Ithaca College Student From Mahwah Dies

Shannon Sakosits of Mahwah, a junior at Ithaca College, died following a brief illness, college officials announced Wednesday.

Sakosits was an integrated marketing communications major.

“I know the entire campus community, and specially the Roy H. Park School of Communications faculty, staff, and students, joins me in extending our heartfelt prayers and deepest sympathies to Shannon’s’ family and friends during this difficult time,” Benjamin Rifkin, the college’s provost, said in a statement posted on the college’s website.

The college’s Hammond Health Center and the Cayuga Medical Center at Ithaca are working closely with the Tompkins County and the New York State health departments to determine a cause of death, Rifkin said.

Preliminary testing, Rifkin said, “has not indicated a bacterial infection” as the cause of death.

A memorial service will be held at the college at 7 p.m. Information regarding other memorial services will be announced as it becomes available, Rifkin said.

College officials are urging anyone from the college community who shared a drinking container, eating utensils, cigarette, or who may have been kissed by Sakosits between Oct. 28 and Monday should contact the Hammond Health Center to determine if they should take antibiotics. The health center as set up a hotline to answer questions at 607-274-7128.