[Bnc-faculty-all-list] Coral Reservation Abuse - ACTION REQUESTED - on behalf of John Weaver

Sat Aug 28 20:52:09 EDT 2010

All,

It is not at all clear to me why we need a bureaucratic solution to  
this problem, and setting up a small committee to deal with it is a  
bureaucratic solution.  The situation Dave Janes describe is largely  
correct.  Students hedge their bets and schedule multiple slots for  
equipment because they cannot predict how quickly earlier processing  
steps will be successfully completed. It's logical, but creates  
unnecessary delays and is inconsiderate of other users.

I would like to see the following policy implemented:

1. Signing up for any piece of equipment implies a commitment to pay  
for the time scheduled unless cancelled at least 12 hours before the  
start time reserved.
2. Missed reservations
      First offense: loss of privileges for 5 days.
      Second offense: loss of privileges for one month.
      Third offense: loss of privileges.

Part of our problem is the "three strikes" culture.  I favor an  
environment where all of us are accountable for our actions and we  
accept the responsibility to conduct ourselves in a manner suitable  
for a share-user facility FROM THE START.  The culture Dave described  
has been in place as long as I've been here (1997). This culture will  
only change if we install a new culture with well-defined guidelines  
and real consequences.  Telling the faculty that one of their students  
missed a reservation is a complete waste of time.  Let's take real  
action!

        Mike Capano

Quoting "David B. Janes" <janes at ecn.purdue.edu>:

>
> Dimitri,
>
> A small group to address this specific issue sounds like a good idea  
> -- this could certainly address the short-term issues.   Involvement  
> by the faculty advisor has been an important part of the process  
> used by the disciplinary sub-committee, and I suggest that we  
> include that also.
>
> In the longer term, I think that we need to update our policies re  
> equipment sign-up and cancellation, so that it's clear to everyone  
> what is expected.
>
> Dave
>
> Peroulis, Dimitrios wrote:
>> Dave,
>>
>> Thanks for your email. Besides Eric's and Steve's suggestions,  
>> there was also a proposal from me yesterday.
>>
>> As for the P&P committee handling the issue, I believe it is a bit  
>> too big to handle this. The P&P only gets together once a month or  
>> so and many times there are irresolvable conflicts for faculty  
>> (e.g. teaching - that was the case for me last semester). On the  
>> other hand, the subcommittee that handles violations (headed by Tim  
>> Fisher) is much smaller and has meetings on a need-to-discuss basis  
>> when a problem arises. I believe we need to handle this issue that  
>> way.
>>
>> Thanks
>> Dimitri
>>
>>
>>
>> -----Original Message-----
>> From: bnc-faculty-all-list-bounces at ecn.purdue.edu  
>> [mailto:bnc-faculty-all-list-bounces at ecn.purdue.edu] On Behalf Of  
>> David B. Janes
>> Sent: Saturday, August 28, 2010 3:56 PM
>> To: Jeff Goecker
>> Cc: Weaver, John R; BNC Faculty
>> Subject: Re: [Bnc-faculty-all-list] Coral Reservation Abuse -  
>> ACTION REQUESTED - on behalf of John Weaver
>>
>> BNC Faculty Colleagues:
>>
>> As part of this thread, Eric and Steve have made suggestions  
>> regarding how to rectify the situation.  I would like to point out  
>> that the Policy and Procedures committee has discussed this general  
>> issue several times in the past (although not the specific recent  
>> situation addressed in John's email).  While "suspend privileges"  
>> or "charge the account even if the equipment is not used" may be  
>> valid approaches in some situations/equipment, there are legitimate  
>> cases where a reserved slot cannot be used.  For example, in many  
>> processes, a number of pieces of equipment are needed in sequence;  
>> if one piece of equipment is down, there is no use for the next  
>> piece of equipment.  Likewise, if a prior processing step does not  
>> work properly.  Couple this with the fact that we have a number of  
>> time-critical process steps, and there will be unavoidable times  
>> where a sign-up slot would not be used - and would not likely be of  
>> use to other people (since they would not have time to perform the  
>> prior processing steps).
>>
>> That being said, the situation described in John's email is way  
>> beyond these circumstances. Please discuss the situation with your  
>> students -- particularly those who have been frequent violators.
>> I view this as one of several "citizenship" issues that we have at Birck
>> -- other issues include mis-use/breakage of equipment, failure to  
>> clean up after one's self, and use of other groups' specialty  
>> chemicals/supplies without permission and/or without contributing  
>> to replacement costs.
>>
>> By way of cc, I will ask John and/or Jeff to provide a copy of the  
>> spreadsheet (omitted from the original email),
>>
>> As I said in an earlier email, we have put the P&P committee on  
>> indefinite hold -- primarily due to lack of participation by  
>> faculty.  If you would like to participate in shaping BNC lab  
>> access and safety policies, the P&P committee would be an excellent  
>> venue.
>>
>> Dave
>>
>>
>> Jeff Goecker wrote:
>>
>>> BNC Faculty –
>>>
>>> I need your help on a situation that is impacting the ability of  
>>> researchers to use the BNC equipment.  We are beginning to reach  
>>> epidemic proportions of people reserving equipment and not using  
>>> the equipment – and not cancelling their reservations so that  
>>> someone else can use that equipment.  This practice causes false  
>>> bottlenecks and leaves the equipment unused.  In the first 8 weeks  
>>> of this fiscal year, we have had 1165 incidents.
>>>
>>> An example is one user who has 20 unused and not canceled  
>>> reservations on the MJB-3 aligner in 8 weeks – that’s 2 ½ unused  
>>> reservations every week.  This is a very highly used piece of  
>>> equipment, and we are receiving complaints that this equipment is  
>>> not available.  This same user has 12 unused and not canceled  
>>> reservations on the CHA evaporator – another critical piece of  
>>> equipment.
>>>
>>> The CHA evaporator has had 82 unused and not canceled reservations  
>>> in the last 8 weeks, more than 10 per week.
>>>
>>> Please ask your students to be more courteous to the other  
>>> researchers in the BNC.  The attached spreadsheet shows those  
>>> users with at least
>>> 8 unused and not cancelled reservations in the past 8 weeks by  
>>> Coral user name.  I have also highlighted incidents where one user  
>>> had at least 8 unused and not cancelled reservations on a  
>>> particular piece of equipment.
>>>
>>> While it is understood that there are legitimate incidents where a  
>>> user reserves a piece of equipment but cannot use it, this  
>>> happening at a very high frequency is more likely abuse.
>>>
>>> Thanking you for your consideration,
>>>
>>> John
>>>
>>> */John R. Weaver/*
>>>
>>> */Facility Manager/*
>>>
>>> */Birck Nanotechnology Center/*
>>>
>>> */Purdue University/*
>>>
>>> */(765) 494-5494/*
>>>
>>> */jrweaver at purdue.edu/*
>>>
>>> */
>>> /*
>>> ----------------------------------------------------------------------
>>> --
>>>
>>> _______________________________________________
>>> Bnc-faculty-all-list mailing list
>>> Bnc-faculty-all-list at ecn.purdue.edu
>>> https://engineering.purdue.edu/ECN/mailman/listinfo/bnc-faculty-all-li
>>> st
>>>
>>
>>
>
>