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UB steps up environmental and safety reviews
By DONNA LONGENECKER
Reporter Assistant Editor
All across the country, college and university campuses have come under closer scrutiny by such environmental and safety regulators as the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA). This means that new and current occupational and environmental codes are being enacted and enforced, with many campuses coming up short and incurring heavy fines as a result.
To bring the university in line with new regulations and prevent the possibility of huge fines being levied, UB has entered into a multi-facility agreement with the EPA, Joseph Raab, director of Occupational and Environmental Safety Services, told the Faculty Senate Executive Committee during its weekly meeting yesterday.
UB also has hired an outside consultant to ensure compliance with a host of local, state and federal regulators and to prepare the university for upcoming inspections. The consultant will inspect UB’s facilities in May 2004, and Raab said that schedule should give the university enough time to bring itself into compliance and lower its chances of incurring significant fines.
Raab also told senators that his office would act more as an internal consultant to the university and outlined academic responsibilities, reviewed the campus “Commitment to Safety” policy established in 2001 by the Office of the Provost and described the host of regulators and monitors UB must answer to for compliance.
Instead of acting as campus safety police, Raab said his office will provide guidance, advice and options on dealing with environmental and safety issues, but leave the resolution of potential problems up to the individual departments. “We will certainly give you lots of guidance, but in the end, it’s your responsibility to carry out the things that we recommend to you,” said Raab.
The two primary regulatory agencies that enforce code and policy compliance on campus are OSHA and the New York State Department of Labor’s Public Employee Safety and Health Bureau (PESH). Raab added that the state Office of Fire Prevention and Control also was stepping up its scrutiny, with inspections planned for January 2003.
Meanwhile, the EPA has increased inspections at college campuses across the country, Raab said, levying fines against institutions like Yale, Harvard and the University of Hawaii, which recently received a $1.5 million fine for having hazardous waste improperly stored on its campus.
“The SUNY system has entered into a multi-facility agreement with the EPA. We don’t want the EPA to come onto our campus and inspect and find things like they’ve been finding on other campuses,” said Raab, noting that the agreement is an effort to self-disclose to the EPA problems found on campus and remedy them before fines are levied.
“We really need to make a very big effort to get ourselves prepared for their inspections,” he added.
The terrorist attacks of Sept. 11 also brought new reporting and security requirements. The government is re-examining its security requirements for chemicals and radioactive materials, with a new emphasis on emergency planning, Raab told senators.
“We’ve been asked to submit information on the select agents and biological agents that we use on campus to New York State and to the federal government because they’re trying to determine what the availability of things like anthrax are to people who work at and frequent the universities,” said Raab.
Granting agencies also are getting into the act, with an increased focus on safety programs prior to the awarding of grants. Department of Defense guidelines for grants now require a statement of safety compliance signed by a safety and health director, explained Raab.
He said he has been meeting with the deans, as well as Michael Dupre, associate vice president for university facilities, and Kenneth Tramposch, associate vice president for research, to relay information on safety initiatives and gain a sense of what plans are under way to help meet regulatory codes and policies.
“We’re really happy with the amount of support and cooperation we’ve been getting from the deans,” said Raab.
“I think there are going to be some very significant regulatory focuses on the campus,” he continued, adding that for many years there was a tendency by regulators to overlook college campuses, but that appears to be coming to an end.
“I think it is going to be a challenge for us and I’m hoping that we can work successfully with the faculty and with the administration of the university so that we can be prepared for when these things come down the line,” said Raab. “And as much as possible, we’ll try to communicate these things to you as soon as possible so you have advanced warning of what’s coming as well.”
Raab pointed out that a new customer-service line had been installed—829-2401—which, he said, is the front door to all inquiries and encouraged anyone with questions or concerns to call.
President William R. Greiner praised Raab’s efforts in responding quickly and appropriately during the recent incident on the South Campus—which remains under investigation—in which a maintenance employee was killed in a steam-pipe accident. In keeping with university policy, UB also has hired an outside consultant to investigate the accident to determine the cause or causes.
A report is forthcoming on the results of that investigation and Greiner said the university would undertake immediately any appropriate remedial action that may be suggested by the report. Increased checks beyond the yearly safety inspections of heating systems also will take place, he added.
He said the death of the maintenance worker was a major loss to the worker’s family and the university, as well as to the employee’s co-workers. “Those people (buildings and grounds employees) work very hard for us,” he said.
In other business, the Faculty Senate Grading Committee, chaired by William H. Baumer, professor of philosophy, presented the committee’s review and assessment of UB’s policy and procedures regarding the transition to universal Web grading. At the end of the current semester, faculty will submit grades via the Web—paper grades no longer will be issued.
The committee had been asked by the Kerry Grant, vice provost for academic affairs and dean of the graduate school, to review the Web-grading policy and invited recommendations to help fine-tune the policy before its mandatory implementation. The panel endorsed the transition to Web grading with the following conditions and qualifications:
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All course instructors shall personally submit their grades via Web grading
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Course rosters with submitted grades shall be returned electronically to instructors upon their submission of course grades. These rosters should be those formatted for efficient printing
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Rosters with submitted grades for all courses in their departments shall be transmitted electronically to those department chairs who request it
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Department chairs shall be authorized to submit grades for courses in their departments only when emergency circumstances prevent course instructors from doing so.
The committee also suggested that “course instructors themselves are responsible for assigning and submitting course grades,” and “only if the instructor is incapacitated (e.g., by accident or serious illness) should the department chair assume responsibility for grade submission.” Baumer said that instructors should not be dumping their grading responsibilities off on a secretary or department chair.
The move to Web grading should benefit students in particular. Posting grades by hand appears to significantly increase the possibility of error, according to the grading committee, which found that nearly 10 percent of the paper grading forms had to be re-entered by Records and Registration staff for the spring 2002 semester due to errors.
The committee’s report also stated that if grades aren’t submitted by the imposed deadlines, it can impact severely a student’s ability to apply for time-sensitive financial awards and/or submit entrance applications for future study. It also can slow down the review process for students in academic difficulty.
For additional information about Web grading, a complete set of sample forms and procedures can be reviewed at http://wings.buffalo.edu/services/rec-reg/webgradinginst.html. Additional information, including frequently asked questions, can be found at http://myub.buffalo.edu/webgrd.
Departments will be able to assess quickly which instructors haven’t submitted grades because all course rosters are online and if deadlines for submission aren’t met, “it will require that late grades be submitted by a universal grade-change form for each student, signed by both the instructor and department chair; this should encourage timely grade submission, but will not be pleasing to the instructors—or the chairs—who thus are penalized,” the report cites.
The Web grading recommendations will be submitted to the full Faculty Senate for approval at its monthly meeting on Tuesday.