Mr. Answer Person gets asked several questions about the lessons learned from the death of a Luther college student

Gert e-mails Mr. Answer Person: "I am wondering if after the sad death of that Luther College exchange student there are going to be some changes made:

(1) Will the taxi companies make sure, especially on cold winter days, that when they drop a person off at a destination to see to it that the person gets inside?

(2) Will there be changes made at Luther when they look for a person to look throughout the entire campus, as I am guessing they looked just on the upper campus and not the lower campus?

(3) Is there some kind of an "adopt a student program" so in the case an International student can't go home for the holidays there is a safe place for them to go?
Mr. Answer Person replies: It's natural that we look for explanation of "what went wrong" that led to someone's death. But sometimes, unfortunately, bad things just happen. To specifically answer your questions:

(1) Your first question is a good suggestion, but the investigation into Nabby Baffour-Awuah's death seems to indicate he asked to be let out on the lower campus road near Miller Hall—not at the door.

(2) Your guess about the extent of the search is wrong. The police report into the death stated "Police officers, Luther College Security and a Winneshiek Medical Center paramedic unit searched the campus and surrounding neighborhoods extensively for approximately 2 ½ hours, but were unable to locate Baffour-Awuah." The search not only took place on the upper campus AND lower campus, but even extended off campus.

(3) Yes, Luther College has an "International Student Friendship Family/Host Program." The program gives students the opportunity to get together with their family or host once a month in an informal setting. But the program is intended to give international students a chance to learn about American culture and to give the hosts an opportunity to learn about the home culture of the students—it is NOT intended as a housing program. International students are given housing at Luther over the holidays, so a safe place WAS provided—the problem was that the student didn't have keys to get into the dormitory.

Once again, to summarize, the death of this student was a sad affair, but it seems unlikely there will need to be any changes made in policies because of it.