have the body,” Hill said.
WITHDRAWAL, THEN UNCERTAINTY
Students interviewed who had been close to Wang said she had mentioned
suicide before. One of her friends, who asked to remain anonymous, said Wang
was severely mentally ill and had struggled with issues of mental illness
her whole life.
Caroline Posner ’17 said Wang had openly addressed mental health before,
including in their first conversation with one another.
According to Posner, Wang initially started at Yale in the fall of 2012, but
then withdrew, re-enrolling in spring 2014 to finish her freshman year. In
the fall of 2013, Wang lived and worked in New Haven, Posner said.
Wang’s friend added that Yale’s policies regarding withdrawal and
readmission prevented Wang from seeking appropriate and necessary treatment.
“She was routinely lying to her therapist,” the friend said. “It was very
common for her to express suicidal ideations and then she immediately
followed that up, explaining that if we reported her she would be kicked out
of Yale and have no reason left not to kill herself.”
Under Yale’s current leave of absence and withdrawal policies, students may
elect to take a leave of absence until the 10th day of a new semester.
Students who take leaves of absence may return to campus easily, often
simply by emailing their residential college dean.
But after 10 days, the process of leaving Yale becomes far more complicated.
Students who wish to take time off must withdraw from the University, and
they must apply for readmission before they are allowed to return. Although
most students who apply for readmission are accepted, according to the
University’s policies, readmission is not guaranteed.
Applicants must fulfill certain requirements before applying for readmission
; according to the requirements listed online, the readmissions committee
expects them to have been “constructively occupied” during their time away
from campus. Students who withdrew for medical reasons are often mandated
to complete the equivalent of two term courses. In addition, students must
demonstrate “the ability henceforth to remain in academic good standing.”
Readmission is considerably more difficult for students who withdraw for a
second time. Yale’s readmission policies, as specified in the Yale College
Programs of Study handbook, state that it will only be allowed under “
unusual circumstances, ordinarily of a medical nature.”
Assistant Dean of Academic Affairs for Yale College Pamela George, who
chairs the Committee on Readmission, said it is vital that Yale’s
guidelines concerning withdrawal and readmission be clear and accessible.
But she also said that the readmission policies have been in place for
decades and are ready for reevaluation.
“There is definitely room for immediate improvement,” she said in an email
.
For Wang — who had already withdrawn from the University once during her
freshman year — the uncertainty of being readmitted again appeared to play
a role in her decision not to withdraw a second time, according to her
Facebook note.
“Dear Yale: I loved being here,” she wrote. “I only wish I could’ve had
some time. I needed time to work things out and to wait for new medication
to kick in, but I couldn’t do it in school, and I couldn’t bear the
thought of having to leave for a full year, or of leaving and never being
readmitted.”
Chief of Yale Mental Health and Counseling Lorraine Siggins could not be
reached for comment, nor could Director of Yale Health Paul Genecin.
Students interviewed who have gone through the withdrawal process, but are
not familiar with Wang’s situation, said Wang was not alone in having fears
of being denied readmission.
Rachel Williams ’17 said that while she did not personally know Wang, she
could relate to the fear of not being readmitted following her own
withdrawal in February of 2013. Williams said that while those who knew her
and were familiar with her treatment, such as psychiatrists and professors
during her time off, sent letters of recommendation during the readmission
process, the final decision was left almost entirely to George and Siggins,
with whom Williams had only one 20-minute meeting before her return in the
spring of 2014.
Williams said that while she could not speak with absolute authority, she
got the sense from speaking with others that students who withdraw from the
University are not given very many more chances before they are permanently
dismissed as students. A large part of this, Williams said, is due to a lack
of transparency throughout the process.
“I have gotten the feeling, ‘I better not [mess] up again,’ so I can see
why [Wang] would have been afraid,” Williams said. “I would be terrified.
”
Wang’s concern that she would not have had enough time for new medications
to take effect is also indicative of the unsympathetic nature of Yale’s
policies, Posner said.
“What Yale did was force her to choose between trying to juggle that huge
burden while surviving at school with her symptoms not fully managed — a
cruel, impossible demand — or leaving without certainty of ever being
allowed back,” she said. “Yale, like our society, which is still grossly
under-equipped for treating mental illness, shares culpability for her death
.”
Another student who withdrew for medical reasons and was then readmitted
said they had nearly been driven to suicide two years ago by the financial
burden and anxiety imposed by Yale’s withdrawal policies.
The student, who asked to remain anonymous, said that while they were not
familiar with Wang’s story, the thought that Yale’s policies might have
played a role was devastating.
“Make no mistake — the withdrawal and readmission policies are hostile to
students with mental illness,” the student said.
CONSIDERING CONTEXT
However, other students who were close to Wang said that attributing her
death to Yale’s mental health policies alone is a gross oversimplification.
Tammy Pham ’15, a close friend of Wang’s who was among the first to
respond to her Facebook post, said that while much attention has centered on
the difficulties of readmission and Wang’s mention of withdrawal in her
suicide note, she does not want people to ignore other factors that may have
led to the tragedy.
“I can’t speak for [Wang], but from our conversations, [difficulty with
withdrawal] wasn’t the only reason,” Pham said. “I don’t want her story
to become, ‘She died because Yale failed her, and if Yale had had a better
policy she wouldn’t have died. That’s the vibe I’ve been getting recently
, which is very upsetting, because it shows a deep misunderstanding of
depression.”
Another friend of Wang’s, who wished to remain anonymous, said that those
close to her felt she seemed fixated on the idea of suicide, despite having
received medical treatment in the past, and that Wang “was very careful not
to preclude [suicide] as a possibility for herself.”
In evaluating the factors that led to Wang’s death, cultural perceptions of
mental illness are just as important as Yale’s individual policies, Pham
said. She added that while Yale’s policies certainly merit reform, stigmas
around taking time off from Yale can be just as off-putting as fear of being
denied readmission.
“[Fear of being denied readmission] played a big role in how she felt about
taking time off,” Pham said. “But to take that a step further and imply
that Yale singlehandedly caused this or could have prevented it is just
untrue. There are so many deeper problems at play here, and it’s unfair to
blame any one institution or person for this.”
Concerns about campus stigmas surrounding withdrawal were also raised by
other students. Williams said she could relate to Wang’s apparent thoughts
that leaving Yale was too terrible of an option to consider.
“Yale is a part of our lives — why do we get deluded into thinking that
Yale is our whole life and that we can’t tolerate existing outside of it?”
Williams said. “[Wang’s suicide] was a source of feeling like you don’t
have choices and that she couldn’t pick the choice not to be here.”
Holloway said that during his time as master of Calhoun College, students
often fought hard against the idea of leaving Yale.
Holloway said that while the residential college dean and master should
always try to reassure students that taking time off is an acceptable option
, they often meet the most resistance from students themselves.
“That was always my experience in Calhoun, that usually it’s the students
who are desperate not to leave, for a whole range of reasons,” he said.
Asian American Cultural Center Head Coordinators Hiral Doshi ’17 and
Jessica Liang ’17 said the cultural house has pushed for more awareness
surrounding the stigmatization of mental illness within the Asian-American
community. Doshi said that sometimes members of the community are
discouraged from opening up to their own families or voicing personal issues
to others, which makes a safe environment at Yale that much more important.
“We understand what our community is going through and we don’t have the
resources to be able to address this issue properly,” Doshi said. “We don
’t want to see anything happen like this ever again.”
A memorial service for Wang will be held on Jan. 31 at 2 p.m. in Battell
Chapel.
