Eight WPI Students Died by Suicide in Four Years. Their Parents Are Demanding a $100 Million Response.
Eight WPI students died by suicide in four years, prompting grieving parents to demand a $100 million university-led mental health task force — and the resignation of the school's president.
Between 2021 and 2025, eight male students at Worcester Polytechnic Institute died by suicide — compared to just two in the prior 15 years. Parents of six of those students sent an open letter to WPI leadership last month demanding the university invest $100 million in a regional mental health task force involving MIT, Harvard, Cornell, Carnegie Mellon, and Princeton. The letter also calls for a mandatory freshman mental health course, a dedicated endowment fund so mental health services are never subject to budget cuts, a switch from WPI's quarter system to a semester system to reduce student stress, and accountability at the top — including asking the university president and board chair to step down. WPI says it is arranging a meeting with the families. If you're at a STEM-intensive school with a demanding academic calendar, this story is a direct signal to ask your institution what its mental health infrastructure actually looks like — and whether it's funded to last.
This issue draws on reporting and data from Inside Higher Ed.