SUNY Potsdam has identified the student struck and killed by a vehicle near campus on Saturday as Emily Smith, a sophomore business administration major from Greenville, N.Y. The college said it made the announcement with permission from her family.
Smith was a transfer student and a member of the SUNY Potsdam Bears Women’s Basketball Team. In her first year at SUNY Potsdam, she earned Dean’s List honors, a detail that underscored how quickly she had become part of the campus community.
President Suzanne R. Smith announced the identification after the death, as the college moved to turn grief into immediate support. Jerry Welsh Gymnasium has been designated as a memorial space for members of the campus community, and the SUNY Potsdam College Counseling Center will offer drop-in sessions for students, faculty and staff on campus.
The response also reaches beyond the campus for people who are no longer there. SUNY Potsdam referred students who have already left campus and anyone else who needs support to 24-hour crisis lines.
Law enforcement agencies, including Potsdam Village Police, University Police and New York State Police, are investigating the incident. For a campus that has already lost a student athlete with a strong academic start and a place on the women’s basketball team, the next phase is not about a public statement. It is about what investigators determine happened on that road Saturday, and how the college helps the people who knew her get through the days ahead.
