SGA Joins Effort for Student Suicide Prevention Act

Vignesh Subramanian '24, of SUNY Stony Brook, is leading the charge to pass a college student suicide prevention act, with Marist SGA demonstrating full support. Photo courtesy of Vignesh Subramanian '24

The Marist College Student Government Association issued a formal show of support for a proposed student suicide prevention law in New York State, joining dozens of other colleges and universities in the effort.

On Feb. 16, SGA passed a resolution calling on New York State lawmakers to amend and pass the Student Suicide Prevention Act. The original version of the proposed SSPA called for the uniform adoption of suicide prevention policies for K-12 students in New York State; the resolution passed by the Marist SGA proposed expanding the SSPA to include students from public and private colleges and universities. 

Other proposed amendments included adding provisions to address at-risk populations, such as LGBTQ+ youth, as well as increasing the visibility of crisis resources to students. Currently, 20 states have suicide prevention policy requirements in place for college students, and this resolution aims to add New York to the list by the end of the legislative session in June. 

In passing the resolution, the Marist SGA joined a coalition of over 50 student government groups in New York State. Collectively, these student government groups represent over 600,000 college students. 

“I don’t think [suicide prevention resources] should stop at the 12th grade,” said Marist Student Body President Amanda DeFalco ‘24. “I think our stress increases when we get to college, and we are looking for more resources here [at Marist]. I know anxiety and depression rates go up tremendously when you’re living away from home and doing all these things, and you don’t even have time to breathe.”

The Marist SGA caught wind of the resolution when Vignesh Subramanian, a senior at SUNY Stony Brook, reached out to spread the word. Subramanian, who works with organizations like the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention, worked with Stony Brook’s undergraduate student government to spearhead the creation of the original resolution.

The initial goal? Make a statement to New York lawmakers by getting as many student government groups as possible to sign on, and eventually, get an amended version of the SSPA signed into law.

Since Subramanian and student leaders at Stony Brook initially assembled this broad coalition of student governments, the situation has evolved within the New York legislature. The original SSPA sponsor in the New York Senate, Sen. Brad Hoylman-Sigal, had agreed to the amendments proposed by Subramanian’s resolution. Yet assembly member Daniel O’Donnell, the bill’s Assembly sponsor, had not committed to extending suicide prevention policies beyond the 12th grade. 

With O’Donnell’s lack of support slowing down the process of amending and passing the SSPA, Subramanian’s camp then proposed a separate, college-only bill known as the College Student Suicide Prevention Act. According to a policy brief provided to the Marist Circle by Subramanian, the CSSPA is modeled after the SSPA and would create a new article in state education law that would “…uniformly [require] NYS colleges to develop suicide prevention, intervention and postvention policies.”

Subramanian’s new proposal currently has legs; the bill was recently finalized and sponsored by Assembly Higher Education Chair Patricia Fahy and Sen. Leah Webb. With the CSSPA being submitted for introduction, Chairwoman Fahy has signaled her intent to hold a committee vote in the near future. Subramanian is optimistic the bill will clear the Higher Education Committee with ease. 

“We’re hoping to see votes on [either the CSSPA or SSPA] next month, but they’re promising us that the committee will review them in the first couple weeks of April,” said Subramanian. 

Subramanian’s camp is already looking ahead, as they plan to reach out to New York Governor Kathy Hochul in an attempt to secure public support from officials in her administration. With the bill having to pass in both legislative chambers, Subramanian emphasized the importance of getting the governor on board, while also noting that her administration has favored similar legislation in the past.

“The governor coming out in support [of the CSSPA] would encourage many of her allies, especially in the Senate, to back this bill,” said Subramanian. 

With the passing of this legislation now a plausible outcome, the importance of doing so is not lost on Marist’s SGA leaders. Marist SGA VP of Student Well-Being Paige Graff ‘24 believes Marist does a lot to address suicide prevention and mental health issues, but believes that this issue extends far beyond Poughkeepsie.

“I think lawmakers need to see how big of an issue suicide is in the U.S., and they should be doing whatever they can to help,” Graff wrote in an email to the Marist Circle. 

Mia Hemme ‘24, Marist SGA executive vice president, echoed those sentiments and noted that supporting these types of initiatives was a central tenet of her election campaign. 

“It was so important to me that [holistic wellness] is something that we stood behind because we did run on this, and holistic wellness is so much more than just suicide prevention,” said Hemme. “It is taking care of yourself physically, mentally and socially, and that was a massive thing I really wanted to emphasize during our administration.”