The University of Wyoming’s new safety policy should be implemented beginning in May, pending approval by the Board of Trustees.
Before the new policy is implemented, it will be reviewed by deans and department directors in March or April and then it will need to be passed by the Board of Trustees. While the policy has been written and received positive feedback from many faculty and staff members, the next part of the process will be to inform everyone on campus that it has been implemented.
“Once it’s implemented, we will communicate it to the campus community, most likely through the UW news system, and it will also be part of the new employee safety orientation,” Nancy Fox, director of Environmental Health and Safety, said. “We’ve also met with a variety of groups and we will get back with them and it will also be posted on the website.”
The university does have documents regarding safety, as well as job instructions and processes in case of emergencies, but it lacks a policy statement. In one UW document, it states that it is the responsibility of each employee to act with safety in mind at all times.
“Safety is the responsibility of every employee. Each employee shall conduct their activities in compliance with applicable governmental, university, and campus unit safety and health policies, procedures and regulations” states UW Regulation 4-2: Employment Provisions Applicable to All Personnel.
While these documents do exist, Fox hopes that with implementation of the policy will come a reinforced commitment to safety.
“What I hope is that it helps us build a stronger safety culture where people value safety as part of their daily lives,” Fox said. “I see it as a very positive thing for the university. I also see it as just part of good university management practice.”
Part of the policy will be based on the continuous improvement model which is based on the concept of “Plan-Do-Check-Act.” The idea of these concepts is to improve employee health and safety, productivity, satisfaction and image and to reduce hazards, risks, incidents and lost time, according to the American National Standard for Occupational Health and Safety Management Systems.
UW has had no fatal accidents prior to the discussion of a new safety policy, though there have been some across the country that have caused people to make safety more of a concern.
In one case at the University of California in Los Angeles, a woman caught fire when working with highly flammable lithium and later died from her burns. It was later discovered that she had very little lab safety training.
“I think it caused higher education to look at the idea of a stronger laboratory safety culture,” Fox said of the UCLA incident.
One of the reasons UW is focusing on the new safety policy is due to its increase in size in recent years.
“The university has grown dramatically in the past ten years and with that comes more laboratories and research. We just want to make sure everyone’s on the same page,” Fox said.
Fox says the new policy alone will not bring an end to all safety concerns and that it is still ultimately up to faculty and staff to uphold their safety responsibilities.
“A policy isn’t the answer to everything,” Fox said. “We need everyone to buy into the fact that safety is important.”
