News University research in the Age of Protest

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Student protestors vandalized an engineering building at Stanford, raising concerns about the safety of on-campus research. The president highlighted that the lab contained sensitive materials, and the protestors' actions could have endangered both researchers and bystanders. Discussions centered on whether on-campus research should continue given the potential risks, with some arguing that restricting it would be a capitulation to violence. There were suggestions for improved security measures, such as electronic access controls, to prevent unauthorized entry into hazardous areas. The debate underscores the need for balancing safety with the pursuit of knowledge in university settings.
  • #31
Vanadium 50 said:
On Monday evening, student protestors entered an engineering building at Stanford and proceeded to barricade and vandalize it.
Is there CCTV? Can the student protestors be identified reliably?
 
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  • #32
strangerep said:
Can the student protestors be identified reliably?
That is an interesting question. The students were masked, but they managed to identify at least some of them, including from materials they left behind. The statement has been made that disciplinary actions have begun, and I am told other students are protesting that too.
 
  • #33
Hornbein said:
Once at UC Berkeley (1980's?) I walked into the cyclotron building. No one was around.
They might have had a cyclotron building, but the last cyclotron on campus, the 60 inch, was shut down in 1962.
 
  • #34
I think it should stay in the labs, and I also wish labs were a tiny bit better at differentiating between "dangerous" and "super ultra deadly". Our lab has potassium hydroxide and potassium cyanide in the same cabinet. 'Best' thing is, the laboratory isn't even locked after work hours! I could sneak out poisons with very little risk of being caught before it was too late.

I find it worrisome.
 
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  • #35
Mayhem said:
differentiating between "dangerous" and "super ultra deadly". Our lab has potassium hydroxide and potassium cyanide in the same
Where do you draw the line? Dimethyl mercury used to be relatively common as an NMR standard until a drop of it killed Karen Wettermann at Dartmouth. "Dangerous, sure, but we use only a little of it and take precautions" was the prevailing attitude. Now add some students intending to "send a message" or "raise awareness" by smashing the place up.

Giant dewars of LN2 are commonplace. A 500L dewar has enough to expel all the air in a 35 x 30 foot room. Double that, and the O2 levels are still low enough to cause unconsciousness and later death.
 
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  • #36
If you are not careful, you can end up with a work free safe zone. :wink:
 
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  • #37
So, why not move it all off-campus?
 
  • #38
Vanadium 50 said:
So, why not move it all off-campus?
It would probably be cheaper to move the non-technical departments offsite.
 
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  • #39
Vanadium 50 said:
So, why not move it all off-campus?
Move what all off campus? The research labs' infrastructure and physical plant support? Yikes.
 
  • #40
Universities are intended to be open places, and the locks on the doors are intended to (a) tell people "don't go in here" and (b) discourage casual theft. They are not intended to stop a determined group of students intent on breaking things. Lots of these things are dangerous, and breaking them doesn't help.

The university, I feel, has a responsibility to keep everyone safe: people working in nearby spaces, people walking from place to place, and even the students intent on smashing things.

Is President Meanypants really going to tell Mr. and Mrs. VanSnooty that he's sorry that their Boopsie is dead, but it's their urchin's own fault for busting up a lab and taking a deep whiff of the chemicals they released. This would be a PR and a legal disaster.
 
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  • #41
Vanadium 50 said:
Where do you draw the line? Dimethyl mercury used to be relatively common as an NMR standard until a drop of it killed Karen Wettermann at Dartmouth. "Dangerous, sure, but we use only a little of it and take precautions" was the prevailing attitude. Now add some students intending to "send a message" or "raise awareness" by smashing the place up.

Giant dewars of LN2 are commonplace. A 500L dewar has enough to expel all the air in a 35 x 30 foot room. Double that, and the O2 levels are still low enough to cause unconsciousness and later death.
Hard to say. But if a teaspoon in someone's coffee could certainly kill them, I think the compound should be stored in a locked cabinet where only approved laboratory workers have access.
 
  • #42
To add: not all of the student protestors are students. One of the Columbia arrestees was 63 years old. The MIT students blocking Mass Ave. used high school and junior high students. Suppose the lab is broken into by a mix of students and non-students. Including minors.
 
  • #43
Vanadium 50 said:
Universities are intended to be open places, and the locks on the doors are intended to (a) tell people "don't go in here" and (b) discourage casual theft. They are not intended to stop a determined group of students intent on breaking things. Lots of these things are dangerous, and breaking them doesn't help.

The university, I feel, has a responsibility to keep everyone safe: people working in nearby spaces, people walking from place to place, and even the students intent on smashing things.

Is President Meanypants really going to tell Mr. and Mrs. VanSnooty that he's sorry that their Boopsie is dead, but it's their urchin's own fault for busting up a lab and taking a deep whiff of the chemicals they released. This would be a PR and a legal disaster.
The fundamental problem is students who think that they will not be held accountable for their actions. If it is the universities responsibilty to keep everyone safe, they should not be admitting these students.
 
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  • #44
Mayhem said:
But if a teaspoon in someone's coffee could certainly kill them, I think the compound should be stored in a locked cabinet where only approved laboratory workers have access.

Many things kept at home would probably exceed this threshold, like medicines, pesticides, paint and finishing products, and cleaning products.
 
  • #45
Vanadium 50 said:
So, why not move it all off-campus?
How does that solve your (invented) problem? The 'off-site' buildings/facilities/infrastructures are still owned and operated by the university, so all you are doing is moving the (invented) destruction to a different locale.
 
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  • #46
Stanford has SLAC, a couple miles away. Berkeley has LBNL, which is closer but up a monstrous hill. UChicago has Argonne and MIT has Bates, a short drive. These are more secure, and far less likely to be hazardous to uninvolved students.

As far as "invented", I would say the Stanford case was a near miss. How many other near misses do we need?
 
  • #47
Vanadium 50 said:
Stanford has SLAC, a couple miles away. Berkeley has LBNL, which is closer but up a monstrous hill. UChicago has Argonne and MIT has Bates, a short drive. These are more secure, and far less likely to be hazardous to uninvolved students.

As far as "invented", I would say the Stanford case was a near miss. How many other near misses do we need?
What is the value of a research university if all of the research is performed away from the university?
 
  • #48
Frabjous said:
What is the value of a research university if all of the research is performed away from the university?
It's all part of the same institution. I think some of V50's points have merit.
 
  • #49
BTW, There should be NFPA placards on any labs that have hazardous materials in them. Quizzing the protesters to make sure they know what the placards mean is another issue...

1716941112085.png

https://hmexassistant.com/products/nfpa-704-cas-number/
 
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  • #50
Mayhem said:
should be stored in a locked cabinet where only approved laboratory workers have access.
Or someone with a set of bolt cutters. $47.97 at Home Depot. Free deliver too!
 
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  • #51
berkeman said:
It's all part of the same institution. I think some of V50's points have merit.
At JHU, protestors are calling for the University to lose APL.
LANL and LLNL while run by UC are no longer part of UC.
 
  • #52
The problem is that students are taking over buildings. Ignoring the specialized threats, they are sealing entrances turning the buildings into fire hazards. Given the risk, should there be any buildings allowed on a campus at all?
 
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  • #53
berkeman said:
NFPA placards
Berekely Lab has that exact NFPA sign on the way to the cafeteria. I think it's just coincidence. I think.
 
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  • #54
Vanadium 50 said:
They might have had a cyclotron building, but the last cyclotron on campus, the 60 inch, was shut down in 1962.
I wonder what it was then. It was pretty big, in containment, and experiments were set up. It was so long ago I don't recall details.
 
  • #55
Vanadium 50 said:
Universities are intended to be open places,
So 20th century.
 
  • #56
Frabjous said:
What is the value of a research university if all of the research is performed away from the university?
In the old days there was a lot more interaction between the various fields. Isaac Newton was a mystic. But that's way out of style. I guess the idea is that there's already no crossover, we want the business, uh, university to expand, we can't expand the central campus, so we have to start a new campus. The University of Tokyo has six campi.
 
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  • #57
Vanadium 50 said:
Berekely Lab has that exact NFPA sign on the way to the cafeteria. I think it's just coincidence. I think.
With those same numbers for Health, Flammability, Reactivity/Instability and Special/Cautions? Hopefully it's a joke, but even if it's a joke, the Fire Marshall should not allow it. That would stop me in my tracks if I were responding to an emergency call from whatever is behind that sign...

https://www.uline.com/Product/Detai...eMLLCPyD8Qtc13OJ1larMQUqtj4slbChoCnX4QAvD_BwE
 
  • #58
I was a low wage student employee in a University of Michigan lab. They had a bottle of PCBs right next to the sink. It occurred to me that if this were poured down the drain it could cause an unthinkable amount of carcinogenic pollution. I refrained from doing so.

They also had big bottles of 100% alcohol. Occasionally I would mix that with coffee. I found out later that the reagent is distilled over the carcinogen benzene. Fifty years later still going strong, so it appears I got away with it.
 
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  • #59
berkeman said:
With those same numbers for Health, Flammability, Reactivity/Instability and Special/Cautions?
Yup. 4-4-3-no water. To get from Building 70 (or maybe it's 70A) to the cafeteria, you go past the labs, through a loading dock, past the sign (which I think leads to a gas shed) and outside and up the stairs.

I don't know what they keep there, but as the labs nearby work with semiconductors, perhaps arsine.
 
  • #60
Yikes. I used to drive past a Cisco Foods distribution center in Newark California (near Fremont), and they had a similar placard outside of their main building. I kept thinking, "But they make food in there...!"

Unfortunately the Google Street View of their location is not high enough resolution to show the placard...

1716945788861.png
 

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