January 18, 2018
Thom Carroll/PhillyVoice Staff
The Quadrangle at the University of Pennsylvania.
Jonathan Lumpkin, a first-year law student at the University of Pennsylvania, died suddenly in his campus residence Tuesday, University officials announced.
The Daily Pennsylvanian reported that news of Lumpkin’s death was shared in an email sent to the Penn Law community from Penn Law Dean Theodore Ruger and Vice Provost for University Life Valarie Swain-Cade McCollum.
Lumpkin, 25, reportedly died in the graduate dorm building Sansom Place East. He had just returned to Penn after taking a leave of absence, originally starting his studies in 2015.
The student was originally from Baton Rouge, La., and received a B.A. in history, political science, and philosophy from the University of New Orleans. He graduated summa cum laude.
Details surrounding the cause of death have not been shared.
Lumpkin’s death is the latest in several student deaths that have occurred at Penn just in the last few weeks. The body of Blaze Bernstein, a sophomore at Penn, was found stabbed to death in southern California earlier this month in what may have been a hate crime.
Another Penn student, freshman William Steinberg, died with his parents and two brothers Dec. 31 in a plane crash in Costa Rica.
With the start of the 2017 fall semester, three student deaths were additionally reported at the Ivy League school. Nicholas Moya, a senior engineering student, was found dead by suicide on Aug. 21. Brett Cooper, a Penn veterinary student, was found dead for causes that remain unclear just a few weeks later.
In October, Penn senior Henry Rogers died in his off-campus residence, though reports deny that his death was caused by suicide.
