Record numbers of students are attending Iowa State this semester. With a rise in enrollment, this allows the number of accidents and deaths to rise, too.

Many recent deaths have been made more public than others. Jon Lacina, Raven Gileau, Jonathan Brown and Sam Kruger are all examples.

“I think there have been a number of student deaths recently, but I wouldn’t say that that necessarily means there is a trend or that they have been increasing,” said Keith Robinder, assistant dean of students.

Since June, there have been eight ISU student deaths. The leading cause of death is auto accidents.

Over the last 10 years, there have been 28 deaths due to auto accidents. It is unknown whether alcohol was involved.

Robinder explained that Iowa State may have a high number in the beginning of the year, but then there are times when several months go by without any deaths.

“It will then even out, and that’s when it’s hard to say if there is a trend or increase in deaths,” Robinder said.

From 2001 to 2002 there were 13 deaths. Eight were caused by unrelated auto accidents.

“Death happens all the time, and we’ve just had a lot of things that are very public and have drawn a lot of attention, but that doesn’t mean that there is an increase,” Robinder said.

Accidents are not controllable; therefore the Dean of Students office is always prepared for a student death. When a student dies, the office takes it seriously and immediately reaches out to provide the services the family or students need.

“We are looking at how the campus responds when a member of our community dies,” Robinder said. “There is a commitment to care for the students who are here who were friends or colleagues or classmates with the student that passes.”

If a student is enrolled at Iowa State and dies, the school will always be notified because of issues with U-bills and classes. There is an on-call system that the “dean-on-call” responds to and is connected to the family that calls. He or she proceeds to handle the administrative details and tries to facilitate the process as much as possible for the family.

“We don’t have a standard cookie-cutter approach because every incident is so unique and different, and the grieving process is totally different for each family,” Robinder said.

The deaths that remain private are chosen to remain so by the parents. If it happens over the summer or far away from campus, those usually don’t make the news, but the Dean of Students office still treats them the same.