Massachusetts Daily Collegian

A free and responsible press serving the UMass community since 1890

A free and responsible press serving the UMass community since 1890

Massachusetts Daily Collegian

A free and responsible press serving the UMass community since 1890

Massachusetts Daily Collegian

UMass student found dead in Washington Tower dorm room

Updated Sept. 9, 2013 – 12:48 a.m.

Justin Surgent/ Daily Collegian

A University of Massachusetts student was found dead in a single-room residence on the fourth floor of Washington Tower in the Southwest Residential Area early Saturday afternoon, according to a UMass press release.

UMass police responded to a call for a wellness check around 1 p.m. Saturday and found sophomore Evan Jones, 19, of Milton, in his room, according to the release.

A wellness check is a call made to the local police station when a concerned person cannot contact someone and would like an official to check on his or her well-being.

“There was a request for a wellness check for a student,” UMass spokesman Ed Blaguszewski told the Daily Hampshire Gazette. “Police went to his room and discovered him deceased.”

Police do not suspect there was any foul play involved.

Since the death was unattended, the state medical examiner’s office will conduct an autopsy to determine the cause of death.

Blaguszewski said that the timetable of when autopsy results will be released is dependent on the number of cases the medical examiner’s office has in front of them. The results could take anywhere from a number of days to a couple of weeks, he said.

The residence hall is safe and secure for all residents, according to the release. University staff members are providing counseling and assistance to Washington residents and any other students, faculty and staff who require assistance.

-Collegian News Staff

 

View Comments (7)
More to Discover

Comments (7)

All Massachusetts Daily Collegian Picks Reader Picks Sort: Newest

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

  • C

    ColinSep 29, 2014 at 1:20 am

    Dr. Ed Cutting you are an idiot. Dr. Ed Cutting you need to get off your self-righteous soapbox. I am going to say it again Dr. Ed Cutting you are an idiot.

    Reply
  • B

    Brian WhiteSep 10, 2013 at 4:47 pm

    Obviously a very long self-serving essay by someone who decided to take advantage of this tragedy to get up on his soap box. I think you need help as well.

    Reply
  • M

    M. BagleySep 10, 2013 at 1:31 pm

    It is better to keep your mouth closed and be thought an idiot than to open it and remove all doubt!

    Reply
  • N

    N.Sep 10, 2013 at 11:30 am

    Ed, can you tell me what professional journal article you are talking about?

    Reply
  • L

    Larz JohanssenSep 10, 2013 at 9:36 am

    Dr. Ed,
    Let me prescribe some advice I once received from my daughter: Get over yourself.

    Reply
  • D

    Dr. Ed CuttingSep 9, 2013 at 11:09 am

    “University staff members are providing counseling and assistance to Washington residents and any other students, faculty and staff who require assistance.”

    I want to add that I was very much impressed with what I saw of the counseling & mental health skills of both the (Catholic) Newman Center and (Jewish) Chabaud House. Both are affiliated with religions different than my own, and I was observing what they were able to do for persons whom I had concerns for and about.

    I will not reveal the details but can freely say that — knowing all the things I do — I would go to either of them long before I ever considered seeking assistance from CCPH or any “university staff member.”

    I saw what they did for people, I saw the respect they had for them as human beings, and I respect both organizations for both.

    Reply
  • D

    Dr. Ed CuttingSep 9, 2013 at 10:54 am

    “There was a request for a wellness check for a student,” UMass spokesman Ed Blaguszewski told the Daily Hampshire Gazette. “Police went to his room and discovered him deceased.”
    .
    I’m not commenting – yet – on this specific and tragic incident. Amongst other things, I’d want to know who had requested the “wellbeing” check and why — not to mention also knowing the cause of his tragic untimely death — which well may have been from unpreventable natural causes such as cancer.
    .
    Again, we do not know why this young man died, and I will not do what the Assessment Care Team (ACT) does — I will not fuel rumors and/or be a party to the destruction of someone’s reputation — we do not know why he died and I will not publicly speculate.
    .
    HOWEVER, I *did* notice that *at least* three students were hauled off to the psych ward last Monday — before classes had even started. Over the past few yeas, CCPH has been doing a bumper business in involuntary commitments, the Star Chamber known as ACT has been destroying the reputations (and hence lives) of students with nonchalant reckless abandon, and there are some serious questions that need to be asked.
    .
    There are some serious questions that need to be asked about the diagnostic skills of CCPH and the other alleged mental health professionals on that campus, not to mention the even more questionable practice of Student Affairs & Disability Service folk — who aren’t licensed mental health professionals — essentially diagnosing students and then acting on the basis of their illegal diagnosis.
    .
    People who know who I am also know of some of the specific incidents I am referencing — coming from a family with three medical professionals in it, one a mental health professional, I was (and am) disgusted by what I saw happening around me.
    .
    There are some very serous questions that need to be asked about how the university places its own well-being ahead of that of the student — have absolutely no doubt that it does.
    .
    There are some very serious questions that need to be asked about the UMPD “wellbeing” checks, the practice of having the UMPD act as mental health professionals and committing students, and how there is often little distinction between the two. (And folks, once you describe a practice in an article you have published in a professional journal, you really can’t deny it, can you?)
    .
    There are some very serious questions that need to be asked about the “Mandated Reporting” protocol and all of this “Gatekeeper” garbage — the more you raise the “price” of asking for help, the fewer people are going to ask for it. As it becomes known that UM has a knee-jerk “lock em up” mentality and that any mention of suicidal thoughts will instantly get you hauled off to CDH, people won’t mention *anything* – to *anyone* (as they will have to report you).
    .
    I believe the “Mandated Reporter” policy is bulls*** on the level of the infamous Nuremburg Laws — equally fascist and equally dangerous.
    .
    Over the years, I was able to prevent nine deaths on that campus — eight suicides and a psych med toxicity issue — because people trusted me. Because their boyfriends and girlfriends trusted me. And most importantly, because while I didn’t give a *BEEP* about either the university or its asinine protocols, I very much cared about the individual and the individual’s wellbeing.
    .
    When I had pneumonia, my family physician was able to convince me to go to the hospital because I knew he cared about me, and when I realized that he was scared, I stopped asking questions — I stopped asking them because I knew he would have continued to answer them, that he was still going to treat me as a human being with control over my own destiny. I wasn’t a “thing”, I was “Ed.”
    .
    I think that the dehumanization is what disgusted me the most of what I saw at UMass — as a Christian, I have a belief in the unique and inherent value of each human being — that they aren’t “things” that one can view dispassionately like a lab rat. For all the talk about “whose body is it” that we hear in the abortion debate, I didn’t see that in any of the mental health issues I was to assist with. Where I saw a human being who was my friend, who *still* was my friend and *still* was a human being — regardless of everything else — I saw various university folk acting with a level of dispassion that reminded me of what I’d heard about bystanders to the Holocaust.
    .
    I do not say that lightly — what I saw was disturbing. There are some very serious questions that need to be asked out there, and hopefully someone will.
    .
    Again, we do not know why this young man died — and I emphasize that my concerns are about practices of the university in general.

    Reply