LSA Student Dies After Fall

Daily Staff Reporters

LSA first-year student Courtney Cantor was killed early Friday morning in a fall from her sixth-floor residence hall room window. A food service worker discovered Cantor's body near the loading dock of the Mary Markley residence hall at around 5 a.m., said Maureen Hartford, vice president for student affairs. She was taken to the emergency room at University Hospitals, where she was pronounced dead at 5:48 a.m. The Department of Public Safety has not yet determined how or why she fell from the window.

"We have not ruled anything out, but we don't anticipate foul play," DPS head Leo Heatley said at a press conference this afternoon. The 18-year-old from West Bloomfield, Mich., attended a fraternity party Thursday night at the Phi Delta Theta fraternity house, where she was drinking. Cantor and at least three friends left the party at around 3 a.m. and returned to Markley in a taxi cab.

The events that transpired between 3 a.m. and the time of Cantor's death remain unclear. Cantor's roommate, LSA first-year student Marni Golden, was in their sixth-floor Markley room when Cantor returned from the party. Golden left the room once during the two-hour period to go to the bathroom. Heatley said it is unclear whether alcohol was a factor in the death. Cantor, a member of the 21st Century Living-Learning Program, had just accepted a bid to the Chi Omega sorority. A sign reading "Chi Omega Welcomes Courtney" hung from the door of her room in Markley's Blagdon Hall Friday, where residents, still wearing pajamas around 11 a.m., gathered in halls to hug, cry and exchange questions about the death.

"It doesn't make sense," a friend of Cantor said while she cried in the Markley lobby. Counseling and residence hall staff quickly turned the Markley Library into a counseling center to help comfort grieving students through discussion and moral support. Flowers filled the Chi Omega sorority house, where members had welcomed the new pledge class less than one week ago. "Chi Omega is stunned and saddened by the tragic death," Chi Omega President Melissa Benham said in a written statement. "The loss of our new sister is a tragedy and Courtney will be sincerely missed." The Chabad House, a student center and synagogue, held a vigil for Cantor on Friday night. Rabbi Alter Goldstein said the vigil was initiated by students. "Basically, it was a time for both remembering her and encouraging her friends to move further," Goldstein said. "Physically she's not with us, but her soul is with us."

Cantor poses with her hallmates from Mary Markley residence hall earlier this fall.

The Interfraternity Council and the Panhellenic Association have canceled all their social events this weekend.

A few days before her death, Cantor told her family how ecstatic she was about finishing an English composition paper, said Provost Nancy Cantor, who is no relation to Courtney Cantor. Nancy Cantor said Courtney Cantor was beginning to blossom as a writer, just like her father George Cantor, a columnist for The Detroit News. Courtney Cantor's sister, Jaime, is an LSA senior. An honor student at Andover High School, Courtney Cantor was an active member of the pom pon and dance squads, forensic team and school newspaper staff. John Toma, Courtney Cantor's high school principal, remembers her as a "wonderful girl and a real good student.

Vice President for Student Affairs Maureen hartford speaks Friday at a press conference where the University announced Cantor's death.

"The staff is just devastated by the tragedy," Toma said. A representative from the national organization of the Phi Delta Theta fraternity came to campus today to investigate the death, said Howard Obenchain, a spokesperson for the national chapter. The University's chapter is alcohol-free, he said.

The Phi Delta Theta chapter at Kettering University (formerly the General Motors Institute) in Flint was suspended from campus last year when it was caught serving alcohol. If the national organization determines the chapter violated the alcohol-free policy, "appropriate action will be taken," Obenchain said. "The fraternity takes that very seriously."

Members of the campus' Phi Delta Theta chapter declined comment. All Phi Delta Theta chapters are scheduled to adopt an alcohol-free policy by July 1, 2000.

Counselors will be available at Markley and the Chi Omega sorority house through the weekend.

"Unfortunately, the University of Michigan over the past few years has had too much experience dealing with this sort of tragedy," Hartford said.

Cantor's death is the second student death to occur this fall semester.

Funeral services will be held at Ira Kaufman Chapel in Southfield at 2:30 p.m. Sunday. Two busses will transport students to the service, departing from both Markley and the Michigan Union at 1 p.m. Sunday.

10-16-98