WKU hosts open forums for director search

Nick Bratcher

The director of Environment, Health and Safety is a job no one thinks of until things go wrong, but WKU hosted two open forums to fill the position last week.

Bryan Russell, head of the search committee and director of Planning, Design and Construction, said the role provides WKU with leadership and communication on life safety.

โ€œWe under-appreciate the role of environmental safety โ€” the folks that check all the fire extinguishers and check all the hood fire-suppression systems,โ€ he said. โ€œYou donโ€™t ever need that stuff until something goes sideways.โ€

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The candidates visited campus late last week. Bradley Coyle, environmental safety consultant for Linebach Funkhouser in Louisville, presented at Thursdayโ€™s open forum. David Oliver, supervisor of Health and Safety at General Motorsโ€™ Bowling Green facility, visited WKU on Friday.

Coyle, who graduated from WKU in 2000 with bachelorโ€™s degrees in Geography and Geology, said WKU plays a major role as a university in keeping people safe and should seize that opportunity to set a standard.

โ€œAs a university, we want to try and get our programs out there to people and say, โ€˜Yeah, we are doing that, and frankly, itโ€™s working pretty good for us,โ€™โ€ he said.

Coyle also said he hopes to get students, faculty and staff to โ€œmarch to the beat of the same drumโ€ in order to seize that opportunity.

โ€œEveryoneโ€™s a stakeholder here,โ€ he said. โ€œWeโ€™ve got resources out the yin-yang. We need to make sure we utilize all those resources.โ€

Oliver, who graduated from Eastern Kentucky University with a masterโ€™s degree in Security, Safety and Emergency Management, presented at Fridayโ€™s open forum.

During his presentation, Oliver compared WKUโ€™s Environment, Health and Safety objectives to a group of silos, each working independently of one another.

โ€œThatโ€™s really where we started,โ€ Oliver said. โ€œThe environmental folks played in their silo. The safety folks played in their silo. They were all very different practice areas, and we all sort of did our own thing.

โ€œItโ€™s the partnerships that have to happen across those areas.โ€

Oliver said WKU could accomplish that goal by combining a strategic way of thinking with a hands-on approach, especially with WKUโ€™s partners and consumers โ€” its students, faculty, staff and community.

โ€œA lot of safety and environmental programs across the country teach their students to be strategic,โ€ he said. โ€œIt doesnโ€™t work in real life. We have to be prepared to roll up our sleeves to be tactical support for those.โ€

Russell said there is no definite time frame for filling the position after the forums.

โ€œWeโ€™ll sit down as a group and talk,โ€ he said. โ€œIf we have a consensus weโ€™ll check his references and move forward to putting a job offer in, but there is not a time frame.

โ€œWeโ€™re looking for the right candidate.โ€

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