I tackled my big class, genetics, yesterday. Final exam graded, and final grades submitted to the registrar. Two smaller classes to wrap up, probably will get them done today, except that I’ve got another job to do: it’s time for the end-of-the-term lab audits by the discipline safety officer, who is…me. I get to spend my morning checking fire extinguishers and chemical waste containers and ticking check boxes.
Summer is almost here.
Safety officers should be able to start fires and cause lab spills to check that people react in the right way
I’m also checking the chemistry labs. To be a good test, we ought to be able to set off explosions.
(Maybe if the right people see that comment, they’ll tell me I don’t have to be safety officer anymore.)
Don’t you also have to check lab first aid kits?
I used to have to do my rounds every week. Invariably something would be missing, even though every incident was supposed to be reported. Sometimes I suspected that an enterprising student was earning a few pennies on the side by selling sticking plasters on the black market…
And then there was the time when two fire extinguishers vanished, only to turn up a few days later as part of a sculpture exhibit. Thanks, lads. Shame you didn’t realise just how easily you could be caught, though.