A traumatic incident occurred last Friday, May 21 around 4 p.m. where an unidentified person was critically injured at The Summit on 3400 Lancaster Ave. The person reportedly either jumped or fell off of a high floor on the Summit and landed on the roof of Urban Eatery.
The university released a statement Friday night to the Drexel community stating that police and medical personnel were at the scene, but no Drexel-affiliated person was injured.
“While no Drexel students, faculty or professional staff were involved, witnessing something traumatizing take place can have a direct impact on mental well-being,” Subir Sahu, Senior Vice President for Student Success, said. “The safety and well-being of our community is the University’s top priority and our counseling services are available to anyone who needs support in recovering from viewing this incident.”
Students who live at this affiliated American Campus Communities building and people who were walking around campus happened to witness the traumatic occurrence, which impacted the mental health and wellness of the collective Drexel community.
“I was literally in shock,” said a junior nursing major who requested to remain anonymous. “I work in mental health and when I’m at work I expect to see and experience heavy things but not when I am living my day to day life.”
A sophomore student at Drexel who witnessed the scene and requested to remain anonymous reported the shock that they, along with their roommates and peers, felt watching the scene unfold. While the identity and affiliation of the person involved is unknown, students were able to see the unidentified person on Urban Eatery surrounded by medical and police personnel who escorted them to the hospital.
“It was truly like a really scary experience because we were just thinking, how in the world could this happen here, physically how could someone fall or jump from here,” the anonymous sophomore student said. “And also, it was scary to think that this person was lying down on the building and the fact that we could see it was really traumatic.”
Students coped with the incident by drawing on the support of their surrounding community members and checking in with their friends.
“These things always seem so far away to us, at least I and my roommates were really shocked… I got a lot of texts too because it caused a lot of people to reevaluate their relationships and how they affected other people in their lives,” the anonymous Sophomore student said.
“Every time I walk by The Summit I get slightly triggered. When I walked away from the event, not two blocks down the world was ‘normal’ like nothing had happened, and that was upsetting as well. So, I had a long journaling session that night,” the junior nursing student said. “I’m fortunate enough to have a good support system as well, and I talked to my mom, who likes to make things positive, and said I witnessed a miracle since they, fortunately, survived this.”
Upon requesting more information about the incident, the Executive Director of Media Relations for University Communications, Niki Gianakaris, stated that the university would not be providing any more information given confidentiality and privacy regulations.
Similarly, The Summit declined to provide additional information for confidentiality reasons.
The Student Counseling Center ([email protected]) and Employee Assistance Program (888.881.5462) are resources available to help the Drexel community cope with this traumatic incident.