EH&S Committee 6 MeetingCommunications 065
March 16, 2017
Present: Lori Anthony, Eric Camp, Brianna Divine, Angie Haggard, Catherine Holliday, Elena Johns, Tamara Leonard, Maggie Luning, Paul Miller, Anne Pearson, Natassia Stelmaszek, Bev Wessel
I. Meeting called to order at 3:02 p.m.
II. The minutes from the February 2017 meeting were approved.
III. University-Wide Health and Safety Committee meeting report: Maggie reported that there was a follow-up discussion about the recent incident on Red Square, specifically about after-hour emergency procedures, training of night staff and the need to work more closely with the Use of University Facilities office because of an increase in public use of campus facilities. There is a need to standardize procedures around event planning. UW Alert was also discussed because of complaints about the timing of the outgoing messages. The recommendation is to encourage people to access the website where there is more information rather than relying solely on text messages. Lab safety training for research and instructional faculty was discussed.
IV. Review of February 2017 OARS reports:
2017-02-005, Art, complete
2017-02-010, Chemistry, complete
2017-02-022, Political Science, complete
2017-02-028, Biochemistry, complete
2017-02-037, Chemistry, complete
2017-02-038, Biology, complete
2017-02-039, Biology, complete
2017-02-056, Chemistry, complete
2017-02-058, Art, complete
2017-02-067, Biology, complete
2017-03-021, Language Learning Center, complete
V. New Business: there was a discussion of a known hazard created due to the construction of the new Life Sciences building. Some of the normal routes between main campus and the Burke Gilman trail and Health Sciences have been lost so students are crossing through a load zone with heavy traffic behind Kincaid Hall and having to negotiate a curb with different elevations on each side and walk through a high-traffic area. The only ADA access is on the far side of the loading dock which involves negotiating through vehicle traffic. Brianna Divine expressed a safety concern and presented photos of the problem area. The group offered several ideas on how to redirect student traffic and recommended Brianna share her information with the Life Sciences building project manager to see if a change can be made that will reduce the hazard.
VI. Old business: Natassia asked for follow-up to her concern about the decision not to allow paper towels in the Denny Hall restrooms. Since the doors all open inward it’s necessary for the user to handle the possibly contaminated door handle without a paper towel for sanitary protection. Angie reported that EH&S determined this did not rise to a public health issue. There were several suggestions from the group and Angie will follow up again but at this time it doesn’t seem likely that anything will change since the UW is going in the direction of paper reduction and is only installing hand dryers in new and remodeled buildings.
VII. The next meeting will be on Thursday, April 20, at 4 p.m. in CMU 065
VIII. The meeting was adjourned at 3:40 p.m.
Minutes by Beverly Wessel