A student at Fordham University in the Bronx died Sunday after falling from a campus clock tower, school officials said.
Sydney Monfries, 22, had been climbing the tower at Keating Hall with other students at roughly 3 a.m. when she plunged 30 feet to the ground, authorities and school officials said.
Monfries later died at a hospital, the university said Sunday in a note to students.
The New York Police Department said it appeared she and other students were climbing a set of stairs when she fell through a hole in a landing, NBC New York reported.
The school said there will be "no disciplinary action" against the students who were with Monfries when she fell.
Emergency responders found Monfries on the ground with trauma to her head and neck, according to the station.
In a letter to students, the university's president, Joseph M. McShane, said Monfries was weeks from graduating with her bachelor’s degree.
“There are no words sufficient to describe the loss of someone so young and full of promise,” he said, adding that Fordham would issue her degree posthumously.
According to Monfries’ Facebook profile, she was a photo editor at InStyle and a former news intern at KGW, an NBC affiliate in Portland, Oregon.
The university said it is investigating how and when the students gained access to the tower, which is locked at night.
"In the past, authorized university officials have sometimes given tours of the tower, in part to satisfy students’ curiosity about it, and reduce the likelihood that they would attempt to enter the structure without authorization," the university said in a statement.
In 2013, a school official told the Fordham Ram that the tower was “rather dangerous” and therefore “off limits” to students. The university said Monday that there have been no previous falls from Keating Tower.
