Texas Tech Grad Student Dies in Fall During Russia Trip

AUSTIN, TX-- A Texas Tech graduate student died in Russia on Saturday while in a University of Texas study program.

Elmer Arrieta, 27, of El Paso, was a student in Texas Tech's College of Architecture. He was part of 20 students hiking 3,400 miles east of Moscow in Eastern Siberia, on Olkhon Island, where he fell and died.

Arrieta's parents have been notified and the school is providing assistance, according to University of Texas Dean of Students Soncia Reagins-Lilly.

Counselors have also been sent to students in the area's major city, Irkutsk.