Just weeks from graduation, a Fordham University student has died after falling 40 feet from a clocktower on campus.

The New York Post reports that Sydney Mofries, 22, fell early Sunday morning from the Keating Hall clocktower while she was with a group of friends who were taking photos. The top of the tower at the New York campus is reportedly off-limits to students, and the entrance is supposed to be locked.

Mofries initially survived the fall onto the tower’s second floor, as emergency responders performed a challenging rescue through the stairwell of the tower, which was reportedly too narrow to fit a stretcher. The journalism student was taken to St. Barnabas Hospital, according to the report, but died within a day.

Fordham President Joseph McShane shared the tragic news of Mofries’ death in a letter to students obtained by the New York Post.

“It is with great sadness that I report that Sydney Monfries, a senior at Fordham College at Rose Hill, died today after sustaining a fall inside the Keating Clock tower in the early hours of the morning,”  McShane wrote.

“There are no words sufficient to describe the loss of someone so young and full of promise — and mere weeks from graduation, Fordham will confer a bachelor’s degree upon Sydney posthumously, which we will present to her parents at the appropriate time.”

It is not yet clear exactly how the accident happened, or if authorities are investigating.

[Feature image: Sydney Monfries/Facebook]