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Subject: Re: [DCHAS-L] RSO question for somebody
Date: Saturday, February 27, 2016 4:07:55 PM
Author: Donald Abramowitz <dabramow**At_Symbol_Here**BRYNMAWR.EDU> 		Next by Date:
Subject: Re: [DCHAS-L] RSO question for somebody
Date: Sun, 28 Feb 2016 17:10:04 -0500
Author: Bruce Van Scoy

From: Samuella B. Sigmann <sigmannsb**At_Symbol_Here**APPSTATE.EDU>
Subject: Re: [DCHAS-L] Help with advice for an academic colleague
Date: Sat, 27 Feb 2016 16:13:10 -0500
Reply-To: DCHAS-L <DCHAS-L**At_Symbol_Here**MED.CORNELL.EDU>
Message-ID: 56D21166.30502**At_Symbol_Here**appstate.edu
In-Reply-To <7AB8F8BFE46C5446902F26C10EBF4AEAB3A0E7C7**At_Symbol_Here**Mailbox1.wittenberg.edu>


My friend is still quite concerned about laboratory safety (particularly since some staff and students have also expressed concern)

Speaking from experience, if there are students who are truly concerned for their safety in this senior instructor's class, they should articulate these concerns to their parents and their parents should contact the administration.

Parents contacting administrators (Provost, VP of student affairs, etc.) is a very affective way to get action in academic institutions.

As Monona stated, make sure that the concerns are well stated and factual.
Sammye


On 2/25/2016 7:58 PM, David C. Finster wrote:

CHAS folks,

I recently received the inquiry below. I would appreciate your advice and perspectives, which I can pass along.

?I have a friend who is concerned about one of their advanced laboratories. The instructor who teaches it has several hazardous experiments in the curriculum, and there have been sodium fires and other small accidents in the lab. The students don?t have much preparation or thorough safety training for each experiment (they often don?t know exactly what they?ll be doing that day until after they arrive at lab). When it was reported as a concern to the safety officer and department chair, the response was that the instructor was a senior faculty member who had been teaching this a long time and knew what he was doing. The senior faculty member assured them that he didn?t think there was any reason for concern, so my friend?s requests for the problem to be addressed were essentially ignored. My friend is still quite concerned about laboratory safety (particularly since some staff and students have also expressed concern). I wasn?t sure if ACS had any resources beyond the published booklets (which don?t help if people won?t acknowledge there is a problem). Do you know of any ?experts? or other resources who could provide a review or lend some credibility to her concerns??

Thanks.

Dave

David C. Finster
Professor, Department of Chemistry
University Chemical Hygiene Officer
Wittenberg University
937-327-6441
http://userpages.wittenberg.edu/dfinster/index.html


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We, the willing, led by the unknowing, are doing the impossible for the ungrateful. We have done so much, for so long, with so little, we are now qualified to do everything with nothing. Teresa Arnold

Samuella B. Sigmann, NRCC-CHO

Senior Lecturer/Safety Committee Chair/Director of Stockroom

A. R. Smith Department of Chemistry

Appalachian State University

525 Rivers Street

Boone, NC 28608

Phone: 828 262 2755

Fax: 828 262 6558

Email: sigmannsb**At_Symbol_Here**appstate.edu

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