The campus community today is mourning the sudden loss of one of its students.

At a vigil last night, those who knew William Jacobson said they remembered the freshman from St. Paul, Minn., as full of joy and a true intellectual, a quality his mother said earned him the nickname “the Professor.” Jacobson was found dead yesterday in the Farm Road pond after he went missing early Sunday morning.

From the tiered steps of Muller Chapel, hundreds of students, faculty, family members and friends  overflowed into the hallway and outside, holding candles and filling the lawn in front of the pond with the soft glow of the flickering light. Many were moved to tears as stories and memories of “Willie” were shared.

Freshman Marissa DeMello said she only knew Jacobson through others. It speaks to the strength of the Ithaca College community, she said, that so many people attended to support Jacobson’s family and friends.

“Not everyone knew him but everyone here cares,” she said. “This isn’t just a campus where everyone’s just a number. … We’re all much closer than we really think.”

Jacobson, a 19-year-old writing major, went missing Sunday after leaving a party at 105 Grandview Ave. around 3:30 a.m. He was last seen by senior CJ Knowles, who pointed him toward a walking trail that would lead him to the road back to campus.

“I walked him to the foot of that trail, and I guess that’s the last anybody saw of him,” Knowles said.

Jacobson’s friends said they became concerned when he failed to meet them for dinner Monday night. After they contacted his Terrace 11 resident assistant, Jacobson was reported missing to the Office of Public Safety.

An intensive ground and aerial search began Tuesday with officials from the New York State Police, the New York State Forest Rangers, the New York State Environmental Conservation Police, the Ithaca Fire Department and Public Safety The New York State dive team was called in yesterday to search campus ponds. At 9:30 a.m. yesterday, members of the dive team recovered Jacobson’s body from the Farm Road pond. He was taken to Cayuga Medical Center where authorities said an autopsy will be performed. They said they do not know when it will be completed.

At a press conference yesterday, Ithaca College President Peggy R. Williams was brought to tears when she spoke about the initial optimism and hope she had at the beginning of the search. She said Jacobson was a great student, “academically and non-academically,” who was looking forward to coming back to the college in the fall.

Williams said Jacobson’s death has affected the entire campus.

“A lot of people didn’t know him,” she said. “But I think we’re such a small, close community — just 6,000 people — that these things just hit us.”

At the conference, Ithaca and New York State Police officials said there is nothing that would lead them to believe the death was suspicious.

Acting Ithaca Police Chief Edward Vallely said there were no visible injuries on the body, and the location of the pond suggested Jacobson was taking a normal route back to his residence hall.

Capt. Lawrence Jackman of the New York State Police said there were other factors that have led investigators to rule out any suspicious circumstances.

“There’s no indication there was trouble at the party,” Jackman said. “The path he was on is what we would expect he would be on returning to his residence.”

The last student death on campus took place in July 2005, when then-junior Kimberly Chu was found dead in her Terrace 9 dorm room. Three months earlier, in April 2005, another student death occurred on campus when then-sophomore Morgan Potter fell from his room on the eighth floor of the West Tower. There was no foul play suspected in either incident.

Jacobson’s mother said everyone at the vigil should take the joy her son had and live a life that would do him proud.

“That is my job now,” she said. “It’s my job to go out and let everyone know that there is a light that has been taken from us.”

Many students at the vigil shared stories about Jacobson’s penchant for deep conversation. One recalled spending a night outside of Boothroyd Hall with Jacobson, watching the sun come up.

“When you watch the sunrise with someone you always have really deep conversations,” he said. “Willie used to have deep conversations no matter what’s going on. We all know that intellectually, he was light-years ahead of us.”