Weinberg sophomore's death ruled suicide

A Weinberg sophomore was found dead late Monday night in her dorm room, officials said. Her death was later ruled a suicide.

The body of Rebecca Quint was discovered in room 1-301 West, Foster-Walker Complex, by Residential Life staff conducting a wellness check on the student, Dean of Students Burgwell Howard said.

Residential Life was told to check on Quint after concerned students said they had not seen her since Saturday.

University Police was notified at about 11:30 p.m., University spokesman Al Cubbage said.

"Our students did the right thing, and our Residential Life staff did the right thing," Cubbage said. "Truly our hearts go out to the family. It is a sad thing, and one that does indeed affect us all."

William Banis, vice president for student affairs, announced the death to the Northwestern community in an e-mail sent at about 11 a.m. Tuesday.

Officials at the Cook County medical examiner's office performed an autoposy Tuesday morning. Quint died of asphyxia, and her death has been ruled a suicide, said Tony Brucci, the office's deputy chief of investigations.

"It was a plastic bag over her head," said Brucci, adding he could not release more details.
The office has not yet determined if there were other factors in Quint's death, Brucci said. Toxicology and other reports are still pending.

The University had "no unusual contact with the student," Howard said.
"She was a good student, not someone that we had been concerned about or worried about or aware of, which is part of what is so stunning for a lot of folks and her friends," he said. "It's kind of out of the blue."

Promeeta Ghosh, who lives in Foster-Walker, said she saw police outside the building after returning from University Library.

"I noticed, I believe, four police cars parked in front and around Plex," the Weinberg sophomore said. "On my way up to my room in the stairwell, I bumped into a police officer. I noticed he had blue gloves on, so I knew something was going on."

Although she had heard about student deaths at NU before, Ghosh said this was different.

"This one kind of struck me harder because it was someone in my dorm," she said.

Quint, a native of Concord, Mass., was a double-major in German and linguistics, according to her Facebook profile.

NU's Counseling and Psychological Services, the University Chaplain and University-affiliated rabbis are on hand to speak with students confidentially.

Residential Life and the Office of Student Affairs also are prepared to speak with students in the coming days, Howard said.

"We're trying to take care of the people who are closest to the situation," he said.

Howard said the University will increase its programming on suicide and depression in collaboration with CAPS and campus religious groups to "pull something together that speaks to people."

"Obviously when you have an incident like this, you need to increase those efforts or make them more localized," he said. "It's easier, I think, for students who live in University housing to have those opportunities, so if you're in a Greek house or if you're in Allison Hall, it's something that you can work out more easily than if you live out on Maple."

The University will work with the family to determine how to commemorate Quint, Howard said. He said he anticipates a campus-wide event during Spring Quarter.

"Each situation is slightly different, and so we will kind of take our lead from the family," he said. "We also recognize that there's an impact an incident like this has on students, and people need an opportunity to grieve or to celebrate someone's life or to just gather together."

lark@u.northwestern.edu