In the wake of freshman Abby Carter’s death last week in her Speare Hall room, the policy of whether Resident Assistants should be aware of their residents’ medical conditions came into question. One week later, Director of Residential Life M.L. Langlie sent an e-mail to all resident directors, recanting her original position, and asking RDs to share residents’ medical information with the appropriate Resident Assistants.

“[Vice President for Student Affairs] Ed Klotzbier and I have reviewed our practice of not sharing medical/disability information beyond the professional staff level in Residence Life and education,” the e-mail read. “We have determined that, effective immediately, this information should be shared with the RA staff.”

Langlie said last week that “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.”

Klotzbier, who said “it’s important the RAs know about all the residents on their floor,” strongly advocated for the change.

“The student population is our most important concern and RAs are trained to immediately call for help,” Klotzbier told The News last week. “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.”

Klotzbier, previously unaware of the problem, took office at the beginning of the semester after Karen Rigg retired from the position she held for 13 years.

It was an issue that would have fallen under the jurisdiction of Dean of Student Life Ron Martel, whose position was eliminated before semester conversion.

“The goal is that RAs and Residence Life staff will have this information available to provide to any medical or police personnel responding to an emergency,” Langlie’s e-mail read.

The e-mail also said that the information is not to be shared with any residents and RAs should continue to contact the Northeastern University Police Department at extension 3333 in case of an emergency.