Staff sent to check on all students on campus as Ivy League university suffers three deaths in a month

An Ivy League university has posted guards on a bridge over a deep gorge after several student suicides this year.

Three students at Cornell University in Ithaca, New York state, have killed themselves in the last month. As well as posting guards, the university is sending staff members to knock on the door of every student living on campus to check on them, and has extended the hours of its student counselling centres.

"While we know that our gorges are beautiful features of our campus, they can be scary places at times like this," Susan Murphy, vice-president of student services and activities, said in a video message to the campus.

Students have speculated that the long, cold winter and stress from Cornell's rigorous academic programme may have contributed to the suicides. Campus officials maintain that the suicide rate is in line with national statistics and point out that the university had none between 2006 and 2008.

Timothy Marchell, Cornell's director of mental health initiatives, said the area's gorges contributed to unfounded fears of a suicide epidemic. "When a death occurs at Cornell in one of our gorges it's a very public experience," he told the Associated Press.

Founded in 1865 in the aftermath of the US civil war, Cornell is one of America's top universities. It has more than 21,000 students, including its medical and law schools.

Other US universities have grappled with the issue of student suicides, even though a 1997 University of Chicago study found that the suicide rate among higher education students was about half that of non-students.