Carnegie Mellon University students and faculty were rattled Wednesday by the unrelated deaths of two students a day earlier.

CMU President Subra Suresh, Provost Farnam Jahanian and Dean of Student Affairs Gina Casalegno announced the deaths of Elliott Glasgow, a 19-year-old freshman engineering student from New York City, and Rajat Patra, 25, a graduate student from Bangalore, India.

CMU officials declined to comment on the deaths.

Patra was found dead in his off-campus apartment on Baum Boulevard early Tuesday night. Glasgow, who was last seen Sunday night and was the subject of an extensive search, was found dead in “an isolated space” in the Morewood Gardens residence hall late Tuesday.

Both students committed suicide, according to the Allegheny County Medical Examiner's Office.

In an email to the university community that went out shortly after noon Wednesday. CMU officials expressed deep sadness at the deaths, urged students to look out for one another and reminded them that counseling services are available 24 hours a day.

“We have no reason to believe that these deaths are connected, and want to reassure you that there is no threat to other members of our community. As we share in your sorrow, we want to acknowledge how deeply upsetting these losses are to those who knew Elliott and Rajat, and to the entire Carnegie Mellon community,” Suresh, Jahanian and Casalegno wrote in the email.

Justin Chen, 21, a CMU senior studying material science engineering, didn't know Glasgow or Patra but wonder if their deaths could be stress-related.

When Chen was a freshman, CMU officials held several campus forums on “the college stress culture” after a student committed suicide. In 2014, the university unveiled the Mindfulness Room, a calm environment with plants and yoga mats where students can de-stress.

The initiatives were “done with very good intentions,” Chen said, but “I don't feel like the overall culture changed a lot. People are still overworking themselves, stressing themselves out and it kind of perpetuates every year.”

A lot of stress at CMU, a prestigious university known for academic excellence, is self-inflicted, he said.

“It's kind of glorified here to have a more stressful workload, take more classes, (belong to) more clubs,” Chen said. “The biggest badge of honor is how many units you're taking.”

Glasgow, a brother of the Phi Delta Theta fraternity, “was known by his many friends for his wit and sense of humor,” officials said.

Officials said Patra, a student in the Heinz College Master of Information Systems Management program, had earned a prestigious internship for the summer and was planning to create his own IT consulting business after graduation. He was described as an avid guitar player.

Debra Erdley and Tony Raap are Tribune-Review staff writers. Erdley can be reached at 412-320-7996 or derdley@tribweb.com. Raap can be reached at 412-320-7827 or traap@tribweb.com.

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