Online posts allege a ‘cover up’ at the U, but officials say they wanted to protect student privacy
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The University of Minnesota said it did not release information about an incident last month involving a student in crisis to protect the student’s privacy. But in the absence of information, rumors ran wild online, driving concerns about the university’s communication with students.
The incident happened around 8:30 p.m. on Saturday, Nov. 15. University of Minnesota police received a call about a person in crisis at a residence hall in Minneapolis. The 911 caller said a student fell down the stairwell, according to the incident report.
The student, who survived, was transported to a hospital for ongoing care.
Yet unsubstantiated rumors spread that a student had died by suicide. Reddit posts claimed to share secondhand accounts of events. On the anonymous social media app Yik Yak, someone shared a photo they said was blood at the bottom of a stairwell.
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Many speculated the University of Minnesota sought to hide the death.
U of M students told MPR News the absence of official communication about the Nov. 15 incident concerned them, given a shooting earlier that month that left one dead and two injured in the off-campus Dinkytown neighborhood. Many students had expected an immediate campuswide notification. Without one, they felt uninformed about what was happening in the area, according to the Minnesota Daily.
“It's just overall disappointing that the university wouldn't even say anything about it and they just choose to kind of brush over it,” said Sydney Allen, a U of M junior.
Friends at the dorm confirmed that something had happened, so Allen knew the social media posts were accurate, at least in part.
U of M sophomore Mack Mayer saw the posts on TikTok and Reddit and was unsure if they were true. She thinks the university should have disclosed that an incident took place.
“It would have just been nice to be fully transparent about it, rather than hearing about it through social media,” said Mayer.
MPR News reached out to the University of Minnesota for comment and received the following public statement last Thursday.
We are aware of rumors circulating about this incident. The University has no reported student deaths that occurred during the weekend in question, and we have not had any reports of student deaths by suicide through the weekend in question.
On Nov. 15, the University of Minnesota Police Department was called to respond to an individual in crisis at a residence hall and a student was transported to the hospital for ongoing care. Due to student privacy laws and policies, we are unable to share additional details.
U of M spokesperson Joe Linstroth said the university legally cannot provide updates on a student’s medical status, including when a student requires medical attention.
“That’s to protect the privacy and dignity of the student and respect the wishes of the student and their family,” wrote Linstroth in an email. “This is not unique to this situation; it is our approach in every case. The absence of medical detail should never be interpreted as concealment — it reflects our legal and ethical responsibility to protect student privacy.”
Linstroth shared that U of M staff have been in contact with affected students to offer support and resources.
He also addressed rumors that student workers at the dorm were asked to clean afterwards.
“While staff do have training in cleaning biological matter in order to keep themselves and others as safe as possible in an emergency situation, the student staff present did not do so in this incident. There were student staff who assisted in other ways, including securing the area, which is a standard response,” he wrote.
Dr. Victor Schwartz is senior associate dean for Wellness & Student Life at the CUNY School of Medicine. For years, he has consulted colleges on suicide prevention and bolstering mental health services.
He said if an incident happens in a public setting, it’s reasonable for a school to offer basic information about it, to share about potential risks to other students. But overall, he said communications are “a really challenging call” for universities.
“You want to convey enough to allay anxiety among people who might be aware of the situation, but you are constrained. If the person is still alive, you're constrained by that individual's wishes. If the person isn't any longer alive, then you're constrained by wishes of the family … Both of those things should take precedence in a crisis like this,” said Schwartz.
Schwartz suggested school leaders could address student concerns without getting into the details of a case. Examples include talking through the school’s approach to student crises with the campus newspaper or having a town hall about campus safety.
He said it’s not unusual for universities to not engage with TikTok creators, and he doesn’t think anyone knows the best approach to handling social media rumors about an incident.
“If other people know about it, that makes it more complicated. But still, the primary concerns are making sure the person involved is okay and making sure the people around them are feeling supported,” said Schwartz.
One TikToker had alleged a “cover up” of the student’s death. Her video got nearly 800,000 views and drew hundreds of concerned comments.
“I'm not trying to create an environment of misinformation. I just want the school to be truthful and honest about what happened. And honestly, the last thing that I wish for in this situation is that me and those other posters are correct,” the creator, Danielle, said in an interview with MPR News.
She has since taken the video down.
Danielle, who asked to be identified by her first name only because she’s faced harassment online, is a student at the University of Nebraska but originally from Rochester, Minn. She said a friend at the U of M had learned about the situation online and shared it with her.
She said because the U of M had not posted about the incident in a “controlled manner,” students were sharing photos and detailing what they saw, and that created confusion and harm. She said college students feel less safe — and infantilized — when officials don’t share about on-campus incidents.
“We want to know what's going on in our community, and we don't like when things are — feeling like they're kept from us,” said Danielle.
If you or someone you know is struggling, please know trained help is available. Call or text 988 to get connected with a counselor or visit 988lifeline.org to start a chat.
