title: University student death response plans using a structural management approach provide effective coordinated institutional action.
abstract: Student death is an inevitable event in the long life of university communities. Although student death is uncommon, universities need to be able respond in a timely and appropriate way to bring the relationship with a deceased student to a dignified close. This article presents a review of factors previously identified in higher education and death studies literature to be useful inclusions in any university/college death response plan. It proposes that management frameworks underpin effective institutional responses to student death as they provide the organizational context for coherent multi-disciplinary action within complex policy, campus and departmental arrangements. The article reports on the development of a university death response plan that took a "structural" approach derived from the discipline of management, to the mobilizing, coordination and monitoring of resources relevant to student death in a multi-campus multi-disciplinary environment.
authors.affiliation: University of Western Sydney, Locked Bag 1797, Penrith South DC 1797, Australia. a.cusick@uws.edu.au
authors.forename: Anne
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Cusick
mesh_terms: D001315:Australia; D003643:Death; D006801:Humans; D007324:Institutional Management Teams; D013334:Students / Q000523:psychology*; D014495:Universities