Recently many of UA’s research professionals were briefed on a new initiative designed to assure and improve the University of Alaska’s environmental performance. This briefing on the Compliance Assistance and assurance Program (CAAP) was made by Trig Trigiano at the Council on Scientific Research. The university’s goal in establishing this program is multifaceted.
Universities across the nation have been under heightened scrutiny by regulators of environmental health and safety laws. The higher Ed community has been officially put on notice by the EPA in the form of letters sent to university presidents and top administrators informing them that the institutions under their leadership would be held to the same standards as industry. Moreover, they stressed, that as educational institutions, we have a critical role to play in educating our future leaders on how work in a safe and compliant manner. To date, hundreds of universities across the nation have been subject to inspection and penalty, with individual fines sometimes exceeding a million dollars.
As sensational as the regulatory fines have been, the UA is more concerned with assuring our faculty, students and staff have a safe and professional working environment. We all have a role to fulfill in meeting this challenge and you, as a Principal Investigator for the UA, are in a unique position as the operations under your control are subject to stringent regulations and may present a unique hazard if mismanaged. Legally, and under university policy, you, as the principal investigator are responsible to assure the operations conducted under your control are done in a safety and compliant manner. This can be a daunting task! As a PI, we do not expect that you are spending lots of time pouring over the federal register looking for the latest Select Agent to be listed! The UA recognizes this and makes available to you professional staff from Environmental Health and Safety as well as Laboratory Support Services. Critical to the success of this partnership is a clear understanding of each others needs and of the regulatory landscape.
The lengthy questionnaire that follows is designed to help us understand where “we” as the UA community are at in meeting our regulatory requirements. If you are unsure of how to answer a question, or if you feel the question is unclear, please check the “MI” – to request “More Information”. We will get back with you to clarify or provide additional information.
All researchers are required to complete Section 1 Administrative and Support.
Research that is descriptive in nature requiring only library and web base data access is exempt from filling out sections 2 through 10 of this questionnaire.
