HuStudent

I'm at the Harrisburg University of Science and Technology. It's been around for less than 5 years. There are only about 15 full time faculty. We don't have anyone in charge of safety. There are no deans. We do have a compliance officer, but nobody seems to know what he does. So as students, our only choice is to go to the Provost and he seems largely disinterested. I'm already working on transferring to Penn State at the end of this semester since the university recruiters and the Prof in question told me there was a degree in food science at HU (not so, it's a Food Safety degree.)

Thank you for the reply! As far as I can tell she has a doctorate in biotechnology, but I think this might be the first time in an actual lab, she seems unsure of herself. My advisor told me the provost told her to stop what she was doing, but all of our plates are still in the lab. I have class again on Friday, so we'll see how it goes. Who oversees this stuff, OSHA?

Hello everyone! I'm a college student and need some help. I'm currently taking a 200 level microbiology class. My professor had the class culture some unknown bacteria from an acquittance that apparently had flu-like symptoms. This is at a fairly new school and the lab equipment is nothing special. We just use usual precautions (gloves, goggles etc) that you would find in a school lab. I had an internship as a lab assistant when I was in high school and I clearly remember be told that we should treat all unknown pathogens at potentially dangerous. When I asked my professor about this she told me nothing we were doing required anything but a Biosafety level 1 lab, which is what are school lab is. Fast forward a couple of weeks and I'm talking to my advisor (a biotech professor) who did a double take when I told him I was culturing unknown bacteria. He urged me not to do that since it was a safety issue. He talked to my microbiology professor who apparently told him to take a hike. I guess there might be some bad blood there? I talked to another professor who also felt it was not safe and urged me to talk to the Provost. I filed a complaint two weeks ago with the office of the Provost and I have not had a reply. Your advice please!