Nicholas Glagola, a junior at Syracuse University, died Saturday afternoon after he was struck by a branch while cutting down a tree in Cicero, N.Y., university officials said.

Glagola, a 25-year-old chemical engineering major, was cutting down a tree with two other males on the 7100 block of Route 31 when a branch fell and struck him, entangling and suspending him in the tree, said South Bay Fire Chief Kevin Purdy.

Glagola was suspended in the air for 30 minutes while firefighters used ladders to get above him and cut open the harness he was wearing. He was in full safety gear, including head and leg protection, Purdy said.

South Bay Fire Department received a call from the 911 center at 3:28 p.m. Saturday, Purdy said. Approximately 15 firefighters and police officers arrived at the scene, he said.

Glagola, from nearby Marcellus, sustained head injuries and was unconscious when he was taken from the scene to University Hospital, Purdy said.

Thomas Wolfe, senior vice president and dean of Student Affairs, said the date for a memorial service has not yet been decided. It is common practice to wait for the family to decide how they would like to handle the funeral service, before the university schedules a memorial service, Wolfe said.

‘We haven’t met with his closest students or family yet, because this happened over the weekend,’ Wolfe said. ‘But when we do, we will proceed forward with a memorial service.’

Mussadiq Akram Arain, a close friend of Glagola’s who shared engineering classes with him, was planning on spending his Spring Break with Glagola and some other friends in Outer Banks, N.C. He had just asked him Friday afternoon if he wanted to rent a house while they’re there. But Glagola told him not to worry about it until Monday.

‘He was definitely not one of those guys who could sit idly and do nothing,’ said Akram Arain, a junior chemical engineering and international relations major. ‘He would rather be outdoors. He loved fishing. He loved hunting. His high school buddies used to call him ‘Nature.”

It was Glagola’s concern for others and his ability to make anything humorous, Akram Arain said, that he would be remembered by.

‘This was a guy who would walk into class late like three times a week, if he even came to class,’ Akram Arain said, ‘and still be able to make a joke to the professor and get away with it.’

Glagola is the fifth SU student to die this academic year. Four students and two professors died within nine and a half weeks last semester.

The Counseling Center, Hendricks Chapel and the Faculty and Staff Assistance Program will be providing services to students, faculty and staff who need support during this time, Wolfe said. The Division of Student Affairs will also reach out to anyone from the engineering department in the L.C. Smith College of Engineering and Computer Science who wants support, he said.

‘We always reach out to the faculty and the students in the classes, wherever they spent their life at the university,’ Wolfe said. ‘We always try to reach out to friends and people who are most directly impacted.’

Akram Arain said he and his friends plan to honor Glagola’s life by living theirs the way Glagola would want them to live.

‘He would just want us to live life to the fullest and see different things, different cultures,’ he said. ‘He would just want us to be happy and have a good time.’

blbump@syr.edu

Published on February 15, 2009 at 12:00 pm