Mother and father of Worcester Polytechnic’s “Misplaced Sons” Communicate Out

Maureen Banavige doesn’t know why her son, Ronan, ended his life in his dorm room throughout his first 12 months at Worcester Polytechnic Institute in fall 2021.

Possibly it was the isolation of the college’s strict COVID protocols. Possibly it was the stress of his fast-paced pc coding course. Possibly it was one thing else. No matter it was, she didn’t see it coming.

“He struggled with anxiousness and melancholy in highschool, however we did many interventions and we thought he was in a fairly great spot going into faculty,” Banavige stated of her son, whom she remembers as a “form and delicate spirit” with a unusual humorousness, mental curiosity and an affinity for Chinese language tea.

“His psychiatrist met with him the week earlier than he handed, writing in his notes that [Ronan] was thriving,” she recalled to Inside Larger Ed. “He wasn’t outwardly anxious or depressed. He was doing properly in class. He had a great group of buddies which have continued to achieve out to us. He joined a number of golf equipment—Rubik’s Dice and Legos—he was enthusiastic about.”

Almost 5 years later, Banavige nonetheless wonders if Ronan could be right here now “if we had finished one thing higher or completely different,” whilst she tries to simply accept the loss. “We’ll by no means know what brought on him such misery in these moments.”

What she does know is that Ronan is one in every of at the very least eight WPI college students who died by suicide over the previous a number of years, together with two who took their very own lives this previous tutorial 12 months. Whereas suicide is a number one explanation for demise amongst college-age college students nationwide, dropping eight younger males in 4 years nonetheless constitutes a excessive price for a single establishment. Within the 15 years previous to these deaths, which passed off between 2021 and 2025, WPI reported two suicides.

‘Now Is the Time’

The latest cluster of suicides at WPI has forged a sorrowful shadow over the Massachusetts campus and past.

“Each time one other younger individual dies by suicide, it’s traumatic for me and our household. It brings us again to horrible emotions of grief. Why are we not doing higher? How can we do higher?” Banavige stated. “This can be a huge drawback in our nation. Is it the college’s fault? No, not solely. However they personal some piece of it. How can we strategically do one thing significant? Universities spend a lot cash on their sports activities groups, new buildings or administration. The place’s the emphasis on this? Why wouldn’t a faculty of science like WPI—and different faculties—band collectively and use science to make significant progress?”

That’s the core message of an open letter Banavige and the mother and father of 5 of the opposite “misplaced sons” despatched to the college’s management final month.

“This letter can also be a name upon all establishments of upper schooling to band collectively, put the psychological well being of their college students first, put money into the workers and assets wanted to raised perceive the epidemic of collegiate psychological sickness impacting America, and as soon as and for all meaningfully stem the tide,” the mother and father wrote. “We’re begging you to take fast proactive motion and are searching for to be as useful as attainable within the midst of our ongoing private ache.”

Amongst its many suggestions, the letter calls on WPI to speculate $100 million in a better schooling psychological well being job drive that would come with representatives of a dozen different universities within the area, suggesting partnerships with the Massachusetts Institute of Expertise and Cornell, Carnegie Mellon, Harvard and Princeton Universities.

“The Process Pressure ought to be chartered to find out precisely what’s contributing to this suicide disaster at WPI, and extra broadly, how psychological well being could be meaningfully improved throughout all of America’s establishments of upper schooling. WPI ought to lead this effort, not solely due to your present disaster, however since you are among the best science-based universities within the nation,” the letter reads.

“WPI ought to be a nationwide chief in scientifically working to unravel the psychological well being disaster in America. Now could be the time to get it finished!”

In response to questions concerning the mother and father’ letter, WPI instructed Inside Larger Ed that the college is within the strategy of arranging a gathering with them.

“We welcome the advocacy of the households who’ve offered their ideas, and we share their determined need to forestall suicide. The losses these households and this college neighborhood have endured are really heartbreaking and life altering,” Colleen Wamback, WPI’s public relations director, wrote in an electronic mail. “This can be a nationwide disaster. The challenges going through younger folks at this time are vital and widespread, and we agree that faculties, households, college students, and psychological well being professionals all have a vital function to play in searching for root causes and figuring out further options.”

Eight ‘Misplaced Sons’

The mother and father’ name to motion comes years after WPI initiated efforts to handle psychological well being within the aftermath of six suicides in as many months between the summer time of 2021 and the winter of 2022.

Six weeks earlier than Ronan died on Nov. 1, 2021, 20-year-old Liam Godin—a nature fanatic who glided by the nickname “Jyn”—died by suicide. In December, Laurie Leshin, then president of WPI, instructed The Boston Globe that the deaths had been “devastating” to the campus and known as for an “all-hands-on-deck strategy to construct campuses the place pupil well-being is on the heart of the whole lot we do.”

However the devastation solely deepened within the new 12 months.

In early January 2022, Nate Morin—a senior mechanical engineering main who “might discover enjoyable in nearly something” and already had a job lined up after commencement—ended his life at his household’s house in New Hampshire after the sudden finish of a relationship.

“He was humorous. He by no means took himself too critically and favored to make folks snigger. He beloved residing. He wasn’t depressed,” his mom, Donna Morin, recalled to Inside Larger Ed. “He simply acquired into some kind of tunnel. He was confronted with a disaster and couldn’t determine what to do.”

Just some weeks after Nate’s demise, 20-year-old Tyler Larson—described in his obituary as “a form, quiet soul that shared his smarts and wit with all who knew him”—died by suicide, too.

Within the wake of these six deaths, WPI launched a 35-member Psychological Well being and Nicely-Being Process Pressure composed of scholars, school and workers. The duty drive’s ensuing report—primarily based on pupil surveys, listening periods and city halls—recognized untenable tutorial pressures, “pandemic burnout,” an absence of resilience, uncertainty about the place to seek out psychological well being assets and insufficient communication concerning the availability of such providers as drivers of the psychological well being disaster on campus.

To handle these points, the duty drive really useful a variety of modifications, together with educating tutorial success abilities and self-care to newly enrolled college students, higher figuring out college students who’re fighting coursework, modifying insurance policies and practices in an effort to alleviate tutorial stress, and growing the function school members play in coping with pupil psychological well being points.

Along with enacting these suggestions, WPI employed three extra full-time psychological well being counselors on the counseling heart, started providing after-hours counseling providers and telehealth choices, and engaged an out of doors agency to judge campus psychological well being practices.

The suicides at WPI stopped for some time after January 2022. However then, final 12 months, two extra younger males ended their lives.

In August 2025, it was 19-year-old Alex Hughes, whose household remembers him as having “a coronary heart as huge as his smile.” 4 months later, 20-year-old Jack Forsyth, an aerospace engineering main, member of ROTC and “loving and constant son, grandson, nephew and good friend,” took his life.

‘One thing Is Fallacious’

Listening to about these deaths as soon as once more alarmed Donna Morin—the mom of Nate—and pushed her to affix different mother and father in calling on WPI to steer the cost of suicide prevention throughout larger schooling.

“Figuring out that there have been at the very least two in a single 12 months—with no pandemic—makes me suppose that one thing is mistaken with our faculty children. One thing is mistaken with our boys. They’re hurting on this society,” she instructed Inside Larger Ed. “WPI ought to be on the forefront of discovering out what we will do as a nation to assist these children.”

Whereas suicide charges amongst younger folks have declined since spiking throughout the pandemic, suicide stays the second-leading explanation for demise amongst folks between the ages of 15 and 34, in accordance with the American Basis for Suicide Prevention (AFSP). And throughout all age ranges, suicide-related deaths in 2024 have been 4 occasions larger amongst males (38,977) than ladies (9,8477).

Though the components that drive an individual to finish their very own life are advanced and sometimes mysterious, the mother and father of six of the eight WPI college students who died by suicide consider that extra evidence-based analysis might assist establish more practical prevention methods.

“I need WPI to be proactive and intentional about the place we go from right here,” Morin stated. “I don’t blame them, however at the very least that is one thing they may do in our sons’ recollections. We need to honor them by determining why that is taking place.”

Erin Miles, program supervisor for AFSP’s Maine and New Hampshire chapters, stated that whereas investing “cash in suicide prevention analysis is at all times a fantastic factor,” what’s most crucial is strengthening pupil assist and understanding that prevention requires a neighborhood response.

“In faculty, college students are navigating their independence for the primary time and managing their psychological well being with out these assist methods they grew up with—or perhaps they didn’t have these to start with,” Miles stated, noting that efficient prevention assist consists of coaching school to acknowledge and reply to warning indicators, constructing peer assist networks and making counseling and psychiatric providers accessible. “We need to make it straightforward for college kids to seek out assist earlier than the disaster turns into an emergency.”

Though it’s chilly consolation to the hundreds of fogeys who’ve misplaced a university pupil to suicide, information additionally reveals that simply being part of a university campus neighborhood protects many younger folks from following by with suicide. Based on quite a few research, faculty college students are much less more likely to die by suicide than their friends who aren’t attending faculty.

Duty With out Authority

However stopping all suicides on faculty campuses might not be attainable regardless of how a lot cash or time establishments put money into such efforts, stated Paul D. Polychronis, a psychologist and director emeritus of the counseling heart on the College of Central Missouri.

That’s partly as a result of often “the suicidal individual doesn’t view suicide as the issue, they view it as the answer. A variety of occasions they’ll attempt to evade methods or individuals who will deprive them of that answer,” Polychronis stated. “I’ve had suicidal college students deny that they’re suicidal. It’s an influence wrestle.”

That actuality places schools and universities in a “difficult” place, he added.

“Larger ed and all of its workers are given the duty to forestall suicide on campus with out the authority to perform that,” Polychronis stated. “To carry the suicide price to zero would require a level of social management over everybody within the campus neighborhood that might be nightmarish to most individuals.”

Maureen Banavige, whose son Ronan could be 23 by now if he had lived, doesn’t count on to eradicate all suicides on faculty campuses. She simply desires to forestall as many as attainable.

“Are you able to eradicate all automotive accidents? No. However are you able to scale back the quantity? Completely,” she stated. “Ask any household who has misplaced somebody to suicide if one prevented demise makes a distinction they usually’d say completely.”

Should you or somebody are in disaster or contemplating suicide and need assistance, name the 988 Suicide & Disaster Lifeline by dialing 9-8-8, or contact the Disaster Textual content Line by texting HOME to 741741.