Temple renews its stand on health and safety

Part of an ongoing series dedicated to raising health and safety awareness across the Temple community.

Last year, Temple began an initiative to raise awareness about health and safety among staff, faculty and students on all campuses. This year, the initiative has expanded through the Health and Safety Committee — with members from across the Temple community — and with the launch of the 2008-09 Temple University Health & Safety Campaign.

With the motto “Be Smart. Act Safely,” the campaign aims to not only inform the Temple community on various health and safety issues, but to bring them into a discussion. One part of the campaign is the monthly awareness posters — illustrated with the “Smart T” character — that cover timely safety and health topics and ask for input from the Temple community.

The committee is also actively working to increase safety and security on Temple’s campuses, and has had a committee member working along with Campus Safety Services to build a strong partnership among students, police and security officers to ensure the safest possible conditions and to ensure the physical security of the Temple community. The committee also hopes to reduce the number of injuries and illness that occur as a result of trips, slips and falls and sprains and strains — incidents that have historically been slightly above average at Temple when compared to other colleges and universities.

To aid them in their efforts, the Health and Safety Committee encourages the Temple community to report accidents, injuries, illnesses and unsafe practices or situations. The committee has set up a process to track and review these incidents so that it can increase everyone’s awareness and reduce the frequency of such occurrences. Temple students, staff and faculty can e-mail healthandsafety@temple.edu to report their concerns. Every message will be sent to every committee member, and every issue will be addressed.

By encouraging personal awareness and the ability to make decisions that can prevent avoidable injuries and illnesses, the committee hopes to foster a campuswide culture focused on health and safety.

Please email the committee with your health and safety questions, concerns or suggestions at healthandsafety@temple.edu.