Health and Safety Committee

Minutes

University of Washington, Tacoma

Health and Safety Committee

Meeting of Jan. 9, 2003

Committee chair Lia Wetzstein called the meeting to order at 1:05. December minutes were reviewed and approved. They will be posted on the Web.

Subcommittee Reports

Training

Campuswide Workplace Violence training is set for Jan. 22 from 12:45 to 1:45 p.m. in WCG 118. The training will focus most on faculty issues. Safety committee representatives from the academic programs will request that their directors put this training on agendas for faculty meetings.

Web page

James Wood was thanked for improving the look of the page. It was requested that upcoming workplace violence training be publicized on the Web. UWT's Safety Web page can be found at: http://www.tacoma.washington.edu/safety/

Hazardous Management Plan

This subcommittee, which will be responsible for drafting a vulnerabilities assessment, has met once. Lia has talked to county officials and their advice was to include them in the process and incorporate them in the plan. City officials will be contacted next. More UWT members will be added to this subcommittee.

Department/Area Safety Plans

Linda Kachinsky, Crystal Perrine and Caroline Calvillo met as the first step in developing a new employee safety orientation template that can be appropriated by specific programs/work units as they choose.

The UWT library is working on its own plan, which has been submitted to the director.

Old Business

Exit signs

The committee voted to table any further research into the installation of nearest-exit signs (similar to the signs in hotel rooms) because such signs are not mandatory and because all campus facilities have been very recently built or renovated, so exit signage is already excellent.

Attendance

Attendance at Safety Committee meetings has improved. Lia thanked those present and will follow up with areas not represented.

Constituent Concerns

Budget

There was discussion about budgeting for safety-related items. It was explained that Campus Safety and Security is responsible for budgeting such expenses.

Contacting security when a student situation is causing concern

There was discussion about how best to contact campus security for response to an escalating situation involving students (for example, when a faculty-student discussion begins to cause concern for the faculty member) or potential students (such as at an information session). Officer Bailey explained that any call to security, even if it does not mention the reason for the call explicitly, will result in an in-person response by whoever is on duty. A 911 call would be appropriate in a true emergency. A campus security officer is on duty 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.

Student membership on Safety Committee

No student representative has been attending lately. ASUWT is informed of meetings and invited to send a representative.

Earthquake preparedness with regard to computers

A question was raised about whether campus computers need to be secured to desks or walls as a measure for earthquake safety. (Some K-12 schools and offices are taking steps to strap computers down.) There was discussion about newer, flat-screen monitors being more prone to shaking in a quake. Lia will investigate whether information on this question is available via the UW Seattle.

New Business

Updating the Emergency Action & Disaster Plan

With the Pinkerton Building now occupied, Publications has new floor plans indicating the locations of exits and first aid kits. These maps need to be added to the campus Emergency Action and Disaster Plan, which is due for revision. Lia proposed that the Safety Committee begin identifying needed revisions (such as to the list of floor wardens and building wardens) next month. Darren will get volunteers to serve as wardens in the Pinkerton. He mentioned that annual training is required for floor wardens. Pay phones and emergency phones are being installed in several spots on campus. An emergency command room will be sited in the Mattress Factory, now being renovated.

Emergency food/water kits

There was discussion about whether to establish central storage space for emergency kits that could provide food, water and other emergency items for periods of 24, 48 or 72 hours. The committee decided to encourage those who work on campus to consider obtaining such a kit for themselves and keeping it in their work space. Information about such emergency kits will be added to the Safety Web page.

UW-Wide Safety Committee

Lia reported that an educational outreach building used by the UW Seattle campus recently burned down. It was leased space, and UW tenants were told by the building owner that they couldn't go into the building after the fire. Since we have UWT people working in leased space, they should plan strategically for the possibility of not being able to gain access to their work space and any property there for an extended period of time after an emergency.

The UW's Environmental Health and Safety department has put links to ergonomics information on their Web site. New state rules have set a July 1, 2003 deadline for identifying ergonomic caution zones and providing training. Lia explained that the state will not assess fines for not meeting the new ergonomics rules until a later date, but legally, UW leadership is fully responsible for safety. Administrators at the level of deans, directors, vice chancellors, etc. cannot transfer or delegate these responsibilities. If a University employee has a Labor and Industries claim that is an ergonomics issue, an accident/incident report should be completed. The Safety Committee will be involved in an annual ergonomics review.

Attendees:

Darren Bailey

Caroline Calvillo

Alisha Gregory-Davis

Don Higgins

Linda Kachinsky

Jamie Martin-Almy

Crystal Perrine

Julia Smith

Lisa Tice

Carla Van Rossum

Keith Ward

Lia Wetzstein

Warren Wongwai

James Wood