From: Monona Rossol <0000030664c37427-dmarc-request**At_Symbol_Here**LISTS.PRINCETON.EDU>
Subject: Re: [DCHAS-L] NY Times Op Ed: A Dangerous Idea: Eliminating the Chemical Safety Board
Date: Thu, 27 Jul 2017 09:20:02 -0400
Reply-To: ACS Division of Chemical Health and Safety <DCHAS-L**At_Symbol_Here**PRINCETON.EDU>
Message-ID: 15d84343dce-2c1a-29e0b**At_Symbol_Here**webprd-m92.mail.aol.com
In-Reply-To <006001d30662$63261c40$297254c0$**At_Symbol_Here**twc.com>
When I enrolled in the U, I saw exactly the same power structure. Many of the professors fit right into the role of the rich townies. Male students were the grips and carnies.
While there were WONDERFUL professors like Aron J. Ihde in chemistry (who employed me as a graduate teaching assistant), there were others I had to deftly avoid. In the art department, the attitude was the worst. Professors there would be in jail today for the interactions I saw with the students and models. And the male students were even more dangerous since they followed their mentor's behavior. I kept my distance. One professor held his graduate "seminars" out of town as his farm. I would get them to let me do my paper first, and then wait for a moment when they were all in their cups to slip out and drive home.
I worry still about the other women students. They wanted so badly to be accepted by the male students and professors. But what the males sold to them as "acceptance" and "sexual freedom" was exploitation. The males all had jobs after graduation.. The women only had a degree.
As for my social experiences, I went to one football game and decided it was dumb to pay good money to watch students drink beer and throw up. I went on one date to a Fraternity party, and realized that if this party was in one of the towns we played, and if I saw this many young men drunk, I would know it was a dangerous place. I left.
With no time wasted on sports and no social life, I had time to learn. I always took more credits that I was supposed to and from many disciplines, not just science and art. I finished PreMed. I minored in Music doing all the performing courses which I aced and never told anyone about my background. I took a year each of Russian, Italian, and Arabic to go with the Spanish and German I studied in High School (I went to the high school that was on the UW campus). To get my degree in Chemistry, we had to pass technical reading tests in two languages and mine were German and Russian. I was always talking my way into courses that were not related to what my "advisors" perceived as my course of study.
So to your question: I sure hope the legacy I saw is not continuing. And I think that a school doesn't do much to educate students. The student must come with some kind of crazy drive to learn everything they can. Otherwise, school is just a way to learn enough to be accepted and make mentor and social connections to start up the job ladder.
And the best education I got was after I left school. Those few good professors showed me how to research, reason and write (the real three "Rs.") They taught me to be my own teacher. And I've never stopped studying with her.
The opportunity to learn as I did is gone now that colleges and universities have become mills grinding out candidates for jobs and making students indentured servants while they pay off their loans. Universities don't have to worry about competition from trade schools. The ARE trade schools.
Reading this over makes me think that what an ideal school should do is:
* provide an emotionally and physically safe place in which a student can have access to all of the experts, equipment, and written materials necessary to learn how to learn;
* hire real experts as professors who also want to spend a significant amount of their time teaching others to do what they love;
* leave up to the student 1) the motivation to learn, 2) subject matter they want to master, and 3) the time they want to spend taking courses. (Those students that need to be motivated and directed can go to the trade school universities.)
* And make the cost low enough that the student can pay for it by working.
I, too, had a dream.
Monona Rossol, M.S., M.F.A., Industrial Hygienist
President: Arts, Crafts & Theater Safety, Inc.
Safety Officer: Local USA829, IATSE
181 Thompson St., #23
New York, NY 10012 212-777-0062
-----Original Message-----
From: Bruce Van Scoy <bvanscoy**At_Symbol_Here**TWC.COM>
To: DCHAS-L <DCHAS-L**At_Symbol_Here**PRINCETON.EDU>
Sent: Wed, Jul 26, 2017 10:11 pm
Subject: Re: [DCHAS-L] NY Times Op Ed: A Dangerous Idea: Eliminating the Chemical Safety Board
Monona,
Personally I have no knowledge of UW-Madison, but my opinion is that you must have been educated/trained very well, since we have seen, and respected a long history of, your professional experience practicing the core ethics of the IH/safety profession. You may hate the place (UW-Madison). But, I would be interested if, in your opinion, is the legacy continuing? If so, which is the best method to encourage the next generation to consider our profession. I've had this discussion offline with PhD's, which is the best way to train future professionals. Should future professionals be aimed to the best academically worthy institutions to ensure they have the fundamentals to perform professionally and ethically, a liberal arts education or otherwise?
You obtained 3 degrees from UW-Madison and have a long, experienced, well respected career and I'm interested in listening to and respecting your answer.
Respectfully yours,
BruceV
Monona was a name in our family before the Lake was officially named in the 1800s. It was my Grandfather's middle name, my Aunt's Vaudeville and Met Opera stage name (Olivia Monona), my father's middle name until he legally changed his name to his stage name (Ben Bergor), and my first name through a long progression of legal and stage names.
Most of us were born in Madison, but our booking agency was in Chicago so we weren't home much.. I left home at age 17 and got all three of my degrees at UW-Madison.. I hate the place.
Monona Rossol, M.S., M.F.A., Industrial Hygienist
President: Arts, Crafts & Theater Safety, Inc.
Safety Officer: Local USA829, IATSE
New York, NY 10012 212-777-0062
Monona,
So far I haven=E2=80™t seen any stories about the budget (much less the CSB funding) path in the Senate. Until they get past the healthcare issue, I suspect not much will be done. So I'm not sure the CSB funding is even at the tiny baby step - maybe sitting up in the crib without falling over!
BTW, were you named after the lake in Madison? I'm a Wisconsin native & UW grad.
I hope that the pill & nap have helped!
Rosearray EHS Services LLC
I thought when I saw that release a couple weeks ago about the senate recommending funding for the CSB that some people would think that the battle was won.
Nothing in Washington is done until it has gone through several processes in each of the two houses and passed the President's desk. The press reports each recommendation and proposal in this long process, but they do it in a sensational way that makes their story sound more important than it is. The story wouldn't get any attention if the headline truthfully read: "One more tiny baby step toward possible funding of the CSB."
We won't know if the CSB gets funded until the end of the process at the President's desk. And now you also know why I need to take a pill and lie down.
Monona Rossol, M.S., M.F.A., Industrial Hygienist
President: Arts, Crafts & Theater Safety, Inc.
Safety Officer: Local USA829, IATSE
New York, NY 10012 212-777-0062
The funding of the CSB is definitely not a "done deal". At this point, its funding has been included in the House Budget Committee's proposed appropriations. If one appreciates that the House Budget Committee Chair is Rodney Freylinghuysen of New Jersey, and that a bipartisan majority of the New Jersey House of Representatives members supported CSB funding, this outcome is not surprising. However, so far I have not seen any "champion" for the CSB in the Senate. So at best continued funding of the CSB is still a work in progress.
Mr. Trump may still have the final word on the CSB. Its five Board members must be proposed by the President, and then confirmed by the Senate for five year terms. Currently the CSB Board only has four members, and all of their terms will expire in the first half of 2020. So - even if funded now - without new appointments & confirmations, the CSB could effectively be leaderless by mid-2020. Then what?
Rosearray EHS Services LLC
I thought I read previously that CSB was funded?
Sent from my iPhone
- Ralph
Division of Chemical Health and Safety
American Chemical Society
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