Safety

I had lunch today with an HCC Engr alum who stopped by to drop of his paperwork for the engineering alumni scholarship drive (yay!). It was awesome to catch up on his life and bring each other up to date on our mutual acquaintances. I continue to be ultimately impressed with the quality of individuals that the 18-20 yr old college students I knew become as mature engineering professionals.

Anyhow, at one point in our conversation we turned to safety in the workplace. He said, "the number one priority in our workplace is NOT production...it is safety of the workers...I think back on all of what they taught us in college - not one class on the importance of safety." This person is an electrical engineer. People in his line of work have to always be on their toes. High voltage electrical power is nothing to get lazy about.

Throughout the rest of the day I have reflected on our conversation. He is right. Safety, especially when we haven't had a close call, can take a second chair as we carry out our daily work as engineers. In fact safety procedures can seem tedious or anal. In college we do not put the right level of emphasis on safety.

As we approach the one year anniversary of the United Taconite accident that took the life of our alumnus Andy Reed, I can't help but wonder if we, in academia, had put more emphasis on safety, if that accident might have been prevented.

TBL:Put more emphasis on safety in your workplace and with your coworkers.