CMU student plunges to death

Stairwell had poem with dark humor

Saturday, August 29, 2009

By Kaitlynn Riely, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

The eight-story stairwell in which a 19-year-old Carnegie Mellon University student apparently jumped to his death Thursday afternoon was known among students as "Architect’s Leap" and "Suicide Stairs."

Rohan Vakharia, a sophomore computer science major from Gainesville, Fla., was pronounced dead at the base of the stairwell at 4:15 p.m. Thursday in Wean Hall, an academic classroom and office building.

The Allegheny County medical examiner’s office ruled his death a suicide.

Police said that they recovered a note at the scene.

Less than 24 hours after his death, university officials removed a poem that had been scribbled anonymously with dark humor on the underside of the concrete stairs, visible to anyone walking down the steps.

The poem, written in black, read: "If you’re feeling like a jerk ’cause your project just won’t work, go ahead and take the leap, then you’ll finally get some sleep."

it’s not clear from this, but the poem had already been there for several years…