The Rochester Police Department, UR Security, the Rochester Fire Department and a SCUBA team recovered a body from the Genessee River Saturday morning in the area underneath the footbridge.
“The incident is being treated as a suicide,” Director of Security Services Walter Mauldin said. “Remains were recovered by the SCUBA team. A personal vehicle was left behind.”
The Monroe County Medical Examiner and other authorities have yet to rule on a cause of death, but the preliminary investigation indicates that the individual jumped from the bridge.
Security Services maintains two surveillance cameras on the River Campus side of the footbridge.
According to Mauldin, a review of the camera footage shows what appears to be the victim on the bridge around the time of the incident but the individual walks out of camera range before any incident takes place. The victim was found a short time later.
The victim is an out of state resident but has connections to the Greater Rochester area.
“At this time we do not believe he is connected to the university,” Mauldin said.
The incident is still under investigation.
Senate convenes to discuss senate elections
The second Students’ Association Senate meeting of the year, while brief, was successful in reporting on the senate elections and the activity of committees.
“The [senate] elections today went off without a glitch,” Speaker of the Senate and senior David Ladon said.
The senate elections held throughout the day apparently went smoothly.
However, there were a few complications with the class council elections.
During the committee reports, SA Appropriations Committee Treasurer and senior Brian Metro announced that the Appropriations Committee granted $1,100 to the Campus Activities Board for new costumes for the annual Boar’s Head Dinner.
Sophomore Keisha Rolle and junior Heidi Davies announced that the SA is looking for a new webmaster to work under the auspices of the Communications Committee.
The student chosen for the position will receive a flat payment to continue the improvements to The Hive Web site that were begun last year. Information on how to apply will be available soon.
Projects and Services Committee Chair and sophomore Hannah Geswein stated that the Walk for Light date will be set after the committee’s first meeting next week.
Geswein also had some interesting inquiries about indoor bike storage options for winter, and even fall and spring.
“I think it is something worth looking into,” Geswein said.
SA President and senior Matt Goldblatt announced that the newly formed social committee will have their mission statement written by next week and will soon be informing the student body about how to get involved in this new venture.
At the close of the meeting, Ladon discussed a senate retreat dinner to be held in October.
He also emphasized the importance of attendance at next week’s first full meeting and all succeeding meetings. In the end, the commitment of our 2005-06 senators was proven.
“We have perfect attendance,” Ladon said.
For more information on the elections, see story on page 1.
Reporting by Andrew Bruml and Charlie Whitman.
