Publicize our suicide hotline prevention

Pop Quiz:\nWhat is the IU suicide prevention hotline?\nAnswer: There isn't one. Not exactly.\nFor a suicidal emergency, the Counseling and Psychological Services department of the IU Health Center is open from 8 a.m. until 4:30 p.m. After 4:45 p.m., when the CaPS staff leaves, there is no University-affiliated service in operation on campus for suicidal students. If someone calls 5-IUIU with a suicide emergency after hours, he or she will be directed to the Bloomington Hospital Emergency Center or the Center for Human Growth in the School of Education, which is open until 8 p.m. Monday through Thursday and until 5 p.m. Friday. Neither CaPS nor CHG is open on weekends.\nAll this information is available to IU students and is located in the freshman orientation packet. But when a student is in a state of serious suicidal thoughts, the red binder he or she was given during orientation is probably not the first place the student might look. Though the numbers of all these institutions are in the phone book, a severely depressed person might not have the patience (or even the presence of mind) to thumb to the suicide prevention section, of which there is none.\nIf the University is serious about suicide prevention, which it claimed it was after a student jumped out of Ballantine Hall last spring, it should make more strident efforts to have the counseling hotlines known.\nOur suggestion is to print the number on the back of every new student ID (which New York University has started doing) to garner the most visibility possible. If a student sees that number again and again, he or she will know where to look when and if the time comes.\nBy the way, the phone number is 855-5711.