The policy of whether residence hall staff members, including Resident Assistants, should be informed of their residents’ medical conditions has been brought to the forefront after a student living in Speare Hall died early Friday morning. Abby Carter, 18, a physical therapy major, died shortly after having a seizure in her room. As the policy stands now, RAs are not informed of any medical conditions by Residential Life staff, said the Director of Residential Life, M.L. Langlie. The issue of RAs being aware of a resident’s medical condition is not a factor in the student’s death, which both Langlie and Interim Vice President for Student Affairs Ed Klotzbier stressed. “The RA in this case did everything right,” Langlie said. “The most important thing an RA can do is dial 3333,[NU’s emergency line], and in this situation, that is exactly what this RA did right away.” Carter’s mother also said that her daughter, who started having seizures when she was in seventh grade, was being treated with medication. In this particular case, she said, the incident was unfortunate. “She was feeling fine,” said Kay Carter, Ms. Carter’s mom, “It’s just unfortunate. It’s not usually something that results in death.” Carter did stress, however, that in the event that someone does have a seizure, people should know to roll the individual on his or her side and to make sure the airway is clear. “In Abby’s case everything was done exactly right. It could have been that the RA would not be there, and that’s why you want to be careful, because an RA cannot be somewhere 24-7. They are there a lot, but they cannot be there 24-7,” Langlie said. “The most important thing an RA can do is to get emergency help, and in this case, that is exactly what the RA did.” Klotzbier, who was an RA when he attended Northeastern as an undergraduate student, said he was under the impression that RAs were aware of any medical conditions or concerns that their residents may have. “My understanding was that they did know,” he said. Though Klotzbier agreed with Langlie and stressed the importance of Residential Life staff and RAs to call for help in case of an emergency, he said that RAs should know more about their residents. “The student population is our most important concern and RAs are trained to immediately call for help,” he said. “I would like to think that the residence hall staff would know certain things about residents in their building, which includes medical issues which affect students.” One RA, who happens to have a medical condition, sides with Klotzbier. “It’s important that the university take care of the needs of students. Whatever a department or university needs to do to ensure a student’s safety – do it,” said Landon Hundley, a middler journalism major and a member of RA Council. “I’m anemic. If something were to happen, I’d want someone to know about it, but at the same time I don’t know if I’d want someone to know [about the condition]. It’s very political.” Though a portion of the Residential Life staff is aware of the medical conditions of residents, the flow of information stops at RAs, a policy Klotzbier disagrees with. “I would like to think that our RA staff has certain knowledge relating to residents on their floor so they can be better aware of any potential issues — issues of health, whether mental health or physical health.” Langlie said that as the policy stands now, only professional staff members have access to medical information. “What happens is we get a list of disabilities, a confidential list, that my professional staff gets, the professional staff in the buildings. The RAs don’t get that list, it is a confidential list. It’s not an exhaustive list, it’s a list of those who volunteer to share information with us,” Langlie said. “My professional staff does have that information. The professional staff only has that information. It is a confidential list, it is confidential information about our residents.” A resident of Speare said the responsibility should not lay with the university. “It’s the student’s responsibility. If I had epilepsy, I’d want someone to know,” said John Nettles, a freshman music industry major. “It’s not like you can place the blame on the school. That’s like getting into their Constitutional rights.” Langlie said the reasoning behind the current policy is that RAs should contact campus police at 3333 immediately if an emergency occurs and not administer medical care themselves. “A thing we would not want RAs to do is to take responsibility for the medical conditions of their residents. They are not qualified and the danger of an RA thinking that they are responsible for the medical care of their residents could result in them not getting qualified care as quickly as possible,” Langlie said.

— Staff writer Steve Babcock contributed to this report