University Organizational Structure

[John Harvey <harveyj@mcmail.CIS.McMaster.CA>]

Hello All:

Advice is sought.

Our university administration is taking advantage of an impending
retirement and vacancy to evaluate the structure of the safety
organization at McMaster. Currently, the Radiation Safety program is
separate from the Environmental Health and Safety program, and in fact,
has a different reporting relationship. Naturally, the possiblility of
combining the organizations will be considered. It would be valuable if we
could benefit from the experience of similar organizations. 

McMaster is a research oriented university of about 13,000 full-time 
students. We have a 2 MW swimming-pool type nuclear reactor, a 3 MV KN 
accelerator, an RDS isotope cyclotron, about 150 principal investigators, 
and a teaching hospital. The reactor is currently producing I-125 
commercially, and other isotopes hopefully will follow. We also have a 
graduate health physics program. The majority of the research utilizing 
radioactive material is in the Health and Life Science faculties. We also 
possess a regional radiopharmacy and nuclear medicine department.

As far as I know, the non-radiological safety program has no unusual
requirements, other than the liability and insurance problems associated
with our nuclear facilities. There are biohazard considerations associated
with our "C" level containment facility. We also provide safety training
and services to related organizations. The safety office also serves as 
the Risk Management office.

It would be useful for us to know:

1. are the two safety programs consolidated at your institution? If so, how?
2. is there one overall director of safety, and separate heads of the two 
organizations? If so, who reports to the regulatory agencies and Board of 
Governors (or equivalent)?
3. what are the technical qualifications of the overall director, if 
there is one? Are the qualifications slanted to radiation safety or 
occupational safety?
4. if you were designing an organizational structure, what would it look 
like?
5. what are the strengths and weaknesses of your current organizational 
structure?
6. at the technicians level, is there any overlap in duties, such as 
hazardous waste collection and disposal?
7. what is the size of your organization and what is the staffing level?

Not being used to worrying about such adminstrative matters, I may have 
overlooked some obvious questions. Any advice will be appreciated.

Thanks
John
=======================================================================
John Harvey                            | McMaster University
Senior Health Physicist                | NRB-110
(905) 525-9140 ext 24226               | 1280 Main St. W.
harveyj@mcmail.cis.mcmaster.ca         | Hamilton, Ont Canada L8S 4K1