From: Judy Seigel (jseigel@panix.com)
Date: 07/23/01-02:31:03 AM Z
On Sun, 22 Jul 2001, Shannon Stoney wrote:
> I heard that the EPA did this to a university, maybe in Texas, maybe Rice,
> but I can't remember exactly. The offense was not capping the barrel that
> the used chemicals were in. (At Glassell, the used fix was stored in an
> open buchet!) For some reason, as I said in my previous email, we have been
> told that OSHA is not the agency to call. But maybe we should call OSHA
> ourselves and find out from them if that's true.
Actually, maybe it was the EPA... the offense in this case was storing ,
oh, I don't remember what it was, maybe ether, like a lot of it, where it
could theoretically have blown us all up, although it hadn't done that in
the 22 years it sat there.
> I don't know how the humanities college is accredited. The architecture
> school goes through a rigorous inspection every three years or so. Maybe the
> humanities college does also. But how would you get a chance to talk to the
> inspectors, as a student?
I'd suggest not going to them directly, but taking the issue to top of
your chain of command. Of course if any of us could see into the future,
we'd own the damn school & wouldn't worry about trifles like a degree, but
schools have been known when pushed too hard about exactly this kind of
function to say the hell with it, we'll go digital, and close down the wet
darkrooms entirely. In fact some of them, feeling that digital is the
future, are just itching for an excuse....
But has anyone contacted school president or provost? I'd bet your
department heads have NOT told them how derelict they've been. Seems
logical to go to them before outsiders -- tell them what you said today
about the illness, lack of info, etc.,,,, and obviously MUCH better if you
can get some other signatures. Call it a *petition.* That helps them read
your handwriting.
Unless you're making a movie, a lawsuit is a terrible distraction, but you
have been DISABLED by conditions at your school. And if they don't
accomodate a disabled person, they're breaking federal law. If you landed
in a wheelchair they'd have to deal with that, wouldn't they? The problem
is as you say, how hard to push the Uni you expect to grant you a
degree... I'm not a lawyer (so I should STOP giving legal advice,
shouldn't I?), but if you can make a strong case that their conditions
made you ill... if they've got a grain of sense... (But then again my own
experience with academia is that NO ONE in administration has a grain of
sense in anything beyond filling out forms.)
Meanwhile, I remember that in the first year or so of this list, someone
from Canada posted the safety regulations and precautions of his school --
extraordinary and exemplary... That's in the archive... I might recognize
the name if someone said it -- and even if you don't want to transfer,
would make an excellent document to give your school.
Meanwhile, good luck...
Judy
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