EH&S Committee 6 Meeting

Communications 065

March 15th, 2018

Present: Lori Anthony, Casey Colvin, Brianna Divine, James Fesalbon, Patrick Gibbs, Angie Haggard, Catherine Holliday, Maleah Huggins, Tamara Leonard, Maggie Luning, Beth Ramage, and Natassia Stelmaszek.

1. Meeting called to order at 3:06 pm.
2. February 15th meeting minutes were approved.
3. March 14^th U-Wide meeting minutes were reported by Maggie Luning:
   1. Group reports were given. Most groups’ February meeting minutes consisted of establishing committee charters, voting for committee positions.
   2. Group 2 requested all U-Wide reps to forward a reminder to their groups to always contact ESS to “de-cap” or “de-gas” gas containers before disposing of them. Three were found in dumpsters and two had not been “de-capped”.
   3. Group 3 sent out a reminder to look out for needles and sharps on campus. Group 4 brought up the intersection of 15^th & Pacific foot and bike traffic issue. UWPD reported that there is not enough space around that intersection for patrols to monitor passing through car traffic. Fleet Services reported they contacted SDOT about the issue. SDOT plans to send traffic patrol engineers to survey the intersection. They are aware of issues at every intersection of the Burke-Gilman Trail. The best solution reported thus far is an increase in signage that prohibits right-hand turns on red when coming from NE Pacific St. (W-bound) and turning right onto 15^th Ave NE (N-bound). This has been affective at Blakely & 25^th Ave NE. UWPD also encouraged individuals to report coach buses to the Seattle METRO if traffic violations are witnessed at that intersection.
   4. Group 5 also discussed the intersection at 15^th & Pacific. They also reported issues with transients sneaking into the medical center and “eloping” into other parts of the building- specifically through the ER. They have increased their enforcement of asking all individuals to leave at closing time.
   5. Group 7 reported hate posters and feces found in the meditation room on the Bothell campus. Their faculty have asked for increased security for their Muslim students during alternate proctored exam times due to Ramadan.
   6. Group 8 reported hate posters on campus in Tacoma. They have also reached out to their executive sponsor, students, faculty about pedestrian safety.
   7. Finance and Facilities inquired about receiving follow up reports from UWPD after they are called in for transient/trespassing reports. They also reminded everyone to not use electrical boxes as storage space. 3 ft. x 3 ft. is required to be clear surrounding electrical boxes.
   8. Special Olympics update was given. It will take place June 28^th – July 7^th. Eli King from UWEM gave an update that walk-throughs and evacuation route reviews are currently being conducted for all venues being used during the Special Olympics. They are performing test exercises, reviewing crisis communication, and mass evacuation plans in participation with the medical centers. They are also training all of the Housing and Food Services employees. UWEM is also planning to meet with all individual safety committee groups to discuss emergency readiness.
   9. UWPD gave an update on the Building Safety Taskforce assembled to handle the transient population on the Seattle campus. Their first meeting is on March 20^th, 10 am – 12 pm. Members who wish to attend must e-mail Chief Vincent first.
   10. Fleet Services distributed a UW Vehicle Accidents Handout. They are requesting feedback for the UW vehicle accident reporting process when there is and is not an injury involved. EH&S will not mandate OARS reports be filled out for all accidents not resulting in an injury. Only accidents resulting in physical injury require an OARS report.
   11. All other agenda items were tabled for the next U-Wide meeting on April 11^th.
4. Natassia Stelmaszek gave follow up reports for January OARS reports:
   1.  2018-01-096 (Burke Museum) The “metal tab” in the doorway to the Burke Room that was tripped over in the initial incident was photographed and inspected.
   2. 2018-01-103 (Art) Photographs of the ceilings in room 201 and 204 where acoustic tiles were reported in the initial incident report as falling on tables and students on multiple occasions were reviewed by the committee (detailed follow up report on pages 4-5 of minutes). The committee has decided to continue to pursue a solution to this issue by contacting facilities directly, bringing the issue to Mark Murray from Building & Fire Safety, and if necessary to the Dean level.
5. New Business: The group established a subcommittee to work on a charter. The subcommittee volunteers are Lori Anthony, Patrick Gibbs, and Brianna Divine.
6. Review of February 2018 OARS Reports:

2018-02-009, Burke Museum, complete

2018-02-010, Drama, complete

2018-02-016, International Studies, complete

2018-02-018, Art, complete

2018-02-026, Chemistry, complete

2018-02-044, Chemistry, complete

2018-02-047, Psychology, complete

2018-02-050, Psychology, complete

2018-02-056, Meany Center, complete

2018-02-062, Burke Museum, complete

2018-02-065, Chemistry, complete but corrections are needed. Room number is wrong and should be 191A (not 261). Chemistry committee member emphasized the importance of noting the course level was Chem 321 (lower levels are not allowed to use syringes). Corrections were sent to Angelina Haggard and Eric Camp on 3/16/18.

2018-02-071, Meany Center, complete

2018-02-076, Chemistry, complete

2018-02-086, Drama, complete

2018-02-089, Biology, complete

2018-02-093, Chemistry, complete but the group discussed the importance of students in the General Chemistry labs using gloves. Gloves for these labs are currently unavailable and the request for gloves was rejected. The committee has decided to follow up on this issue.

2018-02-095, Chemistry, complete

2018-02-097, Chemistry, complete

2018-02-104, Chemistry, complete

1. Next meeting is Thursday, April 19^th, 2018.
2. This meeting was adjourned at 4:24 PM.

OARS 2018-01-103

Report to HSC Group 6

Background

This report stated that there had been several reported instances of “ceiling tiles falling onto tables/students” with no satisfactory response from Facilities Services.

Investigation

The tiles in question appear to be 9”x9” acoustic tiles which were glued onto the concrete ceilings of rooms, studios, and stairwells throughout the Art building.  Early incidents occurred in the wood-shop studios where tiles had fallen onto a table-saw that was in use by a student.  The building coordinator made a report and pointed out the obvious danger to the students/staff.  This resulted in an emergency work action to remove all of the tiles from the shop areas.

The building coordinator states that they were promised replacement tiles around two years ago but that hasn’t happened.

A cursory inspection of the building revealed multiple areas where the tiles are missing or separating from the ceiling.

There are also areas where the tiles are different colors implying that there have been previous attempts at patching the missing pieces.  In addition to the spaces called out in the OARS report, these defects can be found in other classrooms, studios, hallways, stairwells and in the Jacob Lawrence Gallery. 

Safety Concerns

When the problem was first reported, the building coordinator was informed that the fallen tiles had been tested and were asbestos-free.  It is not clear if that testing was done on just the original tiles or included the other generations of replacement tiles. 

The tiles appear to be light weight and unlikely to cause serious injury to anyone but they are mounted and heights ranging from around 14-feet in hallways and some rooms up to 30-feet or so in the stairwells.  Depending on the condition of the tile and angle-of-impact it is foreseeable that it could result in abrasions, lacerations or unknown fibrous material entering a victim’s eye.

The widespread use of the tiles means that potential victims include faculty, staff, students and visitors.