The unexpected suicide of a New York University student on Tuesday is a stark reminder of the burdens that American students carry. Suicide is the third-leading cause of death among students 15 to 24 years old, and while swine flu continues to dominate headlines and remain in social consciousness, we cannot ignore the alarming increase of depression and self-destructive behavior.

The Great Recession, of course, plays a huge part in this recent increase. The unstable job market has pushed students to major in sciences instead of liberal arts (choosing job stability over all else); it has pushed graduating students to start their job searches earlier and pushed undergraduate students to pursue graduate school instead of immediately entering the work force. And with all this pressure, on top of the emotional and social drama that mark the lives of college students, the recession has also pushed students into a state of constant anxiety and depression.

Many psychologists claim that 90 percent of suicide cases result from mental illness; however, I personally find this statistic unhelpful. It too easily dismisses suicidal people as “messed up” without acknowledging the many and complex variables that can lead a person to take his own life.

Culture is also a huge factor. Just look at Japan: After Russia, the country has the highest suicide rate of any developed country, and it has recently gotten even higher. Unlike Western cultures, Japan’s culture sees suicide as a legitimate and honorable way to rid your family or yourself of shame and embarrassment. This mentality goes all the way back to pre-industrial Japan, with ancient samurai nobles ritualistically killing themselves through disembowelment. But I digress.

Even if students are not necessarily contemplating suicide themselves, they are still dealing with it indirectly. There has been a surge of suicides across all demographics. Young students are dealing with depressed relatives or friends. Victims of suicide are not only limited to the person taking his own life. When a person’s environment or situation changes, his sense of stability and control also changes, and that’s when thoughts of suicide usually enter the picture.

However, suicide is still a rare occurrence: for every 100,000 young adults aged 15 to 24, 9.9 kill themselves. Depression, on the other hand, is widespread and common and seriously needs to be addressed by all university campuses.

Despite what economists say, the recession is still not over, and the anxiety over jobs and future stability will only increase. On the surface, we see the bigger and more immediate problems, such as piling student loans, budget cuts and the possibility of another tuition increase; however, under the radar, many of us are feeling less secure than undergraduate students did a few years ago, before the Great Bust.

Binghamton hasn’t had a major suicide case for a while and is more known for its Wal-Mart and widespread partying than for its severely depressed students, despite our severely depressing weather. New York University, Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Harvard are all located near very vibrant and social cities, and ironically all have very high suicide rates (the latter two rank the highest respectively when it comes to student suicide rates).

The suicide rate of Binghamton is not publicly published; however, assuming from the infrequent stories in the news, I can only guess it is not as much of a problem here as it is in other competitive universities (ahem, Cornell). But still, the University has to remain prepared to not only provide counseling after a death has already happened, but to prevent such events from happening in the first place.

Often, depressed students only need a friend or a peer to talk to. Instead of specifically targeting at-risk students to seek counseling, there should be a general initiative for all students to help make this campus a more social and interactive place. Next time you pass by a hallmate who you usually don’t see around, say hi and strike up a conversation with him. Or when you see someone you vaguely know sitting by himself eating, go and sit with him. We can all do our part.