Recently, a girl walked into my class, asked my professor for help, and fell into a seizure. She was only there because her professor told her to “go out into the hall” when the student reported her impending fit. If she had just stayed out there alone, she could have been seriously injured.

Later, I asked another one of my tenured professors about the faculty’s emergency response procedures. 

She informed me that she wasn’t aware there were any and that faculty did not even receive basic first aid training. 

She did call her superior and discovered that every classroom is supposed to have an emergency response card in it.

We looked for it and found it in the lectern of our classroom, buried under several other papers and forms. 

This card’s contents, in short, are “stay there and call for help.”

The student’s professor could not be bothered to “stay there” to help her, which highlights a serious issue: WKU lacks universally known, effective policies for dealing with classroom medical crises.

Administration, it is vital that you update your emergency response protocols to aid students and faculty when outside help has not yet arrived, and train professors in basic first aid so they can help in a way other than calling for outside resources.

Students, please do not hesitate to tell your professors if you have a medical condition that may one day require their actions—they are there to help you.

Professors should actively encourage this behavior as well.

Andrew Salman

Scottsville junior