UPDATED
A body was found at Cougar Village 2 at around 2:30 pm Monday. | Justin Tijerina/The Cougar
A body was found at Cougar Village II today. The unidentified student was found in his on-campus residence at around 2:30 p.m.
Police are still at the scene at the time the report was published; however, there was no indication of foul play, said UHPD Lieutenant Brett Collier.
UHPD is working with HPD to conduct a thorough investigation into the cause of death.
CAPS will be available to help students during this time. For more information, call (713) 743-5454.
so yeah… third ward
Had to be that guy
Bodies are found in college dorms all too often, normally because of medical conditions or mental illness… Don’t be stupid.
Now they’re definitely gonna have to make it mandatory to live there.
This is hardly an uncommon occurrence on a college campus. Many students go through some of their toughest emotional situations during their time in college and this may have been a suicide or drug/alcohol related. Your comment is very insensitive.
Your comment regarding toughest emotional situation is true. However, UH is not equipped to handle an influx of this many students living on campus and not having those types of resources in place. Counseling exists at CAPS, but it is understaffed and does not respond after hours. In addition, there are RA’s on each floor, but they’re students, like everyone else, there is a limited structure in Housing to deal competently like these types of issues. Look at structures of other schools.
However, it is uncommon. Students do die in the Residence Halls, but it is not common to have one a year or sometimes even more (if you count off-campus housing). Look at this situation; kid dies, you have an RA all by themselves the whole time, no professional staff, not even the person who supervisors the RA’s. What a joke in terms of responsibility.
The RA’s are very much ‘professional’. They might not have all the experience in the world, but they have been trained to handle situations like these. Even if the RA is having a difficult time, they are not alone; their supervisor is available to them 24/7. Please get your facts straight.
“Trained” how? A week before school starts that covers counseling between arts and crafts class to make door decorations?
There are some RAs that care, but a lot of them do it for the free housing, just like how there are some pro staff who care but a lot of them that did it because they loved planning programs and didn’t ever wanna graduate. A lot of the RAs I knew in college did it because they were on a power trip and liked the prospect of writing people up for everything from public intoxication (or suspicion of tipsiness) to breaking quiet hours.
There are some good RAs, but do we really trust a bunch of 20-year-olds to responsible care for the mental well being of freshmen? And making that kind of relationship mandatory seems like a pretty major misstep to me.
That’s honestly offensive to all RAs to assume that training is spent on learning how to do arts and crafts. The TWO weeks spent before school are spent learning how to deal with situations like this and as well other situations that occur on campus. In fact I don’t recall a single training session involving “arts and crafts.”
You do have a training session, usually it’s an hour to two hours on policy review and then behind closed doors. Play acting out something “Bad” that happens, which sometimes includes a noise violation for a birthday party is very different.
Usually the “arts and crafts” portion is worded as bulletin boards, door decs, and tour of supply room; which takes up an equal amount of time.
I’m the initial poster, I did not say that pro staff was not available via phone. I’m saying physical presence goes a long way about communicating care.
Just because you’re in a department that tells you “you’re the greatest” doesn’t mean you are.
I’m sorry you seem to have had a bad experience with RA’s who were trying to do their jobs by reporting incidents such as public intoxication but I feel you have a very misguided view of how student affairs works in general. the RA’s at UH go through an intense 3 weeks of training before each semester begins which is very heavy on crisis management as well as additional training each month. The decorations and programs are really not the main focus of res life and the pro staff are actually dedicated professionals with a master’s degree or higher whose main focus is the wellness and development of the students in their communities. Student mental health is most definitely not solely the responsibility of housing staff as they are indeed not trained counsellors but I know many RA’s who helped their residents find the help they needed and for that I think they deserve much more credit than you are giving them. It’s apparent you are not aware of everything that goes on behind the scenes and this is not a subject you truly have all the details and information on. I encourage you to contact Don Yackley, the head of UH’s housing department or even any Res Life Coordinator to get a better understanding of what goes on in student affairs.
No, I guess I just have the details of three years of living on campus and experiencing what life was like for me and my friends. I’m glad the RAs are working with RLCs behind the scenes to make sure they know what they’re doing but it probably would’ve been more useful if they did it in front of students instead.
So you’re saying you want all RA training and staff meetings to be open to the public? I’m not sure how useful that would really be. But what RA’s try to do with those programsand enforcing policy in your building is ensure that the students they are working hard for are safe and find a sense of community. Not every resident has a positive reaction to their RA’s efforts, but those are examples of the work being done right in front of the students’ eyes.
I think more what I’m saying is that it’s all nice to talk about how much effort student affairs puts into training their student employees but instead of getting a cool behind-the-scenes look at what DSAESTLDRBBQ does, I’d rather have seen RAs that seemed to care in any of the buildings I was in while I was there. I don’t care how rigorous the process is if the results aren’t visible, and I think it’s myopic to say “We’re good because we put a lot of effort into it.” your mileage may vary.
You also have to realize that RA’s and RLC’s have to keep much of what they deal with confidential. If you had to be hospitalized with alcohol poisoning and an RA got you the paramedics you needed, you might not want all the students on your floor to know what happened. Much of what RA’s do for the safety and health of the residents has to kind of go unsung.
I’m not saying I want a giant checklist that violates FERPA 12 different ways. I’m just saying that from my experience and the firsthand experiences of my fellow class of 2010, the students who served as resident assistants did not do a very good job of any of what you’re saying they were trained to do. And if they’ve gotten better since then, huzzah, but trumpeting all the cool stuff that student affairs as a field has to say doesn’t make up for the fact that a lot of the students weren’t that great.
and let’s be real. It sounds like you’re an RA or were one. You’re really gonna tell me you didn’t have any coworkers who ended up mainly doing it for the room and board?
Of course I’m not saying everyone I worked with was perfect. Also, I actually stated I was an RA for 3 years. Your original claim was that RA’s were basically all alone and ill-equipped in handling situations like this one and I was trying to explain to you that this isn’t the case. That’s why I went into all of the training explanations because calling it “arts and crafts” and dismissing the amount of protocol that is in place when an emergency happens was very unrealistic. Of course some RA’s were not as good at their jobs and I can say that being class of 2010 speaks volumes to me about what your experience was like and I can tell you housing has come a long way since then. Much of what is done in residence halls now is about building relationships with residents and working to connect them with the resources they need.
I personally know many of the RA’s who currently work in CV2 and my heart really goes out to them as they try to cope with a death in their building. If one of my residents passed away I would be heartbroken and would wonder what I could have done to see the signs (if this was a suicide) or help in some way. And I know that the RA’s who have dealt with this incident (whether they originally sought out the position for free room and board) care a lot about what has happened inside the building they are collectively responsible for.
I just felt much of what was being said about the staff of the housing department was incredibly unfair and was broad, negative generalizations about these hard working individuals. And I was only trying to give some perspective.
Yes, because in 3 weeks you learn everything there is to know? Typically it falls in between door decs, program planning, and room damage forms? Three hours spent reading a manual and “going through emergency response” with a little behind closed doors thrown in does little for a real situation. There have been, and always will be, horrible, horrible RA’s, hence why some get fired, but others simply just stay on and get under the radar. I have yet to see a 2nd semester senior RA go “above and beyond”.
Go look at other schools, I know you feel all proud of yourself, but UH doesn’t hold a candle to the functionality of larger schools that have been doing this right and doing it for a long time.
You are severely misinformed on what goes on during RA training. I’m not saying any of this to boast or act “proud of myself” but I’m trying to explain what ACTUALLY goes on. There is no door dec making during training. It is done on the RA’s own time once everything else is done. There are actually serious situations portrayed during the behind closed doors sessions such as suicide and rape. Training goes from 8AM-6PM or later, 5-6 days per week over the course of training. Counselors from CAPS train RA’s on suicide prevention strategies and there is no “3 hours spent reading a manual”. I’m just giving you facts. Not saying that our department is perfect or that there aren’t RA’s who do everything right. But the way you are talking about the way RA’s are trained is completely incorrect.
I’m now more concerned about what your capabilities are because of training. Having been through it, why yes, at UH, and yes within recent years, I disagree.
As a former UH RA, this is not how it works. We all have supervisors which we meet with one-on-one each week, report to each week, and have weekly staff meetings as well. We have extensive training on suicide prevention, crisis and emergency management, and much more. Also, CAPS does provide services after hours via a suicide hotline that RA’s advertise in the halls. You clearly do not give UH Student Housing and Residential Life enough credit and didn’t bother even looking into the way the personnel is structured. The picture you painted of an RA being alone and having no idea what to do is honestly offensive to someone who held the position for 3 years. When something like this occurs in a residence hall we call the professional staff on-call as well as UHPD. So please think and do a little research before making wild claims like this.
1) Don’t assume I don’t know how it work. Trust me, I do, very well.
2) Having been there, that day, near the situation, I can tell you, there were no professional staff members visible. Phone calls are great, but what does that do for the sheer presence of someone in that moment?
I’m paying outrageous rates for a staff member who LIVES in the hall and/or others who work DOWN the hall, but they can’t be bothered to be there next to the medical examiner and the police?
Training or not, they weren’t there.
1) Unless you’ve been through RA training, you do not know how it works.
2) A member of housing staff cannot be next to the medical examiner or the police. Once these types of officials are present, the procedure is for housing staff to step back and allow them to handle what is going on. Plus extra people standing around is not helpful at all to the situation.
3) I’m not sure if you’re talking about RA’s or the professional staff but RA’s are still students so for all you know, the RA DOWN the hall could have been in class or may have been asked to move away from the scene by authorities. The professional staff members work 9-5 and may have been across campus at the very moment this occurred. There are so many factors that could have contributed to the impression you got from what you saw and you don’t have all the facts.
..why yes; I have been through training. …and why yes, I am talking about the Professional Staff member; aren’t they paid to live on campus so they can be there? …and no, I don’t expect them to perform the job of the medical examiner, but no one came and even had a presence.
actually they are not allowed to be in the scene area, once UHPD arrives.
As a suicide advocate, I can assure you that UHPD is going to handle any suicide-related ideation or attempt in an INAPPROPRIATE manner. It is protocol for RA’s, their supervisors, and CAPS workers themselves to call UHPD in times of emotional crisis/ concern for suicidality. It is UHPD protocol to handcuff students, regardless of intent, act, voluntary status, etc., therefore criminizaling help-seeking behavior and reducing the likelihood that UH college students exposed to this will reach out for ‘UH help’ again. No matter the good intent, these acts have LEGITIMATE, harmful consequences to our student community and those involved are furthering perpetuating it.
Biggest reason I go to UH is because I don’t have to live on campus.
sounds like a serial killer going around UH campus now.
At some point in life, one has to sit back and say, “Now’s the time for me to grow up and become a mature adult.” Hopefully, that day will come for you soon.
he probably injected too many marijuanas
Whats all the fuss about? I mean if it is a suicide then I don’t feel bad AT ALL! Besides…at least now there is one less person to compete for the available jobs out there.
The words one chooses to say paint a detailed picture of one’s character.
The fact that you used one less person to compete against for available jobs as a reason you don’t feel bad for a person committing suicide is completely mind-blowing. Do you not realize what goes though peoples heads when they commit suicide? I can admit a lot of people don’t care about the situation nor the person but you may want to re-evaluate your reasoning.
A person who lived a life, who was going to live a life, killed themselves, and what you can come up with is “at least now there is one less person to compete with”? Have some human compassion, dude.
Sir, may I say you that you are truly a motherfucker and I don’t mean that in any good or positive connotation. This is such a disgusting comment. I know one thing for sure and that is I’m going to do my best to stay alive in order to combat your similar unnecessary human kind.
More dead bodies than Football games won. They should have invested that money in other things.. interesting..
Geez nearly an entire thread with those very uninformed or just wanting to slam the University for something. Some of you guys speak without having any data in front of you. How do you know other campuses do not lose at least one student a year. You will be very surprised by the REAL data and it does not support your unfounded case in this matter. UH has security patrolling campus 24 hrs a day and a police station on campus and a fire department within a few short min drive away. They also have security cameras and emergency stations located all across campus and a well lit University at night. and yes the RAs know how to handle emergencies and evacuations. They are not expected to be medical advisors but know what actions to take in case the need arises. There is more security and emergency personnel on or near the UofH campus than you will find anywhere else in this state. The point about UH not be equipped is laughable. You will not find a better president in the nation than what we have with RK.
http://www.sprc.org/collegesanduniversities/campus-data/prevalence Rates are typically 1 per 100,000 per year, but no definitive data exists.
Police mean nothing to the issue of suicide; they typically are not the first ones to respond or intervene in the situation.
You can have a great president, but it still doesn’t mean that support services are not in place.
This discussion is really disappointing to me. What about how we can come together as an institution or a community to support the family and friends of this student? Where is the compassion for this member of our community and those impacted? What about stepping up to organize a memorial service? What about organizing a card for the family? What about showing some respect???
I knew this student and I’m going to miss him. Never drank or did drugs. Seemed very level headed. This sucks.
I am so sorry for your loss… it is devastating. Rest in peace….
This is ridiculous already! We shouldn’t have to be scared to walk from our cars to our classes! We need new policemen and security that actually do stuff! We pay to much money for this crap to keep happening!
I wonder if the Daily Cougar will take a moment to pay respects to their fellow student and his family. Isn’t that as important as breaking the story?