By Dr. L.R. Griffin, English Professor
It is one thing to be a safe LSC-North Harris faculty administrator; it is another to nurture a preoccupation with the concept of workplace and campus safety and avow to make the ideal as commonplace at LSC-North Harris as CAT-5. This past spring semester, that passion for safety advocacy started at home for Director and faculty Osvaldo Caballero in the LSC-North Harris Career and Applied Technology division.
“When I mention safety to people, my discussions inform me that most think safety is a checklist of things to do; they don’t think of it as a cultural aspect," said Caballero. "Every workplace, school, church, club—any organization, needs to establish and develop a safety culture. When there is a safety culture, everyone takes ownership in making our place safe, and they understand that a safe place is a productive place. A place without abrupt interruptions that impede progress, thwart plans, and cancel programs and initiatives.”
Caballero adds, “since we are our students’ facilitators, and we are responsible for empowering them to be viable, contributive workers of various industries, the onus is ours to encourage their adoption of best practices in workplace safety,” he said.
Caballero’s safety culture awareness campaign kicked off this past March. He spearheaded the workforce division’s first official safety week. The inaugural event featured a two-day Lunch and Learn series, a fete sponsored by the college's workforce industry partners Brady Corporation and Klein Tools. Both companies sent representatives to deliver the keynote lectures for each day and conduct the post-keynote question and answer session for students.
“These companies were excited to invest their resources in this effort,” Caballero said. “They will ultimately hire our students. They want to show these students, their future workers, how much value they place on safety awareness and how it equates with work expertise and job readiness.”
Director Caballero beams intently as he explains how he and his supporting cast of workforce administrators, staff, students, and faculty will be known as safety leaders of our campus.
“When we do it right, we can likely influence all of Lone Star College to better understand and espouse the view that we are all the safety department. On every level, from the first-time student to the chancellor’s cabinet, we are all the better when we are all safety leaders and exemplars of safety everywhere,” Caballero said.
Caballero wants to include more departments in his division next year and likely expand the two-day series to include more industry supporters and partners, more events, and more opportunities for LSC-North Harris cross-divisional participation.
“The safety culture spirit has to start somewhere," he said. "There is no better place than here at LSC-North Harris, and no better division than our workforce division."
Osvaldo Caballero, Construction Technology Director