THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Friday, March 1, 1996 TAG: 9603010466
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B1 EDITION: NORTH CAROLINA
SOURCE: BY MASON PETERS, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: ELIZABETH CITY LENGTH: Medium: 51 lines
Elizabeth City State University is one of several educational institutions in the country that paid fines last year for campus safety violations, a federal report showed this month.
The U.S. Occupational Safety and Health Administration imposed a $16,500 fine on ECSU after routine inspections revealed unsafe work practices on the Elizabeth City campus.
The penalty was levied on the university in December 1994, for allowing blocked and unmarked emergency exits, improper electrical cords and failure to train employees in the hazards of lawn care chemicals, an OSHA spokeswoman said Thursday from Raleigh.
An administrative law judge last November reduced the ECSU fine to $4,125.
``The fine has been paid in its entirety,'' said Jennibeth Kennedy, a spokeswoman for the OSHA regional office in Raleigh.
Since the OSHA complaint, ECSU has hired an employee assigned specifically to enforce safety behavior on campus.
When the fine was imposed on ECSU, university officials said they didn't have the money to pay it because $34,000 had been allocated for the new safety inspector. The judge then said the fine could be paid in installments.
In recent years, OSHA has been cracking down on colleges and universities for safety violations.
OSHA issued a total of 162 campus citations for violations in 1993 and 158 in 1994. Infractions acted on last year have not as yet been tallied, officials said.
OSHA officials said most of the violation surveys came after employees complained about unsafe workplace conditions.
The country's largest fine was $43,650, imposed on the Marist College in Poughkeepsie, N.Y. But the penalty was later reduced to $15,000 and paid in 1994, records showed.
The University of the Ozarks was fined $24,500 for safety infractions. But officials there negotiated the penalty down to $12,250 and paid it in full.
Boston University was accused of ``five serious violations'' in 1993 and eventually paid a $10,000 fine. The campus violations included improper safety gear while working in laboratories; improper storage of compressed gases and hazardous chemicals, asbestos hazards, and failure to train employees in safety precautions. One violation involved the death of a construction worker who was mangled by an earth-auger. by CNB