How Colleges and Universities Can Navigate Student Death

Unfortunately, student death is a matter of when, not if for higher ed leaders. Institutions need to prepare in advance to meet their campus community’s emotional needs and facilitate grieving and healing in the aftermath of a student death. In recent years, it has become even more important for college leaders to proactively address this topic with key campus stakeholders as concerns about campus safety and student well-being increase.

Over the last year, EAB conducted research on how to facilitate healing on campus in the aftermath of student deaths. Our research team found that preparing an institution’s student death response in advance can ensure an equitable and compassionate response, foster healthy grieving, and avoid flashpoints in the aftermath of a tragic loss. This proactive approach can help leaders avoid the most common pitfalls in institutional responses to student death.

Use the following resources to learn about these pitfalls and practices to avoid them.

Navigating Student Death Research Report

When leaders prepare their student death response plan ahead of time and keep it up to date, they can avoid these seven common pitfalls:

1. Having no formal protocol or having a protocol that is overly focused on administrative tasks
2. Waiting until a student death occurs to pull together the core response team
3. Assuming faculty, staff, and student leaders are aware of and know how to use the student death protocol
4. Notifying a family that their student died instead of working with local authorities to do so
5. Notifying the entire campus community using the same uniform message after every student death
6. Assuming canceling classes is the best way to provide space for students, faculty, and staff to heal
7. Taking a bespoke approach to memorials for each student death

Download the research report to learn more about these pitfalls and the best practices you can use to avoid them.

Download the Research Report

Preparing to Navigate Student Death Toolkit

Use this toolkit as you develop, update, and implement your student death response protocol, trainings, and associated policies. This toolkit is a complement to EAB’s research report, Navigating Student Death: A Best Practice Guide. The tools are grouped into seven sections. Each section is aligned with a pitfall and suggests best practices that you can use to avoid those pitfalls.

Download the toolkit for 15 tools to ensure institutional readiness.

Download the Tool