The incident took place in a single room in a suite of eight. Students in this suite shared a kitchen and common areas. Whiteside said university staff and residence life staff have met with the students from this suite several times and have made counsellors available should they need to speak to someone.

"It's not an easy time," she said, adding some students may have the option of deferring writing their exams if they feel they can't write.

University President Alastair Summerlee has released a statement about this incident.

"I am saddened and shaken by a traumatic event on campus Saturday night; a fire in Dundas Hall, East Residence was deliberately set by a student in his room," he wrote.

"I want to assure you that the student is in stable condition in hospital, where he is receiving needed treatment and help."

In the post, Summerlee said "disturbing social media activity" is circulating online in connection to the incident. He is asking members of the community to refrain from watching or distributing this material.

Whiteside said student leaders are working with university staff to try and track posts on social media in connection with this incident. "Where we can, we're asking to get that social media taken down."

She said the university has contacted the 4chan website to have posts and links relating to the U of G incident removed, but she said "they're not a site that's interested in taking stuff down."

Some of the individuals on this particular message board were encouraging the student to take his own life in front of the webcam.

Andy Best, spokesperson for the Canadian Mental Health Association Waterloo Wellington Dufferin, said the association is deeply saddened to hear of the incident that took place at the University of Guelph over the weekend.

In an email response, he said the association was only just beginning to understand the challenges posed to helping individuals who turn to internet chat rooms instead of more traditional mental health outreach services.

Best said a newly-established, Toronto-based organization called Real Time Crisis deals with mental health outreach exclusively online and on social media. This organization aims to be fully operational in the spring.

"Online outreach is a brand new field and CMHA WWD is exploring how we can respond to this emerging issue to do our part to help avert situations like this in the future."

Guelph Police spokesperson, Const. Mike Gatto, said officials from the Ontario Fire Marshal's office are investigating the incident. He said investigators have not yet released any further details about their investigation.

cseto@guelphmercury.com