Hello, CALS,
Please join us tomorrow, Tuesday, March 11, as we celebrate the 2025 CALS Faculty and Staff awardees during a ceremony at 4:10 p.m. in Dolezal Auditorium, 127 Curtiss Hall. Then stick around for a wine and cheese reception in Harl Commons immediately following the ceremony. Congratulations to all of this year's honorees being recognized for their exceptional achievements in the areas of teaching, advising, research and extension!
A few thoughts about safety. We have an incredible college, with an amazing variety of activities in multitudes of places and spaces. Some of the work we do has truly significant safety risks associated with it. It is the nature of our work in places like laboratories, greenhouses, farms, waters, forests and on the road. Each season of the year brings new conditions, and as a university, we have constant turnover of students – each new person needing to have safety on their mind. Tell them that.
We are only as safe as we each make it, and collectively work to make it – and only as safe as the last second. Things can change from safe to unsafe in a flash. Safety requires attention to detail, zeroing out complacency at every turn, acknowledging that familiarity breeds contempt, recognizing that old hands, as well as new hands, can easily find themselves in unsafe situations, allowing and taking the time and the cost to be safe, no short-cuts, and more.
Of all the things we do, as we pursue our missions and purposes with energy and excellence – safety is, in fact, the most fundamental. There is no substitute. The consequences of unsafe conditions can, in a moment, be more than profound, and in that instant and beyond – sometimes forever - nothing else will matter.
We are devoted to safety in our college and across the university, and that means it’s the responsibility of each of us. There are all kinds of rules and regulations, there are inspections and implications, there is compliance and training, and there are costs and efficiencies that matter, too. We are also responsible for each other – if you see something, say something. Don’t assume the other person sees the risk you do, and if you’re the other person – give grace and openness to the person who asked or pointed out something relevant to safety, no matter if it turned out to be a real concern or not. We must have a culture of comment.
Safety includes the things that the Iowa State Police Department watches out for on our behalf, and the things that Environmental Health & Safety watches out for on our behalf. Please take a few minutes and review the EH&S website and contemplate what it means for you and your team. In CALS, the safety portfolio is everyone’s, with Kendall Lamkey, associate dean for facilities and operations, and me encouraging us forward. Stay safe, and help others be so, too!
My best - Dan
Scenes from CALS
