SAFETY COMMITTEE MEETING

Minutes of October 29, 2014 meeting

1).

In Attendance:
DepartmentFaculty/Staff
DFS ManagementJose Chanes
ArtIvan Grooms
Risk ManagementKatharine Hullinger
DFS Trades SafetyTheresa Kocis
Safety/EnvironmentBill Kupfer, Chair
Student AffairsEd Lebioda
BiologyMichael Mahoney
Police DepartmentMike Morris
DFS,Unit 5Ricky Medrano
DFS SafetyDerrick Nguyen
Health and Safety ManagerJoyce Spencer
Student HousingJanel Suliga

Information item:  A new member representing student housing, Janel Suliga, was introduced.  She was provided the Committee charter and list of members.

 1)  Report to President

A periodic EH&S “report to the president,” is required by executive order.  A draft of this document has been prepared by the EH&S office and was presented for Committee review and comment.  The report describes the status of EH&S programs.  It also describes student safety initiatives for laboratory work, fieldwork and student shops and other initiatives to improve construction safety and employee laboratory safety. Plans and progress on more effective and sustainable administrative mechanisms for internal EH&S assessment, and employee training and development are also contained in this report. 

2)  Injury Report

The Chair presented the injury report.  There were 37, mostly minor, injuries since the last Committee meeting on July 23, 2014.  Twenty of these injuries were staff members and most of these injuries were in Facilities.  Nine of the employee injuries were either student workers or temporary employees. There were seven student and eight visitor injuries.  Most of the visitor injuries were minors hurt during summer camp activities.  One very serious injury occurred, a non-university construction worker fell from scaffolding while working on the Sierra Hall project.  Two campus injuries will require additional follow-up, otherwise reasonable actions to prevent recurrence are occurring through normal investigation and safety driven processes. 

 3)  EH&S Assessments

Periodic EH&S assessments of campus operations result in findings and recommendations; progress on correction of these findings was presented.  All items are closed or close to closure except recurring problems with the fume hoods in Aliso, improvements needed in Art Program student shops, and a few items in the ESRM laboratory.

4)  Attendee reports of safety concerns

There was discussion of a variety of issues, most of which will be managed through existing safety processes.  Among unusual or new safety issues discussed are the actionable items listed below.

  • Ricky Medrano pointed out the potential for injury near the new bus stop due to limb fall from large adjacent trees; community members are now gathering in the grassy area under the trees near the bus stop.  These trees have not been evaluated recently for safety because people had not occupied the area prior to the bus stop installation.  Facilities will immediately evaluate the trees for safety and take appropriate action to safeguard community members in the area.
  • The EH&S office will investigate an injury that was apparently due to the condition of old custodial locker(s); these lockers will be examined to ensure cut and snag hazards are minimized.
  • Ricky Medrano also pointed out a hazard of nails (and wood debris) in the grass area to the east of Napa Hall; mowing the lawn can (and has) turned this debris into hazardous projectiles.  This debris is presumably discarded from Art Program carpentry.  EH&S will continue to work with the Art Program to improve the “carpentry shop” in this area and also determine if there is a reasonable way to ensure less debris ends up on the grass.
  • A fire alarm in Aliso created questions regarding the proper meeting place in an evacuation and how communication with responders will take place.  The Committee Chair will connect involved parties to resolve these issues.
  • There was animated discussion regarding the perceived hazards of student skateboard use.  Although there are anecdotal examples of skateboard close-calls and acrobatics, and skateboard use appears superficially to be dangerous, there have been very few skateboard accidents or injuries reported.  Because close-calls and “acrobatics” (as defined in the campus skateboard policy) have been reported the Chair will contact Student Government to inform them that safe skateboard use has become an issue at the University Safety Committee.  The Chair will also ask, with goals of both safe use and the continuation of the revocable privilege of skateboard use, that Student Government self-regulate skateboard use to conform with campus policy. The Committee will continue to monitor skateboard use and accident/injury information.

5)  Follow up items

All items from the previous Committee meeting were closed except conferencing traffic safety and construction contractor safety.  These items will require further work.

6)  Learning Management System and campus-wide training coordination

The EH&S Learning Management System (LMS) and campus-wide coordination of training and professional development were described briefly during the presentation of item 1 above.  The LMS is initially tracking the large number of variously required EH&S compliance trainings within Facilities Services.  EH&S is also facilitating campus-wide coordination and web site unification of HRS, IT, EH&S an other compliance trainings, professional development, and other types of staff training that are presently disorganized and somewhat inscrutable from a user perspective.

  • Next Meeting

The next meeting will be scheduled during Winter, 2015. 


dist:  Safety Committee

cc:  

Simone Aloisio, Academic Affairs
Gary Berg, Extended Education
Michael Berman, Technology and Communication
Karen Carey, Academic Affairs
AVP (vacant), Facilities Services
Amy Denton, Academic Affairs
Elizabeth Hartung, Academic Affairs
Gayle Hutchinson, Academic Affairs
Luke Matjas, Academic Affairs
Damien Pena, Student Affairs
John Reid, University Police
Greg Sawyer, Student Affairs
Ysabel Trinidad, Business and Finance
Dan Wakelee, Academic Affairs

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