Recent legal responses to student suicide suggest a rather inconsistent way of thinking about the issue, especially concerning universities. But it's time for the government to more closely examine student suicide and legally intervene with universities if necessary. As college students, the issue of suicide most likely evokes the recent fatal actions of students from Yale University, New York University and Cornell University, whose reputation for student suicides appears to be creeping up on it once again.

These tragedies offer universities opportunities to find ways of preventing recurrences. Sometimes that involves upping safety measures-barriers around the atrium of the NYU library or guards on tempting bridges at Cornell. And perhaps more importantly, student suicide often forces universities to reflect on whether any institutional problems, from an unreasonably heavy workloads to lack of student support or psychological services, are to blame.

Yet after a student suicide at a university, the discussion seems to revolve only around what the university could have done and what it should do regarding the protection of the physical and mental welfare of its student body. However, the legal issues surrounding suicide appear to be changing. The American legal system seems to increasingly suggest that one can legally hold another person responsible for another's actions, especially concerning suicide.

Last month, six Massachussetts high school students were charged with various counts stemming from their alleged causal involvement in the suicide of a fellow student. In 2002, a Connecticut mother was charged for her role in the suicide of her son after prosecutors determined that her neglect of her son was a key cause of his suicide.

These types of cases are tough to contemplate. When a final action occurs at the hands of one individual, especially a suicide, it's tough, if not impossible, to determine that others are deserve blame. But the discussion almost never appears to concern the legal ramifications of student suicide at a university, especially not on the level of that of suicide in the previously mentioned instances concerning younger students.

Universities, of course, represent a different category altogether from high schools and parents. Namely, universities deal almost exclusively with individuals who are not legally minors. But should the law hold universities to similar judicial standards that it does high school students and parents?

The causes for student suicides at universities vary, but there is no doubt that the high pressure caused by competitive and overwhelming environments, which are key features of many college experiences, contribute to a large number of cases. Different students handle such situations in different ways, but it's difficult to examine the situation from any perspective other than one which finds the institution as the ultimate cause of the type of stress that would drive a perhaps predisposed student to such extreme, deadly measures.

But ought state and perhaps federal governments seriously consider holding any university with a higher rate of student suicide criminally responsible for its institutional problems? If there is room for a university to improve its handling of such deadly situations, as it always seems there is, perhaps it is time for prosecutors or legislators to initiate such discussion. It's a horribly complicated and tragically deadly issue, but our temporary solutions appear to be ineffective; it might just be time for a more permanent, legally grounded solution.

Universities should not be getting a legal free pass for what might add up to negligence at another, reasonably comparable institution. The mere fact that certain universities have higher rates of student suicides, although itself a clearly multifaceted issue, shows that to some extent, universities craft their environments. And if those environments can prove themselves to be consistently conducive to student suicide, then it's time for government to step in and more closely examine this pressing issue. This could be accomplished initially through a committee to examine the issue at large, but ultimately the most effective solution would likely be legislation that more clearly outlines the issue in order to keep universities in check.

Student suicide is a fundamental dilemma of student welfare, one toward which state and federal government should show tangible concern.