<nesday, student Sidharth “Sid” Ramakrishnan ’19 was found dead after a search by Carleton Security and the Northfield Police. In an all-campus email, Dean Carolyn Livingston highlighted Ramakrishnan’s brilliance and love of the outdoors. She urged the Carleton community to support each other in light of this tragic news and highlighted mental health and support services available to students, faculty and staff. As the investigation is ongoing, no more information is available at this time, according to Northfield Police and Wayne Eisenhuth, director of security and emergency management.
In the all-campus email, Dean Livingston called the death an apparent suicide. To honor Ramakrishnan, a vigil was held in the chapel Wednesday at 5 p.m. The event was well attended, with Chaplain Carolyn Fure-Slocum ’82, President Steven Poskanzer and Dean Carolyn Livingston offering their condolences and support to the Carleton community.
Attendees held a moment of silence and lit tea candles in Ramakrishnan’s memory. After hearing about Ramakrishnan’s death, alumni posted on Facebook, asking how they could support the Carleton community. In response to alumni’s desire to help, Harper Makowsky ’14 and Hiyanthi Peiris ’15 started a GoFundMe page to raise money to buy Friday Flowers for every student. All additional funds will go to the Rice County Mental Health Collective, which focuses on mental health promotion, prevention and treatment in the Northfield area. Within five hours of creating the page, alumni raised over $6,795 from 347 community members, exceeding the original goal of $6,500. Peiris said, “ I think I speak
for everyone when I say that we all still feel extremely connected to the wonderful community at Carleton. But if there’s one thing I have learned from Carleton, it’s that we all need to stick together and look out for each other.” Peiris and Makowsky’s gesture was inspired by St. Olaf students who purchased all Carleton students Friday Flowers after three students were killed in a car accident in February 2014.
“It made me feel the love and support of the community at large during a time when everything felt dark and confusing,” Makowsky said. “Walking into Sayles and seeing every mailbox filled with flowers is a beautiful thing.”
A longer remembrance of Sid Ramakrishnan will follow in next week’s issue.
