RE: intentional misuse - proposed "cures"

["Grimm, Lawrence" <LGrimm@ADMIN.UCLA.EDU>]

Hi all:

My two cents on problems in a university...

I wholeheartedly agree with Andrew Karem, and I saw a few good points
amongst the "give-em-hell" crowd.  The question arose regarding the root
cause.  I have an opinion on that topic.

In my years at universities, a disproportionate number of problems have
involved Chinese nationals.  I believe there are two reasons for this. Both
reasons can be applied to other nationalities for which English is a second
language. 

First is the language/communication problem.  It is my experience that the
Chinese nationals have the toughest time understanding English of all the
foreign nationals.  The RSO has to be very careful when educating them and
make sure that they have understood the radiation safety concepts. Carefully
reviewing their test scores often gives a clue, but not always.  

I believe cultural differences are the second part of the root problem.
Typically, Chinese nationals do not ask questions of their teacher in front
of the class (so as not to embarass the honored teacher).  Westerners, such
as I, expect the student to challenge the teacher, ask questions, and get
answers to poorly taught/understood issues. The Chinese behavior makes it
difficult to assess if they understand the material that was taught. Why?
Because in the Western mind if there is no question, then it was probably
understood.  Great RSO's understand the cultural differences and teach
differently to the Chinese. I'll bet Andrew understands this! 

The two problems are compounded by the fact there is a huge turn-over of
radiation users every year in a university - typically one quarter of the
group. The problem is never ending as a new crop of researchers comes in.
University RSO's teach safety en-masse.  They can only test and hope that
the message got through. The RSO may teach in an appropriate manner with an
understanding of the cultural/language problems, and the student may learn,
but the researcher may still make a mistake.  Which leads to another musing
on my part: the psychology of dealing with a problem in a university.

Most people (not just Chinese nationals) do not handle confrontation very
well.  If I go charging in and accuse a person of making a big mess,
threaten them with all kinds of sanctions, and generally make a big scene,
then rarely do I get cooperation from them. Most often I get blame shift or
complete denial.  I have found that a constrained approach along with lots
of further education will usually get both to the truth and a resolve to the
problem.  

I would bet that most university RSO's have a few stories about researchers
taking contamination outside of the lab with them. I do.  Most of my
stories/problems were quietly resolved with mild sanctions and lots of
education. The result: the transgressor rarely had a problem in the future.
University RSO's have to be part psychologist sometimes, and find clever
ways to get researchers doing what they want.  They do not have the luxury
of the regimented mentality found in power plants.  University people tend
to be a little more on the free thinking/spirit side than power plant people
and can sometimes negatively influence the RSO's budget when upset. For
those not in a university setting, do you have any idea of the influence
that a Nobel prize winner can have in a university? Unlike power plant
management, upper university management rarely understand(although big fines
have opened more eyes in the last few years)the problems we face and can be
readily influenced by a powerful researcher who hates the RSO. In many
senses, the university RSO must be a politician, besides the psychologist.
It is an interesting job - never a dull moment. 

Regarding the latest university incident, I have no idea how it was handled
nor am I saying it was handled immproperly. But evidently, something
happened that caused it to escalate to a serious and public confrontation.